the last few days in may

still have a few more unfinished paintings from everyday in may challenge...will post them when they are done...


I did finish these last nite but was so busy painting did not get a chance to blog them...

did this sketch of a naughty little kindergarten boy when i was watching him for his teacher during home room...i had him sit in the chair by the dr. seuss books which he read both times he came to visit...he was a perfect angel of course...and could read every word of Green Eggs and Ham...his teacher did a great job with him...since hes going to first grade he wont be misbehaving during homeroom anymore



I met a friend for our fav salad at applebees T or W this week...an ad on tv announced that Applebees had brought back their California (Avocado) Shrimp Salad with avocado dressing and cherry tomatoes and olives...BIG chunks of ripe perfect avocado ...so we had to rush over for one...they discontinued it last fall much to our chagrin ...and while i was waiting for my friend Marsha Boasso to show up i drew the bar and the teenaged greeter who was leaning on the desk at the door..bored to death...i added the salad later ....because we couldnt wait to eat ours...however you can get them to go to...ask me how i know!!!

Some of the luxurious poison ivy that we avoided behind the dam..huge ropes of it grew up four trees next to where we parked...and the more we looked the more we saw on our walk to the stream and bridge...trees festooned with it

Margaret and i went plein aire painting yesterday...loads of poison ivy...and what do i come home with ??? a tick!! as we were walking thru the tall grass looking for the water falls i kept thinking that the grass i s like where the dogs got ticks last summer...and what did i find this morning??? a tick!! ICK.... no waterfall off Garrett road so we went 15 miles half way to Edgefield...to Stevens Creek...NO waterfall but did find a nature hike thru the woods...be sure to read to the bottom to find out what happened to the falls...

after that we gave up and behind the Clarks Hill Dam where people fish for HUGE stripers...the record was 18 lb...big enough to over flow the cooler...and oh my are they good to eat...

anyway we finally settled on the bridge over the creek area there...after much tramping and watching for poison ivy...the other Margaret is crazy allergic to it...

The creek empties out on the river bank...lots of rocks in the creek...and a sand spit on the rivers edge with wild flowers...pretty place...happily painting away BUT then the dam's horn blew which meant they were letting out water from the dam right where we were...packed up like crazy and finished our paintings when we got home...not really pleased with this one and going to redo it as soon as i get back from the gym...the little trees in the foreground are too light bluey green somehow...going to repaint a different way next time.....this is the picture i took before the horn blew horizontal shot of the same scene behind clarks hill dam...impressive isnt it to the left of our sand spit...i live about four miles down the river from this dam..thank goodness it is built in a granite bedrock...i am sure some of these stones are from when they blasted for the dam back in the 50s a bee on some bushes near our creek


and finally we stopped on our way home for BBQ at the Falls Cafe not more than five miles up the road from my house....and lo and behold they had a M A P of where the falls were...In fact it was a map put out by SC of all the waterfalls in SC...there are quite a few...but most are up in the mt ...this is the only one near here...we had been doing circles around the falls all morning
...but after that tick i am NOT sure i want to go looking for it till fall!

BUT i am going back to the Falls Cafe for some of those awesome ribs they had...yummmmmmyyyy...why did i get a BBQ sandwhich