The latest look at the garden boxes

I'm pleased with the way this one is coming along. In sixteen square feet I've got strawberries, chives, peas,radishes and lettuce.

The strawberries in the new box are a different variety and are not faring as well. I've already lost 5 plants that were apparently dug up by some of the small animals around here. The cucumbers and lettuce seem to be dong pretty well but time will tell how well this one works out.

Lilacs

I had hoped to get some drawings ad paintings done of the lilacs this year but the weather has been kind of crazy and by the time I got out to cut them they were already past their prime. I brought a few in anyway and will see what I can do with them .

As you can see it's pretty windy today. This would be a better photo with a softer background but I want to remind you that I live in the middle of a city and enjoying your garden is more about what you believe than it is about where you live.

 Yes, it's a mess out here and there are houses all around it but I'm as happy as I'd be in a lovely place in the country. There are a lot of things in life that we can't have and I choose not to focus on that. Even here in the city the scent fills the breeze and keeps my mind off  the noise a the traffic.

Welcome to my world

Yes, I "should" be mowing the lawn but can wait until the lilacs have gone-don't you think so? 

Yard and Garden Art

The butterflies will all be yard stakes when I finish drilling them and adding the posts. The metal flowers were purchased but only painted on one side so I painted the backs of them in case the wind turns them around in the garden.

Now I've got flowers and color in the yard no matter what the weather does and the best thing about it is that one friend gave me the wooden container and another gave me the metal flower that inspired me to get the rest of these. Cost to me on this whole project (container and flowers) was only 3 dollars which cheered me up too.

I still have to paint the backs of these butterflies and put the rods in them but it makes me really happy to know that these will be brightening things up for a couple of other great women that I know.

Goldfinches

Cardinals

I'm just not fast enough with the camera, it took two of this to get this shot while missing the goldfinches a chickadee and several other birds I didn't recognize all in a matter of about 15 minutes. The big draw this morning is that small puddle in the gravel where we're running the water from the sump pump. We've got several sections of hoses to put at any length that we want to as we move it around and water all of our trees and flowers.

Blue butterfly garden art, painted daisies

I'm excited about this and thought I'd scan it for you before I drill it for the brass rod and put it out in my garden. It should go really nice with all of the blue furniture and things out there.

As I'm finishing this up I'm painting a pair of red ones which will be going to friends.

Here's the blue on in my garden. I took one over to my parents place too but didn't get a picture of that one yet.

Butterflies are getting to be a bit of a theme around here. I've got 2 butterfly houses and planted a bit of habitat for them and collected a bit of butterfly garden art as well.

Goldfinches and bird feeders for them

The goldfinches visit a lot more often since we bought that thistle seed feeder (that's the long tube with the bright yellow ends) It was inexpensive and already filled, all I had to do was remove the tape and insert the perch. I like the look of this much more than the the mesh fabric feeders we used to buy and this was only a few dollars more. The really important thing is that the birds like it more and visit much more often than they used to.

As gray as our weather has been lately a bit of bright yellow flitting through the garden is a very welcome sight.

I plan to cut what's left of the tulips today and do some drawings of them and can hardly wait for the rest of the flowers to bloom.

Painted Daisy Garden Decorations

Base coat in blue, add the yellow border. Paint the butterfly body in gold.

1. Base coat the area where you want to paint the daisy in light blue with a round brush, allow to dry.

2. Stroke over the light blue areas in white.

3. Add centers in light brown, allow to dry.

4. Dot over the brown area in pale yellow

5, Add leaves with a double loaded round brush in 2 shades of green.

These will be finished as garden stakes by drilling a hole in each of them to insert a wooden dowel or a metal rod to be placed ut in the butterfly garden.

3 step Daisy inspiration page

1. Start with some daisy pictures from magazines, greeting cards, calendars, stationery or photos.
2. Cut everything out
3. Attach to a blank page with double stick tape

I'll be adding more pictures to this page until I run out of room on it. They're drawn and painted in a number of different styles and should give me lots of ideas the next time that I want to paint some.

Watercolor, Recycling, Card Making and fun in the mail

There's an interesting story behind this one. The flower came on a card from a friend, I used it as part of the spring decorations at a local senior center for a couple of months and now I've attached it to a watercolor card, painted leaves and a background on it and will be sending it back to that friend. I love it when things go full circle don't you? We've enjoyed our little paper adventure and hope you will too.

The origin of this card is similar, the flower cut outs came to me in the mail, I used them for spring decorations and now I've made them into this card by painting leaves around them.

Some of these flowers came from a calendar and the other was a die cut. Yes, these were also part of the spring decorations at the senior center for a couple of months before I made them into these cards.

I'll be painting envelopes for these and will post pictures of those as soon as I finish them.

The great thing about painting on the mail is that no matter how it turns out someone will be happy that you took the time to decorate the card and envelope and to sit down and write a letter. It's a rare art these days in many ways.

Letters from the garden

Catalog inspired Dala Horse

Here's what I ended up with.

I started with that picture of a plate that I clipped out of a catalog. I made a few changes along the way but I really enjoyed exploring the possibilities as I painted this horse.

 You never know where the ideas will come from and you'll find yourself looking at EVERYTHING in a different way. the possibilities really are endless.

Urban Wildlife Habitat

...and people were wondering why I bought an entire pound of seed for sunflowers...these guys are going right behind me UNplanting them!

There are a few more birds this morning but they're always a challenge to photograph.

 Just before I took this picture there were 3 squirrels in there running around and having a great time while they were out for breakfast.

I'm always torn between taking a photo and shooing them out of my flower bed.

Bird watching from the worktable window

I snapped this picture as I was drawing and painting on my letters today.

It's been a nice day, I crocheted a potholder, did three letters decorated in watercolor and ink and after tending to some of the regular work of the day I plan to get back to sanding and painting a few more wooden horses and butterflies.

It's been raining most of the day so that's kept me out of the garden and made me glad I'd transplanted that hosta yesterday. There's still quite a lot more of it to be moved so I'll wait for better weather to tend to that. I'll also be trying out the little sunflower planter that we made from a dandelion weeder and a short length of copper tubing.

There's always something to look forward to and each season brings it's own surprises. I'll keep you posted as the season progresses.

Planting Hosta from a chair

ALWAYS TAKE SOMEONE TO THE GARDEN WITH YOU. You never know when you may want or need a little help with things.

DO NOT ATTEMPT IF YOU ARE UNSTEADY OR LIKELY TO FALL FROM YOUR CHAIR. I use a rocking patio chair and SLOWLY tilt it forward when reaching down to plant anything.

 My husband dug this hosts up for me and then made holes for the new border with a post hole digger while I sat at the table and separated this clump into 7 smaller plants by wiggling some of them apart with my hands where possible and cutting sections apart with a knife wherever I had to.