Fact is I’ve been lazy. At least I admit my faults without hesitation eh?

I thought I’d resurrect “The Book of Ben” with this sketch and also post the other sketches in the book since I love this little fella so much. He’s an angel in disguise I’m convinced. So over the next few days I’ll post the previous pages in the book. All of which used to exist here prior to the hack job. The dates on the sketches won’t jive with the blog, but hey, neither does this one

You can click the image for a larger version.

I know…”why would anybody put a rock in a frying pan?”

Well, the Frying Pan in this case is a river about thirty minutes from where I live. Geographically speaking, it has its beginnings in the White River National Forest, runs down a canyon to Basalt Colorado, and feeds into the Roaring Fork river, which in turn feeds into the mighty Colorado river in Glenwood Springs Colorado. The Colorado then flows on down to the Pacific ocean near the border of Mexico and Baja California.

The Frying Pan is a pretty little free-stone river and a well known destination for those who like to stand in streams and fly fish for trout. The canyon through which it passes has dropped some rather large boulders from its walls over the eons and this happens to be one of them. A rock in the Frying Pan. I found it interesting because a stunted, lone pine tree had lived its short life aboard this rock…a skeleton being all that remains in the patch of grass that provided its start. The rock too was interesting. In fact, for a person who likes rocks and geology, this is a great place to spend your time. And if that person also likes to sketch or paint, well there ya go friend. Rocks, a canyon, a river, trout, fly fishermen, pines, watercolors, paper, brushes, sunshine, low humidity, a nice breeze, no snakes…and time. And I guess a Bud Light if you’re so inclined. Just don’t leave the can.

That makes them simple to collect and display. Most people keep them in a display album or even frame them. I did a commissioned piece a couple of years ago for a reader and she gave it to her dad for his birthday. So they make nice gifts too.

This one is just a figment of my imagination…no place in particular. Just a peaceful, serene view of a hillside meadow.

I think I’ll just focus on painting in my idle minutes for a while. And that’s what I’ll post here on the Idle Minutes Blog. These little paintings are pretty easy to finish in one sitting and I can concur up something from my imagination that usually makes a decent painting. I’ll put ‘em up on eBay for auction if anyone is interested in purchasing one.

They’re cheap! It’s an inexpensive way to collect original art.

We humans go to a LOT of trouble to have fun don’t we?

If you want to learn more about these beautiful instruments, visit Charlie Hind Ocarinas. There are many different styles. They’re works of art in themselves and you can play very satisfying music for self entertainment or the enjoyment of others. My dog, Mr. Ben, howls along with me when I play slow songs. He’s a real crooner

As many of you know, life has been a whirlwind for me the last year. I’m back now.

Unfortunately, about a month ago, someone hacked Idle Minutes and in the process I’ve managed to lose all the images to my previous posts. There were two-hundred plus posts since 2006 and they didn’t make a lot of sense without the images. In thinking about all that stuff, I decided that since my life had changed so radically in the last fourteen months, perhaps I just needed to start over with Idle Minutes as well.

And so I have.

So for the next couple of weeks you’ll see some tweaking on the appearance of the blog, as well as posts of course. I’m not really changing my focus for Idle Minutes. It’s still a sketch blog. The about page explains its purpose. As has always been the case with me…I take twists and turns. So you’ll never know what’s to come here.

Many of you have subscribed to Idle Minutes so you receive it in your email each time there is a new post. No worries…you’re still subscribed. One-hundred plus at last count. And I greatly appreciate each and every one of you Thank you so much for your patience and kind emails while I’ve been away.

As priority number one, I’ll have the subscribe/unsubscribe link active so you can unsubscribe if you like. Though I hope you’ll choose to stay aboard.

So off we go…hopefully never to be bothered again by hackers. As always, please leave your comments when the mood strikes. I truly enjoy conversing with the readers and making new online acquaintances through Idle Minutes.