along with a respectable amount of loafing i rang the new year in doing my favorite things. sketching, writing, thinking, sitting, staring, napping. watching late afternoon cast its amber light across the walls & floors. and now, of course, that winter has abandoned us here in the city of angels, riding around with my windows rolled down. 83 degrees yesterday. the heaters have been dialed down and the windows opened. the garden is filled with all manner of bright green stalks & shoots.
i repurposed old visual journals that were filled with watercolor paper into sketchbooks.
it's a pleasure to draw & paint on different sizes of paper in a variety of books.
i watched movies like THIS, and THIS.
THIS new music i can't stop listening to. if you love the swedish version of wallander and can't stand not hearing the show's theme song anymore, which always comes on at the very end. you can still hear it! Ane Brun is brilliant and i'm listening to RARITIES (wallander song is openings) and NEW SONGS over and over and over and over. and over. and over. brilliant & beautiful.
i've enjoyed my last week off. there has been heaps of "untrammeled idleness". i have not been making lists of goals or stockpiling ambitious ideas. although there is certainly time for that should i go that route. for now i'm enjoying my visit in the quiet land of the unambitious. i only have one true desire for my 52nd year of life. OKAY FINE!!! i'll share it with you. go get a pencil and take notes.
here it is:
find a litter of piglets to cuddle
that is not a joke. if you know of a farm somewhere that has baby goats, sheep, cows, or piglets I can visit. tell me! my sister and i need our baby animal fix and we'll travel far and wide to get it!
Happy belated birthday to you. I was going to suggest a place I heard about near Lake Elsinore but someone beat me to it.
Have a great day!
Happy belated birthday wishes! I can’t believe you have spring on it’s way already! i have spotted a blossom or two but it’s very much still winter here!
Hope your Day was a splendid one… Bad timing about the piglets though, Lucy had them for several years, but finally gave up raising them because the dad (named Ballsy, yes, umhum, that is why…) kept breaking through the chain link pen and terrorizing the neighborhood. xox
De La Ranch in Lake Elsinore/
http://www.da-le-ranch.com/photos.html
Happy Birthday! Celebrate and cuddle them piglets!
+http://www.da-le-ranch.com/uploads/3/1/1/4/3114200/6319336_orig.jpg
Happy, Happy Birthday to my favorite Blog Artist! I love your colors and books and mostly your humor. You always make me smile and inspire me to paint. Kittens are definitely at the top of the snuggle list…piggies, not so much…but good luck and happy snuggle-cuddling with whatever you find.
Mary
Happy birthday, mary Ann. I hope you have a fantastic year!
Happy Birthday!!!
Oh I thought I was the only person who watched and loved the Swedish Wallender! He is much less intense than the British one. I like them both. Thanks for the music link and a very HB to you, ever the inspiring and witty MAM
Happy birthday, MAM! Good luck with those piglets. Or is it Piglet, as in Pooh? I’m quite sure Pooh, and Piglet, would be willing to cuddle a bit and try some of your birthday feast.
Happy Birthday MAM! Pictures are a must once you find those piglets (which I am sure you will)!!!
Happy, Happy Birthday, Mary Ann! May it be your best year ever! Check out The Gentle Barn in Agoura, or someplace close to that. It’s a huge rescue with every kind of animal you can imagine living out their lives in peace and love. Enjoy! xo
Adding my happy birthday greetings to the very entertaining other messages here. I dreamt of litters of kittens and puppies last night but not piglets. Can’t wait to see what sketches you might create as a result of a farm visit.
P.S. 83 degrees?? Oh my, that sounds heavenly. It’s a mere 12F here in Toronto and feels like minus 8 with the windchill. Why I live in a country that has such a cold winter season I am still trying to figure out!
Dearest Mary Ann,
Happy CAKE day to you! I have a farm for you, and it is do-able. Just hop into your jalopy & scoot northward up the coast–waaay up to Pescadero. You’ll drive inland a bit, and then come to town, which has a PIE shop, a bread store that sells the most delectable artichoke bread with garlicky spread, then drive round the bend (like 2 minutes), and you’ll arrive at Harley Farms where you will feast your eyes upon hundreds of frolicking baby goats!! There are SO many treasures to behold: the barn where they (the owners, not the goats) host dinner fetes, the goat cheese shop which is full of samples and soaps and carvings of animals, the grounds & gardens, and the GOATS. Last time I was there, the goats broke into the herb garden, and there was a wild rumpus on their part to DEVOUR, and a scrambling on the part of the human beans to get them out of the lavender and back into the pens. I do believe I’ve sold this adventure quite well. You’re welcome.
Xo, cortney
Happy Birthday to BE-U-Ti-FUL You. NO running with scissors girls! 🙂 Have a wonderful B’Day and that’ll do.
Happy Birthday Mary Ann! Wishing you plenty of sketching happiness and quality cuddling with the being of your choice. Get yourself something with sprinkles on it today!
Happiest of birthdays to you Mary Ann Moss!!
Happy Birthday to one of my favorite virtual friends. I would play pin the tail on the donkey too, and find you a baby pig in a teacup.
Happy Happy Birthday Mary Ann!!! Hope it’s the best birthday EVER!
Happy Happy Birthday Marianne!!! I hope it’s the best birthday EVER!
Now you’ve gone and done it! I am amazed that I’ve not heard of Ane Brun before but now that you’ve turned me on to her, I am HOOKED! Wow!! Great journaling music. Thank you so much…she is magnificent!
Happy Birthday!
Much Peace & Love,
Barb
Wishing you a most happy birthday! I was into trimming my own bangs, and my official first-grade pic is proof. My mother was not happy with me for doing that to myself just before Picture Day. I remember doing it, too. With those cruddy blunt-nose scissors — no wonder my bangs weren’t exactly even! If only I’d had decent tools………. lol………….
ps — Just so you know — kittens, not piglets. Piglets do not like to be picked up (let alone cuddled) and will struggle and SQUEALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL. Not restful or calming……… For anyone involved.
At least — that was my experience as a kid when my uncle had pigs, which sometimes had piglets. I wanted to hold one, so my uncle picked one of them up, and, well, I asked him to please put it right back down. I hadn’t realized it would be so unhappy to be picked up! That was a very long time ago (I’m a lot older than you) and maybe pigs are different now, I don’t know.
A very Happy Birthday to you Miss Moss!
Hope you have a wonderful birthday! I really like your sketchbook roundup and the album with embellished fabric, oh so clever. 83 degrees is unbelievable! Here is central NY, we’re in the midst of a heat wave – 7 degrees and slowly rising….
O green things growing, untrammeled idleness, sketching, what wonder-full gifts! Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday!!
Wishing you a lovely quiet birthday, contemplation, and kindness. The only pigs I keep tabs on are on Instagram; but they are miniature pigs and completely adorable. They are prissy_pig on Instagram and they go to class with their ‘mom’ who is a school teacher.
Mary Ann… you need to check Katherine Dunn’s Farm, Apifera… She is an INCREDIBLE Artist and has a Magical Farm. She lives near Portland Oregon. I don’t think you would be disappointed if you paid her a visit…. ApiferaFarm.blogspot.com
Happy Birthday!
Happy birthday Mary Ann!! Have a nice day and lots of presents!!
Happiest of birthdays to you! While I’ve never cuddled a baby pig, I have petted them. They feel like velvet. 🙂
Happy Birthday, Miss Moss!
Ah yes, the land of the unambitious, that’s exactly where I like to roam. Enjoy your stay and make it last. 😉
Wishing you a wonderful birthday (I already did this on facebook, but hey, you can’t have to many good wishes can you?) and an even better 52nd year! Keep on making us happy with all you share!
A very Happy Birthday Mary Ann!
From a gal with farm experience, I will tell you to seek out goats to cuddle. There is nothing like a newborn goat to hold and pet and love. Pigs at all ages are muddy, and a bit stinky, and frankly they can be downright mean! (Yes, I have been knocked to the ground by a mama sow.) Come visit us up here in Portland, we are crazy for farming, we even have a herd of goats that live in the city! Look up the Lents Goats. 🙂 Plus we have gobs of great Art stores just waiting for you to come peruse through.
It has been such a joy to view your sketching and painting over the years and see how accomplished you’ve become! An inspiration to all of us – if we just keep doing it – the results get better and better. Happy Birthday!
Erin in Morro Bay
Happy Birthday!
Piglets do not necessarily cuddle well.. My daughter has smuggled one home in her shirt..mum was a big wild feral pig on the cattle property where they live. She saved two babies from the hunting dogs. They are loud and do not always appreciate the hand that feeds/saved them. So beautiful though..
Happy birthday a day early. I’ll be turning 60 on Saturday. Yikes! How did I ever get that old?! It seems just like yesterday, that I was only 40! Anyway, have a great day celebrating. I just read Sister’s blog post, of how she would like to spend your day with you. Sounds like fun. My bangs could use a good trimming too.