beach birthday

Willapa Bay for my birthday!

Follow the Columbia River west to the Pacific Ocean, along the pathway of the Lewis and Clark trail. Take the Astoria Bridge across the river to the Long Beach peninsula. Drive north and then cross the three miles of its width to Willapa Bay and the small town of Oysterville. 

These directions will take you to one of my favorite spots on earth. Is it any wonder I wanted to spend my birthday there? Some of the locals helped me celebrate! Good thing I brought my own friends!

party animals

Bobby McFerrin "My Favorite Things."

hush little baby

nothing will ever be the same again

this new little life, 

a SON 

around whose brilliance 

his parents 

realign their orbits

Hush, little baby, don't you cry. Bobby McFerrin and Yo-Yo Ma. It doesn't get much better than this.

Bewitched

This morning, as I got ready for my morning meeting of the Portland Plein Air and Studio Painters, I packed a few extra supplies. You can see them in the lower photograph. Drawing board. Box with various papers. Box with drawing implements. Long black haired wig. Witch's hat. I had an idea, a surprise for my group.

I am grateful to all of the good sports in our group. I suggested that we could take turns modeling and drawing one another as witches. All in good Halloween fun. We laughed a lot. I practiced looking wicked, but only managed to look mischievous. Sigh. You can see many of the results in the top photo. Click on the image to see an enlarged view.

Speaking of witches, that reminds me of the iconic Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West from "The Wizard of Oz." Any other fans out there?