Yesterday I had lunch with a good friend. She is one of the kindest, gentlest, and most gracious people I’ve ever met. If I was allowed to nominate a person for sainthood she would be the one who comes to mind. My friend, Patty.

Patty sings alto with me in the church choir. Not only does she have a nice voice and a kind heart, but she also has talent oozing out of her fingertips.

Yesterday, despite the fact that I brought my lunch because of my gluten-free diet, she made homemade chicken soup, salad, and a wonderful blueberry yogurt dessert. She didn’t have to do any of it. I was just glad to be able to run around the corner and visit for about 50 minutes (though I realized that it definitely wasn’t long enough!). Patty reminds me a lot of Melanie from “Gone With the Wind.” She’s very sweet, gentle, kind, and everybody loves her. She won’t sing her praises, so since I am in the choir I’m going to do it for her.

*clears throat*

Okay, I won’t sing, but let me show you what her fingers are able to do.

First, she gifted me with this bird house that matches the purple in my library:

How cute is that? (You knew that I would sneak in something Civil War related once you read my comparison to Melanie, didn’t you?)

Then she went to a craft day at church where she made the cutest stepping stone for her garden:

It’s even lovelier in person!

Since she’s retired she decided to participate in the free art class that is given at the church during the week.

This was her picture she worked from:

Look at all of the detail in that picture. She is far braver than I would be! I would be looking for a picture of the sun… or a polar bear in a snow storm. Not Patty.

No, she didn’t copy every detail, but she got the important parts! The city is quite good and I like the sunflowers. If Jackson Pollock can splatter paint on a canvas and be revered for his “talent” then I think Patty’s picture needs to go up in one of the art museums. It looks nothing like the Tiger Lily that I did in high school, which turned into an orange banana peel. *sigh*

Remember that Patty is taking an art class, and practice is an important thing. This is my favorite that she’s done so far:

How pretty are those tulips?!

I am impressed with anybody who can draw or paint something that actually looks like the subject on which it was based. I can definitely appreciate the talent and skill that is required.

The latest painting project that she’s been working on are these:

I’m going to leave these pictures bigger so that you can see the details. Look at that shark! And aren’t the bees adorable?

Apparently this summer the thing to do is paint rocks, hide them around the area, and then go look for other painted rocks. Some people post clues on Facebook regarding the hiding spots, and others just let people stumble upon them. So Patty has been painting rocks and leaving them around town.

I love the orangey-red flowers on the left. And the yellow daffodil-looking ones at the top. And who wouldn’t chuckle to find that giant smile peeking out at them from under some pansies? I wish that I had taken a picture of the ones she had painted for her grandkids. She did worms and spiders and other creepy-crawly things that were all completely adorable! And you know that I don’t like spiders!

Finally, I will leave you with the last picture that I have of her rocks. I think that these really say it all…