January happenings

Well, this has been a very interesting few weeks. First, we had 24 inches of snow at Christmas. This may not seem like much to you in the "frozen North", but to us here, near Seattle, it was a tremendous amount. The roads were blocked, and no one had enough snow plows etc. It did make for a quiet Christmas, as travel was so difficult. New Years was not better, as we then had a lot of rain, even by our Northwest standards, and the rain was in the mountains, also, so the large and unstable snowpack started to melt. All of that water had to go somewhere, and it certainly did, down the rivers and valleys in the state. We live at the edge of a large and beautiful valley which became completely full of water. I have a few pictures to show you. This was one of the worst floods that this area has ever had.
I have been painting, and got all of my Christmas paintings for my children "almost" done--done enough that I could bring them out and show them. I have a few things like framing to do yet. Our grandchildren were supposed to be here for the week after Christmas from Connecticut, but the plane flights were cancelled because of the weather. BUMMER.

Now for painting news:I am presently working on a large triptych of autumn leaves. I have also placed photos of some of my paintings on Yessy.com, a painting web site that I hope will sell some of my paintings. I also intend to place paintings on Imagekind, which makes reproductions of paintings for sale. I had to get a new camera that takes 8 pixel pictures for this website, so we got a new camera for us for Christmas. I am also teaching watercolor every Tuesday afternoon. I have 4 pupils at all different skill levels, so makes it pretty interesting for me. I plan to increase my teaching time this spring.

I alsoplan to renew my interest in painting with pastels and oil. So, I have a full schedule for spring. Allene