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Had my first long conversation of the year with my next door neighbor.   We caught up on all the happenings of the winter...he's getting married it turns out.  That's why theres a cute bird bath in his back yard now, its an engagement present from the in laws.  Yep, its springtime in Minnesota.  We all are outside now fishing in boats floating on water instead of sitting on ice, breathing in air thats not freezing in our nostrils.  And me, well I'm out painting and enjoying the experience again instead of reminding myself of emergency winter survival skills and wondering what glove will keep my digits from numbing yet allow me to feel the brush on my fingertips. 

But the challenge level is stepped up a bit.  I am preparing myself for a teaching adventure new to me, namely, instructing an evening of painting at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.  In this case, I am out in the dark.  Now I've made my way through several night scenes before, but the challenge has always been to gather all my belongings and bring them safely home and minimize the transport of paint on bodily surfaces onto automobile interiors and other delicate fabric and upholsteries.  Now to help others not only in the art of seeing and painting in the dark, but to help everyone in the art of operating humanly and efficiently in blackout conditions, like our ancestors.  Ah, thats the rub.

Its funny, but you remove  one simple thing like all the light, and we seem to have such problems.  Go figure!  Just thinking about it though, I hope I remember that birdbath out there when I make my way back home.