abstract watercolor painting of poinsettia by emily weil

daily painting | postcard

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Big gratitude list today! I made this small postcard as a thank you to a dear CA friend who sent me little hand-made cleats so I can put up a shelf in the bathroom. They are works of art in themselves and I am humbled and thankful for his talent and generosity.

I’m grateful for Sarah, the park ranger I volunteered with yesterday who let me pick her brain on a variety of topics. She educated me about the two beavers who have returned to RMNP thanks to a restoration project that restricts elk and moose from over-grazing, making it possible for beavers to return to a spot on the CO river where the willows they need are protected. For winter, they create a grid of intertwining willow branches, and the weight of this brilliant creation sinks to the river bottom, under the ice. The critters then pull out one branch at a time for meals. I will definitely go see if I can find it (I hear it is still visible). Snowshoes might be necessary.

After my volunteer duties yesterday (so thrilled to be back with the team!) I took a short walk and saw a large herd of elk on the hillside. Plenty of bugling. Magnificent. The calves seem to make a kind of squeaky sound (another question for the ranger).

Yesterday I bought a poop and track guide, Scats and Tracks of the Rocky Mountains. I’ll have it with me as the snow shows all kinds of evidence of little footprints and I’m excited to try and ID them. One ranger said she was startled one year to see how many mountain lion tracks were in the snow. They are everywhere. And almost never seen — except there was a story in the local newspaper about a group of five women who were mountain biking and one of the women was taken down by a mountain lion. The other women attacked the big cat, using a bicycle to pin it down until help came. Coloradans are tough.

I could go on and bore you to death but let me just add one more thing. The five-year anniversary of my first sister’s death is in two days. Kay often occupies my thoughts, as do my other two siblings who died. I am grateful she fought back the breast cancer and succeeded in keeping it at bay for 20 years, which meant she met and adored her grandchildren, took many trips, enjoyed her marriage, and finally, when the cancer took her out, I am thankful she no longer is in pain. Rest well, dear Kay. I feel you with me sometimes and I am glad. I love you.

I saw this on Instagram about losing a loved one: You may not have gotten to spend the rest of your life with them. But they got to spend the rest of their life with you.

4″ x 6″ watercolor, ink, pencil, acrylic on paper

 

 

 

watercolor of poinsettia by emily weil

daily painting | poinsettia

Categories: UncategorizedTags: · · · ·

My darling downstairs neighbor Linda just called (the sweet woman who helped me bury Buster, my guinea pig a few weeks ago).

She said she looked out her window yesterday morning to find her car door wide open. She went out to investigate and discovered a bear had opened the door and then unlatched the front seat console (without damaging it), removing a package of Dum Dum lollipops which it then demolished. The front seat was covered with mud, and there was a telltale paw print the burglar left on the car door. A furry B&E, no question.

Linda and her husband have been coming here every summer and fall for 15+ years and they’ve never seen a bear. The electronic lock on her car sometimes unlocks itself, she says, without her knowing. A flaw in her Honda.

This is the season where bears eat everything in sight before hibernating. I’ve spoken to a number of people who have lived here for years and never seen one, though.

I’m going to clean out my car today and make sure there are no squished, forgotten granola bars hiding in the glove box and that the doors stay locked! It’s making me laugh, as when living in the Bay Area in CA we all kept our cars safely locked for different reasons. Hope bears around here don’t figure out how to steal catalytic converters and trade them for honey.

Yesterday I joined a team of RMNP rangers and other volunteers to help manage 100 sixth graders from local schools on a park field trip. In our group, they were learning about beavers, whose population in the park has dwindled, as the moose and elk eat their food (willows) and drive them out. The park has a program that is restoring a 300+ acre area, putting up fencing to keep out moose and elk, but with openings at the bottom of the fencing for smaller animals, and gates for humans who want to check it out. It’s working — willows are again thriving and two beavers have found their way back to the CO river (also inside the “exclosure”) and are building dams. Excellent news for the ecosystem.

Moose and elk have no natural predators in the park, except for mountain lions, as there are no wolf packs (at least not yet) to keep their populations in check. There were similar problems in Yellowstone years ago until wolves were reintroduced to the park.

It was an exhausting, stimulating day by the river with rangers and kids and volunteers. Warm September sun, migrating hawks hunting the meadows, lunching on peanut butter & jelly sandwiches while sitting on a log by the snowmelt-swollen river (typical fall weather here — a couple of cold nights, maybe with snow on high peaks, then warm days with melted snow filling up creeks and the CO river whose headwaters are in the park). A leaf-shaped butterfly landed on a park ranger’s hand as we ended the day’s programs.

OK better get going to the local spray-and-wash car cleaning place.

[This painting was created to market a holiday watercolor class I’m teaching at a local art school here in November and December]

10″ x 7″ ink, watercolor, acrylic on paper = $95