Image for December 28, 2011 - AKAN!!!!

I'm trying to finish off a little sketchbook that I've been carrying around for way too long. It's filled with mini-portraits of surrealist artists and African masks. Recently while catching up on the ever-growing pile of New Yorker magazines on the bed stand, I read a wonderfully enthusiastic review by Peter Schjeldahl of an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of African masks. One of the mask images accompanying the article caught my eye and I had to add him to my sketchbook. This drawing is rough three inches high. I included an extra enlarged image because I love looking at the texture of the pen marks.

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Image for December 26, 2011 - 700 Miles and Counting...

This photo is actually from yesterday, but no matter, I'll be hiking again today too. I took this just at the moment when I completed my seven hundredth mile for 2011 thus accomplishing my hiking goal. I pulled a seven mile walk yesterday that left my total at seven hundred and three miles and will add a bit more to it before this year is done. I am pondering now whether to increase my goal from seven hundred to say, seven fifty, but we will see.

This has been a good year of hiking. I had the opportunity to hike in several different states including Virginia, North Carolina, New York, Wisconsin and Florida, not to mention one overseas excursion to Scotland. I've had the chance to walk with a lot of my friends, some of whom aren't regular hikers, but I'm always trying to convert folks to the walking life so I'll always have companions for the trail. No point taking a journey if you don't have a friend or two to share it with.

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Happy Christmas 2011

Our Christmas card for 2011. Merry Christmas to all! I wish you health and peace and love.

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