Return of the Hawk

I was sitting watching television yesterday when there was a "crash" against the big picture window. This is not unusual, the birds often get confused by the reflection and hit the window but this was louder then usual. Reason being it was not one but at least two birds, a sparrow and a much larger hawk which had chased the sparrow in that direction.For anyone that may have just wandered here or not been with me that long it is the second appearance this year of the hawk, something not seen in the preceeding ten years we have been here. We hang bird feeders and a couple of bird feeders right outside that window and as I said before while I appreciate the beauty and magnificance of this predator I do not want to furnish a hawk smorgisboard.

After the collision the sparrow and his friends took off for parts safer and the hawk flew up to a trestle we have by the deck, sitting there collecting his senses or maybe just showing anyone watching that he was unharmed and meant to do that, kind of like a cat that does something stupid will do if you know what I mean. Damn thing is that I usually have a camera around me, sitting on the table or at least nearby but of course it was put away somewhere else at that time or I could have got a picture as he sat there several minutes even while I had called my wife and she came out to look at it out the window.

I'm not sure what to do about it, if it was a regular type bird I could get a scarecrow, one of those owl or hawk dummies that supposedly scares the birds away from your garden ( I know from experience they don't work anyway). I'm not sure of what a hawk is afraid of though, other then maybe a shotgun but firing one off might get me too much attention. I'll have to think of something though, much as I liked seeing this bird twice now I really don't want to see it again, not at my birdfeeders anyway.

Newspapers Terminal?

Lately I hear that the daily newspaper is to soon be a thing of the past, some are closing down already and others are endangered species list material. I don't read the paper every day, sometimes we have it in the house and I don't read it, rarely all of it. We have it delivered four times a week including the Sunday paper and my wife reads it when we do, most of the time reading the stories to me to my annoyance.

I don't want it to go away though, lots of memories surround the newspaper. My dad would read it every day, his evening night watching Jonny Carson with the paper spread all around him on the couch. That's the picture of him that comes to mind first when I think of him. People would buy the paper for thier train commute and they always had it when you were waiting your turn at the barber shop, hard to find a barber shop anymore though.I did read the paper every day, back when Mike Royko was with the Chicago Tribune, his paper "blog" something worth reading every day. Now theres a new guy and my wife likes him. I've read him a few times and he's OK, no Royko though. I always check the comics of course and the editorial cartoon.

I like technology, read my news on the computer, I like reading blogs, even ones I don't agree with but the daily newspaper is something that just can't go away, gee, next it will be the Jack Benny show isn't on the radio anymore. So I'm going to start buying it every day, maybe two of them (Chicago still has two, political opposites). I'll do my part even if I don't get to read them every day.

Baseball

Just one cartoon from my grandsons baseball practice. I had more in mind but got sidetracked.

The coach was holding this ball on the stick and the kids would practice thier swings at it. Sometimes he would run at them with the stick held out so it was more like a pitch. Some of them were taking pretty good slices at it, ought to be some home runs this season.

The team is for eight and up and you can tell some of them have been playing a year or two, pretty sure of what they are doing. They have at least one girl on the team, something different from when I was a kid, no girls allowed then in boys sports, organized or otherwise. Most of the teams have girls playing though now and most of the girls that play are as good as most of the boys. It's not for every girl but then sports aren't for every boy either. When I was a kid up through high school I played at everything I could but I can let the secret out now, I was never much good at any of them.

Again I have to say "good work" to the coaches. They really give it thier all, working with all the kids, not just thier own and everyone I've seen is good at it, giving the kids encouragement and getting on them a little when it's needed. This team even has a lady coach, wife of one of the men coaches. Sometimes they put up with a lot from the parents too, funny but the kids all seem to get the sportsmanship deal but not always the same with the parents.

Cherub

When I said warm and fuzzy I was thinking like a kitten and maybe some flowers or playing with the standard ball of yarn but I came up with this Cherub and threw the flowers in for cover.

Not what I had in mind but I liked it and my wife said it was OK so I'm posting it. It's rare for me to ask my wife's opinion. First of all she's just not that interested in my "art". Pretty much to her it's a too exspensive hobby. Second and probably more importantly she is just too honest. I don't mind advise and constructive criticism but she is rough.

Next post I hope to jump back to the world of reality. Went out today and caught part of my grandsons baseball practice and took the sketchbook of course. Didn't get a chance to re-draw anything though. I know some of my sketches here are "rough" but believe it or not, they get worse. When I am drawing outside, something with action it's more or less just lines, kind of impressions of what I see that wouldn't be recognizeable to anyone but me.

He seems to be doing OK, I mentioned before this is the first year playing hardball. With T-ball they use a softer ball about the same size. He's been smacked a few times already and is still in there trying. Anyone that's ever been hit by a pitch or a wild ball knows it can smart.

It's good to see him moving up but I will kind of miss the T-ball, the kids are so funny, sometimes sitting down in the field, rarely catching a throw, not knowing where to go or where to throw. It's a riot to watch. I have to give the coaches credit. Usually of course it's guys who have kids on the team but they do a great job with all the kids.

Vampire

This is a detail of a work in progress, drawing of a lady vampire. I have always liked the vampire movies and even television, for a while my favorite show "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer". Yes I know it was a silly show but it was supposed to be now wasn't it? Not denying that Buffy was hot I think maybe spike was my favorite character. If you never saw the show, Spike was kind of a good guy- bad guy, starting out bad but then wanting to be good but slipping back to bad, so on and so on. He was at the end in love with Buffy which is kind of a dangerous affair of course, the vampire being in love with the Slayer. The show isn't on anymore around here anyway but it will be back, one of those that will be in reruns forever.

Actually the whole thing started out wanting to draw gargoyles because I like them, gothic architecture in general but it all led to this. As I said it's a work in progress but you likely wont see it again as the paper is 9X12, too large to scan and upload with a dial up connection. Next I will try to sketch something nice, warm and fuzzy like.

Flapper

a small pen and ink sketch of a 1920's era girl, my model an old postcard. I love the look girls had in that time, a very important time for the history of women. So many things changed around the turn of the century, a lot having to do with the automobile, manufacturing, transportation and communications in general. Women were changing thier place in society so much, up to then in many ways second class citizens but around that time starting to demand thier rights and respect.

The drawing is small, 5X7 and done quickly ( an hour or so) in pen and ink. For those that like to draw I find stopping now and then and looking at the drawing in different ways helps find mistakes, in a mirror or even upside down changes the perspective and makes errors stand out.

Sketch again

Just another sketch, again a television thing because I'm trying to post something every day and I don't have anything else. No reason for posting every day other then its too easy to skip one and then two and pretty soon say the heck with it all together.

Hill 875

Watching the military channel today and they had on the battle for Hill 875, something I have seen before but will always watch. I'm a vet of that war (USMC 68-69) and am more then thankful that nothing in my tour was as intense as what those guys went through.

As it mostly seemed in Vietnam, that battle was so senseless, nothing won as after they had fought for something like three days and lost close to three hundred they just left, the hill available for the NVA to move back in as they wished. The idea was to deny the enemy access to move troops and supplies south but history shows us that didn't work out so well. None of that lessens the bravery and heroics of the soldiers who fought there.

No Leprechan

I was intending to draw and post a leprechan for today but after repeated efforts they all looked far too evil so I gave up. Maybe it's that movie that sticks in mind where the little guy was evil and killing everyone but I would rather think of them as kind, gracious creatures who are just zealous about protecting thier pots of gold. Giving up on my irish heritage I am just posting this car I had scanned a while ago, a portion of a larger drawing but the car was my whole purpose in the drawing. Don't know what kind of car its supposed to be, just the image tucked away in my brain for when I want to draw a vintage auto and don't have a reference photo.

Nice warmish (60's) day here and more improtant a quiet one, the wife off to her relatives for the day so it's peaceful here, plans to catch up on a chore or two but of course it's late now and nothing done other then to fill the wastebasket with evil leprechans.