Employee Appreciation Day

3/6/26 Top Pot Doughnuts, Wedgwood neighborhood (Beware all who speak very loudly during Zoom meetings in cafes: You will be drawn unflatteringly.)

Before I retired, I had been self-employed for many years as a marketing copywriter. Although I was a pretty good boss of myself, I didn’t show enough appreciation back then for my hard-working employee, nor did I know about Employee Appreciation Day (first Friday in March). In fact, the day was off my radar until I was informed of it by Top Pot Doughnuts suggesting that doughnuts would be an appropriate way to express appreciation to one’s employees. ‘Nuff said.

Now I have another annual holiday to observe with a doughnut!

Material notes: If I were getting a doughnut for eating enjoyment only, I would probably get a chocolate-dipped Bismarck or an apple fritter. On this day, however, I wanted to test the plum and cherry blossom palette I had picked out in Caran d’Ache Neocolor II crayons, so I chose a suitably pink raspberry-glazed raised. The dark purple Derwent Inktense pencil is for blossom shadows. I’ve tried many different media – watercolor, gouache, water-soluble colored pencils, water-soluble crayons, opaque markers – for always-challenging blossoming trees, never to my complete satisfaction. This year I’m using Neocolor II crayons again, if only because I have an easy way to carry them now.