wish you were here

i am pleased to report i have now added three to my list of bloggers i've met in the real, and what a treat it was. Our summit included the mayden (natch), kate, aunty belle (not pictured), yours truly appearing here as "chickory", and pete bogs. we sat out at julies waterfront, a watering hole known mostly to locals, had a few beers, some wings n things and a lot of laughs.

it's interesting that every blogger i have met is essentially the same in the flesh and blood world as they are on screen. just as in the real, you wouldn't likely interact with bloggers that you didn't actually like and respect, so meeting them has been for me always a good experience.

Pete was a great sport to endure our estrogen fest; being surrounded by 3 blondes and a bronze *howl* i liked pete just as i knew i would, and kept having the overwhelming desire to lick his perfectly smooth head. Mayden was as effervescent as the bottle of champagne we drank last night. And a gorgeous little thing too. K9's blog muse has become a bona fide friend. In fact, she is here with me this moment in a panera bread shop. she was NOT going to put up with the slow internet at the house and has introduced me to the wonderful world of free WiFi access.

we hung out at the beach yesterday where we worked hard to pick up rush limbaugh with the crappy little radio i had, moving the antennae in every conceivable direction until we at last found the fragile sweet spot. Ever the watchful dog, i made sure she re-applied her sunscreen religiously, and can report today she has a sweet pink glow to her cheeks and a little bit o' color to her gams.

Kate the blogger is a complete delight. I have not read her blog for long, but i liked her right away, she was playful, good-lookin', funny and a person you felt like you had known for the longest time. PW would have loved her dress..kind of a fishnet see-through thing in a very tasteful elegant way.

I got to see aunty belle again and love her even more than ever. she's a beautiful woman, in every sense of the word, and i was glad to have another "elder-blogger" with me since all the others are just lil pups. Both aunty and kate were heading off to europe the next day, kate for vacation and aunty for work. i'm pretty sure now that aunty is a professional writer, as is bogs, so they seemed to get on well and have a conversation all their own.

Thank you all for coming. it was really really good to see you.


When i am not entertaining fair maydens, i am looking for things to photograph that would translate well into paintings, like these koi i photographed in Saint Augustine. i like how the reflection makes them look to be swimming in the trees. I also shot a few frames of seagrapes that i thought could be abstracted into solid compositions. i have (so far) 141 photos of clouds to add to my reference bank for paintings. i miss my studio and can't wait to get back and get to work. but i've got another 10 days to go.

the rest of the photos are just gratuitous florida shots.