Fall Color in the Garden

Well, the weather is getting too cold for me. I've gone indoors with 3 celery plants raised from the base of celery from the grocery store, 1 lettuce plant that survived in the garden and some chive plants. There isn't much room in our small house so I just keep a few edibles for dinner instead of regular houseplants.

The large, golden tree you're seeing in the backyard is a walnut, one of three here.

There are also maples, an oak, a birch and a number of other small trees on our lot and a half in the city.

We've also got 2 large fir trees in the front yard that I've forgotten to take pictures of.

I'm not quite sure what we've got here. The grapevines have gotten around , through and all over this poor tree. It makes the colors interesting but probably isn't good for either of them.

It's been a good summer so I'm really going to miss the garden until next season. While I wait I'll be looking over my photos and working on some drawings and paintings of my favorite flowers, plants and trees.

Art to go

Here's an Iris in watercolor on and envelope. It's important to use watercolor envelopes because regular envelopes will wrinkle and break down. They're available at most places where you purchase art supplies.

 This card started out differently. I was trying to come up with a new design for a dala horse in pencil but didn't care for the way it was turning out so I decided to watercolor over the main body of the horse.

That didn't help much either but I did feel that it was an improvement.

I'm always writing letters so I feel that it's a great chance to unwind and work on design ideas. Everyone seems to enjoy being part of the design process and it helps keep the mail interesting.

Large Woodpecker Outside My Window

I'm sorry I wasn't able to get a better picture. It was quite a surprise to see it and there was only time to grab my phone. I tried cropping it closer but every time I did, it was just too blurry to see.

We often get smaller varieties of woodpeckers but I haven't gotten very good pictures of those either.

We are considering getting one of those automatic wildlife cameras if we can find somewhere to put it where it won't disturb anyone. In an urban setting it's a bit more of a challenge but I'm sure it can be done. 

Sunflower Bird House

We have a number of birdhouses mounted to the wheelchair ramp. While this one was off to paint the rails I decided to add a few sunflowers to go with the overall theme of the project.

Saving Seed

  
I let a lot of the flowers go to seed here then clip off the tops and shake the seed out. That method works best for the purple coneflowers and the black eyed susans.

 For the orange cosmos here we just reach down and let the seed fall into our hands.

It's a great way to save money and get next years garden off to a good start.

I'm looking forward to seeing some of these flowers back again next year.

The Hawk in my Garden

 We were out in the front of the garden planting bulbs when we looked up and spotted this.

We are certified wildlife habitat here so we wondered if it had just stopped by for lunch.

It was up there for over an hour so we began to wonder about it but when it attempted to fly away it was obvious that it was injured because it just dropped into the neighbors yard. It tried to get back into the yard here but the crows realized it was injured and tried to attack. Fortunately the neighbor came and they were able to put a blanket on it so they could transport it to get help.

This is my favorite photo, as I was headed out of the garden and into the house he looked right at me...and stayed there anyway.

None of us wanted to get close enough to see what sort of injury it was. Things like this are best left to the professionals. We're hoping to have more news about it soon.

It made for an exciting day because both neighbors and passers by stopped to see it and to take photos. My little garden patch gets a bit more interesting all of the time.

Finishing the Art Covered Wheelchair Ramp

It will still be a long time before the ramp is actually finished but now that the rails and big posts are painted you can see what it's going to look like.

There are still about 80 individual spindles for me to paint so that should make for an interesting winter. I may wait until spring to get it all photographed for you.

Making Progress on the Wheelchair Ramp

Exploring Colors and Patterns for Projects

I was kicking around ideas for painting more Dala Horses and decided to try this little border on an old pool cue case to brighten it up a bit and see how hard it is to paint.

 I continued to experiment with this pattern and others as I painted a post for the wheelchair ramp here.

I enjoy "playing" with color and designs while still getting something done around the house.

What I also enjoy about this is that it makes a smooth transition from the furniture painting that I'm known for to my Dala horse designs and bridges the two nicely.

It's kind of like "doodling" in paint and is a great day to relax between projects.

My Favorite Things In the Garden, even the Butterflies Love it !

It was amazing to find 3 butterflies on this clump of flowers in the front garden. There were a lot of bees to so I'm pleased that it really does matter which flowers I choose and combine in the garden.

Meanwhile in the little side garden where I do my entertaining the tomatoes are ripening and my company was amused that part of our meal could be picked right next to the table.

How many gardens have you visited where you can pick lettuce and tomatoes on one side of a bench and raspberries for dessert on the other side?

You'll have to excuse the smoke in this photo. We were cooking lunch in the campfire. None of my old cushions ,pillows or tablecloths match but I love entertaining here anyway and it is comfortable
so no one seems to mind.

Pink Flowers out of the Garden and back again

We planted these from seed so I was very happy when they finally bloomed and eager to do everything I could with them.

First I started with a few drawings on bits of my outgoing mail. This one was on an envelope.

Next I moved on to a card and envelope set in watercolor.

  After that I rearranged the flowers and removed the droopy ones before painting them in acrylics on one of the posts for my wheelchair ramp.

I was quite pleased with the likeness on that and eager to get the post installed so that I could get the full effect.

It pleased me that these flowers had now become a permanent part of the garden where I can see them out of my window all winter long.