Spring has sprung the grass is riz...

 ... I wonder where the birdies is?

So it looks like we have turned the corner. After what seemed like endless weeks of continual rain, we're finally having some weather more typical of the season. And thanks to that rain, there's lushness all around - the greenbelt has never looked more dense and abundant, and going out on our deck is almost like staying in one of those tree-canopy camps.

It appears that Selkie Catt has also turned a corner, at least for the nonce. After six weeks of intense health struggles, a new medication regimen seems to be having  quite a positive effect and his much more his old self these days. He was up and about and active for his twentieth birthday last week!

I have also been up and about and active in this new phase of life that I am calling semi-retirement. I always used to say that working for a living really cut into my free time, and now I have all kinds of times for projects. Of primary concern lately has been off-loading material goods - cleaning out the garage and closets and such, selling stuff online and making donations and otherwise divesting ourselves of Things. I have made a good dent, but there's still a lot to do.

In concert with that effort, I have also been cleaning out the digital closets, so to speak, and organizing material on my computer, deleting files, making backups, and so on. In so doing, I can across of a file of "for the blog" items. Some I could not recall at all; some I could not recall whether I had already posted them. On any case, I'm gonna dump 'em all right here, just like the old days of blogging, when we all didn't have so many memes and forwards and crap coming at us anyway.

 

I didn't buy this but maybe I should have. But I'd prolly just be selling it now anyway.

 

 

I think this is on a street in Vancouver BC... not sure why I wanted to post it 

 

 

That guy looks eeeeevil. 

 

 

It's not like we haven't known for a long time... 

 

 

Could be an illustration from some great story... 

 

 

I think we should all start referring to our mobile devices as pitas. 

 

This is a lot like Coco's actual process...

 

Six, two, and even, over and out.

Arraying the waterfowl

 

So, this transition (see last post) could not have come at a better time, actually. My having been home over the past few weeks has made a passel of personal issues a lot easier to deal with and in some cases resolve. I am getting used to this semi-retirement business and of course have a whole new routine going. There are a lot of details still to attend to, but I do love me some paperwork, so that's all good. The days are full with tasks and chores, all to good effect.

I have had more time to focus on my cartooning as well (see Talent Not Guaranteed on the sidebar), working my way up from daily mini-sketches to inked warmups. I'll be taking some more online classes soon, too: Graphic Design for Beginners Short Course at Central Saint Martins College, part of the University of the Arts in London, and Intro to Cartooning at Syn Studio Art School in Montreal. The Drawing and 2D Design classes at Emily Carr helped me find focus in what I really want to do (and what I don't want to do); hopefully these courses will help me kick start a deeper and more consistent art practice. In the meantime, daily habitude is where it's at.

Of course, these also more time of ukulele practice and reading (trying to work my way through The Dawn of Everything right now). In fact, the only downside so far has been the weather - I managed a few early-morning walks, but lately it have been raining from dawn till noon, so constitutionals have been relegated to the afternoon again.

But it's good weather for ducks.