My nephew Patrick turned 21 today. Wow! Happy Birthday big guy.

I've been a fan of John William Waterhouse for as long as I can remember. Probably because my maiden name is Narcisi and I find his works of Narcissus so moving and emotional. To me they are beautiful beyond belief. I would have trouble choosing a favorite from his array of paintings.

I was prompted to think about him today from a link on Facebook. Thank you for sharing it Nadeen. If you belong to Facebook, go and look on my page, I posted it tonight. If I can figure out how to put it on here for you, I will.

Since I'm still working on Finn, I have no image for you tonight, but I'm really excited to show you my latest. I took photos of it the other day, but the surface paint needs to be coated with retouch so it's even and not so blotchy. I'll try again after Finn is finished, or maybe sooner. I'm going to bed now. Sleep tight.

Happy Birthday wishes to my brother Pat and dear friend Cine Braxton. Danny and Torri came home from CA. last Wednesday, we had so much to catch up on, I didn't post, then on Thursday I had dinner with Sue Silenzi at Georges', got home late and didn't post. I can't remember what happened on Friday, but Bailey Hale came up from the city for a chicken visit and we had a Vietnamese dinner along with plenty of Dark and Stormys (ginger beer, dark rum and lime) beforehand. We stopped for another drink at Georges' on the way home. A great night. Sunday we went for a belated birthday dinner at Village Whiskey. Every good thing they say about it is true. We went to Tinto's for a drink while we waited for our table. That was also very enjoyable. After dinner we headed a couple of blocks away to The Franklin Mortgage and Investment Co. for really unique and fabulous drinks. We laughed so much my jaws started to ache. So it was a party all weekend. Danny, Torri and I went for more Vietnamese on Washington Street tonight. It was much better than what we had on Friday night. I hope to go back soon. Jay Sr. and I went for a walk today to try to burn off some of the damage from the weekend. I think it'll take many more miles to make a dent in all of it. It was a wonderful day to work outside. The sun felt so good on my face. Danny and torri went grocery shopping at the new Whole Foods in Plymouth Meeting today and brought the egg pictured above home for me with the intention for me to paint a picture of it. I can't wait. It's an emu egg and it's huge. It's actually a dark green. I'm still working on Finn's portrait. Hopefully by the end of this week he'll be finished. I'm beat, so that 's it for tonight.

My sister-in-law Josie Chadwick sent us a big Starbucks gift card for Christmas, so I drew the coffee Thank You card pictured above for her and her husband Ken. Very generous, thank you Josie and Ken.

I'm still working hard on Finn, but he's really coming together now. I totally reworked the painting and feel much better about it now.

Celeste and I were going to make Fleur de Sel caramels today, but instead Celeste picked up some hours nursing and I worked on Finn and made chili for dinner. Sharon and Eric brought a bottle of wine down at 9pm, so we sat and drank and conversed for an hour and a half. Nice way to spend a chilly night.

The boys and Torri return home tomorrow. I can't wait to hear all of the stories.

Jeanie and her family are enjoying all of the good stuff that California is about. She found a sweet little organic grocery store close to her house.

The roofing guys came here today to figure out why the studio roof is leaking so bad. Oh man, it's really a mess. I haven't figured out how we're going to handle it yet.

Eric and I traded books to read, I loaned him "Duma Key" and in return got "Still Life With a Woodpecker", by Tom Robbins. It's very interesting so far, but extremely scattered. I'm sure Tom Robbins must be crazy with a thought process like that, albeit very clever and witty.

It's time for me to go up to bed and read some more of it. Sleep tight.

The night camera didn't capture anything and there haven't been anymore of the weird tracks out in the snow. I'm amazed that the chickens are surviving this frigid weather. They all have heat lamps, but still, the wind chill has been just brutal. Danny stayed at Saintsbury for a couple of nights. He's in a cabin on top of a mountain and Saturday morning a hummingbird flew into his window, looked at him as if to say "hi" and then flew back out. Pretty great. Took the Christmas decorations down yesterday while Jay was taking a nap, then he, Celeste and myself took a ride up to the Michener Museum. There is an Edward Weston exhibit that was wonderful. I'm especially loving his early work from 1911, along with the shell and rocks, and the tomato field. The peppers are still amazing. We also reviewed the New Hope artists that we've seen many times before, but each time I see them, they look better and different to me, all at the same time. I have a painting to show you, but I forgot to take a photo of it, so I'll do that tomorrow. I broke the window in the living room and then the glass door on the woodstove. I must be regaining my strength. Tonight we had salmon for dinner. It was wild-caught in Alaska. We joined an organic meat, fish, dairy and bread, buying club at Forks Farm, www.forksfarmmarket.com, so after watching FOOD, Inc. I'm feeling good about this salmon. It was just delicious. An enormous difference. Tomorrow Celeste is coming over and we're supposed to make Fleur de Sel caramels. That'll be interesting. That's it for tonight. Stay warm.

This morning's entry was my 300th. I believe the 18th will be my three year anniversary with this blog.

Danny and Torri have left for California. I'll miss them, but wish I was also going. Soon, I hope.

I did a lot of work on Finn's oil portrait today. It still needs much more, but has to dry to keep the colors clean before I add the next layer. I found this photo of Jay and I from my birthday party in September. John Novelli took it. Still crazy about my man.

The Cooper's hawk now waits for me to go out to feed and then lands on the net to scare the chickens. So I yelled at it and it just flew onto a branch which was close by. All chickens are in lockdown 24/7 now so it can't get them, but it's really stubborn.

I found some really weird prints in the snow today. I can't figure out what kind of animal or maybe a bird it is, so I put the night camera out. Hopefully we'll see tomorrow.

Since I was up at 5am, it's time for bed.

Good night and have a terrific weekend.

It's not even the middle of the month and I can't post an image. I don't think it's Blogger's fault this time. My computer has been giving me trouble for a couple of weeks and I can't figure out what the problem is.

Anyway, I finished reading "Duma Key", by Stephen King last night. It's long, but the last half of it is riveting. Thank you Sherry Bell for sharing it with me. I won't tell you what it's about but there's an artist involved. I don't believe I've ever read any of Stephen King's books before. I'm not a big horror fan, so I skimmed over those parts quickly since I was reading the book before I went to sleep. I could easily imagine it as a movie.

The snow that fell during the night is beautiful. maybe an inch. It's still dark, but with the sky starting to lighten, the effect is so lovely and peaceful.

I'm going to try the upstairs computer tonight to see if I will have better luck posting an image here.

In the meantime, enjoy your day.

We finally got to finish watching FOOD, Inc. and I have a lot of mixed feelings about it. It's disgusting what we feed ourselves and our children. Especially the meat and milk. I had no idea that a lot of the meat in most supermarkets isn't grown in the US. The animal protein by-products in your pet's food or if you have chickens, etc., is pretty much manure, unless you feed them organically. I don't want to get up on a soapbox here, so watch the movie and decide for yourself. Let me know what you think. One thing that you can do is to sign the online petition to have the government use our tax dollars to feed our kids healthy lunches at least five days a week. Use the link below. After you enter the website click on "take action". It literally takes less than a minute to sign. www.foodincmovie.com/

My painting tonight is from Chanticleer. They have quite a few groupings of co-ordinated chairs and trees. What a clever idea. There will be more to come. "Matching Chairs and Tree--Chanticleer", 11"x 14", oil on canvas board, $350.

I was posting some photos of my paintings today and found one that I think I never posted. It's of the ewe and her lambs that I painted a couple of years ago. This one is different, so I figured I'd post it tonight. "Fall Lambs #2", oil on canvas, 10"x8", sold. Jay Jr. just called from Lone Pine, California. He's driving Jeanie's car out to Petaluma for her. All he can talk about is how gorgeous New Mexico is....someday. The bitter cold is making my bones ache. I'm ready to move to warmer climes, like maybe Petaluma? I wish. Anyway, stay warm and take care, it's going to get worse as the week progresses.

I hope your holidays were the best and that this New Year brings all of us health, wealth, joy and the "peace that surpasses all understanding". I know I need it. Our Christmas and New Year celebrations were just wonderful. We went to my cousin Nicky and his gracious wife Leanne's for "the fishes" on Christmas Eve. Danny made the bacala, it was the first time ever that I actually liked it. Sorry Grandmom. We also had the usual suspects, smelts, linguine and clams, plus Nicky made an amazing seafood cocktail with polenta, two kinds of calamari, as well as eel, really delicious raw oysters with cantaloupe and prosciutto. They were my downfall. I ate too many and didn't leave enough room for the grilled Branzino and Cioppino. I did have the Cioppino, but I wanted more. My nephew Pat made a Caesar salad that I now crave everyday. It was so garlicky that I had aceto for the rest of the night, but it was so worth it. The entire night was very enjoyable and fun to see the littles who are now old enough to be able to understand and appreciate all of it. Thank you Lea and Nicky for your hospitality. Our new, three week old baby cousin was there and I got to give him his bottle. It's been years since we had a newborn in the family. Welcome Alexander and congratulations on your beautiful boy Marilena and Larry! God bless all of you. Christmas Day was the biggest treat for the adults, because the Johnson kids were living with us and we got to share Christmas morning with them. It's been a long time since Jeanie's been home on Christmas morning. We had a great dinner, including the Italian Wedding/Holiday soup. It was really, really good if I do say so myself. Jay Jr. made a timpano. Wow, what a feat! Watch "Big Night", it'll give you an idea of what it's all about. Krista, Carter and Josie came for dinner on Saturday and we did Christmas all over again. Double the joy. We spent early New Year's Eve having dinner at Georges'. The food was just terrific. I'm sad that chef Jeremy Duclut has left, but ever since he won "CHOPPED" he just got too many offers he couldn't refuse. I loved his food. For New Year's Day, Danny made the foie with a rose petal jam and Jay Jr. made pork belly, Gordon Ramsay-style. As usual it was fantastic! The cabbage and mashed potatoes that accompanied it were so good, even the next day. The belly was perfectly crisp on top and succulent on the bottom. The mashed potatoes just kept surprising me with every bite. I kept saying to jay Sr., "this is SO good" because it was. I ate most of the cabbage with caramelized onions and bacon. I can't wait to do it again next year. So now the sad part is that Jeanie, Derek and the kids moved to California. I don't even want to get started. My eyes are still puffy and at my age, I can certainly do without that. It's so quiet here...I'm not a fan. Danny and Gabriel had birthdays in December. Gabriel the 21st (10 years old) and Danny the 22nd (28 years old). HAPPY BIRTHDAY GUYS! The hawks are still coming around and the chickens can no longer free-range. In addition to the female red-tail, there's a Cooper's Hawk (photo above) that swoops down while I'm feeding the juveniles. It got one of my bantams. I've lost too many in the past couple of weeks, so I'm going to downsize big time. Between the weather and predators, I've had it. If the chickens aren't happy, I'm not happy. I took down my exhibit this past weekend. I sold 18 pieces. I need to recount, but it's very close to that. Thank you to everyone once again for their support and for coming out in the brutal weather. I am very grateful and appreciative. I've started back on Finn's final oil portrait. I hope to have it finished by the end of the week. One of my New Year's resolutions is to be more consistent with keeping this blog and painting. I resolve to be more serious and more in touch, so stay with me and send me some comments once in a while. It gets lonely in the studio with just the Ninja turtles and the tree frog.