It's great to read everyone's posts here! I've been unable to access the boards regularly for the past several days, but today, it seems that things are possibly beginning to return to normal again -- hurray!
So much has happened since I last wrote at any length, that it will be really hard for me not to write a mini novella here this time around! 
Sandy, how wonderful to see your "big, long, enormous post," after all these weeks, and contrary to what you said, I, for one, adore reading long posts from you, and always find them very worth reading!
Thanks for your characteristically thoughtful and highly positive comments, this time about my art! I'm glad to hear that you're drawn to the turkey vulture -- after our earlier conversations about vultures (several pages back now on this thread!), I thought of you several times when making it. I have it hanging in the living room for now, because, similar to what you said, I'm not sure most people would immediately see what we see in this bird, so I'm going to write up a little information about the turkey vulture as a power totem to include with it before bringing it to the gallery, since that would probably help people understand and appreciate it more. I loved your whole story about wanting to become a wildlife artist -- it sure did seem like that owl appeared as a message/offering to you! Fortunately the Internet has become so accessible these days that I can just look up photo and detailed drawings (probably even the ones by Audubon himself!) on Google and draw from that, so I don't have to resort to the "dead-bird-in-the-freezer" method, thank Goodness!
More birds keep showing up on or near our back deck, seemingly to be painted -- we had red stockings hung in the windows overlooking the back deck during the holidays, and right on Christmas day, as I was sitting at the table next to these windows, a hummingbird flew up, hovered there and seemed to stare right at me for a few seconds, then flew off. He was probably attracted by the red stockings, but it sure seemed like another "paint-me" request! Then a few days ago, a flock of tiny yellowish birds (based on my Internet research, I think they are "lesser goldfinches") started flying around on the back deck for some reason, and a few of them ran right into the door, making a sound like someone was knocking! None of them seemed to be hurt, and they then all flew away right afterwards, but that sure seemed like another sign! So my list of birds to paint is growing all the time!
Ron got me an assortment of interesting feathers for Christmas, including some wild pink-and-purple-striped maribou feathers, which have now given me the idea to make power shields of more colorful birds native to other regions besides just here, and/or imaginary psychedelic birds, as well. I recently ordered a wider selection of multi-colored feathers. And now, Sandy, hearing about Lacey, and seeing that beautiful picture you posted, November , it seems like a good idea to get some feathers in pastel colors as well, since that is a whole other possible category I hadn't thought of until now -- the more I think about it, the possibilities just go on and on...
The Gallery has been doing at least kind of well (though I'm not really sure what to compare it to!) for being in such a small, rural location. The co-op's general level of efficiency organization is improving. And our stuff has actually been selling as well! As of a couple days ago, two of my scarves and one power shield, as well as one of Ron's abstract paintings, and one of his stone clocks had sold. There does seem to be a bit of a problem with keeping the place staffed on a daily basis, though, since it's a co-op and everyone's supposed to volunteer to work a couple days a month, but it seems that not everyone's been signing up yet
-- a few different days when we've driven by recently, it hasn't been open. Business is expected to be pretty slow during the winter, but it could pick up a lot again in the spring when tourists flock here to visit the river beaches just down the street. It gives us a nice chunk of "down-time" in which to create more new stuff! I've been trying for weeks now to get the time to create a whole other batch of new silk hoops, scarves and power shields, but have been so busy with the holidays, and with new year's resolutions and such (more on that below) that I haven't gotten started again yet! As for new-year's resolutions, we're trying more new eating plans! Ron has been battling with weight management, and I am eager to use diet modification to decrease my PMS symptoms
, so, in the past couple of months, we've gotten both a juicer and a food dehydrator, and have been experimenting with a vegetarian diet that has only 10% total calories from fat (popularized by Dr. Dean Ornish here in the U.S.) and can prevent/reverse several types of physical ailments. We're also continuing to experiment with raw foods, and I've even been reading about different types and lengths of fasting to detox the body as well. I sprouted some buckwheat a few weeks ago and made it into "cinnamon rolls" in the dehydrator, then topped them with a coconut-butter-and-pine-nut frosting (which definitely exceeds the 10%-of-calories-from-fat goal, but oh well! ). I thought they weren't half bad, considering how unusual they were compared to what we usually eat, although I think they'll take Ron a bit more getting used to! In recent weeks, we started eating one only-fruit meal and one only-juice meal on some days. (I am pleasantly surprised at how sweet and pleasant things like carrot juice taste 
-- though I'll admit, I was almost afraid to try it at first! ) We were losing a significant amount of weight as a result, but have gained some of it back in the past couple of days, since we just had house guests visiting from Boulder for the past couple of days. Fortunately though, they're both vegetarians, and they were delighted to try my latest cooking experiments! The entire San Francisco bay area had a huge rain-and-wind storm a few days ago (sort of like the Pacific coastal winter storm you described earlier on this thread, PP, only we're a lot further south on the same coast, so no snow, only rain). It poured down rain and the strong winds were ripping off tree branches and felling whole trees into the roads and the river, very dramatic!
Our power and phone were both out for 20 hours (up until right before our guests were due here, so that had us worried -- but fortunately the power came back on before they got here -- otherwise, we'd have been experimenting with 100% raw food for all our meals during their visit! ), right at the same time that our propane fireplace was also out and we'd been relying temporarily on space heaters! So it was quite an adventure for a while there! The river rose significantly (but thankfully did not flood) and turned muddy brown ("like a mocha latte," one friend we ran into in the grocery store noted -- sounds like a comparison one of us on this international-cafe thread would have made! Ah, great minds think alike! ), and we were watching all sorts of tree trunks, small wooden structures, and other debris floating by from our back deck. When we drove down the hill right after the storm, there were little rivulets and large puddles everywhere, as well as waterfalls of various sizes coming down the mountain. Then the truck of the guy who came to fix the fireplace a couple days ago started sliding off the side of the road down the hill and had to be towed away, due to the erosion from the storm! It's raining again now, typical winter here, I've heard, but much more gently at the moment, thank goodness! Kim, thanks for your interest in my art, and Sandy, thanks for directing Kim to the link I posted earlier. For your convenience, Kim, here is the link again. I hope to add more items once we finally get around to making another round of new art! By the way, you mentioned school projects and homework. You may have already mentioned this somewhere at one point, but what are you currently studying?
This post is already so voluminous that I won't attempt to respond to any more posts this time around, but I've been reading and enjoying all the posts here, chuckling over the spiders and snakes, beer and Dove chocolate (mmm!), and all manner of interesting things being discussed, and it's great to hear from all of you!
Gotta run for now -- time to go juice something for a very light dinner, now that our guests have left!
Lots of love to each of you,
Aqua Deb
Hence, our experimentation with these new approaches. With all the new grains we started eating with the vegetarian approach, Ron didn't start losing weight again until we began to really re-focus on limiting portion size (it's a tempting point to forget 
In addition Ron also has a wheat allergy we hadn't been paying enough attention to, and we may both be at least somewhat allergic to dairy as well, so for now we've switched mostly to rye bread, rice milk, and baking with gluten-free flour. 
; they ate all the white clouds, and many of the baby guppies just as soon as they were born! I forget what we did about it at the time, but I remember how upsetting it was to see 
, so I can understand getting attached to a fish, 
), and commenting that I hadn't seen any orbs yet, I took a picture of the five vultures in the tree today (which I've included below), and it appears it might even have an orb in it, right on the branch in between the two birds on the lower left in the photo. I've also cropped out and blown up just that area below, and it looks even more like there really is a potential orb there -- How cool is that! 
These were taken 2 days ago, but the snow's all but gone now!
Oh it looks so cold and lovely there...good snow for a snowball fight I bet. 
My boys could not be outside with me in the snow without "beaning" me on the head with a snowball. I think I was the family's favorite target. I guess nothing says love like a snowball to the head! 
