Marietta, Burros, and Beatrice Badger

On our way home from Bishop, Ca we stopped at Marietta,

a ghost town near Hawthorne. Lots of burros in the area

that are said to be descendants of those used as pack animals for the mines.

They are such calm animals, compared to the mustangs, and curious too.

I think they like to get their pictures taken.

We've seen lots of burros on our outings lately and they all look really healthy.

There were even more out by Lovelock. A couple fluffy babies in the group. This bunch

were different colors than those near Marietta. Lighter grey and white

and no white rings around the eyes of the darker brown burros.

It's difficult to tell from this picture but they extend back into the desert

and there was just about the same amount on the other side of the road.

We also saw quite a few black Angus cattle that were pretty

calm and curious, too. They decided to move to a new

patch of grass while we were parked and one of the mamas

came right up to our truck and sniffed around a bit. She was huge.

They were the inspiration for the sketch above.

We were out before the winter weather hit, so the mountains

still had some nice purples and autumn colors in the brush.

The Adventures of Beatrice Badger book and another project I'm working on

are the reason it's been a while since my last post.

Beatrice Badger is the mascot for the Education Department

It was kind of a spur of the moment idea and we all worked on it together

to get it done and published before the end of the year.

Stop by and check it out if you're in the area.

This is one of my favorite illustrations in the book.

I like how the colors turned out and the

paint was cooperating well for this one.

Cathie Richardson Illustration