Feelin' no pain

If the colors is this painting remind you of tie dye you see where I'm coming from. As I painted this i was trying to remember what it was like to be young and feeling no pain. Life seems to be much more of a challenge these days and it was nice to daydream a bit and take a mental vacation from my current pain level.
Art may not always heal but it sure can't hurt.

One dollar and seven cents

Like a lot of artists and other people there's often "too much month left at the end of the money". Today's shopping  choices are one apple and one banana, one orange and one banana or two ice cream cones. Being that there are two of us and we're not prone to healthy choices we're going for ice cream. There's something wonderful about being almost broke and still being able to go out to eat. I think Burger King is making a LOT of people happy with that 50 cent cone special that they've been running lately. It always cheers me up and tomorrow is payday so we made it...in style.
Here's hoping you can "make ends meet" with a smile too.
Hang in there!

Tea time

It's all in how you look at things.

Most people couldn't relax so close to the street in the city but we don't mind at all. people stop and visit from time to time and there's always something to see.

The world situation being the way it is I know how lucky I am and both enjoy and appreciate it.

Making changes in the flower pots

 I even added the yellow flowers from the fairy garden and some hosta for contrast in shapes, sizes and colors to make things more interesting. I trimmed a lot of plants back but when they recover from the transplanting I think this will be really nice.

This one didn't turn out quite as well because everything left was more or less the same color.

I'm hoping that I can get these going really good to use as a housewarming gift soon. These pots just match the her place. They don't look too bad at mine either...

Pink Lilies

I only have a few of these. I'll count them when I begin to cut them for the studio. I plan to start with colored pencil and then move on to watercolors and acrylics if there's time before they finish blooming.

Scrap Paper Cards

The front yard

Here's the planter Doug and I built along the side of the house. It's doing so well that I need to find a new home for a lot of these plants. Next year they'll be part of the new border we're putting across the outside edge of the front yard.

The front border

You can see in this photo that the hosta we transplanted is doing well. I wish we'd had time to move more of it before the weather warmed up. Oh well, there's always next season.

 You can see a few of the border plants here. Yes, they're mostly perenials so this view doesn't change much unless I'm moving things around. This bed is one of the places where I put all of that sunflower and wildflower seed so it should be a lot more interesting to look at soon.

 That lilac bush we transplanted seems to be off to a good start. The new growth looks promising.

The open spot here is where that last pocketful of sunflower seed went.

I'm hoping all of those sunflowers will help block the view of the street this summer and I'm looking forward to the day when the row of lilacs I've planted here will do the job full time.

Peas in boxes and pots

You can barely see the planter box anymore, everything is growing like mad! I need to get in there and do some weeding soon. There's a close up photo of the peas in this one at the end of this post.

It's a bit hard to see the peas here among the other plants. They're running up the trellis and each of these green towers.

I'm on my way to the hardware store to pick up something for these to climb on.

Rose Photos

Even that tangle of bushes and climbers looks great when everything is blooming.

This deeper pink is my favorite. It comes from the farm my husband grew up on and his grandparents farm before that. It's living at our little place in the city now and always makes us smile.

Along with the old farmstead bush are some Canadian climbers and some wild roses from the woods where we got married. There are a few other types of roses in here as well but I've lost track of what's what after all of these years but they're all pinks and look good together.

A quick paper notecard

You can make this any size that works for you. I find it a good way to use up odd envelopes when making fun mail. All it takes is 2 different papers, a pair of regular scissors and a pair of decorative scissors. Even an old pair of pinking shears will do.

too hot for pictures and too busy to take them

The last few days only the shady corner where my table sits would be good for the camera and there's been far too much work to do in other parts of the garden to bother with it.
It's surprising how fast the plants that you don't want can spread while you struggle to get the plants that you do want want to grow started.
There seem to be volunteer trees everywhere and some of them are getting pretty tall. I've tried to find people that want the bigger ones while I remove the small ones when I can.
Lunch yesterday included lettuce, radishes and pea pods from the garden in salads.
The last of the sunflowers have finally been planted. I had thought they were all in but found a handful of seed left in the kitchen where I'd been shaking it out of my pockets at the end of the day. Yesterday we removed a tiny strip of sod next to the flower bed at the front of the yard so I planted them there.
There are an entire pound of sunflower seeds planted here, there and everywhere in the front and back yards. I can't wait to see how many of them bloom this summer!

A walk in the front garden, The big rosebushes are blooming

I never did get these roses untangled. There are at least 3 or 4 different varieties in this mess but it's all blooming and I guess we'll just enjoy that and hope to get back to transplanting next spring.

Are you tired of all of this blue yet? I Love it!

A walk in the back garden

The radishes are from the recycled plastic planter box and the peas are growing next to the climbing roses in the new cedar box.

Here are the roses inside the box

Here are the climbing roses from the outside of the box. I've also got wildflowers and sunflowers planted around the base of them because I was a bit afraid that the roses wouldn't transplant well. It looks now like I didn't have to worry, they're doing great!

A new angle on Iris in watercolor

Most of the time people seem to paint Iris straight on and fully open so I'm trying to catch some before they reach that point and as they come out in different directions.

I started working this one from the outside in and wasn't real thrilled with the results. The next time I started roughing in the basic shape and decided I was on the wrong track again.

What I'm hoping to do next is let the painting evolve form the center out and see how that goes.

After all the years I've been painting I still struggle with making the petals look like they're curling in the directions that I want them to. Most people can't understand how you can keep painting the same flowers year after year but each season is another crusade on a quest to capture just the right moment where it blooms and looks just right to you.

Iris Photos

Gardens full of Blue Chairs