RMW Ramblings

 Rockford Horrors The Bat   I sighted several scary things at, on, and around Rockford Tower. I'll share them with you as the days move towards Halloween.  

Remembering Isabel We are nearing the end of September and there have been  no  Atlantic hurricanes.  In 2003 we were not so lucky.  On the 19th of September hurricane Isabel came up the Chesapeake flooding us up to the windowsills.  When we finished recovery and remodeling I marked the high water line with a plaque on the kitchen wall.  The plaque is modeled on the Plimsoll lines painted on ocean-going ships to indicate the safe loading level for adequate flotation.  Several years later I further remembered Isabel with a painting of King Lear, accompanied by his fool, raging at the storm: "Rage, blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes!"  The storm shows many faces to Lear, activated by Shakespeare's breath, upper right.    

  Kids on the Seawall   Painted yesterday,  Kids on the Seawall  shows two towel-wrapped children watching a paddleboarder (A cousin?) Acrylic on canvasboard, 7x5 in.    

Another painting today,,  Hibiscus '  Yhe little bee reflects my  earlier miniature   Gold Bee.   Hibiscus Hibiscus , painted today.  The tiny bee mimics my earlier  Golden Bee.        

  Bos Bison   Here is  Bos Bison  which I painted in the style of last month's  Vulpes . [ https://rmw-ramblings.blogspot.com/2026/07/vulpes.html] Together with a much earlier painting,  Equus,  (2011) they form a stylistic group.    

  Biking, Hiking, Running Three Books from the 1970s The 1970s saw a burst of books on energetic personal activities.  I was  long into bicycling, hiking, and morning runs, so I was enthusiastic over three books published that decade. The bicycle provided my geographic liberation and  teen employment in the early 1950s.  I bought a bicycle early on arrival for graduate school in Berkeley in 1960, and years later, when on an extended job remote assignment in Southern California, I bought a folding bike which I kept in the car trunk for spontaneous excursions. In 1970 Eugene Sloane's  The Complete Book of Bicycling  was issued.  It served me well when I commuted to work by bike during the energy crunch in the later '70s.     I cartooned myself in my '70s cycling.  My 1980s folding bike was a Hon, purchased at the Orange County Swap Meet, then a center of entrepreneurial upstarts. It folded compactly and fitted a carrying bag.  Ho...