Drawing 145 pictures in one year’s time can get boring, tedious and lonely. I love to draw, but occasionally there are signs that my enthusiasm is wavering.

Last week I found myself enmeshed in a terrible web of procrastination. I did some oil painting, organizing, painting of cupboards in the workshop, blogging, reading for fun, gardening, errands, and even attempted to balance the checkbooks.

When I do stuff with numbers by choice,  you KNOW there is a problem.

No worries – enter NATALIE! We met in 1986, are close in age but far in geography. We had an agreement to write letters in spite of email, and we have stuck to that agreement with some exceptions. Natalie emailed me last week to ask if there was a time she could call me on the phone, because she wanted a real conversation. What a friend!

We talked for TWO HOURS while I worked on this pencil drawing of a Wilsonia cabin:

Thank you, my dear friend Natalie, for talking me through, for helping me figure out some things, for taking the time to catch me up on your life, for the incredible gift of committed friendship for 27 years.