Hard at work on the next Swampy’s Florida Coloring Book and Guide.

Terisa Glover and I crossed pens across the sketchpad while at dinner at Palace Pizza in Downtown Lakeland, Florida. Each adding a piece and passing the pen to the other. Above are the results. i should mention part of this has to do with Terisa’s dog, Sparky, slurping many a spaghetti noodle served to her.

The Socrates Cafe discussion this month included asking what the pop phrase “Epic” means, ethics and personal information, knowing oneself and asking what “mercy” is.

Attended the Orlando Remembered meeting on the 18th. Above are sketches. Page 1 is of Bob Buck and Betty Bandy. The second page has Steve Rajtar, Leon Handley, Grace Chewning, Joy Wallace Dickinson and Hillis Bandy.

Below is a sneak peek at the meeting!

Our Chairman, Bill Milligan, and secretary, Grace Chewning, discuss Orlando Remembered business.

I joined the Thursday morning hiking group of the Florida Cracker Chapter of the Florida Trail Association for, what turned out to be, a strenuous 6 mile hike through San Felasco State Park. There are many more photos at the Swampy’s Florida site. You can see those by clicking here.

Along the way I got some sketchin’ done, too. Not as much as usual. Below are a couple of the slight scribblings I made along the way.

While hiking it’s always good to be prepared for emergencies by carrying a well stocked Pez container!

We found ourselves in an empty bed of a cypress swamp.

This should be under at least some water. Below is a lonely cypress knee.

Here’s the birthday illustration I made for my father this year. Reading a Mike Shayne mystery novel inspired me to combine the detective with the frog. This is a watercolor painting, 11″ x 14″.

Below is a photo of my father on his birthday caught in the act of retrieving a glasses case from his shirt pocket with his requested steakburger ready for consumption.

Above is the mysterious Marie who asked me to create the caricature she’s holding. I did the whole thing at Bubbalou’s Bar-B-Que in Altamonte Springs, Florida. Look for a post about it on Swampy’s Florida next week. The restaurant was a great meeting place to get the artwork done and for good food.

  Here I am in the midst of getting the caricature done.

My last Christmas visits had me a bit closer to home and a chance to see lots of Christmas lights. Above are lights in Leesburg at Venetian Gardens and in Downtown Ocala. I just wish I would think more of taking photos when passing along Christmas cards. Something to work on next year!

After nearly 30 years got the opportunity to meet with a classmate in high school, Steve Brewster. He was also a fellow artist at the time. Now he lives in Gainesville. One of his hobbies is showing old horror movies on Blog.TV. You can tune in here on Saturday nights to see Steve in action.

Steve also has a mutual interest in cartoon toys and has his own collection. I did a drawing of him during the meeting.

Below is another classmate, James Holding and his wife, Susan. Though, James was a few years younger than me as we went to through school. I tutored cartooning  with James when he was attending Robert E. Lee Jr. High School.

James still cartoons to compliment a business he is in as a biblical apologist. You can see much, much more on his site by clicking here. Click here to see some of his animated spots on YouTube.

The annual Christmas Eve visit to, my dear friend, Lucile Fair, is always fun. A month before her 104th birthday and she is as full of energy as ever.

Started the day at the Junior’s Diner near Audubon Park in Orlando having breakfast with, cartoonist, Charles Treadwell; former Orlando Sentinel editorial cartoonist and comics historian, Jim Ivey and, long time friend of Jim and I, Craig Zablo. Pens and paper got drawn all over. There’s Craig with a drawing I drew.

I made a number of stops along the way. Here’s cousin Martha Bisplinghoff and, friend, Shawn Anderson.

Later met with a bunch of friends back in Audubon Park. The plan was to meet at Stardust Video there, but when I had called them about a group gathering, they failed to mention they were basically closing the palce for an in-house play. Above it Rich Scott, James Saunders, Ken Culotta and Cindy Mackey.

Above is Robert Baurle and Ken Culotta and the Christmas tree at O’Stromboli, where some us went across from Stardust Video. Also, above, are some excellent cookies given to me by Rich and Cindy. They are home made by Cindy. Thanks, Cindy!

Here’s a page from the sketch book of the subjects we tossed about during the Socrates Cafe, a group discussion of issues. This month we covered questions of what intimacy is, what is wrong and what listening is. Below is a photo of part of the group, that was much smaller a few days prior to Christmas.