2:30 a.m. Why am I awake?

Sunday (yesterday, a scant two-and-a-half hours ago) was a great day. Got up in the morning and pulled prints, then the DM and I went for a goodly hike up Browns Creek, did some quality career and home-life planning for the next few weeks, spent a little time doing minor spring maintenance to the yard, took a stroll downtown for tea and a cookie, and THEN I printed AGAIN. By 9:00pm we were both pretty pooped, so retired to bed with books until overtaken by sleep. Can there BE a more perfect day?

I slept like a rock until 30 minutes ago. Now? Wide awake. At least I get to catch up with blog reading. But don't expect clever writing at this hour.

Must tell you, after the two month (!) process of the pine cone linocut, I am diggin' this little bitty thing in color. In just over 24 hours I was on the 3rd color pass! The fourth and final will hopefully be accomplished later today. 48 hours to a complete edition? I feel slightly tipsy over the entire idea. Granted, this is not a thing of complex and subtle carving... but simple graphic compositions have their own kind of appeal.

So... Sunday morning's pass:


That accomplished, we threw lunch goods and water in a day pack and headed up to Brown's Creek. There are a couple of trailheads in the area which connect to the Colorado Trail (a 469-mile hiking trail mostly through the mountains), which we "discovered" in November when we went holiday tree-hunting.

We started up the Wagon Wheel trail, but as it was on a north-facing slope we discovered too much snow (read: slush and ice). Slow and slippery going. Trudging along through all that was not really how we wanted to spend the day, so after about half an hour we turned around and went back to the Brown's Creek trail, on a south-facing slope. Much better! Despite the fact that it was really quite windy down below, we managed to stay wind-free for most of the afternoon.

The first attempt. Definitely not terrain for hiking in tennis shoes.

Look. I conceded to a photo of me. Don't get used to it.

The view from Brown's Creek trail, roughly southeast.
That's our town at the bottom of the valley, just beyond the swath of yellow pasture land.

When we returned I was surprised and delighted to discover the little blanketflowers were ready for another pass, so color #3 went down before supper.


Today it's back to work on assorted client projects. Still have that 18x24 watercolor to finish for the sagebrush poster and some writing to do for the Byway interpretive project. Other things, too, but those are the big priorities the first part of the week. Actually, the biggest priority is to try to get back to sleep. Remedies, anyone?