Day Dream Painting: "Granny Will Play"

Acrylic on stretched canvas, 18" square, $150. To be sold all together in a collection of eight for $1200. The others were posted earlier. Available for delivery after May 31st after exhibition. Thank you for visiting my blog. Your comments are appreciated very much.

"Granny Will Play" will be used as part of my self published book just for my family and grandchildren. They will remember how we painted and played. It will be my dream to continue playing with paint.
The grandchildren and I painted outdoors. We put tempera paint on our feet and then spread it on paper. The young ones needed to be steadied by an adult because the paint was very slippery. Close by I had a tub of water and plenty of towels to clean us up afterwards. Maybe I learned the most about painting from our play.

Impressionist Painting: "Blue Bird"

Acrylic on cradled Masonite board, 7" x 5" x 7/8", no frame required, SOLD. Thank you for visiting my blog. Your comments are appreciated. To purchase please e-mail me.

Today in our back yard the bluebirds are guarding their bird house chasing sparrows away. In this painting I became more comfortable piling on the paint thicker than I used to. "Blue Bird" was fun to paint. I was not trying to be a nature artist. I was going for feeling not knowing at all what kind of image would emerge. For awhile the paintifng was of a blue bird. The blue bird was covered and then it emerged again. My process is more of a journey setting up one accident after another. Some of these accidents are based on other paintings that I have been doing. Most of the time I obliverate the accidents until I arrive at a satisfying result.

Abstract: "Winter Green"

Acrylic on cradled masonite board, 5" x 7" x 7/8", no frame required, $85. Thank you for visiting my blog. Comments are appreciated. To purchase please e-mail me.

'Winter Green is inspired today by the beautiful sunshine we have here in Oregon.

Expressionist Painting: "Wishing Tree"

Acrylic on cradled masonite, 7" x 5" x 7/8", no frame required, $80. Thank you for visiting my blog. Your comments are very special to me. If you are interested in purchasing please e-mail me.

I am surprised that I painted a picture today because my husband is ill and required a trip to the ER. But it was nice to work a little on this tree inspired by our climbing tree.

Abstract Action Painting: "Flight of Red Bird"

Acrylic on masonite board, 16" X 20", $180 FRAMED. Thank you for visiting my blog. I appreciate comments.

Today I painted with my friend Diane Hoff Rome the workshop instructor for Artists Life Tours. She is fully connectee to her intuitive process. Diane and I and Gordon Dobbie are having an exhibition together in June at the La Selles Convention Center on the Oregon State University Campus. It is always very liberating painting with Diane as she is a wonderful graceful unhurried pastel artist.

Abstract Painting, "Fish Eyes"

Acrylic collage on cradled masonite board, 12" square, no frame required, $120. Thank you for visiting my blog: Your comments are appreciated. I will try to answer in the following stories about the next days' paintings. To purchase please e-mail me.

"Fish Eyes" has interference color and looks different as you move from one to the other side of the painting. I like interference colors when painting my abstracted interpretaions of fish. I also used a net to print net texture. The past few days I have enjoyed using net in my paintings.

Non-objective Abstract: About Red Oxide

Acrylic with collage on cradled Ampersand hardboard, 14" x 11" x 7/8", no frame required, $120. Thank you for visiting my blog, your comments are appreciated and I will try to answer each in my stories about my work. To purchase please e-mail me.

These non-objective abstracts may in part evolve from the series I am doing of our pasture. I would like my work to flow from one piece to the next, one series to the next in a linear fashion because it would be more cohesive. But my development is more complex. These abstracts also come from a collaboration with my mother four years ago during the last period of her life. We used metalic acrylics on Ampersand boards. At that point her participation was more watching than actively painting. I am sure she would be tickled that I am adding layers over what was started at her side.
One of these collaborations is "About Red Oxide." Three days ago I cut into the painting and applied more layers of paint, texturing it with a net. I used rubbing sticks fallen from our trees as well as brushes. Often I put it on the floor to help me feel like a child again. I like to let my child out to play with the paint but that isn't always easy. We all have this child in us but as adults we have learned to supress it. This painting went through difficult stages where my adult judge said there was too much going on and I want it to have a single statement. In this frame of mind I can destroy distractions but my touch of child's whimsy is threatened. Then it is good to leave the painting and work on another for awhile.

Non-objective Abstract: About Light Magenta

Acrylic on cradled Ampersand board, 10" x 8" x 7/8", no frame required, $100. Thank you for visiting my blog and your comments are appreciated. To purchase please e-mail me.

Today between working on storage of my daily painted blocks, I looked at "About Light Magenta" started yesterday at the same time as I was painting "About Red". Today I used a wood block cutting tool to make lines and added magenta mixed with acrylic medium.

Non-objective Abstract: About Red

Acrylic on cradled Ampersand board, 10" x 8"x 7/8", no frame required, $100. Thank you for looking at my blog, comments are welcome. To purchase please e-mail me.

Went for a drive to Newport and Lincoln City, Oregon. Did some sketches of the Yaquina Bridge and boat harbor abstracting the complexity into horizontal and vertical lines. Then a van parked in front of my view and all the fun began. Their window distorted the bridge and boats. Soon I may use these sketches in my non-objective paintings. At home after the drive my painting is unrelated to what I saw. I don't know why.

Non-objective Abstract: Party Time

Acrylic and paper clay on cradled Ampersand board, 11" x 14" x 7/8", $120. Thank you for visiting my blog and your comments are welcome. If interested in purchasing please e-mail me.

From time to time I have been posting abstract paintings but now I am starting a series.

Absract Non-Objective: About Golden Yellow

Acrylic on Ampersand cradled clayboard, 8" x 10" x 7/8", no frame required, $95. Thanks for visiting my blog and if you wish please leave comments. To purchase e-mail me.

The Granny Day Dream Series

Today I hung the series of granny paintings to see what they will look like in the museum. I could paint the text on canvases but the writing would subtract from the totality. Perhaps a book will be placed by the paintings. Or I could start the story with a canvas block of text and end the story with another while leaving the middle pictures to tell the story on their own.

As usual on the day after completing of a series, I have doubts. I feel the story I wrote is too young for all but one of my grandchildren. I could easily reduce the wording to just the first and last page like in the museum presentation. Then I would add a letter about my process.
I showed a group of artists two of the painings that needed more development. The one of company sitting around the dinner table and the other one was the family tree. They felt that I might be surprised because my family will want the books I make because they are mine and it doesn't matter what age level I have written to.

Day Dream Painting, "Granny's Family Tree"

Acrylic on stretched canvas, 18" x 18",This one is not for sale although as of February 2008 the other paintings in this series are available.
"Granny's Family Tree" is about my own children and grandchildren. This is important part of my future. Doing the family history is an on going commitement of mine. I have make story books of it for the grandchildren. This painting is done in memory of my father. My father is near the middle of the groupings because all he wanted was to see a family tree that I made.

Day Dream Painting: "Granny's Correspondence"

Acrylic on stretched canvas museum wrap painted around the edges, 12" square, 1 1/2" deep, $150. Ready for delivery after May 31st. To purchase please e-mail me.

"Granny's Correspondence" is my dream of keeping in touch with my children and grandchildren from places near and far as my husband and I travel. I will use both traditional letters and new tech CD's.
I like this series enough to self publish it as a book for my grandchildren. It is done in memory of my grandfather Emile Widler who said "The last years of life can be the best years." And I am going to make it so.

Day Dream Painting, "Pass the Salt, Please"

Acrylic on stretched canvas, 18" x 18", $175. Available for delivery after May 31st. To purchase please e-mail me.

"Please Pass the Salt" is painted over "Toast to Life" because I didn't relate to the people in yesterday's painting. I wanted more of a feeling of interaction between my guests. I will do another "Toast to Life" painting with the people interacting more with one another. They will be standing and not have a table and arms between them.

Day Dream Painting: "Granny's Good Times"

Acrylic on stretched canvas, 18" x 18", $185. Will be available for delivery after May31st. To purchase please e-mail me.

Today I continue to paint what I want from life and my marriage. As of late my husband and I have been too busy to enjoy meals with friends. I want to continue our entertaining soon and for many years to come. "Granny's Good Times" is my fantasy. I do not recognize these people in the painting. Maybe I am in the foreground and my husband to my left as we age continuing to celebrate my husband's catch of the day by sharing a meal with people we care about. We are making a toast to life and ask that the good times roll.

Day Dream Painting, "Our Memories"

Acrylic on stretched canvas, 12" x 12" x 1 1/2", no frame required, $100. Will be available May 31st for delivery after the exhibition. To Purchase please e-mail me.

"Our Memories" is a painting I did indoors because I am not going to work outside when the temperature is in the teens. I used some photos of some of our pets from the past. We do not own any now but we enjoy the birds in our suet feeder. It is my dream that we will continue as we advance in years to enjoy memories of all the animals we had and enjoyed.

Dream Painting, " My Hubby and Me in the Snow"

Acrylic on stretched canvas with extra deep stretcher bars, 12" x 12" x 1 1/2", no frame required, $200. Will be held until after exhibition May 31. To purchase please e-mail me.

"My Hubby and Me in the Snow" is painted from this snowy day after taking a walk. I did myself from memory and I painted him in the livingroom while he checked his e-mail quickly. This is a painting of hope for our retirement years.

Day Dream Painting: "Granny's Painting"

Acrylic on stretched canvas, 18" x 18", $180. To purchase please e-mail me. Will be available for delivery May 31st after the "Four Women Seven Years Later" exhibition.

"Granny's Painting" is about me painting in rain snow or what ever will come. In the process of painting on this square, I had an "Ah, ha," realization. Seven years ago when I was working on the first Benton County Museum, "Seasons of Life" exhibiation I painted to inspire my mother. I painted on square canvases portraits of her bravery and of her painting. And then she did pick up the brush painting collaboratively which added to the quality of her life through the decline of dementia. Now I am the matriarch of the family and I am making dream paintings for myself on square canvases. The square to me symbolizes a patch on the quilt of life.

Ceramic tile of Wind Dancer

Day Dream Painting: "Granny's Tree Planting"

Acrylic on masonite board supported in back by wood framing making a box, 12" x 12" x 7/8", ready to hang, $200. Available for sale but will be retained by artist until May 31st. To purchase please e-mail artist.

"Granny's Tree Planting" went through a long process of transitions today. First I painted a sunset sky upon which I put myself planting a tree. In the sky I did look like a ghostly dream. The horizon kept climbing, though, farther and farther up into the sunset. My face kept reminding me of my grandchildren or my grandmother Agnes who was happiest gardening. Then the dream became more real. I am going to plant a tree to help make up for the downed trees this winter. I wonder what kind of tree would be sturdy, stand straight and grow in wet, windy, winters as well as provide me some beauty.

Day Dream Painting: "Granny's Wind Dance"

Acrylic on stretched cotton canvas, 18" x 18", no stapples on the sides, For sale$800.

"Granny's Wind Dance" began this morning when I saw a touch of blue behind the clouds and low whispy darker clouds moving swiftly. Then I thought I would just do sky, but after chatting with my friend "Rain", I decided to do as she suggested and make a picture of myself against the sky. My first impulse was to do myself dancing. I'll be doing some more larger paintings from time to time.

For more spiritual paintings click here. http://umbrellapaintingjournal.blogspot.com/2005/11/shared-treasure.html#links

Poetic Painting: "Second Day: Wind Dance"

Acrylic on cradled masonite board, 8" x 6" x 7/8", no frame required, $95. To purchase please e-mail me.

"Second Day: Wind Dance" is an over paint of yesterday's painting. I painted over some of the intriguing lines I made with the rubber tipped shapper which is a dental tool to stimulate the gums. The quality of the lines distracted from the way the trees evolved. Although the lines were beautiful I care more about the posture of the trees and want to highlight them. I'll be able to repeat intriguing lines when they are the subject of the painting.

Dream Painting, "Self-Portrait Wearing Pearls"

Acrylic on cradled masonite board, 7"x 5" x 7/8", $95. To purchase please e-mail me.

I dreamt a pleasant dream. I wore many strands of pearls symbolizing the state of my painting journey where there is diversity or rocks I cover them with luminous paint. This is a relatively passive dream of just wearing pearls of wisdom. The dream I had a few nights ago was an action dream. I was welding my painting together even though I was frustrated with the luminosity I was getting out of my acrylic paints. Today I experimented with using another tool but tomorrow I can get more luminosity than I did on "Wind Dance".

Poetic Painting: "Wind Dance"

Acrylic on cradled masonite board, 8"x 6" x 1", no frame required, $100. To purchase please e-mail me.

"Wind Dance," is poetic expression painted after taking a quick look outdoors and then allowed myself to wonder from a photographic representation. I wanted to bring to it linear movement like one I did a few months ago. I am not looking for techniques in general but scratching with the handle of my brushes is not as wonderfully fluid as using my dental tool. The tool was given to me by my dentist and can be purchased at drug stores everywhere. It is a metal handle with a soft rubber end pointed to clean the hard to get to gum line.

Expressionist Landscape: "Fir Trees, Wet and Shining"

Acrylic on cradled masonite board, 7" x5" x 7/8", no frame required, $95. To purchase please e-mail me.

The "Fir Trees, Wet and Shining," has ultramarine blue mixed with matte medium to make a transparent blue in the sky. The use of matte medium takes away some of the pleasures of painting all at once because it is hard to know what the value of darkness will be in the colors mixed with medium - the medium looks milky until it dries. I continue to enjoy the painting on a lavendar ground because the retreating character of lavendar is suitable for this time of year when the bright hues are there but hardly noticeable. This was the second day I used the dental, rubber tipped stimulator but it was not as useful as a small pointed brush to make little points of light. I like the shapper when the paint is thicker.

Expressionist Landscape:"Climbing Tree: New Beginning"

Acrylic on cradled masonite board, 7" x 5" x 7/8", $125. To purchase please e-mail me.

Today fighting a head cold and rain, I skipped painiting outdoors. Instead I went for a couple of walks around our property. With a charcoal pencil I sketched on my masonite board. Then I painted indoors. Previously I had been painting directly outdoors without a sketch so this is one of my new departures. The sketch was very general and I did not keep with it preferring to go with the flow of my energy in defining the tree. The other departure was to use my dental gum stimulator as a paint shapper. The shapper is a promising new way to take advantage of underlying color to achieve the luminosity I desire.

Dream Painting: Epiphany of New Beginnings

Acrylic on cradled masonite board, 7" x 5" x 7/8", no frame required, $100. To purchase please e-mail me.

I had a dream of power and creativity in answer to my feelings of frustration with not getting my whites to be as luminating as I would like. I want more of my inner meaning in my work. I took satisfying strong action. I switched tools from a brush to a welder to make my acrylics as bright and as luminous as watercolors. A welded painting works in dreams. My welding became brighter and brighter and then suddenly went pitch black. I heard my husband ask if we blew out a fuse as I woke up. This dream is an epiphany to me. I'll be using some new tools and materials in my series of fir trees and sky to shed light on the essence of my feelings. Most importantly I want to really put myself into these paintings.
Was it Heinrich Heine who said, " The closest we can get to Godliness is creating."?

Expressionist Landscape: "Before Sprinkles: Fir Trees"

Acrylic on cradled masonite board, 7" x 5" x 7/8", no frame required, $95. To purchase please e-mail me.

"Before Sprinkles: Fir Trees" was painted over a lavendar tinted ground. The color intensity was punched up to maximize the expression of my feelings. I felt the ozone and the excitement before a rain.

Expressionist Landscape: "Still Mist; Fir Trees"

Acrylic on cradled masonite, 7" x 5"x 7/8", no frame required, $95. To purchase please e-mail.

There was a stillness in the mist this morning. I have always liked the fog even when I was a child living in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Expressionist Landscape: "First Light; Fir Trees"

Acrylic on cradled masonite board, 7" x 5", no frame required, $125. To purchase please e-mail me.

"First Light; Fir Trees" was painted before my husband made me pancakes for breakfast, just as the first light in the east was lighting up the frosty morning. When I went outside in the cold the song birds were perched on our apple trees and singing to me. I could also here the neighbors chickens and of course a dog barking as well. A fine day to think of new beginnings in the new year!

Expressionist Landscape: "December Sunset"

Acrylic on cradled masonite board, 7" x 5" x 7/8", no frame required, $95. To purchase please e-mail me.

This morning I painted "December Sunset" mostly outdoors in front of the trees. The painting became farther away from what I saw last night as I worked. I remembered the redness of the sky. I remembered the wind moving the clouds. Then I intuitively responded to what the painting said it needed. At first there were blues in the top fifth of the painting and I thought that it took away from the drama. So the sky became even warmer and I was surprised to compare the painting to the photographs that I took last night. This is a painting more about what I was feeling today than the sunset last night.

Lanscape Painting: " Winter Fir Trees"

Acrylic on cradled masonite board, no frame required, 7" x 5" x 7/8", $95. To purchase please e-mail me.

Today the sun did not break through the fog until noon. " Winter Fir Trees" just painted itself. I liked it too much to continue to make further abstractions. The colors were so wintery with the frost but no snow. Yesterday I saw a few flakes being blown about in the air never to find a landing.

Abstract Landscape: "Hidden Players"

Acrylic on cradled masonite board, 12" square 7/8" deep, no frame required, $145. To purchase please e-mail me.

In January I am looking forward to painting more outdoors. I will continue to work intuitively not knowing what the result will be when I begin each work. But I expect to be painting the same clouds, trees, and bird houses in more abstracted forms to pursue expressing my feelings. "Hidden Players" is a preview of what I expect to come.

Landscape: "Purple Bird House"

Acrylic on cradled masonite board, 7" x 5" x 7/8", no frame required, $95. To purchase please e-mail me.

"Purple Bird House" is one of many bird houses my husband made and placed along our fence. We used to call it the purple cow because of a spot painted on one side. Now the spot is weathered and pealing and moss is growing on the roof.
These one a day paintings are teaching me lessons. I am more aware. I am enjoying every change in the weather as seen from our pasture. Every day we still own the pasture is a gift. It is still our pasture but may soon be sold. I am also more aware of my own work habits and am thinking I need time limits. If I have all day I paint all day with diminishing satisfaction. These quick paintings were intended to be warm ups for larger paintings. Next year, in a few days, I will finish working on my paintings for a group of four artists at the Benton County Museum in April. Plus prepare for a June exhibition at a convention center on the Oregon State University Campus. So my new challenge will be doing both small paintings at the same time as larger exhibition work.

Figurative Painting: "Out in Oregon Rain"

Acrylic on masonite cradled board, 7" x 5" x 7/8", frame not required, $95. To purchase please e-mail me.


"Out in Oregon Rain", was painted after a morning walk along the road in back of our pasture. The heavy rain looked like a string veil against the bowing trees. The deer were feeding as usual. Today I painting indoors. This was the heaviest rain of the season.

Expressionist Abstract Landscape:" Misty Pasture"

Acrylic on a masonite, cradled board, no frame required, 7" x 5" x 7/8", $95. To purchase please e-mail me.


"Misty Pasture" was painted a few days ago after a day of rain. I am enjoying painting with cooled acrylics and mixing color on the painting itself.
Thank you for visiting my blog. I appreciate the interest and support. Happy New Year.

Expressionist, Abstract Landscape: "Doughnut Hole Cloud"

Acrylic on masonite board box, 8" x 6"x 7/8", frame not required, for sale $100. To purchase please e-mail me.
"Doughnut Hole Cloud" was started yesterday afternoon outdoors and was fairly realistic. After working on it this morning and some this afternoon my energy went into abstracting. I wanted to express the essence of my excitement. I love the movements of clouds and tree.

Abstract Painting, "In Tune"

Mixed media with acrylic, oil bar, and oil paints, on an Ampersand board box, 14" x 11" x 7/8", no frame required, $150. To purchase please e-mail me.
Some bright color feels good when there are so few hours of light. Must run now because the clouds are getting interesting for tomorrow's painting.

Expressionist Painting, "Two Fir Trees"

Acrylic on masonite board box, 8" x 6" x 7/8", no frame required, $100. To purchase please e-mail me.After trying to paint over to improve yesterday's paintings, I went out to the pasture. I saw deer and a wintering over pairs of blue birds and some doves. These birds are new to this region - usually just here during the summer. I painted in beautiful relatively warm sunshine. Things went considerably better than what I was doing indoors all day yesterday when I tried to paint a memory of the early sunrise before the ice storm. Over and over I painted. I do not feel the failure of these paintings because I learned much about layering and scraping acrylics. So today what a delight it was to paint this one that pleased me from the start.

Abstract Painting, "December Boggie Woggie"

Mixed media, the acrylics include metalics and interference colors plus oil paints, on a masonite wood box, frame not frequired, 7" x 5" x 7/8", $125. To purchase e-mail me. This painting was started in 2002 and just now going through some of my old small paintings I had the inspiration that the colors and lines could suggest my path in preparing for the holidays. I just lean one way until I almost fall then I change directions in the nick of time to get all the food and gifts ready.

Abstract Painting #4, "Frost on Wish Bone"

Acrylic on masonite board box, 7" x 5" x 7/8", no frame necessary, ready to hang, $90. To purchase please e-mail me. "Wish Bone Tree" is one of three started yesterday after going for a walk around our pasture. In the freezing weather outdoors I cooled my paints and board before painting indoors. I believe that the cold paint reduced the paint fumes that give me headaches. In these paintings I want the abstract quality of frosty textures to be seen before the tree subject.

Abstract Painting #4, Intertwined Winter Frosted

Acrylic on a masonite board box, ready to hang, no frame necessary, 7" x 5" x 7/8", $285. Today I tried a new direction in my work. While cooling my paints and board in the freezing Oregon weather, I took a walk in our pasture and observed the trees. Then I painted indoors with the cold paints. I did not get the same feeling of oil paint viscosity like I did outdoors yesterday. Nevertheless I was happy in my work. It is rewarding to be able to rely on memory of painting this month outdoors to abstract my essence of birch trees.

Abstract Painting #4, "Twenty Degrees"

Acrylic on 16" x 12" Ampersand board, $175. To purchase please e-mail me.
"Twenty Degrees" was painted outdoors this morning while enjoying the effects of the cold on the acrylic paint. The viscosity became like oil paint. When I felt my freezing fingers, I thought about trying to stay warm and achieving the same effect. I could cool down my board and paints in the freezer. But then I wouldn't have the excitement of the adventure working on my painting?

Figurative Painting: "Storm Clean Up"

Acrylic painting on wood panel box, ready to hang, no frame necessary, 7" x 5" x 7/8", $95. To purchase please e-mail me. "Storm Clean Up" is painted after the hurricane force storm that hit the Northwest. A couple of our neighbors lost half a dozen trees mostly along their fence. When the tree cutting was going on I was photographing and helping a little. This was started the morning after, outside looking at the landscape plus a photograph I took yesterday was by my side.

Dream Painting, "Self-Portrait Wearing Pearls"

"Self-Portrait Wearing Pearls" is acrylic on a wood panel box, ready to hang, no frame necessary, 7"x 5" x 7/8", $125. To purchase e-mail me. Last night I dreamt I was wise wearing strands upon strands of pearls. I was surrounded by a luminous sea shell sky. this dream came from days at marveling how much the sky colors were like delicate sea shells. It was a happy dream where I was fulfilled after unremembered episodes of frustration. I think the pearls were my paintings that I symbolically created around plain rocks. Each was a significant pearl of wisdom.

Expressionist Painting, "Walking Dog"

"Walking Dog," is acrylic on a wood panel box, ready to hang, no frame necessary, 7" x 5"x 7/8", $95. To purchase, e-mail me. Today there are puddles everywhere. The drainage ditch that I dug around the pump house keeps the water level just below flooding the cement floor. The pump house, originally dug by the homesteader for watering his livestock, I now use it for shelter. I do not have a painting umbrella as such, I paint outside until the painting is wet enough for juicy painting then seek shelter under a tree or in the pump house. This painting is inspired by a daily dog walker. When the neighbor walks by with her dog every morning, I want to paint her determination. "Walking Dog" is the beginning of a series with people and our pasture on high ground giving an Olympian view of the surrounding landscape.

Expressionist Painting, "Clouds Come Dancing"

"Clouds Come Dancing" is acrylic on stretched canvas, 7" x 5", $95, to purchase please e-mail me. Since I started this one at 8:30 AM, the cold front has blown in and the sky now is a flat gray. I kept painting the dramatic clouds from memory because they moved on so quickly. Another artist friend noticed that I like this wave shape and frequently repeat it in my work. Could this symbolize a wave in my own life? The wave of receiving inspiration from right where I live or could it be the wave of passing of time?

Expressionist Painting, "Blue Bird House"

"Blue Bird House" is acrylic on wood panel box, ready to hang, no frame necessary, 7" x 5" x 7/8", $125. It has been a number of years since we put up this house among others distributed around our field. Time to renevate these houses that have brought us the joy of watching blue birds in season. We haven't seen them for months until four blue birds passed by our place a few days ago. They took a dip in our bird bath before flying away until springtime.