For the love of Goats

Two new kids moved in down the road. They are black and white and have cunning little hooves. Their names are Thor and Clementine.

Goat kids have a certain vibe that enchants me. They are more playful than your average farm animal–leaping, frisking and gamboling, climbing on trees, seesaws and even children! They appear all over the place and my eye and paintbrush are always drawn to them.

A goat on Anegada Island in the British Virgin Islands.

Vermont goat in the snow

A San Francisco goat-tasked with keeping weeds down around the Bernal Heights reservoir.

Thor and Rufus

Old MacDonald and her goat BFF.

A white kid

Clementine

Some Virginia goats

What on Earth is a HooDoo?

noun, plural hoo·doos.

1. voodoo. bad luck.

2. a person or thing that brings bad luck.

3. Geology. a pillar of rock, usually of fantastic shape, left by erosion.

If you picked #3 you may have visited the strangely wonderful Bryce Canyon National Park, Home of the HooDoos…not to mention-the mysterious eye in the sky! (hint, upper left)

What you can see on the Peek-A-Boo trail in Bryce Canyon.

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Bryce Canyon is by far the most unusual landscape I have ever walked through. I’ve been there twice and can’t wait to return.

The Joy of Beaches in Winter

Christmas at the beach-a California tradition.

Big storms sweep in from the west and huge tides bring in piles of tangled kelp and other beach debris.

The impossibly tangled piles buzz with Kelp Flies.

The Kelp’s gas bladders keep the long stem or stipes, floating upright in the water.

Northern California beaches are not known for shells but there are dense mussel beds and those shells are easy to find.  This sketch includes a scrap of Abalone shell, fish spine bones and crab claws.

I love collecting this sort of beach debris for my Beach Portraits.

And then there are the Harbor Seals, who haul themselves up to nap on the sunny rocks.

And sometimes there are the husbands, who nap anywhere they like.

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