It's. . . The Final Day of Summer Vacation!

The blue squadron of my composite cavalry regiment with silk bags newly highlighted with Scarlet on top of darker Cherry Red.

Sadly, today is the final day of summer vacation 2018. Classes begin tomorrow bright and early at 8am for yours truly with my Henrik Ibsen and Society course on social problem plays since the late 1870s.

Syllabi have all been revised and uploaded to the cloud where students can access them after 1am Wednesday morning. I've also uploaded various supplementary readings to the respective online course schedules and grade pages. It has been a flurry of activity around here for the last two weeks, which explains the slow-down in painting and related updates here.

However, I have been able to return to the painting table during the last couple of days and pick up where I left off back on August 12th. After finishing the medium-dark gray highlights on the black leather horse tack yesterday, I decided to give myself a break and see to the much easier dark blue coats and red silk bags atop the squadron's bearskins. If there is time this evening, I'll either add the light Royal Blue highlight, or begin the many small silver and brass bits of metal on the horse tack. We'll see how it goes.

The first few weeks of the term are fairly easy as far as my workload goes, so I hope to squeeze in an hour or so pf painting most evenings before free time disappears about Week 5 when the first round of student projects will be delivered. Until then, a few more glorious weeks of relatively free evenings and weekends.

-- Stokes

Presenting the Anspach-Bayreuth Kuirassiere!!!

Here they are, with the rearmost nine figures still drying, three squadrons of the Anspach-Bayreuth Kuirassiere, now in the service of the Grand Duchy of Stollen. And now, it's onto that artillery!

Keepin' an Eye on the World Going By My Window . .

'The Nap at the Palace' by Jose Triado Mayol N ot much in the way of hobby-related activity happening here in the Grand Duchy lately. Sigh. And no surprise there really since there are only so many hours in the day, only so much mental and physical energy to spare, and you sometimes simply just have to give in and know when to say, um, "When!" A glass of wine and/or evening yoga by the hearth with the Grand Duchess (who has practiced for over 20 years), and then off into la-la land. Zzzzzzzzz. More immediately, I'm recovering, mentally speaking, from a grueling Friday in which I was involved with three (online) conference sessions, one right after the other, followed by a 90-minute meeting at the end of the day. Also virtual. My brain has been mush ever since, so an easy, completely unproductive Saturday watching intermittent snow fall outside (no accumulation however) and drinking coffee while the visiting handymen completed some repair work down h...

And It's the End of September!!!

Saxony's Ploetz Cuirassiers, an illustration lifted from the Kronoskaf website, which has thus far guided my spectacularly glacial painting of 30 28mm Eureka Saxon cuirassiers purchased all the way back in October 2016. A gray, cool Saturday here in Mid-Michigan with rain in the forecast. The Grand Duchess is away at a conference, so it's just "The Boys" here at home. The Young Master (almost 15) has retreated to his room for something or other following breakfast while I have stolen back down here to Zum Stollenkeller (masquerading as my office) with a second mug of coffee and both cats comfortably ensconced nearby. Enjoying the late morning and still in my pajamas! Not much planned for today beyond designing a couple of promotional flyers for workshops my department is presenting (small parties we will throw?) in October and November. With maybe a bit of on the next podcast script. More important, I am toying with the idea of returning for an hour or...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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