Finally finished the landscape I wanted to do. It's not my best work but I wanted to paint one, I did it and now I can move on! This is a painting of a place called The Breaks Interstate Park in Pike County, Ky. Actually some of it lies in VA as well. It's just the most beautiful place. My husband proposed to me there because he knows how much I love it. I even have a picture of my mother as a child standing right in that same spot up against the wood fence. I think we did all our church picnics there when I was a child. I actually stole a big wooden sign from there once that read, 'Please do not molest trees, shrubs and flowers'. Who wouldn't have stolen that?

Not long ago I found this wonderful childrens book called, "When I was Young in the Mountains" and I bought it for my kids. It talks about swimming in muddy swimming holes, chasing black snakes with a hoe, eating soup beans and cornbread, a young girl watching her grandfather come home every night from the coal mines black as tar......all the things I remember and try to explain to my girls and they just can't get it. To find a book that illustrates it all was so cool and helpful. It helps them to understand a little bit about my childhood. Here are a few pix of the mountaintop in KY. It's just beautiful.

It's funny the particular things you remember about the place you were raised. I used to lay on the riverbank and pretend I was at the beach. All that seems like a million years ago. Growing up in the mountains is unbeatable. If nothing else, it definitely taught me not to be afraid of snakes.....they are everywhere in KY!!

Goodbye for now!