Five More Days

Funny You Should Wonder

I have had many inquiries and concerns about my upcoming trip to Guatemala. Only 11 days away, yes, I am getting excited. How did this trip happen? Check here to see what it is...
Last November I was taking my second class with master painter, Kaye Franklin, who told us about the painting trip. After the class was over, I thought, wow, that could be a real experience for an artist and I have learned alot from Kaye, especially about oil painting. This is right out of the brochure:

Join this prolific artist and International Workshop Instructor on the trip of a lifetime to beautiful Guatemala. Kaye Franklin will take you the most scenic and colorful venues throughout Guatemala. The hotels, excursions, special events, and cuisine will be luxury, unique, and five star all the way. The painting and instruction will be most incredible.

Be inspired in the Spanish colonial town of Antigua where you’ll wake up in a 16th century Monastery to the sounds of macaws and running water in the fountains and colorful bougainvillea everywhere. With its romantic surroundings, this town is considered one of the most beautiful in all of Central America. The venues here are endless. We’ll paint in ruins left by the 30 Monastic orders that called Antigua home and built stunning monasteries, convents, and cathedrals in the town. The local markets, quiet courtyards with ornate gardens and the sights and sounds of colonial Spain permeate the atmosphere.

Travel through the magical highlands of Guatemala and paint on sight with Kaye, overlooking Lake Atitlán (Aldous Huxley, famed English author called it “the most beautiful; lake in the world”) with its three towering volcanoes and twelve Maya villages. Painters at all levels are invited to join in on this experience of a lifetime; the Maya markets, the villages, and the people will steal your heart forever. You will never want to leave.

So I have been busy studying up on what to pack, what to do, what to expect, getting my US passport (which is a whole 'nother story in itself), and making plans to get to KC on the 23rd, stay at Mom and Dad's and fly off on the 24th, returning on the 3rd of Sept. The only concern I have is there are "coffee flies" (Simulium ochraceum) and I have been warned about them twice now. Can you picture it, little flies drinking espresso ? Maybe we can sit down and chat over a latte! (And other advise - from bloggers who have been - besides the always and everpresent.."Don't drink the water"? You never want to drink from a straw, unless you take the package off yourself, they recycle them, and other advise that I won't mention, until I find out it's true.) Think of me on Day 2, sitting high atop a Mayan temple above the rain forest in Tikal listening to the monkeys howl and the macaws calling. I can hear them now! Should be fun and very interesting.

Is It Bigger Than a Breadbox?

Hubster was being pestered by a fly the other morning. He had to stop it's advance of attack. Interesting the size of it shown below. The fly probably didn't know he messed with the wrong person!Art isn't happening right now - oh snap! But it will be soon. Oh ya, this blog is a "periodic journal of life as an artist living in NCK" and we are "do-it-yourselfers" on most everything we do. That takes away painting and art time. I don't profess to be a "full-time" artist, I bask in the thought and would like nothing better, it's just that all these "other" things take time. We are still replacing kitchen cabinets. Big job! Here is a photo of the laundry room/entry way. The upper cab has glass doors. I have loaded all my cookbooks into that one. I also got to place my food items in my new food pantry and my pots and pans in my new pots and pans pantry - get it "pan"try?! Makes you wonder where that word comes from. I will have to research that. Ha! Lucky me, I get one more pantry (these cabs came from a "master" kitchen) and that will be a "catch-all" or "junque" as hubster calls it - pantry. Seem to have lots of that stuff, still hangin' around. Although we have AC, the heat and humidity plays with my energy levels - daily.
Took a quick ATV ride last night to check out a "burn" we could see on the horizon, never found it. We scared up a whitetail doe and twins in the stubble wheatfield to the south, they were just darn cute and very cool to watch. Their tails wag like a dog's tail! Electric fence is keeping those and other critters at bay around the sweet corn. We are going to have sooo much corn when it comes in. You should see me cringe, though, down around the pond, where hundreds of tiny Woodhouse toads are jumping out of the open cracks in the dry earth. Hasty Herman bit into another one last night before sundown. They are poisonous in case you haven't read my late rantings about them. Lots of wind and some rain at 3 AM. Sleep wasn't in the mix too much about that time.

Oh - and this one goes out to my family - who I may have told - I wasn't going to Guatemala??? Well, left my options open and then decided that I would go. (At least I will be painting!) One shouldn't pass up these opportunities in life - the world will just have to adjust. See my sidebar. Not many days til I leave. I am planning each day with what to take and how. Traveling with art supplies, as well as everything else, will be interesting. And...I am preparing my body for bug bites. Mosquitoes devour me at sunset every night!
P.S. Happy Birthday to my step-daughter, Leslie, who is 23 today! We are expecting her for a visit next week.