What a time for a road trip north, December!  Eugene is "my other hometown," a place that was hard to leave and still has many of my dear friends.  Time to share art at an open studio event, hike with friends, lunch with old friends, and then take the train up to Seattle.  The train is one of the very best ways to travel in my opinion, especially if it isn't summer and you don't want to be making lots of wandering stops.  Again, supplies are 5x8 Pentalic sketchbook, mechanical pencil and a good eraser, Micron

pens, a small set of watercolors.  Words help, unless you want to have a page with only an image, of course.  I do like to do double page spreads, it helps to "think bigger" even in a small journal.  It doesn't work if you want to make small paintings that you plant to detach.  The page above had for "postcards" of the journey that I made after the trip.  Somewhere the idea came to me to link them with train tracks.  It's probably not "original," but who cares?

These images are what fit on my scanner, not double images stiched together, so you cant' see the full two pages. The Tacoma backyards is done with Payne's Grey, fitting for a winter afternoon in a fairly rainy part of the world.  Its a great color for monochromatic paintings, tends towards blue but is not at "dead" as blacks can be.

There is a small park near downtown Bothell where they have restored the first cabin, built in 1885, evidently one room lived in by an entire pioneer family.  I can only imagine what these first years must have been like among tall trees.  By 1893 the Hanan House was built with many more rooms!  The native Sammamish or Squak inhabitants spent winters in cedar Longhouses.  Cedar is easier to split into planks without iron tools than the Douglas fir. 

  In Tacoma we visited the Mad Hat Tea company where a variety of tea blends are prepared and sold.  Tobin was graciously serving a group of customers tea in small cups and explaining traditional Chinese customs for serving.  A small cup keeps the tea hot, not tepid, and it is polite to ask for repeated servings to show your appreciation.  Tobin also remarked that water is always brought to a full boil.   I love the variety of teapots and teacups in the world... and I love tea!