She Took the Time to Paint a Lake

In three blog posts from 2010 here and here and here, I talk about my love for "Woods, Water, and Michigan," of which all three made their way into the BryonySeries.

I mentioned that here because Jasmine has read all three books of the BryonySeries "drop of blood" trilogy, and she understands the importance of lakes.

And ever since we moved to this townhome two years ago (we're moving again in a couple of weeks), I've wanted to fill a long wall in my room with a painting of a lake.

Since them, Timothy has bought three paintings of lakes for me.

This one for Old Calendar Christmas January 7, 2020, that fits very nicely above my closet door.

And this one that Timothy also bought that didn't fill the wall as I had hoped - and that would not stay hung because it's heavy and the wall literally has brick behind it.

Oh, yeah, and a candid of me.

Side note: dresser belonged to my maternal grandmother, who died within days of my seventh birthday at the age of sixty-four. I treasure this piece.

So this is where the painting has stayed since then (with the Larry the Llama photo bomb).

Now for this past Christmas, Timothy bought another lake painting, one that's larger and lighter:

But let's just say 2021 has been extremely busy. I do admire the painting every day when I carefully moved the painting to take clothes out of my closet and then carefully set it back into place.

The goal is to actually hang it on a real wall in the new townhome.

I also have two waterscapes from local author and photographer Robert Hafey. He gave the first one to me as a gift after we collaborated on a project together for WriteOn Joliet. 

And Timothy bought the second one for me from an exhibit Bob held at the Book and Bean Cafe in Joliet right before the pandemic.

Now when I opened Jasmine's birthday present on my sixtieth birthday on July 15, all I saw at first was this really pretty paper.

But when I moved the paper aside, I saw this:

Yes, Jasmine painted them herself.

You know, for my new bathroom, she said. And she will even help to hang them, to help ensure they actually go on an actual wallk.