It is Thursday, May 7, just before sun rise, spring is in the Rockies and buds and birds show themselves. Charmaine and I have been home for a few days. We have been down in Texas where I had a show at the Grace Museum in Abilene. It was great fun being there, they rolled out the Red Carpet for us. On opening night the place was packed with people, all kinds of people from all over the country. It sure made me feel good to see so many old friends and so many new faces.

After the opening about 350 of us walked down the street a couple of blocks to have diner in the court yard of a "cowboy museum" called Frontier Land. There was a stage set up for a group called the The FLATLANDERS, they have just released a new CD called "Hills And Valleys, I got to chose who I wanted to play that night and this group made up of Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock and Joe Ely was my first choice. Charmaine and I danced every dance, and loved every minute of it. These guys are really great.

My time in Abilene, Texas was the best, I loved it. And the fact that they published a beautiful book called "JAMES SURLS / From the Heartland" sure made me happy. I have had several books done on my work, but this one is on new work, 28 drawings with an essay by Susie Kalil that is the best essay on my drawing ever. There are also 27 sculptures in the book, with a great essay by Patterson Sims. Folks, this is a good one. I will post how you can get it a little latter.

But back to now, today I work in the yard, back to birds and buds and water in the irrigation ditch. It is a good time to be alive. In a month or so we will have flowers all around our house with bees and humming birds sounding off and looking good.