It’s been a long time since I wrote anything.  I guess the pandemic killed my desire to do it.  I did have a busy year though. I continue to play Pickleball almost daily and we are now all vaccinated and boostered and feeling safer outside.  In early June we even repainted the court .

This past summer I finally finished my book illustrations and the author, Tom, put it together in a book and sent it out to various people to critique.  The comments from critics indicated that the 58 illustrations were more suited to a children’s book and his writing was more for young adults. So he decided to pay me for my work and go back to rewriting (a thing he seems to love to do considering all the changes he made while I was drawing).  He says he is going to first do the young adult book and after that think about doing a children’s book in which he might want me to colorize all my illustrations.  I’m sure that is way in the future if ever but it took a big load off me for a while.  My sister, Jane and spouse, Jeff came to Boston in June and we met them at the Atheneum where Jane was part of a book binding exhibit.  They actually got to see my book as first published.  Jane’s book was beautiful as all her work is. 

Friends of theirs from the Boston area joined us for lunch at Legal Seafood which was great. They went on their way to Maine for the summer to be with their family and we went back home. It was great to see family again. This was the time of belief that the pandemic was almost done with and we had survived.  

I had a number of small projects I completed in the spring and summer.  

Howie had a gas tank he wanted to blend in more with his patio so I painted it: 

I wanted to redo my porch table and inspired by doing all the drawings of swamps I had done for Tom’s book I reimagined them for the table.

I also got a commission for a welcome sign for a young man who was just getting married:

In June our friend Toby came for a visit.  We got up to the High Ledges for a walk among the Mountain Laurel.  Then walked the Bridge of Flowers.

Feeling safer from Covid, David and Leila came to visit in July.  Leila was able to stay only a short time but David spent another week partially teleworking but giving him time to see his local friends and spend more time with us.  We got both of them onto the Pickleball court which was a lot of fun.  

În September Candace Silver, a photographer, and I had an exhibit at the Shelburne Arts Co-op called ‘Poppies and Peonies’.  Here are some of the paintings I had in the show:

Our small city has decided that we are now the Bee City due to our noted resident Lorenzo Langstroth. The Langstroth beehive is named for the father of modern beekeeping, Lorenzo Langstroth, who served as pastor of Greenfield’s Second Congregational Church from 1840 to 1848. In 1852, he patented his design for a moveable-frame hive, the most common beekeeping method used worldwide still. We have a Bee Festival every year in May and in 2019 six sculptures of bees were displayed on the main streets of Greenfield.  More money was raised for three more bees to be unveiled this May at the Bee Festival and my design was chosen as one of them.  I completed painting my bee in October and it is now under wraps at the Greenfield Gallery where it will get its finish clear coat so it can be installed outside. It is called “Quilting Bee”. Here is a sneak peek.

 

In early December we decided that we could actually dare to fly again and went to Washington for ten days to see David and the grandkids.  We hadn’t seen Tessa, Sam and Tionna in a few years and were planning to visit Tessa at college–Washington State in Pullman.  Well, we all know about the best laid plans and this was no exception. Two days before going to Pullman–which is over a pass across the Cascades–Tessa called to tell us it was snowing a lot and she was in her car which slid down a hill (fortunately no damage except a terrible fright) and we shouldn’t come.  It would be too dangerous to go over the pass.  As no doubt you are aware FaceTime just isn’t the same as in person but that’s what we got.  Hopefully, we’ll get to see her this summer.  

We did have a lovely lunch at our old friends Oscar and Barbara Soule and went back to their house to check out their newly remodeled kitchen and catch up on each other.  (Oscar was in Denny’s high school class in Clayton and a professor of David’s at Evergreen.))

The weather in Washington in December is mostly rainy and it rained as expected, but we managed to do fun things despite it.  We hiked around Nisqually NWR with David and Leila,

also went to McClane Creek where lots of salmon go to spawn and die (kind of smelly). 

We had great dinners of the wonderful seafood the Pacific Northwest has to offer,  played games with Cindy and Leila and did a jigsaw puzzle. 

Walked around Capital Lake and on Saturday went to Hoodsport to meet up with Naomi (daughter of our good friend, Beth, who lives here.)

We had a lunch and headed up to Cushman National Forest and the Staircase trail.  With all the rain there were lots of waterfalls and ignoring the rain and the cold it was beautiful. 

On Sunday Leila, Sam and Tionna joined us for lunch and got the holiday presents we brought them. 

Cindy came over with dinner that night.  Monday we headed up to Seattle with Leila.  We took the ferry to Vashon Island where we hiked around a short trail to the lighthouse. 

Then we got another ferry to  West Seattle where David treated us to a fantastic dinner to celebrate our anniversary early.  They dropped us of at a motel by the airport as we had an early flight.  It was a wonderful visit (except for not seeing Tessa).  

Back home it was even colder with some dusting of snow, but with many sunny days to play Pickleball.  It looks like we are daring to fly again Feb. 1st to spend 2 months in Arizona.  Hope all of you have been able to get together with some of your families and stay safe and healthy. 

Best wishes for a good 2022.  

Peace and love from both of us,

Nancy & Denny