Goodbye Cooper

Goodbye Cooper

Cooper ( a while ago around 2013)

This week we said goodbye to another one of our resident pets.
Cooper was an inherited cat that we took in from a friend when she was dying. He was already close to 17 years old at that time and she said she couldn't have him put down as he wasn't ready to go .He was still very active.

We certainly found that out. He had always lived with other cats but never dogs so he treated the dogs in our family , just like he would treat the cats which means he would give them all a very direct stare from his beautiful blue eyes and No Pets would intimidate him. He was the Boss!
I can't say any of the cats, all female, really liked him but they tolerated him and found it just easier to keep out of his way. Occasionally there would be hissy , noisy fights but the other cats usually just ran off and being younger than Cooper, could move faster.

There was no doubt Cooper was a beautiful cat with his long white fur and blue, blue eyes. He never seemed to clean his coat like most cats do and within a short while I realized visits to the groomer were going to be necessary. Most times he would have to be shaved right down to his skin as the fine hair would just be so tangled up. It was hard on him and he hated the groomer as his back end and legs certainly had arthritis and it must have been very uncomfortable for him as he was being bathed and shaved. I bet the groomer hated him as well as although he couldn't scratch as he was declawed, he certainly would bite to get his way.

There was no doubt he was  a character. He got used to going out in the yard following the same route around the house each time.He would even go under the decks sometimes where the armadillos hang out. I wonder what they thought of him? 
He would also let out blood curdling yowls from time to time. a favorite time being in the middle of the night. This was not a cat you could ever keep in an apartment.We never understood why this happened.

I had noticed he seemed to be slowing down and was very irritable for the last week or so. He was getting close to 20 years old and was  losing his appetite yet demanding food at ever moment that he actually didn't eat . It wasn't until I saw these photos from about 3 years ago I realized how much weight he had also lost. But his disappearance and presumed death was still quite unexpected.

I got up in the morning and there was just no Cooper anymore.I thought he must have gone for an early morning walk, which he often did but sadly he didn't return. We looked all over for him and there was not the slightest sign of him- not a tiny piece of white hair anywhere, We asked the neighbors as well but  eventually realized sadly he had gone somewhere to pass on. 
We have had a few cats do this now.He had decided that it was now time to go and so he went. No fuss. This is what independent cats do.

 It is always sad when this happens but Cooper had had a good life and we will certainly remember him with love.

Challenge painting - Ah Coffee!

Challenge painting - Ah Coffee!

My painting.

This was again not a very interesting subject for me to paint. It was certainly challenging but I really couldn't get too inspired by it.
It is in water color and I find it difficult to get depth of color using this medium which I think is because I am so used to painting in oil and more often, in acrylic where rich colors are easier to obtain. The pattern on the top of the coffee was the most interesting to do.
Still it is by attempting we learn so I'll keep at it!!

The original photo

Another Water Lily Painting

This is the challenge painting for "Paint and Draw together" for December. It's a water color 12"x 8" . Waterlilies are lovely to look at but not really to paint. This one was very difficult I found as the light was shining through the white petals and some were tinged with a rosy shade of pink. Also the background was a challenge . Mike thought it was a bloom on a  carpet and yes it did come out looking like that.
Here is the original photo for the challenge.

Still it is done and so onto the next painting.....

Two Similar but Different Books

I don't usually read religious themed books but just recently read two books which both had at their center, thoughts on Christianity. One was very much set in the past. "A. D. 30" by Ted Dekker and the other one is set in the not so distant future, " The Book of Strange  New Things" by Michael Faber.

A. D. 30 was very different from the other previous books by Ted Dekker who writes mostly science fiction books and fantasy type novels. This book was in part a historical novel , with an action story of Bedouin tribes,war and stories from the New Testament with actual passages quoting Jesus. It is an interesting book to read as it gives you insight into the way the people who met Jesus might have thought about this mystical young man spreading a new faith and way of thinking.  It also holds your interest as it moves along well and tell an adventure story of a beautiful young princess and a handsome slave and how both saw Jesus.

The 2nd book " The Book of Strange New Things" tells of a  pastor whose job and calling  it is ,to bring Christianity to a strange new world  set millions of miles away from planet earth. So in some way you have the science fiction aspect in the book with all the specifics of  travel and settling of a strange new world  mixed with the concern of a very caring  religious man. Peter's main aim is  to do his best to let the strange inhabitants of this new world hear the good news that is the story of the Bible and Jesus Christ, , except these friendly but very different alien creatures call the Bible, the book of Strange New things, hence the title.
IT is a deep and emotional book to read as Peter the pastor is torn between full filling his mission and feeling responsible for his  loving wife and all the  problems she is dealing with back on earth which is rapidly deteriorating .

Both great books to read and they certainly give you lots to consider and think about beside the story line.

Broadchurch by Erin Kelly

Broadchurch by Erin Kelly

This mystery murder novel is set in an idyllic sleepy British seaside town called Broadchurch. The main detective is a young mother called Ellie. The town has very little crime until a murder is committed.A young boy is found at the bottom of the cliffs on the beach. The terrible news is that the boy that is killed is a friend of Ellie's son and might Ellie's son be involved or  a suspect in the murder.
 No one can believe this has happened. So many people in this small town become involved and suspicions on just who  the murderer is abound. 
Another detective is brought in over Ellie's head to help solve the murder and stories are rumored on his failure in solving a similar murder in another town so no one is happy. 
The story gets more complicated when the local press and then the national press also get involved and the quiet little town's character  rapidly changes. Everyone suspects everyone else until eventually the murder is solved.
I found this a very interesting book to read as I can imagine very easily this little town and how it would cope with all the media attention. Also like a good mystery the reader suspects various characters but the true culprit isn't shown until the very end and I never came close to solving the mystery.

"Wanderlust" a challenge painting.

"Wanderlust" a challenge painting.

The title for this challenge painting  for November on facebook page- " Monthly Painter's Challenge was 'Wanderlust".
Now whatever does that mean. I went through the various thoughts about this topic , first deciding on a picture of a person looking out to an open landscape with many paths but couldn't quite visualize painting  that.
Then I thought it probably meant always wanting to move on somewhere else and to see more and more but how do you paint that feeling unless you do a purely abstract kind of painting. Don't have much experience of abstract painting.
Then I thought of all the places you could go to or wish to visit and started sketching and before I knew it I had filled out my allotted space!
So this is really a painted sketch rather than a real painting.
 I think I put just too much in  but that's how it goes sometimes.
Anyhow it was fun to do and it made me think which can't be all that bad.

Burnt Sienna by DaviBurnt Siennad Morrell

Chase Malone is a very successful artist that has made good livelihood from selling paintings that are sold in successful galleries. He is living the good life until an international arms dealer called Bellasar wants Chase to paint a portrait of his beautiful new wife Sienna. At first Chase is reluctant to do this but his friend from the CIA pushes Chase into the assignment to  spy on Bellasar. The arms dealer is developing a monstrous new biological weapon and it is essential that he is stopped

Chase goes with Sienna and Bellasar to his very secluded French Riviera stronghold. He discovers that as soon as the painting is done Sienna will be murdered. He realizes he must save her and find out just what Bella
 sar is up to and then flee the island.In the process he realizes he has fallen in love with Sienna.( Kind of obvious right from the start that this would happen!)
This is a fast-moving action type thriller, not the kind of thing I usually read and not altogether believable but all works out well in the end as these stories usually do after a lot of excitement,
I can see this would make fairly good action movie with handsome actors, beautiful women and lots of chases in wonderful countryside.

Look Again by Lisa Scottoline

Look Again by Lisa Scottoline

I realized that I haven't been keeping up with my reviews of books that I have read. I've certainly been reading a lot lately as the weather was pretty cold and we stayed inside a LOT!

I really enjoyed this book and have read a few others by this author. She writes well and it is easy to read and she weaves a good story.

A journalist called Ellen adopts a young baby when  she finds him in a hospital in bad condition and no one seems to want him. He is now three years old and healthy and she loves Will the baby very much. Then one day she sees a flyer in the mail and on it is a photo of a missing child which looks exactly like  Will. Ellen knows that Will's adoption was perfectly legal but she cannot help wondering about this child that has gone missing. Being a journalist she decides to look into it and then she finds clues that might mean she will lose Will and she wishes she hadn't started looking..

This is a very emotional story and she has to decide whether to ignore her finding and to keep Will or to do the honest thing and give the baby back to the original family. Quite a dilemma and one that no one would like to face.

But the whole story is far more complicated than that and that is where the mystery lies.
Will Ellen keep Will? You won't know until you get to almost the end of the book.

Challenge painting- Little brown jug and tomatoes

This is the  challenge I do every six weeks or so in which a photo is given and then each artist produces their version inspired by the photo.
 I found the topic a little bit dull to paint except for the reflection in the jug. This painting was fine in watercolor but getting the depth of the red for the tomato was a challenge. I think also now looking at it I should have made a better shadow under the tomatoes as they appear to be floating!!

Here is the original photo.

if you want to see what the other artists did go to 
http://paintanddrawtogether.blogspot.com/

Transhuman byBen Bova

Transhuman byBen Bova

Angela is an eight-year-old child that is gradually dying from an in operable brain tumor. The medical staff and even her parents have decided she finally needs to go into hospice care. Her grandfather Luke Abramson who is a cellular biologist is determined to cure her. He has been working on an experimental therapy which he knows may cure her but no one will agree to let him try this. So  Luke, even though he is 75 years old takes matters into his own hands, and with the help of a friendly glamorous young doctor abducts Angela and decides to drive  her across the country and to perform the therapy at a friend's clinic. 

Luke realizes fairly soon that he is really too old to drive across the country without being caught and so decides to perform an untried therapy on himself at the same time to reverse his aging process.

The alert goes out that he has kidnapped his granddaughter and so the chase is on. Will they get stopped before they reach the clinic? Will Luke be able to make the journey? Will Angela get cured?

This was an interesting book to read with all the medical information involved but somewhat unbelievable especially when the government and  the high powered pharma business executive who is funding the experiments, gets involved and enters the chase. 

Can you guess the title?

Can you guess the title of this song?

I ask this because this was the painting from the Monthly Painters Challenge on Facebook for October this month. The challenge was given to paint a song.
That led to some interesting thoughts and discussions about which would be a good song to paint.
I started out by thinking it had better be a subject from a well known song . So I chose "Somewhere over the rainbow" but after I had painted it , it was fairly uninspiring so I dumped it.

So then I thought as it will be Halloween when I enter ,what about a Halloween song. But no Halloween song came to mind. I settled on "Witchy Woman" , a song by the Eagles and had fun painting it. Lots of bright colors but something not quite right about it especially the part 'Sparks fly from her finger tips' . The finger tips looked most peculiar and I changed them to a weird collar.

So then I chose a song which I really like ,
"Diamonds on the soles of her feet" by Paul Simon. I liked the simplicity of this painting but the diamonds were a  real challenge to paint. 

The Survivors Club by Lisa Gardener

The Survivors Club by Lisa Gardener

This was a very interesting book and although it is classified as a thriller I found it more to be a mystery/detective story. 
It tells the story of three ladies that have been sexually assaulted and raped by the same man. The ladies form a support group which they call the survivors club. The rapist is apprehended and the book opens as he is being driven to court for the first day of the trial. Suddenly he is shot and killed. 
One would think the book should finish there. Bad man got his reward!
But who killed Eddie the rapist? All the ladies are  now under suspicion. Did they arrange this killing?
That night a new rape takes place but it looks very similar to the circumstances of the rape of the original three ladies but Eddie is now dead. Has the wrong man been killed?  Are the members of the survivors club now in danger again?
A well-written book that is most intriguing and thought-out and developed.
I enjoyed this one.

Another Halloween

Halloween 2014

Every year at Halloween my friends at the British connection ladies group have a Halloween party. There are about 15 ladies of varying ages from 40 to 80 that meet once a month just to have a good time, chat and laugh, This Halloween we were informed that we should all come as witches.So we knew there would be lots of laughter.

And what a collection of witches we were! Some were so clever and here are a selection of the photos from the party.

Here is the witch from Snow White.
Simple but a classic look.    

Here are a mother and daughter witches pair. We all loved their noses!!

 And the winner was
Sandwich.............
I can imagine she took hours getting that green face paint off after the party.

I went as a POP 60s witch. My socks were a great hit.
It wonderful what you can find in your old boxes in the attic!
I think this the 3rd outing for the witches hat.

My Fall Garden 2014

My Fall Garden 2014

Hibiscus, bougainvillea, asters and rose mallow

After a very poor summer flower-wise with very little blooming in my garden, drought conditions and lots of excess heat, suddenly my flowers have all burst out in lovely blooms. 

Rose mallow and purple salvia

We did have a little shower but I think the more moderate temperatures must have this effect. In fact I begin to think the plants think it's Spring already. I even have bulbs appearing which doesn't usually happen until to late January and February,
Something very peculiar is happening to the climate !!

The hibiscus is really spectacular- better than it's been all summer.

The Rooster

Challenge Painting- The Rooster.

This was the painting for the Challenge on www.paintanddrawtogether.com for September.I guess with my traveling and  photos and books I forgot to add it to my blogs.

For a change I started painting at the brightest color I could see, the red comb and then worked from there.

Found the tail feather a challenge in getting the pattern correct and also the background.

I find I tend to overdo the background in watercolor paintings.

An interesting study to do.
It reminded me of the time we kept chickens and what a pain the roosters were !!

The original photo

There were 18 paintings of the rooster and it was so interesting to see how each artist painted this subject. All were very different but so skillful and creative. You can check them out at http://paintanddrawtogether.blogspot.com/

Private by James Patterson and Maxine Paletro

This book was the second book I took on vacation to read and it is also the one I did not enjoy very much. I have read many books by James Patterson and usually enjoy them but not this one.

This book appears to be a book that is the first of a series about a company called "Private" run by Jack Morgan an ex marine who also suffers from flashbacks of a helicoper crash during his sevice in the war. Private is a company that does difficult investigation with discretion and doesn't care it seems much for the rule of law. 
Jack and his employees take on cases that need to be solved and cleared up secretly or quickly.
Three cases that the company are involved in are being dealt with all at the same time  I found this made for confusing reading. One of the cases is about a serial killer that is killing young girls picked up off the streets of L A. The case has already become  too much for the police department and so Jack and his company are called in to help. Then there is the case of mobsters, betting on NFL gambling and then to top it all off, Jack's friend Andy needs help because  his wife Shelby has been murdered.

I found it all too much to read. It was  like one of those fast-moving noisy TV episodes with sex, racing cars and aggression with little description and also  little appeal especially to me.

Not one I would recommend.

Ancaster Fair, Ont, Canada

While we were in Burlington we went to visit the Ancaster  fair close to Hamilton in Ontario. It is been a while since I have been to a county fair, the closest being  the State fair in Texas. This fair is very similar in that it showcases the various animal and machinery, hobbies and activities that you would see in the countryside. This fair goes on for about four days and when we went we had a lovely time. The sun was shining, it wasn't too crowded and we managed to park fairly close to the entrance so we didn't have far to walk. Below are some of the photos we took.

The cattle barn. I didn't know there were
so many kinds of cattle!

Just loved the colors of this one.

Lots of different sheep as well. Even saw some black wooly ones!



Then there were the ducks.This one had a cute hairstyle.

Displays of flowers and crafts,and also items made by the local schools.

Outside all the tractors and old cars.

And a group of very athletic young people doing gymnastics using a long hanging piece of cloth- very clever.

House Rules by Jodi Picoult

House Rules by Jodi Picoult

I still have a couple of more blogs to write about our vacation this year but I felt I needed a change. I have been keeping up with my book reading and in fact have about three books now that I need to review.

These were three books that I had picked up at the local book sale in the library. I needed books to read when I go on vacation and picked two good ones and one not so good!

House rules by Jodi Picoult is set in modern times and is a mystery and very suspenseful but it has unusual characters. The main character is Jacob Hunt an older teenager with Asp burgers syndrome. Now I knew nothing about this form of  autism but by the end of the book I felt I knew it well. Most interesting.
 Jacob's mother Emma has been responsible for taking care of Jacob ever since he was a baby when his father opted out of the marriage. His brother Theo suffers in the small family as all the attention has to be on Jacob and although he understands this , his resentment comes through.

Jacob is not good in social situations but is high functioning and intelligence and has a strange focus on crime scenes and solving crimes, mostly those he sees on TV. The young grad student Jess who has been tutoring Jacob to help develop his social skills, is found dead under suspicious circumstances. Jacob and his brother Theo knows something about the circumstances but did Jacob commit a murder?


I found this book to be most interesting and also most readable. In fact it was hard to put it down and I will certainly look for more books by this author.

Relaxing in Burlington

Relaxing in Burlington

 We were really pleased when we reach Burlington. It would be nice not to have to change beds for a few days! We have always made it a point when we go to Canada for vacation we stop off and visit with our friends Bernie and Jean. Last year Bernie died but we have kept in touch with Jean and she was happy to have us come to stay for a few days.

Mike was glad of a well earned rest from driving and loading and unloading the car as was I. Jean lives at the present time on the 10th floor of a high rise building in Burlington. It is a cozy little apartment and Jean always makes us feel very welcome. This time she apologized that everything was in slight disorder as she was moving soon to live with her daughter.

The proud father looks on as his son wins!

Mike and Jean both like sports and spent a good time watching both soccer and the Grande Prix on television. I tried to take some stills from the TV but it wasn't very successful!

The winners on the podium

I glanced out the window and saw that we had just missed a big storm so we had been very lucky in our drive to Canada.Usually you can see Lake erie from this balcony!

Bartonville Texas to Burlington Ontario, Canada

Canada Trip 2014  #2 A visit to a train museum.

A great painting on the wall of the Museum

So off we went bright and early in a very loaded van seemingly taking everything but the kitchen sink. It  was very full but we did have in the back two large canvas chairs plus all our luggage and other miscellaneous items that we were taking with us. The van was very comfortable and Mike found it easy to drive..

After a very pleasant drive heading north bordering the Mississippi river north of Memphis we then went along the Kentucky Parkway system and eventually toward evening got as far as Bardstown, Kentucky, a town we had visited before and enjoyed. 
As we passed through the town we noticed that there were many cars around and lots of traffic. The first hotel we came to had no vacancies as did the second one. When we inquired why this was, we were told that this was the week of the Bardstown Bourbon Festival. Bourbon is the main production of that whole area of Kentucky. Even the air smells of bourbon! We were directed finally  to a Comfort Inn closer to the main highway and fortunately found a room there. The Indian lady who appeared to be the owner was most accommodating and could see that we were tired and found us a pleasant suite on the ground floor.  We had a good nights rest there and a good breakfast to start the day.

The Kentucky Railroad and Museum. New Haven

Model train layout inside the museum

 The next morning the weather was very foggy but we had planned to visit the Kentucky Railroad and Museum about 12 miles south in a small town called New Haven. That part of Kentucky is very rural  with many rolling hills and the roads are curvy and winding.  The fog or probably I should say mist, was coating many of the valleys. Eventually we found the museum and got there just as it was opening. The museum and railroad appears to be run by mostly volunteers with a small staff and they seemed knowledgeable and very helpful. 

Inside the repair shed

We paid  our entry fee and then started to look around. The museum was full of interesting artifacts and items used by the railroad. There were even some model railroad layouts and specials toy railroads for children to play with .

 Mike enjoyed looking in the railroad sheds at all the other engines and coaches that were being prepared to be exhibited. The attendant said that the problem now is that  many old coaches and even engines are being given to them as donations but the volunteers to fix them were in short supply. Every year it gets worse as the older volunteers are no more and the younger volunteers do not have the necessary skills to fix the engines and carriages. Such a shame to see these old machines and carriages rotting away. 

An old carriage waiting for repair

And then we were on the road again following the River Road through Ohio until we came to  Erie in Pennsylvania and then on to Canada via the Niagara  Peninsula and our stay in Burlington..