En Plein Air

My son Jacob said this afternoon that he prefers to stay inside because it was the safer place compared to the outdoors. He said that after we all had gone out for a long walk through our beautiful woodsy neighborhood. Back home I found a tick on my daughter's blouse. I shook it off into the bathroom sink, and we looked at it with disgust through a magnifying glass for a while. Jacob had three tick bites already, and the removals were always tricky and not funny, at least not for him. He was grossed out watching the tick in the sink. I tried to kill it by squeezing it with a paper towel, and then by smashing it with a rock. This tick wouldn't give up though, it was stubborn or invincible. So I pushed it into a snack bag, I stepped on it, jumped on it, and threw it into the kitchen trash. A few hours later, we pulled the snack bag out again from between wet coffee grounds and eggshells, just to find that the tick still was a happy little camper. 

Anyways - this kind of reminded me of the En Plein Air painting event that took place about six weeks ago in all Louisiana Cultural districts. Artists were asked to come out, put a straw hat on, and paint outdoors in a cultural district of their choice. That was something I haven't done before, so I thought, why shouldn't I. Especially since my daughter Mona was determined to do it, too. 

I did an oil pastel of the main railroad crossing. It's not quite finished,
especially the front needs work. I hope I will get to it soon.

And my daughter's take. She pointed out that I left out the traffic lights
and the McDonald's sign. And the bird that was sitting on the power cord for a while.