Blue skies

What a beautiful weekend! Higher temperatures are melting the 20+ inches of snow we received last week. Hardy shoots of snowdrops have finally popped up and the earliest variety of croci are beginning to bloom. Does every winter that passes seem longer than the last or has it been just this winter? This weekend it's been lovely to walk Sparky, our Beagle Lab mix ( called a Blab by his vet), without concern about slippery patches. Just a short week ago, it looked like this outside.

Though it's hard to stay indoors on such a sunny day, I intend to tidy up my studio. On second thought, maybe I'll just wait til the sun goes down. My studio has files jammed with book and licensing illustrations, as you can see in this photo taken when it was a bit less cluttered. Yes, this is how it looks at it's best. Not visible is the wall of books and the back wall of closets. I'm afraid that if I had twice the space it would still get cluttered. It's so tempting to add books. A recent purchase is Jerry Pinkney's The Lion & The Mouse. Not surprisingly, it's beautiful and the story is told in a new and interesting way. No surprise there, either.