After the storm

After the storm, 6 1/2 by 6 1/2 watercolor, 300 # d'Arches

Beautiful skies and clouds and more today in Oklahoma. I saw a version of this in early afternoon.

11 Days 'til Christmas

Waiting for mail, watercolor card

Letter from Grandmother to my Dad--real mail

In these digital days of a flood of useless "e-mail," of "texting," of constant cell phone contact, it seems the only mail that arrives in the real mail box is either bills or sale catalogs. My first stop on getting the mail is the outdoor recycling bin, where most of it is dumped unopened.
No wonder it's a treat when "real mail," arrives--a personal letter or card, hand addressed, always first opened and treasured. It's the personal touch missed today in the digital world. I wouldn't take for the ability to "Skype" my kids who are far away, and for our military stationed far away from their families. But, real mail takes us back to the days when there was more such mail, letters written because it was the cheapest and best  or only way to stay in touch with loved ones and friends, across the years and miles. We need that personal touch more than ever these days.

12 Days to Christmas

Prairie dreams, watercolor card

"Out here there's the sky," wrote Willa Cather of the West, and New Mexico. Anyone who's lived on, or traversed,  the Great Plains, including here in Oklahoma and in my native Texas, knows deep inside what she means. The phrase "the prairie sky is wide and high" in the song Deep in the Heart of Texas tells all. Snow in the vast expanse makes it seem even more remote. The stories I and other can tell of surviving or negotiating blizzards would never end. That's why a warm farmhouse is such a sanctuary.

Gate to High Lonesome --Christmas

Christmas dreams, watercolor card

High Lonesome is mythic in the West, as in my mind is the gate to this remote, faraway place, as mythic and calling as Christmas. What a place to be snowed in with a loved one, to stay warm by the fire, to laugh, read, dream, reflect by the light of a kerosene lantern. Outside, high chill mountain air, the stars so bright you can see forever, the only sound the howl of wolves or cry of big cats hunting. High and Lonesome, and at peace.

"Where is your cabin?"

My cabin, watercolor card

I was asked that years ago, and never thought about it, except cabins have grown in my dreams and memories. Now I know, painting cards for Christmas,. If I had to send a card to myself this Christmas, it would be a cabin in the shadow of the Manzanos in New Mexico...snowed in with a fire, books, lots of good food, a wood fire, plenty to drink, and a loved one.