the fire is so delightful.......

currently on the needles, vine lace scarf on size 2 in 'aegean' zephyr-blue isn't my color really but i had gotten a decent deal on zephyr, before TSHTF....... so i'm knitting 'rhinebeck' scarfs....on tiny needs for mindless comfort knitting..

well it's cold, really cold....like january/february cold--
windy as hell too.
the ducks and chickens will be staying in the house.
now this week, we are to get a bad storm, from what i understand.
although it's been downgraded from snow to mostly rain
i feel for everyone traveling on thanksgiving
i am so happy that we have that wood stove, and i am so very thankful we have a lot of wood in..... bernie is splitting that big maple up now that died and was dropped two years ago (it wast two right?-- either 2 or 3)
i miss that tree, it was my favorite one (don't tell the others, i tell each of them that they are my favorite, except for that swamp maple out back that insists on dropping bumper crops of pollynose seeds into my garden right after i plant it)
anyway that maple is now keeping us warm.
and now the front maple died (smaller tree) and that will be coming down and be used for firewood as well.

are you folks ready for thanksgiving? we pretty much are as ready as we are going to get. i would have liked a rutabaga, but probably won't get one.
i could also have used an orange for the cran sauce..... but i have some dried so i will most likely use that.

i have two turkey breasts and a full turkey in the freezer, we'll do one of the breasts for the holiday and i think roast the full turkey and cut that up for freezer meals.
i love turkey, i think it's my favorite meat ........ i am eating turkey soup with pastina as i type this (on sunday night, it'll publish tomorrow morning)

today i was not well, bernie made us scrambled duck eggs this morning, and didn't realize that 5 duck eggs are way too much for two people.... along with bacon....
it was way way too rich for me and i got very sick
at the most i think two to 3 duck eggs are more then enough for two people to split....
they are huge!
 they are much richer then chicken eggs
oye....and now.....nothing i am doing is keeping me warm, even with the woodstove having the studio temperature up to 80, and me all bundled up in fleece and wool..... i'm chilled

ok so today i finally learned how to set white balance on my camera, which means that the paintings are going to be redone (some are ok, but some aren't so i plan on redoing all of them)

some of the paintings that i love the most are actually studies, loose, fast and charming to my eye
i'm experimenting with different cropping to see how i like them best...
one in particular is the momma and baby polar bear......it's actually done on a failed aurora borealis study!..... it just was a bunch of experiments that worked ...i cropped it very tight at first (digital cropping, the painting is actually huge).... then cropped it wider...
i like both, as the tight crop shows the bears better but the wider crop makes the bears part of the desolation of the arctic...... how utterly empty it can seem during the winter there.
see what different ways of cropping images does to them?
if you have a print you love but maybe there is one area .... not so much, you can get the mat made so that area is not there anymore.

i think when i offer that as a print, i will offer both...... and even though it is a study, i love it........and that is WHY i am going to print it.
i can tell you, i am getting some inquiries on prints, i actually have been even before inna talked to me.
this has surprised me, as i thought mainly that these paintings need to be 'something' like a card....or a calender or garden flag... maybe i was wrong?

well folks, i been working on this post for the last three hours or so, on and off... in between eating soup and knitting while bernie watched a pirate movie on dvd (one of the johnny depp movies...they all look alike to me)
so now i am going to hit publish and call it a night
sleep well