Granite Hand and a Falmouth Getaway

Whenever the temperatures have risen above 32 degrees, I've been in the stone studio.

 It was sub-freezing for the first week of January, which I spent inside making clay models.  This is a 1/8 scale plastiline model for a commission in Vermont Granite.

 This is the granite preformed sculpture - 4' wide by 2' high by 2' deep (and covered in limestone dust before work resumed after a 2 year hiatus).

 This is how it looks at the end of January.  Granite is HARD - the running joke is: what have you done?  It's hard to see the changes on a daily basis.

 The main changes happened in the overhead view.  This image shows the preformed sculpture (before work resumed), Meg's hand for reference, and the scale clay model.

 Here's today's overhead view.  It's easy to see the changes from the top image (before work resumed).

 Granite is not for the feint of heart - these are the 'casualties' so far.  More than a dozen diamond blades have hit the dust.

 Last weekend, a red sunrise revealed about an inch of snow clinging to the trees and covering the ground.

It made for a pretty 3-1/2 hour drive to Falmouth, Kentucky to party with a couple of college friends; Tom Mitts and John Kaiser. This picture shows a large impounded pond on the 100+ acre tract of wooded property that belongs to John.  Looks cold? (It was...most of the time was spent inside by the fire).