date night at Houston's Eisenhower ISD high school

After finishing this fun little e-book, Bill and I had a date night, eating out at Freddy's (they seem to have followed us from Kansas to Texas), then on to our son-in-law's spring band concert. Fabulous music, from jazz to symphony to wind ensemble! But I only got a bit of a jazz band rehearsing before lights went low and it was too dark to sketch.

breakfast with friends

Bill and our pastor enjoy getting together for coffee some mornings. Recently they invited us wives to join them . . . and I began sketching some of the decorations on a nearby cupboard. The waitress seemed to think it was an amazing thing, this drawing in a journal. I told her that simply learning to sign your own name is a form of drawing . . . do it often and you get better at it. Drawing is like that.

This current sketchbook journal is my 52nd one since beginning in May of 2007. I've had a bit of practice by now.

a barn raising in Round Top, TX

The weather around here has been a bit gloomy lately, lots of clouds and a bit of rain. So when Tuesday turned out to be full of sunshine we went for a drive. Ended up in Round Top, TX where we parked in the sun as I drew a work crew raising a barn and windmill.

a sketchcrawl with grandson Quen

On Saturday we drove to Round Top, planning on taking Quentin to Royer's Cafe for lunch and some sketching. We arrived around 10:00 only to find out that the cafe doesn't open until 11:00. So we found a shady tree to sit under to sketch while we wait. Except that I discovered that I had brought two sketchbooks and a travel palette . . . but had taken my pens out of the bag and forgot to replace them! We had one water rush and one pencil between us (I added ink later at home).

Quentin prefers working with abstract designs so he used the water rush while I drew this historic log cabin. Flowers bloomed all around the town square, as did the butterflies.

We returned to the cafe at 11:00 . . . and 11:30 . . . and 12:00. They never did open. So we went to Royer's Pie Haven nearby and ate pie for lunch! The empty container in my sketch is all that's left of Quen's key lime pie. And yeah, the pie is too yummy to take time drawing it!

waiting for my hot dog

Today we took our grandson Quen to the Southern Flyer 50s style diner. Quen was disappointed that these table-side juke boxes were not really hooked up. But the large free-standing juke box still works and was cranking out 50s tunes. The diner is located out of town, at the Brenham Airport --- Many customers fly their private planes in just for lunch.

virtual sketchcrawl . . . at home

Today is "virtual sketchcrawl day" for those participating on Facebook and Urban Sketchers Midwest. I had considered going somewhere interesting to sketch, but we are busy getting ready for a family get-together on Monday. Bill is smoking a brisket early (in case of rain . . . which we seem to be having daily), and we have been cleaning patios. Also cleaning his shop, where we will set up all the food. Our one-bedroom cabin is just too tiny for 4 kids, 3 in-law kids, 5 grandkids, 1 or 2 dogs, our cat, and two or three additional friends we've invited.

So sketchcrawl is at home today, a sketch of our smoker at the back door with Bill's woodshop beyond. A bit wonky but fun to draw.

a shrimping we will go

Not sure I am technically a member of Usk Midwest since moving from Kansas to central Texas. But I miss this group . . . This sketch is from our recent trip to the Gulf of Mexico.

Just across the lane from Our Place on the Bay, the Bed & Breakfast we were staying at, a shrimp boat was waiting for its next trip out. So I sat nearby and drew her. Early each morning the crew takes her out, then returns to load up their trucks with the day's catch.

dreaming of a new home

Bill drove down to Houston to drive me home (I flew there the first part of June). Because his time away from work was limited, we asked all our kids to drive to Brenham to meet us for lunch on Saturday, Brenham being sort of centrally located between everyone's homes. Had a blast eating at Ernie's, a downtown restaurant I found doing a Google search.  They gave us a private room and we could let the little kids run and play.

  

After eating, our son-in-law took us driving, looking at homes for sale in the area. Our top three favorites, located near a lake, are sketched above -- two of them are log-style cabins! We would like to find a smaller home with a large detached garage or outbuilding to turn into a woodshop for Bill when he retires later this year -- two of these had such buildings already on site.

Mission Concepcion, San Antonio

Mission Concepcion, a photo by vickylw on Flickr.

This mission is the oldest un-restored stone church in the country. The original colorful frescoes, though faded and worn away, can still be seen in part. They used some of the same earth pigments that are still used today. The frescoes were painted using the same technique used by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. Established in 1716, then moved to San Antonio in 1731, the church took 20 years to build and was dedicated in 1755.

I especially liked the view through the ruined cloisters looking towards the church, the roof of which could just barely be seen through the window. Both of the missions we visited are still active churches today. Amazing history.

more from San Antonio, TX

views from our hotel room, a photo by vickylw on Flickr.

Now that we are home from our trip, I'm slowly finishing up the sketches done in San Antonio, Austin, and Houston, Texas. This sketch above shows some of what we could see from our room's terrace. I debated a few days over whether to add full color or not --- the San Fernando Cathedral was so lovely to look at, I decided to leave the rest in ink only. At night this cathedral is beautifully lit up.

 (BTW, the remains of the fighters at the Alamo are purported to be buried in this church. Also, Santa Ana raised the "no quarter" flag from one of these towers before the battle.)



We explored two missions in the area (besides the Alamo). This first one was nearly fully restored in the 1930's, making it easy to envision life there in the 18th century. The Spanish converted virtually all the hunter-gatherer tribes of Native Americans in the Texas area to Christianity --- these missions were their communities, fields, herds, and protection from the warring tribes. But they used to drive the priests "nuts" because they slept on these hard stone floors instead of on the beds provided!

I am loading all sketches on my Flickr site (as I finish them) but only some on Blogger; if interested, you can see other sketches HERE. There will be more posted in the next few days.