Do not forget to entertain strangers, for some have been Angels

To all my followers, I would like to let you know, that I am just slightly below my goal for this page and so I will be asking a few more friends to like and begin following this page, There is something so special about each follower that is uniquely about what they hear communicated by this art. I am hoping that I reach the impossible goal of 100% acceptance to all who are invited to the feast.
 Statistically speaking that rarely if ever occurs, so ,,,, let's see what happens this week ,,,,these are her stones , her gems, sure some need some polish,,,,,,but these are living stones, and they are polished by those who climb up and step on them,,,,rough stones are safe, polished ones are slippery.
Why she wonders would all these friends just blow off an invite.....and she watches the trend,,,notices that people who get a personal advance notice that they have been invited,, a bit of an explanation, usually they appreciate the opportunity.           
While she is thinking ,,,,,,,,,,,,slowly .........Facebook is also thinking .
She notices they seem to be really bad at posting accurate statistics. She knows that they probably have ran her algorithm through ever which way to try to identify her tribe and niche,,,,,,so of course they would know she is bad at math. Nerds are everywhere presumptioning  she won't notice they are not reporting all the facts or they are changing the stats to suit their own proposes .    
Nerds or wonks who just need one more fact from her stop wasting time with her and get it the easy way.
They  will just ask her friends,,,who will rat out her gender or locations without even knowing they have been duped, so as one who is an opening book., she gives it up .
Who needs privacy anyway , the lost commodity. 
So on Sunday she sat at the feet of a very wise man who seemed to know some truths.
 A stranger whom she hoped she entertained,,,,She always tries to poke a little advance fun to make the blow of possible criticism at herself land in her where she chooses to allow.
She wanted his opinion. He shared it . She laughed and randomly associated freely as her brain is wont to do as it goes spinning her mind around so quickly it is even hard for her to follow herself. So he is not really hip?   He told her to stop .  He called her right on it .   Cut right to the crux.
This made her pull up a chair, so to speak she just reached in her bag pulled out a tablecloth to sit on for a cushion and listened to some truth telling and sharing , She sat at his feet on the ground to listen to what he had to teach her. She could see others walking by in her peripheral vision, she knew they were being watched as he told her .....your art has a message,,,it is different to each ear. In this the art becomes the voice, The watching eyes the ears of those who saw this moment in time. 
This moment and moments  that ,,,that lasted till the light of day was gone .


 light to her was so bright she let herself miss the setting sun.

Amazing voice

Time to write about amazing things,,, She writes in third person because, well it separates her from the I voice, the l focus the self centeredness. She thinks in terms of others when she writes in third person. So like she knows there is a valley voice cause like she grew up with that voice, and she knows there is a millennial voice , that is the voice which with lilting cynicism asks,  really in a question voice. Amazingly she prompts herself to write because she wants use a teasing voice to make a little bit of fun at her loss of voice, otherwise known as noise, sound , audio, aka volume.
So when she tries to figure something out when tired, sleepy and scared of hackers and lurkers, she cannot figure it out. She tries searching help topics, sends a feedback report, no this did not answer my question....this topic about sound and silence does not explain what to do when sound goes silent. She wants to listen to that video! Look some more. Tim Cook's post does not assure her one bit.
 That intrusive pop up has convinced her someone has hacked invaded and turned off her sound.
They must have accessed her microphone,,,,, she looks some more and even reads on Facebook a kid telling his Mom she made an ID ten T error, and wonders if she is having the same problem and then,
Eureka!
after watching the video with subtitles, no she does not know how she made it do that either,
Sure now she knows what they said but  she wants to HEAR  this one....then she finds it ....
The voice, aka sound aka volume control button....and she watches and listens to the voice, on the video, singing Amazing Grace serenading their teacher who taught them how to sing, and use their Voice!
FYI :
ID ten T  is pronounced, ........idiot.

Your , you , the scans you send are always perfect they never have staples

Late at night she posts her 1st post of February while yawning. The limitations of time and tasks are on her mind. Writing in the 3rd person is on her mind as she yawns again. She fell asleep after a full day. Rather early it was when she crashed before 9pm. She knows that because it was after 9 when a weird buzzing shook her awake . Oh that is the phone sounding somewhat urgent in its buzzing. Oh where is it , follow that sound, there is a light , where,  there ,it is under that blanket , in the pocket of her jacket,  No call. No notification, nothing uh? Wrong number? Ck msgs anyway. There a msg. From someone she has been missing. Wants to see and do something tomorrow. Ok. Time set.Now where is that wonderful sleeping sensation she had been enjoying. Tonight someone had told her , she should write more on her blog. Or write things, write more. He likes her writings. Likes her sketching and thinks it is good but thinks her writing is good, so now she is writing . Thankful she is for this push of encouragement to keep it up. Just like an unexpected thankful praise she unexpectedly received from a coworker this week, it cheered her on, made her want to keep on doing the one little thing that makes her coworkers work easier. Her coworker does not even know how much she has hated that one little thing she always does cause there is a rule that says she is supposed to do it .
Now  this totally unexpected appreciation will make that tiny little task less of a chore, less annoying, all because it is acknowledged and appreciated. She may even delete the email folder she titles staple police. She knows she will now smile when she pulls all the staples from the docs she sends for scanning. 

Talking to strangers

Today she sketched Catherine Way playing her harp at Casa Feliz. Afterwards she took her weekly Park Ave. stroll and made a stop at "The Bookstore".  Catchy name for a bookstore, agree? This store has been open perhaps a year. Today she sits in one of the small rooms and strikes up a chat with a couple admiring the finger puppet display. The man in a ribbon decorated navy blue military ball cap was generally of a certain age and so was his wife. That means above 50, but only  they know how far above. The wife was picking up the puppets showing her husband , he said no I don't know Pete Seeger. So they needed info, she  has to speak and explain Seeger. The wife was really enjoying the cutenss of these puppets of famous folks . She picked up James Joyce and turned a quizzical face asking by her expression, So she explained Joyce and how he gained fame by publishing the most famous banned book..A book perhaps few would ever have read if not for that pre internet viralness phenomena of banning a book.  When the woman asked her who Emily Dickenson was , she found herself quoting a few favorite or at least memorable lines....and asking this lady, incredulously, what do you do? I am a realtor. The realtor asked her how do you know these things? As the lady realtor left she turned and said I'm going to take your suggestion and put on a little puppet show, she bought 4 puppets.  She really liked Twain, the puppet's bushy white hair could have made him mistaken for Einstein.  She said she knew who Mark Twain was but balked at the challenge of naming 3 books he wrote. Her husband knew Twain had written a biography about Ulysses S. Grant . She picked up Thomas Jefferson and declared she knew who he was. They were visiting from Houston. She asked for info on the Zora Neale Hurston puppet whose fame inspired a local festival that so happens to be taking place locally in Eatonville, this week.

Sunday 1/17/2016 Music at the Casa . Casa Feliz.
Matt the " Saxman" .  Matt usually performs with Michelle but today he was soloing it sort of anyway He was accompanied only by his synthesizer.  Occasionally he sings.  His sax is not a tenor sax,  She supposes perhaps it is an alto sax, but not being exactly sure,  she really should have asked him.  Two sweet children came to check out her sketch and compliment her efforts. She encourages them to draw everyday .

The sketch of Matt with his vintage saxophone is posted on Facebook .

 She took  a stroll down the avenue to sketch the peacock fountain again. Funny how many times she has come to sketch this peacock but never thought to step across the street and frame him though the arch . Since she had to stand to sketch from that vantage point, it will need a few more trips to render Perci from that view..Perhaps it will require some type of portable seat.
  She sketched on Sunday in Winter Park. She strolled alone down the avenue.
She recognized the owner of a local gallery sauntering along . She stopped in the Morse gift shop, and purchased a book , a gift , for her Aunt who loves trees. "Oak, one tree ,three years, fifty paintings"....author, Stephen Taylor.
Oak,

The 99th reason walk.

The link should go to Facebook, if you don't do Facebook .....What is your  fav way to connect ?
Saturdays she takes walking adventures with a friend . This year the plan is to take 100 adventure walks together. Last week's walk was a stroll in the fog across the bridge on hwy 92, across the Halifax river in Daytona Beach.
This week the camellia society folks are presenting and competing at Mead Gardens in Winter Park.
They arrived in time to see the room full of  hundreds or thousands of camellia blooms set up on tables in every hue of pink, and red and white and blends of those three colors. The blooms are here  to compare petal perfection and flaunt the beautiful aesthetic of each awesome blossom. The room was closed while the judges chose which beauties deserve the blue, or red or white ribbon for their grower. She envisions that behind the closed doors the judges whisper terms of endearments to all the participating blooms. So gorgeous, lovely, beautiful, pretty,  Que Bonita! Alas they will only give us 5 blue ribbons, 10 reds 20 whites ,, and so really we would just like to give all of you gold ribbons for you are all wonderful ,,,, here ,,now each of us close our eyes and throw these 35 ribbons in the air and see where each lands.    Shhhhh it is our secret don't say a word, sit here in silent agreement and then we will open the doors.
They strolled the gardens. Taking the boardwalk through the swamp they arrived at a pond where she was surprised to see robins in January . Usually it is February before they show up in Florida on their migration back north.  There are several paths around ponds in the gardens, each with a pleasing opportunity to sit a while to enjoy the reflections and look for the sketch. Too full of color for just a sketch . She pulls out her book , sketches notes, she will need return trips maybe several.
Watercolor pencils will be needed...making a list in her mind she muses....
.. Another lunchtime picnic sketch adventure?
She asked her friend for 3 adjectives to describe this day.  His first choice surprised her. Exciting . Hmmm she thought and waited for his  second adjective. Calming.  Yes,  she agrees with calming . The stillness of the water which had perfectly reflected the tall cypress trees has a calming effect on the psyche.   She realized the two words together create a balance. Like  the way a ripple on the water is a calm rhythmic but exciting break in the smooth cool stillness.   Walking along the shores together elevates the mood and the warm sunshine sets the heart to enjoy the pleasant peaceful pleasurable moment of this day.

Today the temperature has dropped and it is sweater weather. 3 sweaters. I took along  a new sketch book to Casa Feliz.
 For some reason when I sketch from a new book, it is more difficult than usual for me to orient my sketch on the blank page. I could also blame the weather or just admit some situations such as today's quartet are challenging to me. I decided to accept what was on the page when the quartet took their break, unfinished  and out of perspective. Elise is lopsided. Abby is missing half of her body and  most of her cello.  I suppose this out of kilterness matches my lopsided mood.  This is a sketchbook I have inherited from my artist, sister in law, she has left her earthly journey.  I am thinking of how she wanted to plan to come with me to Casa Feliz on a Sunday.  So her sketch book comes with me.
Go to Facebook to see the sketch of Paint it Black a string quartet, well  sort of , a string trio,
2 cellos, violin,   and a flute.