Peggy's Jibber-Jabber: Two!

Two!

That’s how many eagles I saw sitting in a tree.

“There’s two eagles!” I exclaimed excitedly to my handsome mountain man as he zoomed along at sixty miles an hour.

I didn’t have my camera up and ready so I missed the shot altogether.

“You have to turn around! It’s a special picture because they were sitting side-by-side! Pleasepleaseplease?” I implored with no breath between the pleases.

Mike frowned but he turned around. He slowed as we came to the spot and I took as many shots as I could. They were pretty far away and this is the best one.

I cropped it and sharpened the image.

And that, my loves, is the most exciting thing to happen to me this week!

My beautiful, feisty, red-headed neighbor saw two eagles, too — but not at the same time. Whether it was the same eagle twice or two different eagles, we’ll never know. Once it was sitting on the dead tree that extends over the creek and Miss Rosie saw it from her dining room window. The second time he was flying down the creek. It’s really cool that we have an eagle living and hunting in our area.

Seeing two eagles in the same week isn’t the only thing Miss Rosie and I have in common. I guess we were on the same wavelength in another aspect, too.

“Why do you say that?” you wanna know.

The short and simple answer is cardinals.

Miss Rosie and I exchanged Christmas gifts. She gave me a whole bagful of wonderful gifts and a plate load of homemade Christmas goodies to boot. It was surely a five-pounder! Not what the treats weighed, but how much more I’m going to weigh after eating them all! They’re so yummy. She even included an extra big bag of homemade peanut butter fudge. She knows it’s my favorite.

The Christmas card she gave me had cardinals on the front.

And my gift to her was also cardinals.

“Do you recognize the piece of wood I painted it on?” I asked her.

“No.”

“It’s your old picnic basket. I assume it was your mother’s too, since her name is written on the underside.”

“Yes it was,” Miss Rosie said, flipping it over. The writing is faint so I pointed it out to her. She flipped it back over and as she gazed at it (and maybe her mind flooded with all the memories that picnic basket held), her eyes welled up.

“Thank you,” she said.

While I was there, Lamar showed me the quilt his sister had made him from handkerchiefs. It was his birthday gift but wasn’t done by his birthday. Isn’t it just gorgeous and fun!?

Miss Rosie is absolutely the queen of cards. Whether it’s a birthday, holiday, get well, or thank you card, she’s prompt in getting them written and sent out.

Mine arrived in the mail this week. I read and re-read her sweet words.

Thanks for making my eyes tear up and my heart fill up with joy and gratitude. The painting would have been treasured on any format, but you — dear and special you — have made it so much more by putting it on the lid of my mother’s picnic basket. It touched me deeply and is so special to me. Thank you.

Gosh, golly, gee-whiz! Here I thought I was the only one who thought I was special!

Speaking of my paintings...

Mike’s cousin Dennis gave his son the framed painting of Charli for Christmas.

“They love the picture!!!!” Dennis gave it four exclamation points.

I finished the portrait I was working on. I did deepen the shadows but I could maybe deepen them even more. Remember I said I wasn’t looking for photorealistic, just recognizable?

I took it to church with me on Sunday.

“Don’t say anything,” I warned Mike.

“Like what?”

“Like, ‘Do you recognize him?’ or anything like that. I don’t want Pastor to have any clue that it’s someone he should know. I want to see if he recognizes him.”

“Wanna see what I painted this week?” I asked Pastor Jay.

“Sure.”

I stood in front of him and flipped up the cover of the block of watercolor paper.

A grin spread across his face. “Wow.”

“Do you know who it is?” I asked.

“Yeah. It’s my dad.”

And that’s who it is.

“He’s here this week if you want to show it to him,” Pastor said.

That was an unexpected and pleasant surprise.

I did show it to Pastor’s parents and they both knew who it was. In fact, everyone knew who it was; even the kids knew!

Mission accomplished!

“What are you working on now?” you ask.

I’m working on a commissioned piece, but I can’t show it to you yet.

“Why?” you ask.

Well, I’m not sure it’s done, for one thing. For another, because I haven’t shown it to the buyer yet. I’ll show it to you when I can give you an end to the story and let’s leave it at that. Just know that I’m working on something and I have at least two more projects rattling around in my head that I want to try.

“What projects?” you ask.

You’ll have to wait and see.

I only have two more photos to show you this week. This handsome guy, waiting and watching for his people to come out of Walmart.

And Raini and I went out and took a sunrise picture for you. She doesn’t know what all the fuss is about but when she sees me get my camera, she takes off for the door!

I had a visitor at my feeders on Saturday. I was putzing around, getting things ready for the dinner after church the next day, when I crossed in front of the window and caught a glimpse of a hawk lifting off from one of the branches under the awning. He definitely wasn’t here for the birdseed. He was hunting the smaller birds that come to my feeders.

Several times this summer I’ve noticed feathers scattered around the yard. I always blamed the cats. But now I’m thinking it’s entirely possible he’s been visiting all along.

And, with that, we could call this one done, even though it’s not even four pages long.

“Show some more pictures from your trip,” I hear Miss Rosie say in my head.

Let’s do that.

These photos were taken on our trip to Missouri and Kansas this past October.

This is a stretch of highway we always recognize and call Elmer’s Hill. Our old friend used to have a towing business at the top of the hill and made a living pulling trucks up the hill in the winter. As you may well imagine, that was many years ago.