The short pencil

Wheelchair garden and lily photos

Fun with Flowers

Super Easy Wheelchair Tote Bag

If you don't want to make a bag you can modify any tote you've got by simply moving the handles from the middle of the bag to the corners and reattaching them by any method that works for you.

Here's a bag that I sewed from fabric scraps, buttons and a small piece of webbing:

There's only one number to remember: 12 inches. It's the finished dimension of the bag (both height and width) and it's the length of the straps before they're folded in half and attached to the corners of the bag.

This bag is different on each side because I was using up all of the scraps of fabric that I had sitting around the house.

I'll probably add more buttons, beads and embroidery as I come across odds and ends around the house so it gets a bit more interesting all of the time.

Found on the back of an old Graduation photo

As you can imagine this brought back a LOT of old memories...

Amazing rhrubarb

I found this photo in one of my old garden journals and was always amazed at the size of my plants that year. I've never grown anything that size since so I thought you might like to see it too.

I wish I'd pulled the picnic table closer to show off just how tall those plants got.

At home with art and flowers

These are old photos but seeing them again made me smile so I thought I'd share them with you too.

The funny thing about painting roses on the corner of this building was watching bees trying to land on them.

Drawing and painting flowers

New Potatoes for Lunch Raspberries for Dessert

I had a chance to get out in my container garden today but forgot to bring my camera along. It will be a while before I figure out what I can and can't drag along with the wheelchair.

I trimmed up and re-arranged the Fairy Garden and then noticed my potato plants had more or less dropped over and were staring to shrivel up so I though I might as well pull them and make lunch.

When I've finished cleaning out that big pot I'll try some late season lettuce, radishes and maybe some peas.

That end of my driveway doesn't get a lot of strong sun so I think they'll be fine.

We've had enough black raspberries coming that I've been able to send pints home with everyone that's stopped by to visit.

I'm thinking about throwing some into muffins at tea time.

I need to be doing some drawing and painting but haven't quite gotten around to it lately

Lake Photos and Updates

Just after I splurged on pretty envelopes I was excited to find matching paper in the mail today from one of my sister's along with  a lot of fun pens,papers, note cards, letter papers notebooks and a clipboard so that things won't blow away if I decide to write my letters out in the garden.

I got a better fitting wheelchair and although it's rough going in the grass it will get me into my driveway container garden and that's a start.

My husband has been picking some of the raspberries and strawberries while I work on plans to try a few bushes and plants in my container garden next season so that I can take care of them myself.

I still haven't gotten my studio area of the dining room set  up well enough to work in but that's in progress too.

We're also investigating whether or not I can handle a riding mower to get me out in the yard and garden again.

A lot of us are facing challenges in the garden these days so I'll keep you posted if I find ways to make things go easier or better to grow your own personal food supply.

I'm evil, instead of staying home to weed the garden I took advantage of the perfect weather and headed to the lake.

Here are a few photos:

This duck was headed over to our table which was a few feet behind the gals on the bench.

 There were a lot of ducks in the park today and this one's stroll was interrupted when a couple of little girls came running up to it.

As you can see, midweek things are pretty quiet here. I'm planning to bring my paints to the lake soon.

playing with the outgoing mail

We finally splurged on some colored envelopes but I'm still working with cheap pens and short pencils.

A few scraps of card stock and some garden photos made things a bit more fun but I'm still not in the mood to do some serious drawing.

That's the great thing about mail. No one's going to mind if these aren't perfect, most of them just appreciate me taking the time and trouble to put things together and write.

Being able to do this helps me unwind and get ready to do better drawings and paintings so it does us all good and remains my favorite part of the day.

A few birds

White Squirrel

Some people see the wildlife here and some people just see the weeds, there are a lot of ways to look at the world. My take on the situation  is that if I was aggressively treating the weeds the animals wouldn't be here.

In the middle of the city we're an oasis where everything can be left alone to be safe and to grow. It's also a reason that people seek us out when life in the real world gets to be too much for them.

Fresh Flowers,New Potatoes,Strawberries and Raspberries

There wasn't a lot to pick today but the weather was lovely and we had coffee in the garden while watching and listening to the birds.

The most amazing thing was watching a small bird chase a squirrel away from the nest. I'd never seen that before and laughed so hard I almost fell of my chair! It not only chased the squirrel out of the yard but across the street as well!

A big, yellow surprise!

Well, they're pretty but unexpected. I  thought this was where my pink stargazers had been planted last year.

I need to be shopping for a nice garden journal to help me keep track of the plants and the plans moving forward with my garden.

It makes a bright welcome as you come up the sidewalk here.

I'm looking forward to solving the mystery and finding out if the pink lilies were planted somewhere else or whether the garden place sent me the wrong bulbs. Meanwhile, I'll sit back and enjoy looking at these until I decide whether to draw or paint them.

A new addition to the garden

These lilies were a gift from my Mom and baby sister, aren't they great? (the family and the flowers)

The other great thing about these is that it will allow me to get back to that painting of lilies that I was working on last summer.

Work on the garden is going slower this year because I'll be working from a wheelchair instead of the walker so a lot of changes will have to be made.