My dad was hospitalized last week.  He has been having chronic hiccups and trouble keeping his food down. It will be a slow recovery eating very small amounts until his esophagus heals.  I spent a lovely weekend with mom and dad. Lots of stories-some classics, but a few I had never heard before.  One story I hadn't heard before was about the day I was born. He said the first time he held me was when the nurse handed me off to him to take me to mom's room.  The problem was that there was some steps to be navigated.  He froze at the top of the steps- sure that he was going trip.  The nurse noticed and rescued him. She returned me to him after she carried me down the steps for him.  I was the first of 5 kids.  My memories are of dad being very adept at hauling us around..often several at a time!!

While enjoying swapping stories and sitting quietly while dad was resting, I did some sketching using an inconspicuous paint thumbbox from Utrecht.

Wednesday morning was cold and foggy here in Neepawa.  The sun was barely penetrating the haze. It was beautiful and I wanted to try capture that light! So, I bundled up. I grabbed my ancient paintbox and headed for the bird sanctuary at Rotary Park.  Before I even got that far, the view from the little bridge en route took my breath away. Soon I was lost in trying to quickly get everything painted before the light changed too drastically.  I was sitting on the concrete retaining wall just to the side of the bridge immersed in my task when I happened to look down and saw that I had a visitor. A plump little beaver was looking up at me. He and his partner posed shamelessly for the next 1/2 hour.                        Obviously I had to put them in the painting!