The Porch Postscript

Home is and always will be Wyoming.  Home is not really about the town I was born in, but more about the state where I spent the first nearly three decades of my life.  I'll always be a Wyoming girl no matter where I live.  At this point in my life when I talk about going home, I'm referring to my brother's ranch, that's home.  My heart is there, my family is there. I've always loved taking photos at the ranch, and when we were home for Mom's memorial it was no different than all the other trips.  Spend a little time here and you'll also learn I have an infatuation or maybe even an obsession with trees, and the ranch has many old cottonwoods and cedars to make my little dendrophile heart.   One afternoon Hubby and I were sitting in the yard listening to the birds and talking about family and what's next in our lives.  I kept studying the same tree.  Eventually, I pulled out my phone and snapped a quick pic.  I mentioned to him that I wanted to draw that

It's been a while since I busted out the colored pencils and created a bird.  In 2017, I had a little venture into drawing birds.  I drew a cardinal, a blue jay, and a mountain bluebird. After drawing three birds, I ventured on to the next thing. Then a few weeks ago I dusted off my bird art and created stickers to sell at the local gift shop.  Kind of unexpectedly, this inspired me to pick up my colored pencils and create a new bird piece. Settle in and let me tell you a little story about the decision to draw a mostly black bird, the red-winged blackbird.   Before my Dad passed away, passed away 19 years ago, he had a conversation with my oldest brother about red-winged blackbirds. After all these years I don't remember the details and the memory can play tricks.  In the cloudy memory, there is something about my brother seeing a flock of them take flight the day Dad passed.  The details have been lost to time, but the meaning and symbolism of the red-winged blackbird became