Happy Easter.

Michael made these three planter boxes for our neighbors across the street.  A few squirrels have moved into our neighborhood and are romping around our yards every day.  Running back and forth across the street.

Three new planters.

Richard and Sharon, our neighbors, have trained (and named) a squirrel, Sammy, to eat out of their hand.  Every day he comes around looking for peanuts.  Not your everyday peanuts, they buy them at the feed store and are specifically for squirrels. 

Isn't Sammy adorable?

Beauty and the beach

Mendocino flowers and stuff

Wandering down main street yesterday morning ended up turning into a three mile walk along Hesser Street and then down Lansing back to the inn.  So many dainty flowers.

When we got back to the inn, all we wanted to do was what this guy was doing.

Driftwood faces

 and driftwood sunflowers adorn the driftwood arch back at the inn's garden.

Our room straight ahead down the brick path and to the left.  The Shed, cozy and cute and comfortable.

Hwy One to Mendocino

Michael and I drove up the coast to Mendocino yesterday.  In Bodega Bay we met seascape artist, Barry Marshall.  I particularly love the movement in his work.  Just take a look at his palette below.  He lays the paint on impasto which is another thing I love about his style.  There is a little video on the site.  We watched it, the sound quality isn't the best but it's nicely done and interesting to watch him work.  Barry lays down the sketch quickly using watered down paint and then works from there.

Back on the road again.

Some road work.

Ahead more road construction.

And again, more road work.

 Our friend, Roger, is building a pole house on the coast in Irish Beach.  He's a true craftsman.

We stopped in to see the house our friend, Roger, is building.

Roger is building his home out of mostly reclaimed materials that he gathers or purchases from various friends and sources.  The wood counter top underneath the hanging lights in the above picture was at one time part of a bowling alley lane.  The painting shown is one he painted.  Isn't it gorgeous?
Roger's work is very Ivan Earle like.

The Viking stove and I'm sure the hood, too, is new.  The tile backsplash is a mix of reclaimed and new.  The aqua tiles have some crazing throughout.

After a short visit with our friend, Sonja, in Irish Beach, we arrived at our quaint lodging for the next couple of days, one of my favorite places to stay.

Our breakfast was brought to our room, served on a lovely tray this morning.  Muffins, fruit, yogurt, orange juice and hot chocolate.  What a nice way to start the day. 

Tom Brown's Schooldays

I got this two disc set from Netflix, Tom Brown's Schooldays 1971.  Disc One arrived in the mail first and we watched it right away and fell in love with the character of Tom Brown that when the second disc came in we were so excited that we could finally finish watching it, two days of impatiently waiting to see the rest of it were over.

Anthony Murphy played Tom Brown and what a fantastic job he did, Tom Brown is a sweet and lovable and kind and brave child.  All the characteristics any mother would be proud of.  All the acting in this series was superb, especially the villains.  They made you hate them!

After researching Anthony Murphy to see what other things he's acted in or what he's currently up to, I found out that he's quite an accomplished artist.  What a treasure!  Anthony creates portraits and landscapes and still life, works that are Impressionistic and  full of life and color.  VeryVan Gogh, Cezanne and Gauguin like.

Isn't his work amazing?  I'm in love with his paintings, they are wonderful.

Molly Abroad by Anthony Murphy

 Just look at this sky!  Fascinating.

Boule Players at Dusk, Pezens by Anthony Murphy

Grandchildren and sports

Last Friday night we went to our granddaughter, Angelina's softball game.  Last year she broke her left arm twice on the same arm and in the same spot.  The first break was from a bike fall and the second time was a fall during a soccer game.  On top of that, very recently she had a finger sprain.

Now she's back at her sports.  This is her first year playing softball and she's just learning the rules of the game for the first time, too. 

See the ball?

Then on Saturday, was our grandson's baseball game.  His first year playing and learning the game, too.  Busy family.

It's cute, I've noticed Aiden doing one of three things with his mouth.  He compresses his lips tightly while concentrating...

Or, he opens up his mouth big...  ;O

Or, he bites his lip.  ;)