Diane Wood Artist

October 5, 2009

Dear Friends and Relatives,

We took what I called “our family vacation” in mid-July to Ouray, CO.  We found a motel that would accept animals.  In fact there were many dogs with owners at our motel.  We even ate at a restaurant on their outdoor patio with the dogs.  The waitress brought a special bowl of water for them.

Ouray is an historic town nestled into the Rockies.  It has been dubbed “Little Switzerland”.  One of the places we absolutely love is Yankee Boy Basin, which is just outside the city.  You need a 4 wheel drive vehicle to really drive to the higher roads.  We could not travel all around as we only had our Toyota Highlander.  We did manage to travel up the mountainside quite a distance and left the vehicle and hiked up a distance for viewing and enjoying the mountain air.

Guinness was bothered by the flies and did not really appreciate them buzzing him.  In fact, I believe, he has become paranoid about winged creatures as he was probably stung by one.  It has gotten to the point that at supper time for the dogs we need to stand by him to protect his “little square ass” from potential flying creatures.  Oh the things we do for our animals.

While on this family outing, we travelled to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.  It is spectacular.  Not as awesome as the Grand Canyon, but nevertheless very impressive.  We took a rugged dirt road to view the water source and dam.  Lovely country!

The National Show of the Pastel Society of Colorado took place from early August thru September 27.  The Dianes were very active in this show:  Diane Fechenbach, Diane Wood, Diane Edwards and Diana Wade.  It was a very impressive show even though I did not have any artwork juried into the show.  The judge, Susan Ogilvie also gave two workshops.  I helped arrange the sites for the plein aire sessions and Susan and I became friends.  I asked her to critique one of my paintings that I had entered into the show.  She appraised it and said “poppies are handled very well, good handling of the broken down fence; everything was done well except the sky was too blue”.  The painting was of poppies at Crested Butte.  Up at that 11,000+ altitude the sky is very blue.  Susan lives in Washington State where they have many grey skies.  I tell you this story because an artist must get used to acceptance and rejection.  It is all up to the judge/juror.

We have had a problem with mail delivery.  Finally, after speaking to a supervisor at the Longmont U.S. Post Office, he advised that there was also an address for St. Vrain Ranch Blvd.  Both this address and our address are numbered 6914.  We were not received all of our bills, especially the MasterCard, which was not acceptable.  I called Mastercard several times complaining about not received their statement to us and find that it was a screw up with the post office.  The supervisor said he would speak to both carriers to correct the error.

We had Longmont Studio Tour the weekend of September 19 and 20.  It was well attended.  We had four artists at our location and some really great art, however sales were down substantially.  We had at least 183 people stop by.  It is always a fun event, but very tiring.

The potted plants that were placed outside for the warm weather were brought in by myself, Ken and Eliazar and his son.  A couple of weeks after that we had our first frost.  They were brought in just in time.

At the end of August Ken decided to mountain bike at Rabbit Mountain.  He has biked there dozens and dozens of times.  This time thru some oversights on what was happening, he went end over end bike and all and crashed on some very pointy rocks.  He got up, rode home, and had to put ice on his knee.  His left knee was hurt the worst.  The right knee was slightly damaged; his shoulder, hip and wrist were also bruised.  I proposed that he should see a doctor.  He said nothing is broken as I can still walk.  He did walk but with great difficulty and the knee swelled dramatically.  A few days later I suggested he see a doctor as he was still suffering from his injuries.  After contacting our GP’s office and having a nurse get on the line, Ken told her of his injuries.  She strongly suggested he go to a   clinic to be evaluated.  He had an xray and it showed his left knee cap fractured vertically from top to bottom.  The orthopedic doctor told him to do a little exercise, avoid real pain, and not let it atrophy .  Thank goodness he was able to do a few things.  It would have been impossible for him to carry on without being able to do a little exercise.  Fortunately Ken listened to his body and did not overdo.   It has now been 5 weeks since the injury and he is doing very well.  He returns to see his doctor in a couple of weeks.  A full recovery is anticipated.

I received a phone call from a past president of the Pastel Society of Colorado who asked if I would agree to become co-President of the society.  I asked a few questions and asked if I would think about it.  Ken and I discussed this and thought it a very complimentary proposal to my ability.  I asked if there were any night meetings, as I do not want to travel to Denver at night.  There are only day meetings so I accepted.  The length of service in this capacity would be only two years.  The By Laws clearly state you cannot be president for more than two years.  I agreed.

Last Friday I was at the kitchen sink and looked out the window as our dogs were barking very excitedly.  There was an adult black bear lumbering through our yard.  I called out to Ken that there is a bear in our yard and the dogs are outside.  I grabbed my camera, Ken grabbed a shovel and ran outside to protect the dogs if necessary, but the bear was long gone.  He probably dropped down into the James ditch to have some cover.  I called our two neighbors to advise them.

Later I went out to hopefully pick up some plums from our fruit trees.  It was totally clean of any plums including many that had fallen from the tree.  Just a couple of days prior to my looking, we had some high winds and the plums that were located high in the trees were knocked down.  Well, the bear certainly enjoyed some sweet plums.   It is noted that they have the ability to smell food from 5 miles away and eat up to 40,000 calories a day.  That means that beyond Hwy 36, in the foothills, this bear may have smelled our ripe plums.  I’m happy he/she has some calories to winter over.

This same day, Ken left for Farmington, New Mexico to observe his friends from Spidertrax compete at a major national rock crawling event.  He left home about 9:30 am.  He called me about 2 pm as his high performance Subaru developed serious engine problems on a country road and enveloped him in a cloud of smoke.  I gave him several towing service numbers for the Alamosa area.  Ken was out there in  with absolutely nothing around.  It was a wonderful experience in that he met some extremely helpful people who went out of their way to bring him to a garage, then to a U-Haul truck and trailer rental.  It was a Friday afternoon and these working people saved a fellow (Ken) in distress.  Ken arrived home about midnight with the big truck and his car on a trailer.  Monday he must find the proper repair shop.

In between all of these, our friends, Nancy and Chuck Hevenor were staying with us with the purpose of buying a home nearby.  They had success with purchasing a lovely, lovely home in Lyons, about 15 minutes from our location.  They left this morning with bags packed to visit the realtor to sign the final contract.  They were very happy for their achievement and now look forward to the big job of packing,  and moving out here.  By the way, they have sold their home on Mason’s Island in Connecticut.  Big things happening and they will be out in Colorado where both their sons are happily located.

It has been busy and eventful, but interesting and not dull.  I have a couple of art shows coming up and will be giving a talk and slide show on our May 2009 trip to Berlin at the Longmont Senior Center.  This is coming up October 19.  On the 20^th of October I begin teaching a six week pastel workshop.  Never a dull moment!

Hope you are doing well and enjoying the fall weather.

Love,

Diane and Ken