INTO THE WOODS

DH and I are in the process of changing locations for the next few months.  We will be helping out at a summer camp about an hour’s drive from our home.

 It’s called Rock Creek Camp and is not far from Yellowstone National Park.  Since the area is considered bear country, Forest Service regulations require hard-sided cabins and enforce strict rules about garbage and food.

 Today we hooked up our trailer to electricity, water and sewer.  There are more trailers and a cabin where other couples will live through the summer.  The camping groups stay for up to a week at a time.   The kids are accompanied by adult and youth leaders.

Since we have to be good camp helpers, DH got this new toy, err, equipment. You see it's important that he can get around camp quickly and haul things. 

 Bears have not been reported in camp although they’ve been seen in the area.  Mostly we will have to deal with chipmunks, squirrels and possibly a skunk or two.  We have to keep food stored away from mice, and the mosquitoes can be pretty fierce at times.

 The wildflowers have already started to bloom.

 Butterflies are enjoying the blossoms.

This little one is called Spring Beauty.  

 There is no wifi and the phone service is very limited.  The campers are going to be forced to put down their electronic gadgets and enjoy the great outdoors.  This also means not much blogging but I’ll try to check in occasionally during the summer.

 Our job for the next few weeks will be to help ready the place for the first campers in June.

NAVIGATING THE NORTHWEST

For my latest painting I revisited an excursion by boat through some of the channels along the passage between Vancouver Island and the west coast of British Columbia.

I started with a line drawing of the boat we were on, the MV David B, and put the misty, forested mountains which drop down to the deep sea as a background for the painting.

 After I masked out the areas I wanted to preserve from washes of color, I floated in some rainbow pigments and a sky blue.

 I added some loose shapes for the dark mountains and the first wash for the sea water.

 Over the earlier washes I added more details to the mountains and sea.

 When those layers were dry, I removed the masking so I could finish the boat and add more details to the water.

I decided to call it “Navigating the Northwest.”

This 11x14 inch painting and several others are available for purchase on my Etsy site, Watercolors by Leenie.

IF YOU GO CHASING RABBITS YOU KNOW YOU'RE GONNA FALL

She was just out for a routine morning walk along the road by the river…

 …when suddenly a Black Rabbit ran close by her.

 There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did she at first think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say, 'Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!' But then she blamed that bit of nonsense on the NPR radio station she was listening to and removed her headphones.

She walked quietly toward the big Black Rabbit, and watched it munching on the fresh green leaves of the nearby shrubs.

It moved a little out of sight and she thought about following it when she remembered something she’d heard a long time ago.

 “If you go chasing rabbits, you know you're going to fall.”

 She saw no caterpillar, large chessmen, or even a dormouse.  The only other creature about was a Canada goose swimming away down the river.

There WERE mushrooms but she knew she hadn’t had even a nibble of them.

She watched the Black Rabbit disappear into the darkness of the woods, reconsidered following it and walked on toward home to find something she could feed her head.