Wednesday, November 14th

Saturated in rare November sunshine. We worship you, and all your glories!

Walkies: Shilshole Bay Marina. Looping around Golden Gardens, we said HELLO! to a colony of ducks overwintering on Golden Gardens' Freshwater Pond.

The Pond turtles, like old Russians, bare midriffs exposed and bare arms outstretched on benches of the Local Park, absorbing precious Vitamin D. The turtles, too, make the most of the moment.

As the sun fell, in a brilliant pink ball, we admired its glorious descent into another world where it is not darkness, but day.

monday color study: fall's first flush

Clouds and rain made all the colors of fall's first flush that much more luminous during today's wet Discovery Park walk.

Each bilateral leaf is a full color Rorschach, each side a mirror of the other but with organic variation. One could gaze at them for hours!

But we are all soaking and the dogs care not for leaf gazing, so home we go, a few select leaves in my sodden pocket.

my summer vacation

The chihuahuas and I were guests at the Arnim/Hucks estate on John's Island. No roads or running water in a cabin, hand built by Bill Hucks and his family within a grove of Madrona trees and a sea of native grasses.

This is a shot of my notebook, my muses (Maximo & Lulu), and Haro Straight (to the left). I went swimming in Haro Straight. Was that ever refreshing! After fifteen minutes I lost the ability to use my limbs. Coming ashore, I fell back into the water, my legs were so uselesss! I staggered up onto the rocky shore and Dana, and her daughter Kate, buried me under the rocks, hot from a day in the sun. The cold in my limbs surrendered to the sun's residual heat.

What is heaven on earth but moments, and minutes, such as these?

king of the wild frontier

Maximo got into another fight with a raccoon. This time, the wounds looked like nail punctures in his meaty thigh. Maximo is fine now (four medications and ten days later), but as the wounds heal, he wants to lick them! In reality, he doesn't wear a coon skin cap, but a cape covering his itchy haunch.

I could draw Maximo wearing the cape, but the difference between being drawn wearing a cape and a coon skin cap* is significant, given the cape is really a wrinkled napkin.

Lulu is as obsessed with the spot where Maximo vs. Raccoon 2012 took place as Maximo is with the spot on his thigh where the fight left its marks. She runs to the spot and barks at the memory, tirelessly telling off that nasty wild beastie.

Maximo was so lucky (again!) as a raccoon could so easily kill him. Maximo! King of the wild frontier! Let's hope it stays that way.

*The animal who inspired the coon skin cap drawing still roams free. Beware all domestic animals on night patrol! The danger is real!

PICKLE by kimberly baker

Kim Baker, author of Pickle, The (Formerly) Anonymous PRANK CLUB of Fountain Point Middle School, had a book launch party at Secret Garden Books last night.

Pickle is about a boy, Ben, and his team of motley pranksters, who come together at their middle school under the auspices of a pickle making club, their creative cover for a focus on pranks, and in so doing, get to know themselves, and each other.

Put it on your reading list. It's FUNNY! And FUN! And guaranteed to encourage and inspire the prankster in all of us.

The illustration (at left, by me!) is of a limited selection of hors d'ouvres (aka bizarre treats and unmentionable eats) Kim and her Posse created for the book launch. The pickled (of course!) quail egg escabeche with jalapenos was my personal favorite.

I took three rubber roaches home and am excited to use them in a prank. This morning, I saw them on the table, where I left them last night, and had a split second freak out before I remembered they were rubber!

My question is: what is the difference between a prank and a con?

the aspens have eyes

will the real yoda please stand up.

Funny how things happen.While walking around Woodland Park, M, L & I found a Yoda sticker in the Zoo's west parking lot. I picked it up and put it (grimy as it was) in my jacket pocket. We walked through the Zoo's new entrance and a tiny snowbank begged to be the platform for Lulu's best (yet) Yoda impersonation. The sticker is not superimposed!