The rest of the country relies on Punxsutawney Phil to predict the next 6 weeks of winter, but in Colorado they get their advice from Flatiron Freddy - a stuffed, yellow-bellied marmot from Boulder (first cousin to Phil). Since we've had very little snow and 27 days over 60° so far this year, it's no surprise that Freddy is predicting an early spring even though Phil saw his shadow. It definitely works for me, though I'm sure we'll be paying for it (literally) this summer when water prices skyrocket.
I've been a little remiss on my winter bingo challenges, so this morning Charlie and I went out for a walk to watch the sunrise. I tend to watch the sunrise almost every morning with Bruce while he drinks his coffee, because the sunrises are so colorful around here. But watching it from the comfort of my livingroom chair doesn't allow me to check off a box - hence the walk with Charlie. The only trouble with that is he likes to do his business early in the morning, so I have to cart around a bag of dog poop.
I'm also taking an online watercolor class with Courtney. It's called Peaks and Valleys, but mostly it's about painting mountains, a subject that is probably more relevant to me living in Colorado than Courtney living in Chicago. I've been intrigued for a while now to try plein air painting (painting outside), so I went online and bought an easel and tripod. I've been practicing in the house before I venture out into the cold. It's a lot trickier to paint standing up out in the grass than it is sitting down at a table in a coffee shop. We'll see how that works out.
I started another reading challenge sponsored by the library. It's a bingo board game only you don't have to get blackout. Whenever you get a simple bingo (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal), you are automatically enrolled in a drawing for an iPad. I figured 'what the heck.' I read all the time anyway, so I might as well throw my name into the hat. I already checked off the lower left box (create an outdoor winter scene) by submitting one of my mountain paintings. The nice thing about this challenge is that it's got some other activities in addition to reading. One of them is to ask a librarian to make a book recommendation for you. I'll be interested to see what she picks for me.
