Paper and Threads

These are the journal pages that I did on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday - the last until the end of the summer.

Sydney and I sketched together and she drew hydrangea blooms while I sketched her - which was her request.  It doesn't look like 6 year old Sydney, although she said I got the hair drawn correctly!  I never used to draw family members, so at least I'm now trying to capture a likeness.

I love sweets and was tempted by a freshly baked cookie and a Dunkin Doughnut most of Saturday afternoon.  I succombed to one, but not the other!

I was awakened when a bathroom hairdryer slipped in its holder, turning it on, and couldn't get back to sleep.  So I moved out to the sunroom and listened for the birds to wake up while I read.  There was suddenly a very different, insistent chirp, right outside the screen door and it was a beautiful cardinal.  This was drawn from a photo since he flew off pretty quickly.

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On Saturday (7/2), during our family July 4th holiday at the beach, our 5 year old grandson Robbie fell and broke his humerus while all 6 cousins were playing and having fun.  They took him to the local emergency room for XRAYS, and then because the fracture involved the joint, they packed up and went back to New York City.  He was operated on 24 hours later and 3 pins were inserted.

Here is unhappy Robbie with his little brother Zachary, just waiting to get into the car to go home.  We were all devastated and worried.  And he was soooooo disappointed to be missing everything.

And here is my drawing of Robbie on Thursday, 5 days later, when he saw his doctor, had a good exam, and got a hard cast in his favorite color - GREEN. 

The best news is that his day camp is happy for him to return on Monday and will modify his activities.  His cast will be removed in 4 weeks - right before his birthday! AND we are all redoing our family beach holiday at the end of August just for him.

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We were at the beach 3 times last month, including the 4th of July weekend with our children and grandchildren.  Here are some of my random journal pages for those visits. 

The Hydrangea Variant in my Daughter's Garden:

Poolside While the Children Swam:

Group Dinners on the Patio Next to the Grill (covered):

Rabbit Drawings to Remember How Much the Bunnies in the Yard Scared Annabelle (age 3):

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My husband and I love early morning beachwalks and I spend my time, while walking, learning about the changing ocean, sand, shells, and creatures.   It is even more fun when our friends visit for a week because they can help identify some of the creatures brought in with the tides. 

I found almost a dozen sea robin fish skulls over the last several years, but this year found this very interesting 3.5 x 2.5 inch skull right at the surfline.  There is a very small black shell trapped within making it seem likely to be from the ocean.  We searched all animal skull images with sagittal crests on the web and found one identical image  - uploaded by someone who also couldn't identfy it.  Since then we sent the photo to a bird watcher, a veterinarian, and a  reptile/amphibian expert, but we still don't have an answer.

I also found 2 dead Portuguese Men of War.  Jeff needed to identify them for me - I've never seen one dead or alive in the ocean or on the beach.

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The Central Park Drawing and Art Meetup Group met at Grand Army Plaza in front of the Plaza Hotel last weekend and we sketched the Zodiac Heads sculpture by the Chinese artist and activist WeiWei.  There are 12 large heads - arranged in a semi-circle, on tall sculpted poles.  They are really impressive and can be seen until July 15th! 

I decided that I liked the "bull" best and did 3 sketches.

I did the first sketch as a "one-liner" because I love Picasso's bulls and toreadors that were all done with one line.  It was hard.  The second was done with ink and watercolor and the third was a side profile done with pencil.

Posted by Shirley at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)