Earthquake

We had an earthquake today here, it didn't do any damage and I really couldn't even feel anything from where I was standing in the middle of the room.  Roy was sitting at his desk with his arm resting on it and he felt the desk shake.  It sounded like a big truck roaring by the house; but when we looked outside there was nothing there.  We are basically on rock here so I guess rather than shake we make noise, I don't know anything about earthquakes coming from the Canadian prairies.

The USGS site says that it was a 4.8 magnitude and was about 86 km. or 54 miles southwest of us at a depth of 3.8 kms. or 1.9 miles in the Gulf of California or the Sea of Cortes, (it is called by both names here).

So, that was our day, how was yours?

Missing In Action

I have kind of disappeared from the blogging world this last while.  I am still around, I just have been spending a lot of time on my artwork.  I am still going to class twice a week and have also been working on a picture at home on my own.  I work slowly so it takes me a long time to do a picture.
The pastel painting that I did of Frank the dog arrived in Canada with no mishaps.  I took about a week and a half from the day I mailed it here to the day he was notified that it had arrived there.  That is not too bad.  I did send it registered mail though and I watched its progress on the post office site.
I have been working on a picture, again in soft chalk pastels of a hummingbird and flower.
This is the web photo that I have been using as a reference.

Here was the beginning of my painting.

And here is the finished project.  Well, finished that is until I take it to class tomorrow and show my teacher.  Unlike all the other people I have shown it to, he will see all the errors that I have made.  I have lots of questions to ask him about shading to get the right depth that I am missing.  It should be interesting to try and fix the mistakes that I have made.

I have several other projects at home that I want to get started on and also have several things that I want to blog about the neighbourhood, so perhaps will be on more frequently in the next few days.  We will see what happens.
Til later.

A Queen In Our Midst

One day last week the little daughter, who is around 4 yrs. old, of one of our landladies nieces came up to see us.  She gave us a picture of herself and tried to explain that she was running for Queen in her school for Dia de los Ninos.  With her mothers assistance we understood her story, she is quite shy and was speaking very softly and wasn't exactly sure what she wanted to tell us.  She asked us for a donation and so we gladly forked over the cash, 20 pesos.
She is a little cutie and her picture doesn't do her justice.

Yesterday afternoon she came up on her own and explained that Diego was wanting to come up and see us.  Diego visits us regularly, (grandson of landlord, he is just over 2 yrs. old) and he enjoys getting a sucker from us.  We quiz him on his colours and he has them down pat.  Anyway Ari, the little girl, kept mentioning Diego and I assumed that they both wanted suckers so did my duty as a spoiling person and got out the suckers.  She was happy and when I went outside with her, her grandma and Diego were patiently waiting on the stair landing.  Diego was happy to see his sucker.  Aris grandma explained that Ari had won the contest and is now the queen for the day at her school.  I asked if there was to be a parade and she said no; but that they would bring her by for us to see her.
Burying my personal thoughts about little girl beauty pageant things, I congratulated her and everyone was happy.
Shortly thereafter Ari again returned to "visit" with us.  She didn't ask for another sucker; but I knew it was on her mind.  We have decided on a 1 sucker a day limit so that we aren't the cause of major dental bills so I chatted with her until her mom came hunting her down.
This is the little girl who Roy spent some time holding up in the air so she could see the Christmas Parade so I guess she has decided that we are entered into her safety zone now, as she was always pretty shy around us before that.