We are home after more than four months away.....we visited our son and his dear family in Arizona, another son and his dear family in Texas and stayed with my bestest friend in California. It was a special time and the days and weeks just flew by. Now that we are home, I will be busy, busy, busy! The gardens to plant, hanging baskets for the porches and painting the porches, too. I am going to be hanging outside curtains at each end of the front porch for shade and something different and pretty for this outside room.

And, I have a website being designed and will let you know when we launch with sweet give-aways! So, I am busy creating, too, along with my partner!

I always find these trips wonderful to drive, long as they are, as I love watching the country side unfold from Michigan to California. Always, I am struck by how much we are blessed to have in this great country of ours. Beautiful green pastures with grazing cows, wooded rolling hills, magnificent rivers and sweet winding creeks. I love the style of the farm houses and find the olde falling down barns so picturesque. The South West with it's mountains that just hold me spell bound and the pretty high deserts of Arizona and Texas that I find beautiful beyond words.

While in Texas, the weather warmed up and I was able to open the van doors and sit in the middle seats with my watercolors spread out and paint to my hearts content. I called it my studio. (Click On The Pictures To See A Larger Picture )

This one is still taped to my board and not finished....I love painting all the fascinating Rim Rock....

My daughter-in-law, Sharon, thought it was so funny to be painting in the van, but I could turn it to whatever view I wanted and all my painting things were not making a mess inside her pretty home. They live outside of Ft. Davis, Texas and are surrounded by pretty mountain views from every window. I have always loved Texas and lived there for several years. Two of my sons were born in Texas, but Ft. Davis, in the Davis Mountains, is my favorite Texas spot.

Rim Rock

Tippit Ranch...Our sons family ranch....very wild with Bobcats, Turkey's, Javelinas and of course you have to watch carefully for the Rattle Snakes. It is 156 acres of pure unspoiled nature!

I will be writing a little everyday about our trip and the sights...I miss our family dreadfully, but it is nice to be home and we were greeted with pretty pink tulips and pale yellow daffodils blooming and a Robins nest being built on the porch...what could be a better Welcome Home?







Hope you are having a lovely Spring day and....be sure and watch for more on our Winter travels!
Jil