Sometimes...

...the old harvest moon takes me places I need to go...

like back home...

into the warm embrace of long time friends...

many thanks, Jan...

from my heart ...to yours. ;)

A picture truly is worth a thousand words.

“Sometimes

being a friend means mastering the art

 of timing.

 There is a time for silence.

 A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves

 into their own destiny.

 And a time

 to prepare to pick up the pieces

 when it's all over.”

~Gloria Naylor 

Thanksgiving Eve...

...Arizona desert style...:)

“When I admire the wonder of a sunset

or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in worship

of the Creator.”

~Mahatma Gandhi 

Thanks, Dad...

...for your military service to our country during WWII.

Thank you for fearlessly

flying long tedious hours "old school" style...

anxiously awaiting

the next circling signal ship stationed below

to help set your course

through the vast and lonely airspace of the Pacific theater.

Thank you

for selflessly risking life and limb and aircraft...

on a seemingly endless basis. 

Thank you for safely completing

repeated

take offs and landings on exotic foreign shores.

Thank you, too,

for skillfully and accurately negotiating those newly made

threadlike coral runways of

distant, unknown, microscopic atolls...

the names of which would soon become emblazoned

in the pages of history.

Thank you for all these things

which brought you home safely...to mom

and,

eventually, in short order to me.

Your service

not only

evacuated the sick and wounded,

returned loved ones home.

and

provided supplies needed for the war effort...

it also 

helped make our world a safer place...and my future brighter.

The freedoms I enjoy today

come from your unselfishness and love of country. 

Special thanks to you, too, mom,

as a young wife,

for supporting your true love...and keeping the

home fires burning here stateside.

I love you both.
 



"As we express our gratitude,

we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words,

but to live by them."

~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Star Stung!

May your tricks be few...and your treats be many...

Have a Happy Halloween!

"There is a child in every one of us

 who is still a trick-or-treater looking for a brightly-lit

front porch."

~Robert Brault

On My Radar...

...On this very day...October 28th...2014...

San Miguel Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico...

El Dia De Los Muertos

Tesoro del Corazon art retreat...

just sayin'!!!!! ;)

"Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat

 than in his own soul.”

~Marcus Aurelius 

Another Trip Around the Sun...

Many thanks to each of you

for helping me dance joyfully through my day!

"Our birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time."

~Jean Paul Richter

Happy October All!

I celebrate the birth

of my most favorite month of the year

with

an ATC sized white ghost pumpkin card all star dusted

and happily nested in her

desert digs...

a hint of what is to come...very, very soon.

Only three days remain of our seasonal love affair

in the Midwest... 

making today somewhat truly bittersweet...;)

"Bittersweet October.

The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause

 between the opposing miseries of summer

and winter."

~Carol Bishop Hipps,

"October," In a Southern Garden, 1995

123 years...

Happy Anniversary Yosemite Park!

(Image compliments of Google)

What a cryin'

shame we have a government shutdown in the works!!!

Come on Congress!

Get it together!!!

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.

Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.

The winds will blow their own freshness into you,

and the storms their energy,

while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."

~John Muir, Our National Parks 

Oh! How Long My List...!



"Autumn is the perfect time

to take account of what we've done,

what we didn't do,

and

what we'd like to do next year."

~Author Unknown

A Sign of the Season...

...a solitary "ghost pumpkin" at twilight...

all snuggly and happy...

nestled within some early autumnal foliage...

looking skyward...

patiently

awaiting the sparkly splendor of

the coming nightfall

and the rise of the long awaited harvest moon. 

I love this time of year!

“The true harvest of my life is intangible...

 - a little star dust caught,

a portion of the rainbow I have clutched."

~Henry David Thoreau

Sweet, Sweet, Autumn...

...what a "honey" of a perfect season in Illinois...;)

“Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers.”

~Robert Green Ingersoll 

Nothing Like the Birth of a Baby...

...to make the collectives hearts of a family

go "pitter-patter".

Congratulations Grandpa Scott on #3.

“A babe in the house is a well-spring of pleasure,

a messenger of peace and love,

a resting place for innocence on earth,

 a link

between angels and men.”

~Martin Fraquhar Tupper

September...Already????

...Just how can this really be???

As you may have noticed...or NOT noticed...

 there has been an enormous

lack of any kind of activity here on my blog...

even

 after I faithfully PROMISED to you all

that this year would be different.

Well, in reality, it actually has been...different...

...sort of.

There have been a number of remarkable "firsts" that

have occurred during the past 30 days.

The past month has found me driving a couple of

thousand miles...(a recent "first")...

and seeing a region named after a couple of thousand islands

(an actual real "first").

It has found me

drawing and painting a "bajillion" artist trading cards...

(not really a "first"),

and...best of all...it had found me

visiting family in beautiful upstate New York...

(definitely the BEST "first" of them all!).

The artist trading card above was inspired by

 my grape loving cousin Cathy

and the glory of being in a Cranberry Lake

"state of mind".

I find...blessed by the golden wisdom age provides...

that

there are those special moments in our lives

when the stars seem to align

 and

all seems perfectly right...

the exact way it was somehow destined to be..

from the beginning of time.

Cranberry Lake made that happen for me

and

 memories of my short time there

will bring a warm happy smile to my heart...

for a long, long, long, long time.

"What is the definition of a good wine?

It should start and end

with a smile.”

~William Sokolin 

An In Flight Illo...

...letting my mind wander and dream as we flew

over the quilt like ranches and farmlands of the central plains...

a "no holds barred" peek at some

imperfect pen dancing.

“Dreams are illustrations...from the book your soul is writing about you.”

~ Marsha Norman

Part One of a Double Page Spread...

...drawn in my Illinois travel sketchbook
while waiting to board our flight from Phoenix Sky Harbor

to Chicago ORD.

One of the joys of carrying a sketchbook is that 

one has a constant companion

and

time really flies by!

"Calling O'Hare an airport

is like calling the Queen Elizabeth II a boat.”
~ Andrew H. Malcom

A Mirror Image...

...and some floral play...designed with a reverse batik effect to
celebrate the 11th birthday of
my lovely twin nieces

Joya and Jillian.

What joyful delight you bring to our lives...
you make our hearts sing and and our spirits dance!
My love to each of you...xoxo

"Our birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time."
~Jean Paul Richter

Fly Away With Me...

...as I travel from the magical desert southwest

to the "green green grass of home"

complete

with a beautiful July "Thunder Moon" Sycamore style!

“The night walked down the sky with the moon in her hand.”

~Frederic Lawrence Knowles

Rest in Peace...my dear aunt

GRETCHEN EVELYN STORER

     On Tuesday, June 25, 2013,

Gretchen Evelyn Storer (nee Leichtfried), 77,

daughter of the late William and Eva Leichtfried,

beloved wife of Gerard Xavier Storer of Centreville, MD;

loving mother of Diana Haussmann (Kevin) of Laurel, MD,

Suzanne Johnston (Bill) of Huntington, MD

and Jennifer Perlin (Andrew) of Laurel, MD;

dear grandmother of Matthew, Heidi (Eric), Greta, Gabrielle, Morgan,

Ryan, Nick, Julia, Matthew,

Zachary and Drew.

    Funeral Mass at Our Mother of Sorrows Catholic Church,

Centreville, MD

on Monday, July 1, 2013 at 12 p.m.,

where friends may call from 10:30 to 12 p.m.

   Burial will be at Crownsville Veteran Cemetery,

on Friday, July 5, 2013 at 10:45 a.m.

     Memorial donations

may be made to the Hospice of Queen Anne's Inc.,

55 Comet Drive, Centreville, MD 21617

and the

Mission Helpers of the Sacred Heart,

1001 W. Joppa Road,

Baltimore, MD 21204. 

 “Life is a pilgrimage.

The wise man does not rest by the roadside inns.

He marches direct

to the illimitable domain of eternal bliss,

his ultimate destination.”

~Swami Sivananda...Indian Yoga Master

The Flutter of an Angel's Wings...

Heaven holds one more angel tonight...my dearest aunt Gretchen.

Knowing her made one feel blessed.

Sending thoughts of peace and love to my uncle Skip

and

their beautiful family.

"May we live in peace without weeping.

May our joy outline the lives we touch without ceasing.

And may our love fill the world,

angel wings tenderly beating.”

~An Irish Blessing

Happy 91st Birthday, Dad!

We love you dad...each and every day.

I feel so privileged to have walked life's pathways with you

my entire life...:)

“The older the fiddler, the sweeter the tune.”

~Pope Paul V