This won't be long, Jay is upstairs fixing dinner for me.

I did paint eggs. Quail eggs and it went pretty fast. I think painting all of those egg-shaped lemons helped. It felt good and the quail feather was fun too. I had a chick hatch today, but I hope it's not the only one. There are two more in there with him that should pop out as well. Tomorrow I go to Quakertown to hand over a couple dozen Cuckoo Marans eggs to Mary. Her husband is doing an old-fashioned lumberjack thing with oxen. I'll actually get to see them. The one is over six feet at the shoulder. I don't think I've ever seen a real ox before. I'm pretty excited about it.

OK, I've got to go. The painting di giorno is "Quail Eggs and a Feather", oil on Gessobord, 6"x6", $50. framed. Sold. As you can see I painted the nest and eggs at a different angle on the board so that it's in a diamond shape. I also photographed it so you can see how it looks framed.

That's it, have a terrific weekend.

I did paint another Meyer lemon painting today, but I think this may be the last one for a while, although there are no promises about that. I think I need to paint some eggs again. I mean painting lemons in a nest is probably a good indication. It was fun to shake things up and let the painting just happen. I loved painting the lemons. "Nest of Meyer Lemons", 6"x6", oil on Gessobord, $50., framed. Sold

The warm sun melted a lot of the ice today, which actually turned out to be a nightmare when it refroze. Even the leftover snow was treacherous. I like walking in relatively crunchy snow, you can get a good foothold and feel safe walking on it, but when it's too hard you may as well be walking on ice. I'm glad my work outside is finished. We're supposed to get some snow showers tomorrow. Hmm.

We've had the snow, about 3 more inches of it, then the ice that magically cloaked everything it touched in crystal, then the rain. Now we have the wind and that has started the power outages. Thank God the power is back on. The ice, as beautiful as it was, made working outside really difficult today. I dress for the cold, wind and rain, but the ice on my head was really painful, even with a hood on. Now I know better. The chickens don't usually mind the weather, but I could see that they didn't like the ice either.

Tonight I finished another painting of paperwhites and Meyer lemons. "Paperwhites and Meyer Lemons", oil on Gessobord, 6"x6", framed, $50. Sold.

I was supposed to have dinner with Cine and Penny tonight, but Jay needed my car, so here I am.

He's upstairs playing "How Great Thou Art". I just love what he does with hymns.

How many people do you think are using that phrase tonight? I'm dreading it. I have incubators going and heat pads, heat lamps and heated waterers for the animals, so the last thing I need is a power outage here. Please say a prayer for everyone dealing with this.

Jay Jr. and Danny went to a Bordeaux wine tasting in New York yesterday. They had a great time, with plenty of stories to share last night/this morning. I was envious of the places they stopped to have drinks and dinner, one of which was Babbo. Their descriptions of the food was torture. It sounded wonderful. My painting di giorno at right is titled "Meyer Lemons and Paperwhites", 5"x7",oil on Gessobord, $50., framed. Sold. The lemons are starting to shrink, but are getting more orangey. The paperwhites were a gift from Jay Sr. He bought the whole plant for me, but I cut this stem for the studio. The fragrance mixes with the aroma of the lemons and transports me into a sunshine-filled spring day. Great place to be during a snow storm.

Thursday night's post never happened because Isabella begged me to bake cookies for her. Now I haven't baked cookies for years, so it took so long that she lost interest and left me alone in the kitchen to finish baking while she left to go watch TV. Unfortunately for the cookies, I got a phone call from Dave, the friend in Ohio that I got Vincent from. So I burned a batch of the cookies and over baked another batch. One batch came out perfect. Isabella loved them. She went home on Friday. It feels strange without her here. She was so cute when she'd go out with me to "help" bring the roosters in at night. We'd hear the owls hooting and she'd try to imitate them. On the way in she made a "no"(snow) angel. It was so tiny it looked like one of the chickens made it. Josie will be coming to stay in a couple of weeks, she'll have this place hoppin'.

The weekend was full of small stuff. Mostly chicken related chores. The girls are laying big, beautiful, dark eggs, the chicks are hatching and it's like spring in here in the dead of winter.

My painting di giorno is titled "Meyer Lemons in a Treenware Egg Holder", 7"x5", oil on Gessobord, $50. framed. Sold.

Gotta' go, Danny and Jay Jr. just got home from New York and they have stories to tell.

I'm so happy to paint some Meyer lemons again. Of course they're from my friend Karen the Orchardess from Lemon Ladies in Emerald City, California  www.lemonladies.com It's been too long. I bought the little wooden bucket this past summer when we went to California. It was in a little shop in Petaluma. We got several nice things there. I wish I was there now. The cold never really bothered me that much. This year it feels like it's in my bones. Must be my aging. A new rooster came in from Ohio today to service my Black Copper Marans hens. He's only here on loan and for a short time, but is very handsome and very gentlemanly. Well Jay and Isabella are waiting for me to watch a movie with them.

"Meyer Lemons in a Little Wooden Bucket", oil on Gessobord, 6"x6", $50. framed.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dear friend Penny Bird. It was on December 27th. I knew her Father before I ever met her, which wasn't until high school. When I met her Dad, he said that I "had the devil in my eyes". I think I was about seven. He brought a mink coat for my Mother to approve before her initials were embroidered on the inside. After he left I went upstairs to look at my eyes and see if I could see the devil in them. I was happy that I couldn't see any devils, but looked for a sign of one for a few years after that. Snow in the trees today against the bright blue sky was inspirational. I went out to feed, water and collect the eggs, the sun felt warm. I thought about going out to paint en plein air, but my fingers don't work in the cold, they turn purple and yellow, yes, complementary colors, but too painful. The wind wasn't strong but blew most of the snow off of the tree limbs, leaving thousands of snow nests in the in the crevices of the branches. A really interesting effect. I try to go out hourly to get the eggs so they don't get chilled, so I was happy to finally be out of the weather tonight and went to the kitchen to gather some subjects for a still life. "Shallot, Garlic and Olive Oil", oil on Gessobord, 6"x6", $50. framed. I can't believe I've never painted garlic, as much as I love it.Enjoy the rest of your night. I need to go get under my blankets.

Yesterday I forgot to mention two events that coincide with each other, my brother Pat's birthday and the two year anniversary of my blog. Happy Birthday to Pat and also to Cine!

Isabella is here with me. She continues to paint the majority of her waking hours. I know I've said it before, but she really is something. Today we finally got a snowstorm that gave us more than a coating. Very beautiful and gratifying. So serene, I love it.

My painting di giorno is of a bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne in an ice jacket. I love the color they use for their label and the ice jacket, so since this is my first painting of 2009 I thought I would toast you with some champagne. To our mutual, health, joy, peace and prosperity. Cheers!

"New Year 2009", oil on Gessobord, 5"x7", framed, $50. Sold.

Gabriels' 9th birthday was December 21st and Danny's birthday was December 22. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GUYS. We went to Maryland to celebrate. Christmas was almost a month ago and today I finally got everything Christmas put away.

My family didn't want to let it go this year. Our Christmas was more than wonderful and really huge. The grandchildren are getting older and aware of what's going on, so it's a delight introducing them to our traditions. We went to my Godson/cousin Nicky's and his wife Leann's for the Christmas Eve fishes. Again, Jay Jr., Danny and Nicky did a spectacular job with everything.

They went to the fish market and got our usual, traditional fish like, smelts, soft-shells, scallops, crabs, octopus, lobster, mussels, etc., but this year they added a gar and a frog. I didn't get to see or taste the frog and the gar was way too nasty to even cook, it actually had bad breath. Everything was fantastic. Poor Nicky had his wisdom teeth coming in. He was very uncomfortable.

Christmas day we had a very fun day. The best part being the grandchildren opening their gifts. Of course the food that Jay Jr. prepared was perfect. For New Year's Eve Jay Sr. and I took Gabriel to Georges' for an early dinner. It was just great. At midnight we went outside and banged pots and pans. I guess everybody else around here punked out because of the cold, because we were the only ones out there and Gabriel in his bare feet yet! 

My show at the Gryphon was very successful. I sold 20 paintings! I'm just so thrilled. Thank you to all that have added to their collections of my work and to my new patrons, I'm very grateful. My new exhibit is now at THE BURLAP AND BEAN in Newtown Square www.burlapandbean.com

It's a cozy cafe', very inviting, with good food and drinks. Please stop by and check it out. The image here is of my French Birchen Marans rooster "Henri", who is like a puppy, he follows us around and eats out of our hands. He was my Christmas card for 2008. "Henri, French Marans Rooster", oil on Gessobord, 5"x7", framed. $50.SOLD.

I'm happy to be back, enjoy your day.