Indoor Outdoor Sketching on a VERY rainy day

The North Woods outdoor painters met yesterday.  One of our favorite places to paint is Coon's Franklin Lodge in Arbor Vitae, Wisconsin (about 10 miles north of Minocqua on Trout Lake).  

This is one of those old fashioned lodges that has been passed down through several generations of ownership.  You know the kind, where families often come back year after year.  

Done in a Strathmore Visual Journal with 90# paper (9 x 12).
The hard part of yesterday was only that it RAINED all day AGAIN.  Normally that would put the kibosh on any painting as we often choose places with no cover.  The the lodge has many covered walkways and is generously covered with little color spots of chair/pillows and floral plantings.  

For me?  I headed straight for the lodge lounge area.  A fire was crackling there and a stuffed bear snarled in the corner as any good Northwoods lodge would offer. Mounted fish on the wall and plenty of overstuffed furniture and a wonderful old roll-topped desk in one corner.  There I curled up from about 10:30 to noon doing the above sketch.

The lodge area was large enough that guests could filter through now and then and people came down to read and visit quietly.  At 12:30 the noon bell rang in the charming and large dining room and the painting group gathered for a very hearty and lovely lunch!  

There we shared painting stories and complained about weather together.   The weather man has PROMISED us a nice 4th of July...with sun (if we can remember what that looks like) and temps in the high 70s.  And he says we could have a nice little stretch of sunny dry weather following that.  We would be ecstatic about this.
If nothing else, rain provides you with a reason to LOVE sunshine.
There might be a metaphor for life there somewhere.

We are off to garage sales (as usual on Fridays) and hoping the rain will hold off today until we are done!  

Hope everyone has a safe and joyful 4th.  
My BIG hoard of family will start arriving tomorrow.  And we'll be jam packed with activities for about 10 days.  Hope to get some sketching in.