The riding lawnmower (the gas-powered one) spent a couple of days at the shop recently, and the bit of lawn that stretches behind the studio, around the blackberry patch and amongst the orchard grew tall and lush. As I started to mow it with our newly serviced piece of machinery, I had a revelation, to let the four-legged mowers at it. So with just two bits of wire fence strung, the horses now had access to the best bit of grazing to come along this spring. It is my least favorite piece of lawn to mow, and though we'll have to clean it up when the horses are done, at least the rocks will be more visible, and the grass will have provided nutrition and calories to the beasts.
The chickens are in their new coop as of this past weekend. They are not too keen about the great outdoors, however. They perch on the doorstep of the little chicken door, and peer down the ladder, and one chick made it down two steps before going back in. The next day, I shooed a couple of them out, but none of the others followed and those two birds huddled under the coop until dark, when we had to take apart the temporary board in the front to get them out. It's so chilly the last couple of days, I've put the heat lamp in the coop and today I didn't even open the chicken door.
The coop with outdoor run in progress.
I have finished one more chicken painting, which I cannot yet post, and have moved on to finish up a couple of horse paintings. I have been juried into the Glastonbury Fine Arts on the Green show the second week of September, and I will be spending the summer getting ready for that show. (In-between shuttling the 9-yr old to soccer camp, cub-scout camp, day camp, and doing other family things like biking and a trip to the amusement park, etc...)
Three of my driving themed paintings are going to Mackinac Island, Michigan, this summer for the AAEA sponsored show, "The Horse in Fine Art" at the Mackinac Public Library, July 1 - July 31st.
"Carriage Meet" is one of the pieces. Oil on canvas, 11 x 14 in.
This is a bit of a rambling blog post, but there is a lot going on here.
