Crab Apples

...At least I'm pretty sure they're crab apples.

This is a 10.5"x13.5" watercolor of whatever that tree is near our garage. The fruit is very small--smaller than cherries--and it sticks around long after the leaves have fallen and turns a lovely peachy color. I've found recipes for crab apple jam and the like, but I don't want to pick them because they're so cheerful on the tree and a much-loved pop of color during the winter months. I'm also pretty sure robins eat them when they return in the spring but the ground's still frozen and no worms are about.

The painting took about a week to complete. I painted the crab apples first because let's face it, they're adorable.

The blurry areas in the background were created using the wet-into-wet technique: I wet down each blurry section with water and dropped paint onto the wet surface, letting the colors run together. The branches and fruit in the foreground are a little tighter. To make them I put down some wet-into-wet preliminary colors, and let those sections dry before glazing over the top with deeper colors and details and adding textures with a mostly dry brush.

Here's the painting nearly finished. I still had to work on some of the branches and pump up some of the background areas with a little more color.

I thought about selling this, but it looks so great in our kitchen.

Jeff and I painted it a couple of weekends ago and added some fabulous succulents. The paint color: "barrel," which is apparently a name somebody came up with by flipping and pointing randomly in a dictionary. I think of it as "M*A*S*H," a show I can't watch because I find it visually depressing and ugly. But the paint totally works in our kitchen and dining room, and I am crazy about it. It's only when I look at "barrel" as a color swatch that I start hearing this:

(I couldn't find anything better than a "guy taping his television while somebody says 'Roberta' in the background" version, sorry.)

Things I like about the opening credits:

the truck with the red cross on it moving from right to left
the babes running toward the camera seem pretty badass
that camo-net stuff at around 0:25

Things I don't like about the opening credits:

depressing overhead shot of the tents or whatever they are at 0:12
the ugly M*A*S*H font
the guys running upstairs that just make me tired
TOTAL POOR POSTURE between 0:30 and 0:34--I realize it's necessary but it is unappealing to watch, and Alan Alda seems especially ape-ish
Alan Alda's shirt and hat
the close-up of Alan Alda as seen from the patient's point of view
super ugly Jeep ending
the rest of it

In animal news, our backyard foxes have been especially active last week. Two of them, possibly a male and female, whom we normally see at dusk or before dawn, were playing on the deck and lounging in the leaves in broad daylight. Whenever Jeff and I spot one, we call out "FOX" to alert each other--all work stops--and we start taking pictures. These three are from Jeff.

If they've taken over last year's woodchuck den, as foxes are wont to do, an entrance is under our back porch.

Sorry about the blurriness, but they were chasing each other and they're really fast.

I hope they stay! We've noticed a decrease in the number of mice we see in the house, and it's got to be because of the foxes.

In indoor animal news, I took photos of our cats posing with Julie Klausner's book, I Don't Care About Your Band, which is hilarious. I love Julie's podcast, and last week she asked her listeners to send in photos of their cats with her book. She ended up making a slide show of listener cats, which she played during her recent live show in New York on Thursday. Cat's in the Cradle by Harry Chapin was the soundtrack for the slide show. So please play this while you peruse the following cat photos.