I know, I know, it's been a long time...but I'm back.  Sometimes these blog entries remind me of the days back at school.  Remember?  Writing Composition 101, three pages, double spaced..."In your own words, tell me about your experiences of outdoor painting...the sights, smells...let me feel the paint laden brush move along the blank canvas...etc"

Can you guess my grade in class?  Let's not go there.  Writing is not one of my strong suits.  Neither is speaking, for that matter, however this blog allows me to present some of my thoughts to you for your, ah, shall we say, entertainment.  Sometimes the very thought that my thoughts are out there, is a bit uncomfortable.  So I pause.  And about a month later I figure I can do this thing.  So here we are.

Speaking of painting...here is one of my latest efforts.  The scene, the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, the day, windy-but sunny.  The trees are the beautiful flowering crabs.  Periodically during my time painting this scene, the wind gusted so that it resulted in  de-flowering the crabapple next to me.  I had to keep removing blossoms that had stuck to my palette.  This minor inconvenience was balanced by the sheer joy of capturing this precious lighting effect on this spring morning.