It’s been a bit since I wrote a new post. It was mostly just laziness but I have a variety of excuses as well. Pick which ever one suits your frame of mind..

Excuse #1 …

I was watching my neighbor burn down his yard..

Yes the same neighbor who yells at me for watering even though I have rain barrels and an overflowing well. Yes the same one who thinks I gave his yard crabgrass even though I have none. The same guy who hates my maple tree and wants me to cut it down even though it has nothing wrong with it and it’s a pretty tree…and so on and so on….

What happened was that not realizing that I was home, he started to blow all his leaves into my yard so I casually took the dogs out.

And he blew them all back.

He made a  20 foot long pile in his yard, about 2 feet high.  Since he couldn’t foist them off on me, he decided to mulch them with his riding lawn mower…

Well the pile was too high, the leaves ended up caught in his engine and

FIRE ! FIRE! FIRE!

He kept driving then did a double take (which I’ve never seen anyone outside the movies do before)

Then he was dancin’ and singin’ and movin’ to the groovin’ (Sorry, sorry had a moment of Funky Grooviness there, it won’t happen again)

But he was dancing and grooving and jumping up and down flailing his arms and he kept kicking the leaves all over and they kept burning farther and faster and further and faster as well.

I opted to watch from my living room and not let him know that I knew that he set his yard on fire. I’m nice like that. Plus I may possibly have been hysterically laughing… ahem..

Anyway at least his crab grass is gone. Who knew it was that flammable.

Excuse #2…

I was helping Sampson put together a performance piece. It involved putting my garden to bed for the winter and cleaning up leaves (while not setting the yard on fire, I mean he did want to juggle some flaming torches but I nixed that one much to his disappointment). Sampson’s art du jour was a mind numbing display of pumpkin abuse..

At this point your children should leave the room, it may be too much for them.

SQUISH!! SQUISH!!! SQUISH!!!!

That’s downright disturbing. Pumpkin abuse is wrong, people!!

But see, there isn’t any crabgrass.

Excuse #3…

Speaking of dogs, I was also trying in vain to get a nice dignified photo of Zeus.

I often see beautifully dignified labs in magazines. So I was determined to get one.

I swear they must drug those dogs in the magazines.

Don’t stick your tongue at me..rude I tell you…

Aw..Gee..I’m sorry…

Oh that’s okay.

We’ll try again.

No! Not dignified! Not dignified!

My attempts to take a dignified photo of Zeus are on temporary hiatus since he decided to introduce himself to a nest of yellow jackets and he’s allergic. He’s fine, sillier looking then normal but fine.  *Sigh*

_______________________________

I have actually done a couple little paintings. These are rough copies of some Christmas cards ideas.

The first is a Partridge in a Pear..

Because I didn’t feel like drawing a tree..

Could you imagine if someone actually gave you a partridge in a pear tree? I would be miffed myself.

The second is in the style of Van Gogh, and is a snowman.. (I was pretty sure you can tell it’s a snowman but judging by the amount of weird Russian spam I get on this blog, I’d like to make myself clear. It’s a snowman and no I don’t want any mukluks.)

If you notice there is a bend in the corner. Sampson chewed on it for a bit.

He’s still a bit mad about not being allowed to juggle flaming torches.

Ah, c’est la vie.

_____________________________

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2011