Weekend update

Monty has been rudely woken from his nap

Hisses were exchanged during this face-off

Belinda loves the card presented by the children

Charles' current printing project

A wonderful weekend was ours in the Bitterroot Valley! Beautiful weather, restful times, engaging church activities, yup, we did it all this weekend!

A busy week

Spring is just around the corner

Wednesday evening @ the church

crochet class on Friday

 We're having another busy week but we're enjoying the beautiful late winter weather all the same!

A reminder of the journey

Charles' art history professor, Rafael Chacón, gave an informative talk last night on the two joruneys Dr. Chacón had made on the Camino de Santiago. Charles has been interested in this pilgrimage route since reading about it in "Walk in a Relaxed Manner" by Sr. Joyce Rupp.

This week in class

Professor Beth Lo leading the discussion

The inspiration

The style of Zhang Xiaogang

The result

Charles had a busy week, on Tuesday, at UM! An assignment in Screen Printing II, a drawing due in Drawing: figure, and a quiz in Spanish Art History!

The drawing assignment was to present a work in the style of a contemporary artist. Charles worked on his in the style of Zhang Xiaogang, a Chinese artist, using a picture of Belinda and he from the Valentine's dinner as inspiration.

Back yard guests and more

"BB" makes a return to the back deck

More backyard guests

Charles' first print of the semester (right side)

Buttons from Joan & Jen

"Patch" has a romp in the Friday afternoon sun

What a week it's been! This has been one of those "whitewater" weeks with something happening, drama-wise, every day between church, Belinda's work, and Charles' school!

On the plus side of the ledger though are some great moments that bring joy to our lives.

Two of the neighborhood cats that pay regular visits to our back deck, have made it through the winter and seem to be trusting us a bit more each day. We also had the first deer (that we've seen) in the backyard on Thursday. We've seen them in the front yard before (usually at night), but never in the back and in broad daylight to boot!

Charles got good reviews on his first printing project of the semester from the class. While not a strong visual product, Charles always gets good marks for taking chances with methods.

A real treat for Charles this week was the arrival of thirty-three buttons from his friends, Joan and Jen (in Dallas). His collection has finally cracked the 7,500 level (7,517)!!

Sunday night at home

Wesley (at Belinda's feet) and Monty (in her arms)

One relaxed cat

Wesley and Monty had dental appointments on Friday and spent much of the remaining weekend resting from that experience. 

Sunday evening saw a rare occurrence - both cats in the same lap! Of course Wesley was asleep at Belinda's feet when Monty jumped up onto the arm of Belinda's chair. She quickly cuddled him before he or Wesley realized the other was that close!

Valentines Dinner @ Stevi UMC

Friday sunset in Stevensville

We had a lot of fun at the Third Annual Valentines Dinner @ the Stevi UMC on Friday!

Tea Towel Frenzy

We're not sure why, but in the past few days Wesley and Monty have taken it upon themselves to help rid the drawers where we keep our tea towels from the burden of too many tea towels!  It was an amazing thing to watch Wesley calmly approach the bottom drawer and casually pull it open and climb in!

For the record, all of the towels have been washed and placed in a secure location!

Another project done

Kourtney works in the shadows

The finished effort last night

Class critique this morning

Charles' drawing class had an assignment to utilize "the Light Shaft" (an unusual art venue in the Art Building) and Charles and his partner, Kourtney, volunteered to be first and came up with a creative approach.

The final idea came about when the lamps cast an interesting shadow of the skeleton "model." Tracing the shadows on the wall and adding some shading gave a most interesting final product.

The class critique this morning was very favorable. And since Charles and Kourtney went first, the rest of the semester will be much easier!!

Super Bowl Sunday

After a busy Sunday we settled down for that most American of civic events: Super Bowl 50. Well, some of us did! While Belinda, Sheila, and Monty watched the Broncos vs. Panthers, Charles and Wesley watched two football (soccer) matches from Germany!

The Fire-breathing Zeguin

First layer

Work station

Second layer

The Fire-breathing Zeguin

Charles spent some time in the studio today in the Art Building working on a project for the screen printing class. The assignment is to create a hybrid creature. Charles' design is a Fire-breathing Zeguin (a combination of a Zebra, a penguin, and a dragon)!

This week on campus

Charles is enjoying his classes at the University of Montana, wrapping up the second week yesterday! Before leaving campus on Thursday he took in an opening of a new exhibit which featured the works of a recent UM grad. Charles really enjoys being around such creative people!

It's still winter

Monument for U. Montana military deaths

With the snow making a steady retreat in the Bitterroot Valley, we have reminders from time to time that winter isn't finished yet.  On Groundhog Day there was a steady snow falling during the morning!

The turkeys are back

Strutting their stuff this morning

Morning coffee rafter

Up the tree

After being scarce the past week or so, the neighborhood turkeys showed en masse today. Charles saw between 40-50 on College Street this morning. In the afternoon he saw about fifteen in the large pine trees in front of the church.