Catkin Time

Catkin Time

Catkins and pussy willow

Lambs tails and Pussy Willow!! As a child how I loved those strange things that came in the Spring in England. We knew once we saw the lambs tails dangling from the trees and the furry buds on the willow trees that winter was finally going. Never could resist picking them and taking them home to show Mum.

Now when I first see the catkins forming on the oak trees I shudder because soon I know they will be yellow pollen dust covering everything and heaps of brown squiggles all over the yard. They will be sticking on our shoes and mangled in the pet's coats and just about everywhere. I sweep them up , blow them off the decks and do you know by the next day there's another lot blown down by the wind. 

Still with a good rain things will get back to normal and then all we will have to worry about are the green inchworm caterpillars hanging from threads from the trees. Yes Spring really is lovely. Thank goodness for the flowers.

Sweetwater Grill and Tavern, Denton, TX

Sweetwater Grill and Tavern, Denton, TX

Our old friends Bernie and Jean have come down from Canada for a few days to stay with us and today we went up to Denton. The idea was for the men to visit Harbor Freight and browse among all the goodies there while Jean and I visited next door at Hobby Lobby to pick up supplies for her knitting and my art work.

We did spend rather a lot of time doing that but still had time to sit for a while in the great sunshine up on the square and drink coffee and then visit the lovely book store before we ended up at the Sweetwater Grill and Tavern. This is a favorite restaurant of ours, just off the square. Friday's they serve an excellent prime rib for lunch so that is what we had. It was lovely. 

Just a lovely welcoming place and I always love the paintings on the wall of musicians. A place we will go to again and again.

Spring flowers

Spring flowers

Spring flowers What are they?

When we visited Fredericksburg last Fall we went to the Wild Seed farm   where they have acres of land that produce lots of Texas flowers and as it was the fall we bought some packages of wild seeds. I bought a large packet of larkspur and also a large packet of assorted wild flowers. The sometime in December I went around the yard sprinkling the seeds on bare spaces  but in drifts so if they actually grew in the Spring I might actually be able to find them in the grasses and leaves.
Well the larkspur definitely grew. They are everywhere. I think the seeds must have blown all over the place. There are no blooms as yet but they will be wonderful when they come into flower.

The mixed flowers have just started to bloom and they look so delicate and pretty. I wish I had bought more now as they have done so well given that I did NOTHING except sprinkle them on the ground. I let Mother Nature take over and she did well

Painting with watercolors The Iris

Painting with watercolors The Iris

As I mentioned before I have never really used real watercolor paints so having now tried I find it difficult, absorbing, very different to oil and acrylic painting and very interesting.

I say this because when I painted the iris I tried to follow the technique's I saw on a couple of you- tube videos and it really is more difficult than it looks when a master painter is painting.

My paints are old tubes that I have had for a long time but I managed to find enough in them to use but if I want to get better colors I will have to buy newer fresher paints I think. My brushes were just fine as I have already a complete selection of brushes.

 I did find out that the paper you use is a challenge and had to try a different couple of things to make it less wavy when finished. The masking techniques were hard to do successfully but it is intriguing to do and I can see how it would be really helpful in some paintings.

I do like that it is far easier to set up and get going that the other kinds of painting plus you use only a very little paint. I guess the big expense would be to get the best kind of paper especially if you were to do a large painting.

I think the thing I found most interesting is that because of the water on both the paper and the paint you never can quite tell what effect you will get so it's always a surprise...at least to me.

The Beauty of the Iris

The Beauty of the Iris

Photo by Mike

We have lots of Iris plants in our garden. Most of them were there before we bought the house and I do very little for the plants except rake out the leaves from around them in the Spring and occasionally in the summer give them a burst of water from the hose when it gets really dry.
Last year with all the plants even the ones I had recently replanted did nothing. No flowers at all.I wondered if what I had researched was true. irises only bloom once on each plant and you have to wait until the baby corms develop before you get new flowers.
Well this year all I can say is that the baby boom in Iris flowers is just getting underway here. The colors and flowers are just amazing.
All we have to hope for now is no storm coming through and blowing them all down before they flower!!

GREEN everywhere

GREEN everywhere

It seems that all of a sudden Texas greens up!! we go from a dull brownish landscape to a bright green one. It looks so pretty especially when here and there you can see a burst of color where one of the new flowers are poking through. My Irises are just about to make a great show IF the storm doesn't blow them away.

Have you ever looked closely at the various color greens. I find them the most difficult color to paint . I can never quite get the right tone. The green I make is always too crude, too bright or just too dull. I start with blue and yellow but it's never quite right.

That's why when I look outside at my yard in the Spring , I figure I'll never paint it as it is just too green.

Soul Survivor

Soul Survivor by Bruce and Andrea Leininger with Ken Gross

I picked up this paperback book at a book sale. I thought it sounded interesting and I saw it involved airplanes so I even thought Mike, who doesn't read many books might also like to read it. He did actually read it .

It is a true story of a young toddler who has terrible nightmares and when his parents take notice , they hear him say that a man is crashing in an airplane. It is the same nightmare each night and through the next few months they get to understand that the boy thinks he is the man in the airplane and not only that, he knows the name of the airplane and eventually comes up with the name of the man and where it has crashed. The man is called James 2 and he is James 3.

The parents are intrigued with the story and can't believe their little boy can possibly know some of the things he is saying and so the story begins with the conclusion that the boy is a reincarnation of a young fighter pilot that died in WW 11.

Whether you believe in this story or indeed in reincarnation, the story is gripping. The husband is fighting the belief of reincarnation which challenges his Christian belief system So is determined to prove there is another reason for this and starts to research the details the young boy utters. This brings him into meeting up with old WW11 pilots and researching in great details the pacific war theater, the name of the boat the Natoma Bay and the men who served on her. The research is painstaking and very detailed and so this book would be very interesting to people who study that field of interest as well.

If you get a chance, read it it will make you think.