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| Ever Changing!! |
AND, here's the same spot a little over a year ago - 2/13/24 which is why no leaves.
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| Examine the trunks that cross and you can see it's the same location |
Ok, now that we have that thoroughly analyzed, let's move on to the morning's happenings.
Although I arrived early, around 8:15, I wasn't the first one there. In fact, no where near. Dona was unpacking her car and let me know that Betty had already wandered down to the water. Plus, Suzette, pulled in right behind me.
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| Dona |
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| Suzette |
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| Life Jacket Loaners |
Isn't that terrific, they have a stand there with life jackets for loan on it. Super idea especially since there are so many children who do come here for a day at the water.
We then continued down the path.
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| Suzette, Betty |
As you can see, someone had come through with something on wheels. Hmmm, perhaps it was Betty.
So, we all pretty much gravitated toward a shady spot as we found where Betty picked her spot AND she was right near our returning southern AZ artist, Denise.
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| Dona, Denise, Suzette, Betty in the background |
Yes, Denise is back for the Summer and this day she showed up in the correct location 👍 so we got to see her and not just her painting.
So, after catching up with Denise, Suzette decided to move on to some other spot.
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| Betty and that's Suzette moving on |
But, see all the shade where Betty is, I too joined them in that spot as it was just the right temp!
Here's a better picture of Betty in her spot.
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| Betty |
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| Denise |
And there's Denise in her spot with her trusty chair behind her. And, you can see that chair in the next photo that shows Dona in her spot.
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| Dona and Denise's Chair |
I looked around, although I didn't travel far trying to find where it was Suzette went. I didn't find her, however, I saw this artist sitting quite comfortably in her spot as she chatted with a couple of bikers, right there by those criss crossed trees (see the top photo too).
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| Kristen and some bikers |
That was the first I knew of Kristen being there. It turns out there were a few others too, but I didn't see them until they came looking for us when the time was up.
But, in the meantime, this guy flew in:
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| Great Blue Heron |
Oh, you know what else you can see in this picture? How about all the "cotton" from the cottonwood trees. There were points during our short stay there this morning where it looked like a blizzard. Poor Denise & Dona were working with oil and they had to keep blowing it off their palettes and paintings since the cotton would stick. Hmmm, I wonder if that would make it "experimental". At the very least, I'm sure it provided texture.
And, here's when I learned that Tecla and Cathy were there.
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| Cathy, Tecla |
It turns out they were painting over where Suzette was -- wherever that was. I have to be honest, I didn't wander around a whole lot, mostly because I didn't want to get all that sand in my sneakers. Knowing Cathy though, I bet she painted barefoot!
Tecla snuck around and got a really nice group shot with me in it -- Thanks Tecla!
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| Photo thanks to Tecla Denise, Me (putting stuff away), Betty, Cathy I'm going to got out on a limb here and guess that was Tecla's watercolor pad and bottle |
I did have to do a little searching to find the right location to build our gallery. I found a downed tree that served that purpose really well. You might also recognize the tree that's behind it as I know it's been in many photos from our travels here in the past.
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| And in case you were wondering what's what, we have: pastel, oil, oil, watercolor, pastel, watercolor, watercolor, watercolor Ok, so watercolor was the preferred medium this day (as it is most days too) |
Now, for their close ups 👏
Wow, they all really look great. A group of people came by around then, a couple of adults and a few teens and younger. I caught one teen who looked at the paintings and said "Oh wow, look at the paintings". Hey coming from teens who we know can be quite picky, that's a nice compliment.
I failed to mention earlier that Jim once again joined Dona, although he wasn't seen until we were wrapping things up. He likes to go exploring and knows our schedule, so always shows up right on time.
Here we all are, smiling on 2.
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| Back Row (L to R) Jim, Dona (peaking over Cathy's head) Middle Row (L to R) Betty, Tecla, Denise, Suzette, Cathy, Kristen Me - I should've stood next to Betty, didn't realize there was room |
Cecilia