Undercover in Vienna Virginia

Living in Virginia, just outside of Washington DC is delightful, but has its challenges - plusses:  culture, diversity, world-class museums, theater, restaurants, shopping. . . and minuses(?): politicians, election shenanigans, scandals, and spies.  Seriously, a very notorious spy actually lived a mile and a half from my house (who knew)!  He filled "dead drops" with classified documents in local parks for the Russians.   Hold on to your hats for the rest of the story!

Ms. Chick arrived around Halloween and the mid-term elections.  She is quite demure yet absolutely adorable!   Not sure if she would like the goblins or the darker-side of living here. On top of that, autumn just didn't happen - a day or two of nice yellow and red leaves then huge winds came through and blew most of them off the trees - turned the whole place into a lovely shade of beige!  Now what to do?

This is a great place to live with the mountains and vineyards to the West, beach to the South, and Chesapeake Bay to the East.  Personally, I love living here because you have all the nature AND the "big city" nearby.  So, after a bit of chick-to-chick discussion, we decided to go west to Virginia wine country (didn't take long to find out that chardonnay is her favorite) - also picked up a dinky pumpkin she HAD TO HAVE. Maybe that was the wine talking?!  Artists be forewarned, she is quite a handful despite her demure demeanor!  When we finally got home, she insisted on setting up the composition since she could tell right away, it is not my strong suit.  So, here she is taking over the spotlight in a rather monochromatic wine, pumpkin and Chick-a-tude painting - I guess she really loves all-things-yellow. She rather liked her shadow on the pumpkin . . . not sure what that was about though.  She seems to have a lot of secrets too.

Ms. Chick with Piedmont Chardonnay

One final tale and to round out the story - I can only imagine this had to be the first in-person, somewhat clandestine, drop-off to the next Traveling Chicken artist.  Yes, it did happen right here in Northern Virginia just a few miles outside of DC.  Getting into a covert mindset, there were emails, logistics, time coordinates, phone calls, a surprising shared contact from Colorado, and finally a drop-site at a nondescript shopping center.  Truth be told, I discovered the next artist was truly a retired FBI spy-catcher who was even involved in the case that captured the super-spy in my neighborhood!  Egads.  I know Ms. Chick will love hanging out with her as much as i did!

Thanks for the visit!

p.s. we sent out an APB for Mr. Gallo -- not sure where he is. . . . 

You can read more about my art here:  http://johnnaschelling.blogspot.com/