The Glorious Sunflower

Sunflowers

Just another of my very favorite flowers. You can't help feeling happy when you see them. At least I can't. I haven't had much success in growing them in my garden. I have tried quite a few times with all kinds of seeds but none came up or came up only to die before a flower bloomed. 

This year , the birds took my failure in hand and planted some seeds all over the yard so here and there we have tall sunflowers and some are actually blooming. Of course, the culprit gardeners just might be the squirrels as they love to snack at the bird feeders as well.And guess what we have in the feeders? Sunflower seeds.

I feel another painting coming on and I haven't painted the poppies yet!!

What is it?

What is it?

Mike came to me the other day and said “What it this?”

I looked at the odd brown smelly shape in his hand that looked like an old brown tennis ball that had been left out through a couple of winters and said,” I don't know. What is it? Where did you find it”

It appears he found it in the back of the car which we take when we travel. It had rolled with it's identical twin into the corner and no one had noticed them before.

I held it in my hand. It was hard and groovy and it did smell kind of musty.

A momentary flash of memory passed through me.

“Didn't Jean, our friend in Canada , pick that up when we were out visiting the nature reserve last year? Mike didn't think so but he did remember going to the nature reserve. I thought again. “I think maybe she said they are black walnuts”. “No” Mike said, “ we were  looking at persimmon trees?”

I disagreed and said“No if thse were persimmon fruit they would have dried up all swishy and I am sure the smell would be bad. I bet they are black walnuts.”

So I did what I usually do. I looked up black walnuts on the computer and there they were just like the 2 we had found.

So problem solved.

Now what do we do with them??

Butterfly on Poppy Painting

Butterfly on Poppy Painting

My painting in watercolor

So I tried to capture Mike's photo of a beautiful swallowtail butterfly on one of the many poppies we have in the garden in watercolor paint.

The most difficult part was getting the wing color dark enough; I must have put 5 different washes on it to get the color to stand out. I am still so used to mixing the color once as I do in acrylic without having to go over it again and again. Also the pattern on the wing was complicated. Still I knew that from the previous painting of butterflies.

I enjoyed painting the poppy petals and will try some more poppy paintings as I still haven't got the translucent look I want yet.

Photo by Mike

Morning has broken

Morning has broken

Such a lovely fresh morning that I went out early this morning and took some photos. This kind of morning always makes me think of the hymn/song,” Morning has broken like the first morning”. It is one of my favorite songs. I remember singing it at school at mornng assembly. I hope to have this played at my memorial service. It is so uplifting.

Morning has broken 
Like the first morning,
Black bird has spoken 
Like the first bird.
Praise the singing! 
Praise for the morning!
Praise for them springing 
Fresh from the Word! 
Sweet the rain's new fall 
Sunlit from heaven,
Like the first dewfall 
On the first grass.
Praise for the sweetness 
Of the wet garden,
Sprung in completeness 

Where His feet pass.
Mine is the sunlight! 
Mine is the morning.
Born of the one light 
Eden saw play!
Praise with elation, 
Praise ev'ry morning,
God's recreation 
Of the newday!


Words: Eleanor Farjeon

Here is the link to thr youtube version by Cat Stevens.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0TInLOJuUM

What's in a Name?

What's in a Name?

I read today that it is illegal in many countries to name your new baby certain names. Now I never knew that. I would consider that giving your baby any  name was a parent's right and really what does a government have to do with it. It seems a lot in certain countries.

Now I do realize that some people go too far and give very peculiar names to their kids. It does seem the more famous you are the more likely you will be to give your baby a unique or unusual name. Who does it hurt? Maybe the child ? but maybe not.

There are over 20 countries where names are regulated. 

New Zealand blocks, Lucifer but somehow Number16 Bus stop got through the regulations. One can only surmise why parents would consider this a suitable name for a child. The Bus stop in question must hold good memories.

It seems that many of the countries like China allow only names with a certain number of characters so they will fit on the government data base.That seems logical.

Iceland has a list of names to choose from,1800 for girls and 1700 for boys.So you can't get creative if you live there.

Ikea and Elvis are blocked in Sweden to protect the child’s reputation and well-being.

Elvis I can see.Ikea I can't unless it means something different in Sweden.

{f you want to read more and certainly in more detail check out the Washington post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/05/03/12-countries-where-the-government-regulates-what-you-can-name-your-child/

I found it very interesting.

First Time at Landscape in Watercolor

Photo of De Gray lake

So  I watched a few You tube videos and took the plunge. I selected a photo of De Gray lake at sunset. Quite a challenge. The trees were the most difficult to paint. I felt they came out too "blobby" .Also I still have to work on the paper "buckling". I can also see my colors are too pale especially the sunset colors.
I am also doing this blog on my new ASUS tablet which is also a challenge as the keyboard and controls are very unfamiliar. So is taking photos. I have yet to try to add to this blog. Now I am not sure what I have added. There should be 2 photos. One photo is the photo and the other the painting. Hope it works.

painting

May Day, May Day

May Day, May Day  

I hope they survive this time

A beautiful Spring day here. I put in over 50 red impatience  bedding plants in areas that needed a little color. The last lot I put in mostly got zapped by the late frost so I hope these do better. 
Although I just heard on the news there is a cold front swooping down on us and Denver was covered in snow again.  Here we can expect falling temperatures again with even a danger of frost in some outlying areas away from the hot concrete cities.Can you believe it? on May 1 in Texas.
So I nearly called out "May day, May day!". I just can't go around and cover all the plants up again for the third or 4th time this year. 
I was thinking about the distress call May day and couldn't thing where it came from. Obviously not from the actual May day which is associated with maypoles , or marching or moving depending on which country you live in. My only deal with a maypole was getting some cub scouts and brownies in England to dance around one for an event. It was an absolute disaster.The ribbons on the pole all got tangled. The kids thought is great fun.
It  seems the May day distress call  comes about because it was developed as the emergency call between British and French early air controllers and "m'aider" is the origin.
So now you know and so do I.