Ah, the weather is beautiful today! I’m out in the back yard working on a new painting. I paused to blog. I’m typing on this cool little word processor called a NEO that I can carry with me anywhere. I totally rocks.

I’m letting Lola run around the yard while I work. She’s so funny though. She won’t run around the yard unless I do as well. She just wants to stay right with me. That’s wonderful when we’re out walking but when I’m trying to work it’s a pain! She KEEPS stealing my pencils, my eraser, my NEO. The only thing that will calm her down is for me to play my Irish whistle. The instant I start playing she settles right down and sits near me in the shade. Every time. It’s fascinating to me. She loves music! I think that’s so neat. See, dogs and people aren’t so different. She just wants to run around, love and be loved, and to have some good music to listen to. I can relate to that.

This one still needs to be trimmed on the left hand side cuz kittens nibbled the corner. Hahaha!

This one is called Little Dancing Boy. I’m proud of this one on account of the fact that Lola ate the first attempt. Hahaha!

Well, Lola has been as crazy as ever lately. Yesterday my husband and I decided to go for a drive in the mountains. We wanted to take Lola but we didn’t want her to leap out to her doom again so we chained her in to the back of the truck. Mark made the chain just long enough that she could look over the side but not jump out. We drove up into the mountains and then saw a really beautiful spot to stop and take some pictures so we got out and started walking away from the truck. I looked back (thank goodness) just in time to see Lola leap out of the truck and dangle by her neck from the side of the truck! OH MY GOODNESS!!! I about had a heart attack! I ran to her and lifter her and as fast as I could unfastened the chain that was attached to her collar. She bounded off merrily towards Mark tail wagging away as if nothing had happened at all. That dog is insane.

She was awesome today though. I took her for a run after dark and as I was jogging along a dog came charging at me from the side snarling and acting like it was going to attack me. Lola, who had been ahead of me suddenly turned and bolted at the dog, snarling and barking right back. I couldn’t tell if she actually bit it or what but it ran away yelping and whining. YES! GO LOLA! She is such a good friend. I love her. Even though I did trip over her and scrape my knee when she ran at the dog. She’s my girl. Yah!

So, I mentioned in my last blog, the one about my insane dog, that my cat had kittens recently. Well they are about 2 months old now. There are six of them. My house is a circus. CONSTANT entertainment. The little fuzzball’s names are Rocky, Foomf, Elf, Per, Panther, and Fred. The momma’s name is Persia, that’s where Per gets her name. She was the first one we met.

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon and my husband was taking a nap. Persia had been wandering around and I was in the bathroom playing with my hair. Suddenly I heard the funniest little high pitched squealing sound. I walked out into the living room and there was Persia with a tiny little ball of wiggly fuzz in front of her. She had brought a kitten in from some hiding place outside! Mind you, we weren’t even sure if she’d had kittens. We had suspected since she went from fat to really skinny all of a sudden but it was such a surprise! Persia came with this house you see. We moved here in December and Persia was living in the yard. The previous owner passed away recently and the cat was left alone. We started feeding her and gave her the name Persia and she slowly warmed up to us and eventually started coming inside a lot to visit. We thought she was pregnant because she was so fat but weren’t really sure. Then we went out of town for a week and came back to a skinny cat. We totally thought at that time that she’d had kittens but couldn’t find any sign of them anywhere and eventually gave up on the idea. Until of course 2 weeks later when all of a sudden one appeared on our living room floor.

Persia spent the rest of that day bringing kittens into the house one by one, taking the time with each one to comfort and feed it and make it feel comfortable in it’s new home. She’s such a good momma.

Our household has been blast ever since. We are constantly laughing our heads of at the antics of these lively little characters. From climbing up window screens to stealing butter off the dinner table. They are always into something. And the wrestling! If they’re awake, they’re wrestling. It’s just a given. They are wrestling right now. At my feet! Hahaha!

About a month and a half ago Mark and I took in my brother’s dog. Our yard is big and we don’t have little kids for the dog to chew on. She loves chew toys. Just kidding, she would never chew on a child. A kitten maybe, but not a child. Anyway, we just have a better situation here for a dog, so we took her in. I like to take her running almost every day and Mark and I love to take her for long walks. She’s so loving and energetic. She really is a delight to have around. She does however have her flaws just as everyone does. For example, as we go on our lovely long walks, it’s really not uncommon for Lola to want to randomly run into someone’s house if their front door happens to be open. We live in an old town and a few weeks ago she decided to run into the old school that they were setting up for an event. She then, with her loving personality decided to become best friends forever with some dude who was clearly busy moving equipment and such for the event. He didn’t seem to agree with her assessment of their future friendship at all. It took quite a lot of effort by Mark and me to remove her from this nice man. It was rather embarrassing.

Another personality trait that’s a bit challenging is her ceaseless, overwhelming desire to chase animals that are smaller than her. Since Mark and I also have a cat with kittens this trait has lead her to literally destroy our screen door. She once charged into the house after somehow freeing herself from her chain and bolted after the little pile of kittens which of course immediately scattered leaving one kitten and a mamma cat who was happy to fight right back. Well, I tackled Lola to the ground and took her back outside.

This insane desire to charge small animals took over one day as we were driving up in the mountains looking for a good place to hike. Lola who was riding in the back of our truck, saw a squirrel. She leaped out a 30 miles per hour, rolled, immediately realized her mistake and bolted full speed after the truck on three legs. By this time we had stopped and I was running towards her as well. We got her back into the truck and Mark carefully examined her leg. She was shaking pretty badly but didn’t seem to have any real injuries, just some scrapes and a little missing fur. After a few minutes she was using all four legs again as though nothing had happened. We went ahead and went on our hike, keeping a close eye on her but she was fine and has been ever since.

That’s not to say that she hasn’t been chased by animals herself. We were out for a walk one afternoon and we decided to cut across a big field to shortcut home. Well we were maybe halfway there when we noticed this huge dog in the distance. Our neighbors have warned us in the past that this dog has a tendency to kill smaller dogs. We became concerned for Lola so Mark and I agreed that I would take Lola and veer back another way at a jog while he distracted Big White Dog, which is what we call the huge dog. So I went with Lola at my side heading back to the road. After a few minutes I noticed three large animals coming at us fast. It was 2 horses and a mule. They were galloping right for us! I’ve never experienced horses or mules galloping at me. It was most disconcerting. I looked back for Mark but he was nowhere in site. I veered another direction but the horses kept chase and before I knew it Lola and I were surrounded by horses and a mule. They sort of circled us and the 2 horses then came up and greeted me in a tentative but friendly way and I calmed down quickly. I then noticed however that Lola was not fairing so well. The mule was chasing poor Lola in a circle around me and the horses trying to stomp her! I ran at the mule and pointed my finger yelling NO! It stopped thank goodness and by that time Mark was coming and the horses and mule went to see him. Oh my goodness. What an adventure. Especially for Lola.

She’s not so good for yard work either. Every time I weed a flower garden she has to sit right in the flowers I’m trying to weed. She doesn’t sit next to me or behind me, no she has to sit right where I’m working. SO ANNOYING! And the other day I noticed this beautiful blooming flower in our yard. It was huge and bright pink. It’s the first flower I’ve seen blooming in our yard. As I was standing there admiring it Lola came out of nowhere and chomped it! Arrgh! It was so funny though. I have to admit.

She’s weird too. A few days ago she ran away for about an hour. We couldn’t find her anywhere. We looked for a few minutes but realized it was sort of futile. And we knew she’d come back when she was ready and she did. The only thing was, when she came back she was covered in poo. I don’t know why. Why would you be covered in poo? Gross! I washed her off with the hose.

The scariest thing that she’s done is getting sucked into a river pipe. We were on another walk and she was wandering around as usual. We live in the mountains so we feel it’s good for her to explore around on our walks, not be stuck on a leash. Anyway, she went down to the river to get a drink. I was a little concerned cuz it’s so high right now with runoff. Well she didn’t come back up. I looked around and couldn’t see her anywhere. I was starting to get worried when she came running towards us soak and wet from down stream. I looked and realized that she must have gotten sucked into the pipe that was right next to where she went down to get a drink. She was then pulled under the ground for awhile and came out on the other side. She was dripping wet but didn’t even seem shaken at all. I was. My goodness gracious sakes alive. That dog.

Well her latest adventure happened last night. We were on a late night walk cuz Mark and I had been at an art show all day and got home late. It was about 11:00 pm. We were walking along and I noticed this horrible smell. Then it was gone. Then it was back and then gone again. I started to notice it was only there when Lola was near us. I got closer and smelled her and OH MY GOODNESS! She stunk so bad. It was skunk! She must have been sprayed. Poor dog! It got my hands so I treated them with vinegar and baking soda and we’ll do the same for Lola today. We couldn’t do it last night because we didn’t have enough and where we live the stores are all closed at night. Poor Lola has had to smell herself all night long. Hopefully she doesn’t notice it anymore. She looks calm as I look out there. Poor dog.

I’ll be going to Orem Utah tomorrow to participate in the Orem Arts in the Park show. The good thing about art shows it that you get to be outside all day. I spend most of the day outside here though anyway.

I don’t know whether or not any of you have noticed but lately my art has been changing. I’m not as concerned about how ‘realistic’ a painting is anymore. I’m much more interested in expressing myself creatively and sharing the way I feel about life and beauty. I want my paintings to flow with emotion and color. I want to drink deeply of the beauty that surrounds me and then create my own unique beauty that hopefully others will drink deeply of. I want my paintings to have a life of there own, not just look ‘real’. I kind of feel like I’m on an artistic journey. That sounds all dramatic, I know, but I love journeys and I constantly want to better myself and that includes (but isn’t at all limited to) my art.

Here are the paintings I said I would post today.

I have a show in St. George this weekend so I’ve been working on a bunch of new paintings. I want to keep things fresh, you know? The show is called the Open Air Art Affair and it’s being put on by Ed Wallace and Gayla Prince Wallace. I’ve been to a few of their shows now and they’re really nice. I love the atmosphere and it’s really fun to meet other artists and art lovers. Anyway, here are my latest paintings. I’ve actually finished 2 more as well as these but they haven’t been photographed yet. Hopefully I’ll be able to post them tomorrow.