I spent most of this week catching up with my life and painting the watercolor above which I need to re-photograph because the ripples in the paper show. It is of the annual Blackthorn Memorial Ceremony in St. Petersburg. The USCG Cutter Blackthorn (a buoy tender)was leaving Tampa Bay shipyards on Jan 28, 1980 when it collided with an in-bound cargo vessel. The cutter sank so quickly that 23 crew members died- less than two miles off shore! This constituted the greatest peacetime loss of life in Coast Guard history. Shown are two members of the USCG Color Guard and two members of the USCG Pipe Band flanking the memorial.

Yesterday I attended an exhibit. My piece, the one of the woman holding the baby was in the show. It is an oil painting. I saw a lot of watercolors and am green with envy at some people's amazing watercolor skills. My use of watercolor looks like mud by comparison. Theirs are so clean and crisp. I wish you had seen them! I do not have good technique with watercolor. I paint with them much like with acrylics, but I keep trying!

I have not been able to keep up with your posts and hope to catch up today. I read a few earlier. Randy was bitten by a dog (Oh, my!) and Jeri wrote a most beautiful post about watching the sun rise. I could almost picture her from her lovely description of the morning light. Strange, how you become people I feel like I 'know' and I miss you when I am unable to keep up with your posts!