the Each Week, One Beast project: week 26

A chipmunk on some milk caps, for my very own Matt, on our second anniversary.

the Each Week, One Beast project: week 25

Little raccoon, just finished grooming her tail.

A bit of this and that

Here are a few new notecards I'll have at the Brooklyn Renegade Craft Fair this Saturday and Sunday. Should you be in New York, and you're in the mood to find some treasures and brave some crowds, I hope you'll come visit me!

Also, there's a little interview I did right here, for the Arts on the Square Festival, happening for the first time ever on July 27 in Scranton. The organizers for this event are really energetic, and they've got a great lineup of vendors.

Our garden in the paper!

Throughout our years here in Scranton I've made up ridiculous headlines to entertain Matt. They start out "South Side Man..." or "Scranton Woman..." and end in rather unfortunate circumstances. It's FINALLY my turn to get a real headline that starts out just like that! And I am so fortunate that it ends with "applies artistic ability to garden"! Instead of, you know, "is found, bottle in hand, passed out under a rosebush." Thanks to Patrice and Butch for a great article and photos.

Cute things I saw this week

Pretty much since we moved to Scranton nine years ago, Matt has wanted to paddle down the Lackawanna River. Every time he brought this up, I said something like "You want to paddle down the River of Poo? You want to dodge rusty upended shopping carts in our canoe, and discover that the thing you thought was a duck floating up ahead is really just a baby diaper? And then we'll die in an old partly disassembled concrete dam, after having been gored by a jagged fender? But why?"

Then yesterday morning, I was so grumpy that I said yes. Sometimes that happens. Matt researched our route and found there were no Known Obstacles, like dams, and while he couldn't promise there would be no poo, well, you can't deny a man his dreams forever.

We put the canoe on top of the truck, dropped our bicycles off at the spot we would take out of the river, and drove up to the put-in point. We put our life jackets on and paddled off on our adventure. I will just tell you the highlights.

First, while there was that sudsy sewage smell I am not real fond of, the river was actually quite pretty and cleaner that I'd expected. Second, a little chipmunk swam in front of our boat and chugged to the other side as fast as he could, across waves and tiny rapids! He made it! I squealed because I didn't think he ever would, and I was so relieved when he did. And third, we saw merganser ducklings. The tiniest one was the one I wanted, but it didn't want to get in the canoe.

When we got out, we hopped on our bikes and peddled back up to the put-in point, collected our truck, returned for canoe, and headed home. It was so fun I'd do it again.

the Each Week, One Beast project: week 24

Well folks, I've crapped out, as they say. I drew a crabby duckling in a puddle, but I don't like it. It sucks. It's a suckling. It's been a long week, and that's no excuse, but I am just not up to a Beast right now. However - being someone who can wriggle her way out of almost anything, I have come up with an escape plan! It is a link to these delightful sketches my mom made at the petting zoo this week.

Oh, summer...

how lovely you are. Let's not go and rush through this too fast, okay?