North to Newfoundland

Cliffs I, 10x10 I KNEW WHEN I LEFT Wachapreague that wind was likely to be a problem here in Newfoundland. I just hadn't realized how much of a problem it might be. My second day painting in the Bonavista area, there is no fog, but the wind is mighty. An easel would be useless, so I open the side door of the van and station myself there, sitting on the van floor, the canvas inside. Even at this, it is hard to paint. The wind blows the canvas, blows my arm, blows the little knife, shakes the very van. It's hard to stand up, even! Woody, our smallest dog, would have blown away.  In a series of challenges, I've chosen cliffs. It's hard for me to paint them, to get the sense of massive bulk, to get the sun, the shadows, and now, water. I like the first one (above) but get an idea halfway through and decide to do a second painting.  By the end, I am thoroughly exhausted, from painting, yes, but mostly from fighting with the wind. Little did I know, this was...

 House in Maberly / 10x10 WHILE CAROL AND I are in Elliston, looking at the breath-taking scenery, she spots a line of cars in the distance, parked along a road. "I bet that's where the puffins are," she says, and we head off in that direction. Earlier in the trip, a man has told us about a place near Elliston where you walk out on a rocky path and can see puffins on a small island cliff just across a bit of water from the cliff where you end up. Sure enough, this is the spot. We make our way along the path, past great root cellars, across a narrow land bridge and up over a rocky bluff, and there, not close, really, but not so very far away, are hundreds and hundreds of puffins. I wish I had brought a better camera, but I didn't, and so my puffin photos are smaller and blurrier than I'd like, but I hope you can get the sense of them and their cliff home. Puffins are seabirds who dive for fish. You can see in the photo that they can carry a bunch of ...