Thursday, June 27, 2013

June 2013


This month I spent a lot of time painting.  I have completed a dozen or so small paintings.  Paintings from photos I took in my climbing days and some from photos off the Internet.  I have learned a few things of how the water and paint act. In the photo I am painting at a local park near the Columbia River.  I have a traveling palette or paint set I have taken on camping trips and use water right from the stream I was painting.  There is a difference in how the paints of my two palettes are used.  Paints with the traveling palette are in small cubes that move freely with water and a brush.  The larger palette has colors that are squeezed from tubes into wells and then after drying are worked with a wet brush to move the pigment to the paper.  Though the traveling set has a third of the paint wells, I like the challenge of mixing to get the right colors.  In theory, I only need three wells for the primary colors, red, blue and yellow.  From there I should get any color I want.  Well it sounds good.  The abundance of color and shades of greens and browns in the larger palette helps a lot.  And oh yes, the traveling palette has one brush that is less than four inches long from end to tip of brush hairs.  I enjoy the simplicity of the travel set. 

This was a good month as I continue to see improvements with strength in my legs.  I am using my walker more and can see my balance is improving.   I have been monitoring my heart rate and oxygen saturation to see what some exercise was doing to my circulatory system.  A small amount of walking will elevate my heart rate and my oxygen saturation will drop some slightly.  I saw my oncologist this month for check up of a possible respiratory infection.  The lungs were in good condition with no sounds of a pneumonia.  We were surprised when my blood pressures did not drop between laying, sitting and standing.  Generally my blood pressure would drop over 20mm of pressure when I would stand.  But this time they dropped only 10mm of pressure, a very healthy number.  Then the blood worked up showed good values also.  This after I have been pulled back on some of the vitamin and mineral supplements.  We were all pleasantly surprised.   

My daughter-in-law told me she was not surprised I was getting better as there are a lot of people who are praying for me.  Thank you for your prayers.    
 
 

3 comments:

  1. Glad to see that your health is improving as well as your painting. Also have been painting. Just finished a large oil of Birch trees. Always with a view to Glorify God.

    Psa 96:10 Say among the heathen that the LORD reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people righteously.
    Psa 96:11 Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof.
    Psa 96:12 Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice.
    Will use this Scripture with the painting. Susan

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  2. thanks for your updates on blog- its a good way to hear how you are doing without passing a cold to you. Always good to hear you are doing better and God answers prayer.

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  3. Hi Rick,, I went out and saw Fred, and at 92 he is still doing well physically. He remembered you quite well, and talked about how much he appreciated you. I'm afraid to say that is a mental state comes and goes. He does pretty well overall and is still living by himself. Well I should say one of his grandsons lives with him most the time. He has a minimum of 2 to 3 visits a day, from his daughter in law and daughter. It's nice to see that you are slowly improving, keep up the good work. It's also nice to see that you have so many people that are Christians following your site. Take care Rick your friend Cliff.

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