A Lot of This and a Fair Amount of That, Too

Two of my "quickie" posters taped to the back of the food truck ...

... and more on the side ...

Part of the area set aside for the horse trials - the dressage phase and the stadium jumping are held down here, while the cross-country phase is held in the higher, slightly hilly area beyond.

I fell in love with a handsome young dude by the name of Viking. I believe he is a Hanoverian/Westphalen cross. Lovely temperament, though I learned he can buck like nobody's business, when I had a chat with the proud owner.

This is one of the trails for horses and walkers. Campbell Valley Park is a huge equestrian park, miles and miles of well-maintained trails -  beautiful, and enjoyable all year round. It's to the park I almost always go when I take the girls out for a walk.

And we have a 2nd batch of baby nesters. I think they look almost ready to fly ... probably this weekend. I see them quite often now, perching at the edge of the nest.

Here comes a parent to the rescue with food!

After riding Bruno this morning [and he was a righteous dude - YAY],  I drove over to the other side of the park at the end of my street. They were holding horse trials - a 3-day event. Today was dressage, tomorrow is the cross-country phase, and Sunday is the stadium jumping. One of my sister's friends [she of all the rescued animals] was helping her friend with her food truck. Cindy owns Suburban Spoon. In the winter she has a catering business, and in the summer she has the food truck which she takes to various events around the lower mainland - in and around Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. Cindy gave me permission to put up several posters, advertising my animal portraits. So I visited a while, then wandered around the fields, caught up with a few old friends that I hadn't seen for a while. I don't show any more, so I am completely out of the horsey loop. All in all, it was a pleasant time this afternoon, and I'll be going back tomorrow to watch some of the cross-country.

Thank you for dropping by! Your comments are always welcome.  

Nit-Picker's Delight ... or ... I Have GOT to Leave This for Tonight ...

Since the last post, I added several glazes of a very dark green/violet mixture for a dark background. I also dragged some of that dark color over the leaves in shadow. Just playing around - trying different things ...
I wet the area and dropped in pigment for the cast shadows within the petals, using an aureolin, quin. pink, indanthrone mix.

Then I started on the detail work within the main bloom, and its side-kick - the partially furled bud to the right.

This is where I'm leaving it for tonight.

And the saga of the baby sparrows continues. One fell out if the nest today. He had feathers, and seemed all right. I wasn't sure about bird protocol, so I bundled him in an old fluffy towel, and proceeded to start hand-feeding him. My landlady feeds her dogs some wet food, and I'd read that the babies do very well with that diet. So there I was, using two tiny paint brushes - one to tease his beak open, the other to dip food down his gullet. He was one hungry bird!!! I did this several times over a few hours, and then did a bit more reading about birds falling out of nests. Apparently they can safely be returned, and are accepted by the parents. So back he carefully went, tucked into the nest with his sibbies.

Thank you for dropping by. Your comments are always welcome.