I love it when the birds start coming “home”! Over the past few weeks, our winged Virginia summer residents have been appearing to settle in for the season. The trees are starting to bloom, and spring flowers are showing us little bursts of much-need color after the grey-scale tones of the winter woods.

I was quite tickled to see a bluebird on my birthday last week, and this morning there were three fluttering around by our fence. The robins have been tweetling in the yard for quite awhile now, too. It’s time to make sure all the birdhouses are in order, and break out the hummingbird sugar-water!

I heard the churring of the woodpecker a few days ago, and sure enough, the Pileated has started to drill on our gutter in the mornings again. Thankfully, he only does this rarely, usually he’s out in the trees drilling for bugs. The smaller woodpeckers have been making the rounds, too.

Of course, in between all the bird activity, the Virginia monkeys are leaping from tree to tree. No monkeys in Virginia, you say? HA! Just watch a gang of squirrels flying through the air to land on tiny twigs and chase each other around, and tell me they don’t look like a bunch of little monkeys! They are all carrying around bundles of dried leaves and rebuilding their tree-top nests, and it is fun to watch them scurrying up and down with their building materials.

John and I were out on the deck at around 10:30 PM last night, and the Great Horned Owl and I were hoo-hoo-hooing back and forth for about 20 minutes. He is a year-round resident, but I usually only hear him in the spring, and occasionally in the summer. One of these days I will actually see him instead of just having a conversation through the trees with him! Last year, we heard the beak “clack” that he makes, too. I never knew they did this until I saw this YouTube video:

Spring certainly perks up my mood. Life just seems dismal when it gets cold and everything turns grey in November. John has installed full spectrum lighting in my studio to help keep my serotonin/melatonin levels functioning at their optimum and chase away the winter “blues”. I seriously think they should change that misnomer to “winter greys”, as the color blue, my favorite color, is a happy color, and reminds me of the ocean and summer skies.

We’ve been able to go outside in t-shirts some days, and then the temp dips again, but at least there’s a light at the end of the winter tunnel now…and the end of the tunnel is filled with chirping birds and spring flowers!

Happy Easter, everyone…and until next time, Peaceful Journeys!
EclecticDawn

If you haven’t had a chance to get over to the ACE Tourer Project Page lately, check it out when you get a chance. We are moving along on the project, and I’ve added pics of the seat shaping, more pics and a video of the paint progress on “Matty” (short for “Matsurika”).

I took all the parts except for the gas tank to the clearcoater’s yesterday. Boy did THAT feel great!! I’ve been going blind from all the tiny little itty bitty teensy weensy bits of mask that had to be cut for the details in the artwork, and it will be nice to work on some t-shirts and decals this week.

I had taken one sidecover to the vinyl shop to match and buy some vinyl for the inset in the seat, and by the time I took the sidecover back to the clearcoater, he had already shot a layer of clear on the front fender!

OMG - the diamond crystal pearl that I got from Kustom Shop (part of TCP Global) is AWESOME!!! It absolutely SINGS! *dances around* And I only saw it under the paint booth lights…this bike is going to have a totally electric GLOW in the sunlight. The folks at TCP were very helpful when I was trying to make a decision on the pearl powder.

I guess it is good for me to go through this waiting occasionally, as it lets me know how my clients feel when they are waiting for their parts to be completed. That’s why I always send progress reports to clients. I know they want to be a part of the process and know that their parts are getting some LUV from the artist. :)

I should have the tank completely touched up by tomorrow afternoon, and can get that last piece over to the clearcoater’s. Then, I just have to sit and chew my nails, order new tires and my Kury ISO grips, chew my nails some more, work on the bike video, take video of the seat being completed, chew my nails some more, and wait for the phone call from Freddy to tell me to come pick up my parts!!

I have been dreaming of seeing Matty assembled again and getting her back on the ROAD, and the day is coming soooooooon!

Until next time, keep the shiny side up!
EclecticDawn

Well, here’s some of the latest pics: