Sunday, February 27, 2011

The Foggy View

This isn't a great photograph but it's my effort to capture another one of the moods of the 'view'. It was taken about 3:00 on Sunday afternoon.
The fog rolled in last night making driving home from Kansas City a unique experience. I love that quiet muffled feel of a foggy night. The temperature hovered near freezing and I wasn't sure whether we'd end up with snow or rain. The answer came this afternoon about 3:30 when we got a full fledged thunder storm! We pulled the cars out of the garage to take advantage of the storm and get what Bobby calls a 'country car wash'.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Sniff, sniff

This sweet little fella turned three years old on February 12th. On his first birthday his dad proposed to his mom. We miss his furry little face and can't wait to see him in two weeks!






Sunday, February 13, 2011

Love Is In the Air

Happy Valentines Day!




What's Hanging on the Walls at Lonesome Duck (Part 2)

Hanging in the dining area are two more pictures that are very special to us. They are watercolors painted by my Grandma; Fern Waller.

Old barns were one of her favorite subjects to paint. On the back of this painting there's an evelope containing a note written by my Grandma, it says
"I read in yesterdays paper where in Mo. anyway that old barns will soon be extinct. I want to leave old barn paintings for future posterity. Ha! So intend to do a lot of them. Here's another one for you."
She may have been kind of joking at the time as her 'Ha!' signifies, but thirty-some years after she painted them I'm certainly honored to have them hanging in my home. And especially glad that I have that note as well as other letters she wrote to me when we lived in Los Angeles.

And there's something else that makes this pair of paintings special to us. While Bobby and I were dating, my grandma gave this painting to Bobby's parents after he told her that it reminded him of when he and his parents lived in Wyoming.
It hung in their homes in Lexington and Lawrence. Tonight on the way home from dinner we passed an old barn that must still be in use because there was a light on inside. After seeing that, Josh was telling us that there is an organization in Michigan that is trying to save the old barns that are close to roads in Michigan by buying them and maintaining them. What a great idea!

Sunday, February 6, 2011

What's Hanging on the Walls at Lonesome Duck (Part 1)

A couple of years ago my Aunt Ruth and Uncle Dean relocated from Kansas City to Denver to be closer to their children. A few days before they left my step mom Rosalie and I went to say goodbye to them and enjoyed an afternoon of visiting and reminiscing. Before we left that day they had generously filled our stomachs with barbeque and our trunks with family heirlooms, books, and other items.
A huge thank you to my aunt and uncle for gifting Bobby and I with the etching that you see in the pictures below. My uncle told me that it used to hang in my great grandmother's home but he was unsure of how she came to have it. We absolutely love the historical significance of this print and it fits the style of our new home perfectly!



A close up look at the right hand side of the print.
See the small drawing in the bottom margin of the etching? It's one of my favorite things about this print. It's called a remarque which is a small personalized drawing added by the artist to a print. A little picture within a picture! Cool huh?
If I'm reading the artist's signature correctly, this print is from artist E. L. Field ( Edward Loyal Field 1856-1914). He was a late nineteenth century landscape painter and etcher and from what I can tell by looking at some google images of his other etchings this could certainly be one too.

Thank you Uncle Dean and Aunt Ruth; we are enjoying your gift!