Birthday Celebrations Begin

Another new-to-me park and walking path with my hiking group.  Rain held and full overcast skies made walking the boardwalk comfortable (6 miles).  I had good, deep conversations with a few older women -- interesting lives, interesting life experiences and shared lessons (all about aging, staying active, staying open).  We walked along the river with a few turns into marsh-like areas.  Birds everywhere -- singing loudly.

I stopped at a local coffee shop I like and ordered my usual decaf americano.  Turns out the machine was cleaning for 30 minutes so I swapped for an iced herbal tea -- ended up being a nice mishap.  Another Trader Joe's run since I was in the area and out of veggies at home.  

All this to say, I'm glad I went even though we weren't hiking.  I would've missed a lot of good things.

I painted the final lion rock for me to keep in my "realistic" collection.  This was tough and probably my least favorite, but she's finished.

Messed up placement of eyes,
nose and mouth.  The eyes
gave me trouble the entire time.

Rock is more round than long
and I kept having to adjust.
And it's not as flat as the others --
hard to see in the picture.

Finished.  Most of the time
she looked like a gorilla until
I painted the white and whiskers.

Today is the start of a stretch of birthday fun.  Some things are birthday adjacent, like today.  My high school friend wasn't able to have a lunch when I reached out in January.  She JUST got back to me since she's on a term break (she's a PT instructor) and asked if I wanted to go to lunch for my birthday.  It's not really for my birthday, but it's part of the fun stuff I have planned for the next couple of weeks.  (Some of the fun is for other people -- hubby's birthday and the going away bookclub party.)

I need to keep an open mind because no doubt changes will happen.  Oh, and speaking of ... NOT shingles, just a mouth full of cold sores.  Fun, but no one can see it and I'll just chew on my left side!!  If it had to be something, this was the best something.

Have a good day.  Later gators.