The Canadian smoke cleared (we've had terrible air for several days now), so Henry and I headed to the forest. My reward for getting out early was an up close and personal conversation with a barred owl. It had been a while since I'd seen one, between my fatigue and the bad air keeping me out of the forest. It always feels like a blessing, a visitation. She swooped in front of me to land quite close and unusually low on a nearby branch and sat there and let me sketch her until Henry got too close. Then she moved further off and higher, and I drew her again from the back.

It was a perfect start to the day. I followed up with second tea on the back porch reading the paper and then getting back into the graphic memoir, which I'd stalled out on for a few days. I'm at almost 50 pages, and I'm still so much enjoying that project. I've been doing much more of that than sketching from life lately, so it's nice to have something exciting to share here. I have some hope of getting the memoir published, so I haven't wanted to pt much