On John Deere Road

Rain rain don't go away... yet. So today we really had actual down pouring rain. Lovely. We have so been needing this. Already I can feel the plants perking up and sighing with relief.

So my mission today, and I did choose it, was to go to Refugio Country Italian Restaurant in Demming and pick up my paintings. Richard was there and we chatted a bit and I met the artist whose work is going up in place of mine. Nice fellow from Sedro Wooley. I suggested to Richard he keep each artist's work up a bit longer from now on, six weeks instead of four. He thought that was a good idea. It takes work to mount a show so taking it down in four weeks, like I did mine, seems too short for me. He realized it also gave his customers a chance to get to know the work better. I was glad we talked about it.

It was misty and lovely so I decided to drive a bit further toward the mountain and check out the views from Mosquito Lake Road. Just as I got out of the car and began to wander around it dumped. Rain drops big as butterflies. Well.. perhaps I exaggerate but you get the idea. So I decided to drive up the road a bit and soon came to a place I had seen but never photographed. 

Someone has collected a bunch of old cars and farm equipment and they are parked around their property. The driveway up to the house is called "John Deere Road" with a sign to prove it. I wandered in the now lighter rain and took a bunch of photos with my little Sony, the only camera I had with me. That meant I could play with the photos with the in camera filters - watercolor and illustration. This photo has some of both. And then I did a bit of post processing in Lightroom and Photoshop using the Topaz clarity filter. That has become a favorite of mine. So here is the old truck, made brighter, richer and with more detail, zapped by the camera with both watercolor and illustration touches. I enjoy this kind of play. I put the original photograph with similar Topaz Clarity filter work in the extra photos.

When I got home Arvin soon arrived and we went out to shop. The phone rang. It was the physical therapy office. I had forgotten Arvin had an appointment. Ooops! Oh well. We got home and did some quiet time while I fiddled with the photos in camera. Then I made dinner and now Arvin is resting. At least we did his exercises. First time in awhile. Sigh. Sometimes it is hard to remember to fit everything in.

The rest of the evening will be quiet. It is still raining outside. How cool is that. And most everybody has their power back by now so that is good too. We were very lucky ours was only out for a day.