Swoon, Tammie's drawing challenge
I signed up rather late this week. On Wednesday I thought, "Oh, yeah, drawing challenge!" And it turns out, our host is my friend Tammie, with the word "swoon".Oh my gosh, does anyone swoon any more?I sat in my bedroom Thursday morning and thought about swooning, and kept having images of Edwardian ladies in tight corsets. They used to swoon, didn't they?
So I went thru a bunch of supplies and pulled out an old Toile de Jouy curtain panel. You know that material? With the bucolic images of lovely Edwardian life.So I studied it and saw a couple hurrying across a bridge and wondered what they were hurrying away from.
Oh! So that's it! Will you just look at the state of the apple pickers. The youth these days...eh?And, does she have a nose ring? And flaming red hair? Is she smoking a cigarette and wearing a pointy Madonna corset?And does he have blue hair and goatee, and gang tattoos and a huge gold chain? I think so.And is that a longboard?!? And is he handing her a skull?!?!?
Better hurry along little Edwardian couple. That's enough to make anyone swoon! :DCome hop over to my friend Kelly's lovely blog Soulful Home when you have a chance. Not only is she a fantastic decorator, she has wonderful DIY ideas. She's started a Soul Sister Series and I'm being featured as her first soul sister, Isn't that lovely? And I've offered a giveaway of one of my original paintings.And remember to pop over to Tammie's when you have a chance to check on the rest of the swooning. :D
A little catch up...cause I can't think of a better title
Well then, fall has well and truly landed on the West Coast.
There are much fewer days of sunshine and this means that there is a greater need to get out into the garden for as much of it as possible.
The garden is still going strong with cool weather crops, but I do think that fate has been a bit cruel to my Brussels sprouts. They are full of aphids and have grown to tiny, one centimetre balls. Hmm, so much for organic sprouts. I did spray them with soapy water, but being away all summer hasn't helped. Oh well, win some lose some. (I'll spare you the gruesome photos)
Other parts of the garden are wonderful though. What do we think of the beautyberry, (Callicarpa)? I can't make up my mind if I like it or not. Three small bushes came with the house and garden. Is it me or do purple berries just seem to shout out "I AM POISON" as a rule? (Although I know they aren't.)
Sunflowers are so worth growing, aren't they?
Not only are they lovely, majestic reminders of the most beautiful of van Gogh and France, they make such wonderful fall playgrounds for all sorts of wildlife.This little chickadee keeps visiting and doesn't mind us or the cats at all. Chloe got really close to him...like directly underneath the sunflower... and kept snapping photos. He gave her a look, as if to say, "yeah? you and whose army?" and kept pecking out the seeds. I guess he owns the garden.
So now it's evening and C and I have planted fifty yellow tulips, twenty dwarf irises and gathered a bunch of kale leaves for kale chips to eat in front of the telly tonight.And, I just bought a 60" Sony...yes I did! To replace my father's old, hand-me-down, ancient plasma, which emits a high pitched squeal and burns a thousand kilowatts per hour, (marginal exaggeration), and some decent shows are on now, so I think we might stream something and cocoon.What's everybody watching these days? I'm liking this silly Manhattan Love Story and really liking Scorpion, as well as all the favourite returning shows. Gosh I feel spoiled for choice.One day away from the weekend! Cant come fast enough this week for me. :DBig hugs, and I hope your Friday just flies by and you're relaxing into the weekend in no time.
Hello from Sunday night
Breath comes in hard gulps. Hiking up the trail to the white pine before the rains come again. That's autumn round here. The week world is made of city and mountain. Warm patio sun traps and city sized gardens, and cool mountain air, fresh pine smell and spongy trails.On these rare breaks form the rain, I hike up the mountain to sit at the base of the white pine in the forest high above the city and absorb the calm.
When there's more time, there's a break to the country.
Misty mornings give way to sunny afternoons. Garden centres, little boutiques, lunch outside on a restaurant patio.Country charm and country calm.
And then, like the busy bees, back to Monday and back to work and, quite probably, back to the rain.
Sharing with Judith and the Mosaic bunch. :D
Fis(c)h, Miss Herzfrisch's drawing challenge
I looked around and realised that I actually paint a lot of fish! There are goldfish in the living room, koi under autumn leaves and goldfish lanterns in the family room, and a surrealistic azalea and koi painting in one of the guest bedrooms.And, although I drew myself a steampunk fish on some handmade paper,
I wanted to do something a bit different.Chloe has been having some fun with wire wrapping crystals and left the wire and pliers in my studio, so I thought I would give a try with a little wire sculpture.
C's wire plus a few beads and voila! Here are my two fish:
I took them outside to photograph them in the morning sunshine. I love how they sparkle.
I think maybe they might end up on the Christmas tree among my collection of glass ornaments, but for now, I think they'll hang out on the grapevine wreath above the fireplace.
Come on over to Sabine's and check out everyone's ideas. :D
Night time, the Wordpress photo challenge
My two night times, the city and the country.For the Wordpress weekly photo challenge.
Hello from Sunday night
Well, hello autumn! Is everyone ready? Ready for the mountains of leaves and crisp apples and chrysanthemums? Bring it on!It's been a rainy week here on the West Coast, and just as well for me because I really needed to cocoon and spend some time in thought and meditation, but the glorious weekend brought sun and loads of it and a wonderful Saturday at the river and Sunday at the beach.Dogs, and farmer's markets abound and also strange little art get-togethers. I love that, you know. I mean I love dogs and farmer's markets, but so love to see a group of people, of all ages and expertise levels, set up their easels, paints and canvases and just go for it for the day. There was a group at the river, about 30 strong, ages five to 85, who painted En Plein-Air for four hours and presented their masterpieces in one of the historic shipyard buildings as an exhibition. I just loved every painting I saw.One more thing which means super fall to me is HOCKEY! YAY! Clove and I caught the first Wolf Pack game. C's boy Bryson is an extraordinary skater and has been serving as a linesman for the higher league hockey games, and this game was being played 10 minutes away, so naturally we went to support him. The Wolf Pack team is the last minor league boys can play in before they get called up to the NHL, (or not), so scouts are watching, and the game is fast paced and...um...testosterone-y to the max. In the third period, there were three WP players off the ice in penalties for roughing at the same time. I'm so glad that Bryson has years of Aikido as offensive training...lol. Although we're technically cheering for the refs, it's nice when the home team wins, and the Wolf Pack did! :DSo, two more days and we technically put summer 2014 to rest. How is everyone feeling about that? Does anyone do anything about celebrating the equinox? A little pagan ritual or something? I've been watching Outlander and now love all things Scottish...including Robbie, who is Scots...but now want to do something spectacular to bring in the fall, like build a stone henge right in my back yard and have a ceremony. I know, I don't tend to do things by half...lol. Maybe I'll just make a piece of jewellery from one of the pieces of ancient flint I've strung up on a copper wire. What do we think? Maybe a necklace with mystical powers? Looking up the powers of flint, I think I need to get this book!Well, that about sums up my week and weekend. Hope yours was wonderful and you got the best out of it. If it wasn't, then oh well, tomorrow's a new day. Big hugs for a wonderful and shiny week ahead everyone. :DPS: I have another of those darn spaghetti squashes round here. Anyone know something spaghetti squash fabulous?Sharing with Judith and the mosaic bunch. :D
Second hand, Joke's drawing challenge
This is a wonderful theme, thank you so much Joke.Anyone who knows anything about me knows I'm all over that one!Out of all the maps I bought in England, the one I really fell in love with is a 1963 map of Oxford.It's been well used. Someone drew on it with coloured crayons, divided four sections and crossed off houses along some streets. Every time I look at these maps I love the scribbles and tears and wrong way pocket folds...they all tell a history. In this case it might have been a salesman or perhaps a survey taker, but who ever had this map in the past, it's mine now and I decided to paint busy little bluetits on it.
They're perching on a little split hazel garden fence and quite possibly eyeing the morning milk delivery.
Robert tells me of mornings in his childhood, when the door was opened and little bluetits were fleeing the scene of the crime having pecked thru the tops to have their share of the milk.So here is my drawing challenge painting: Bluetits over Oxford.
Come visit Joke when you have a chance to see all the links to everyone's interpretations.
Stopping at my favourite garden centre
It's the ideal time, here on the West Coast, to plant garlic in the garden, and so I popped over to Southlands, one of my most favourite garden centres, to get a few bulbs.
There's nothing quite like fresh, homegrown garlic. Anyone growing it? This year I harvested a few bulbs, (it was a trial year and I only planted a very small amount), but the flavour of my homegrown garlic has been amazing. This year I went to three different kinds, including a Mexican variety which promises to be potent.I guess I just have to make sure everyone eats it along with me, or there'll be no talking to me face to face...lol.
I got my garlic bulbs and had a stroll around the nursery.Look at these amazing vintage pink flamingos! I'd say they're right past kitsch and out the other side into the chic area of garden decoration. :D I love them.
One trend I've been noticing lately here in the North West is a huge import of all sorts of semi tropical succulents. They're becoming the easy, must have of the garden.I love them.
I've always loved them, even before they were "fashionable".I tend to do really naughty things, like import a little leaf or piece of branch or tiny rosette from San Francisco, my friend Catherine's plant in Oxfordshire, a random front garden in Mexico. No succulent is safe...lol.
But can you blame me? They really are so very lovely.
Clove thinks they look like land-bound sea anemones.
I was absolutely stopped in my tracks by this one reaching its flower up to the sun. How spectacular is the geen pinkness of it?
It's part of this spectacular arrangement.
But it's normal for the wonderfully artistic team at Southlands, and what would you expect from a nursery who find and bring in land-bound sea anemones.
Hello from Sunday night, which turned into a Monday post...again
Well, I must admit that this operation has knocked me on my butt!Here I was all lah-di-dah thinking, "right, op on Monday, yoga class on Wednesday." Well, not exactly what I managed. Actually, not even close to what I managed.I did some research and asked my mother, (who is an anaesthetist herself), and the long and short of it is that the anaesthetic drugs settle in the fat cells and take a while to clear, and the longer the procedure, the longer the clearing. It seams that the 90 minutes might take up to one month for my body to get rid of the toxins. Damn, wish there was such a thing as organic anaesthetic. (Don't say they could have hit me over the head...lol) So I'm plodding along feeling awfully tired and moody and no yoga at all.
There have been some lovely and bright spots in my week though, The weather's been so warm and sunny that I washed all the quilts and feather pillows and hung them in the sunshine to dry, had a lovely harvest of organic grapes from the garden, and I also caught up with some of my children for a fabulous curry supper under purple lights...mmm prawn vindaloo. We had Ziggy with us and she was so good that she slept almost thru the whole supper.
Who else loves curry? Do you make it at home? I hardly ever do, except maybe for butter chicken or something like aloo gobi, but I think I should make it more often.
Also, I've been feeling a bit stuck at home and have not had much energy for art, so I decided to rearrange things round here to look a bit more late summer-autumnal. I decided I wanted to look at this large oil of a late summer meadow. I painted this several years ago, but it's one of those paintings I really love, so have never sold it.
Over the years I've built up a collection of vintage decoy ducks, (I buy one each time I visit Quebec), and I decided to have my lone goose on the mantle. Behind it I put an oil I painted when I was 20 something, of aspen in the autumn.
Further along are some potted plants and a wooden quail/partridge I found in the forest close to my father's cabins.
On the other side are the two stupid white cats, (as my children call them), a little art piece of fog in an old tobacco tin I did last year, and a little porcelain of my great grandmother. I have to tell you the story of the stupid white cats: so I found one about 20 years ago and just loved it. Then the second one shortly after that. These two hung around the fireplace off and on in two previous houses for years, and, about five years ago, my children thought it would be funny to start buying me every white porcelain cats they come across, and now I have seven! They still come and go, but these two original ones seem to be hanging around more these days.
I'm hoping for some cooler weather soon, (the garden sure needs it), and, to help with the cooler weather wishful thinking, I've brought in some firewood.
So now that I like my living room I have to go redecorate the rest of the house...just need a bit more energy.
But for now I'm rearranging my wardrobe, filling the house with garden dahlias, and enjoying every warm, late summer day.
I aten't dead yet!
That line is one of my favourite lines in fiction.For anyone who doesn't read Terry Pratchett's Discworld, this line is attributed to Granny Weatherwax, a witch, who lives outside the small village of Bad Ass, which incidentally is what my children figure that the scar on my neck will look like. :DWell, it's been a few days, hasn't it? I guess you could say that people post traumatic operations should probably take it easy, and I guess I've over-done it round here and now I'm in bed feeling not so hot, but over-all everything is going to be fine and 'I aten't dead yet.'This lovely, fragrant posy ended up by my front door yesterday. It came with some lovely pages about planting an all white garden, an interesting art exhibit and indoor plants, with a little note: "From Rosemarie from the Art in the Garden tour, I read your blog." Isn't that the sweetest thing?
Thank you so much Rosemarie, thank you for thinking of me. :D Please say hello so I can get to know you.I know I should have been resting post op, but after two months away form them, Kerstie brought all three of our little girls over and we got to play with some of the toys I brought for them from England and also to start putting together the loveliest, but also complicated, wooden puzzle made after my friend Jackie Morris' drawing of dragon hatchlings.
And while Ziggy was having a nap, Binky and Bunny redecorated the doll's house.
Now at this point I think I should have kissed my little and big ones goodnight and went to bed, but a supper came up with all of my children and I just couldn't say no!Jonathan made reservations at a downtown restaurant called Gyu-Kaku Japanese Barbecue.
Most fun ever! A central grill and loads of dishes equals cook your own supper.
And so we did.
Chef Adam and Chef Jonathan hard at work.
And what do you have for desert when there's a grill right in front of you? Smores! And lychee ice cream.
We had such a lovely time...except maybe a bit too much sake and wine.
And got home way too late!
Today we had monster truck races...
...and monster chocolate chip cookie faces...
Nourishing soup, fresh squeezed orange juice and tea, and I do believe we all felt better afterwards.
And this evening, in the warm quiet of my studio, Clover and I finished the dragon hatchling puzzle, put it back in its box, and finally I decided I needed rest.
And so I went to bed early with Terry Pratchett's Feet of Clay, and my lovely pages from Rosemarie. For all of you who have never read any of Pratchett's Discworld novels, I'm so jealous!!! I reread them quite often and I love them to pieces, and to think, you have this whole world to discover and delight in...you lucky ducks you.Thank you everyone for thinking of me, and big hugs form me, (the bride of Frankenstein), to you. I'll be back soon. :D