I Forgot the Roses.

I Forgot the Roses.

As I go to write this blog each day ( yes it is still a challenge) I try and think of something to write about. This might be an idea that I have thought about during the day. It might be a photo I have, a painting I have finished, a random thought, a quote, a piece of music etc etc. It is really getting quite difficult to remember what I have blogged about now I think I am up to 150 blogs this year.

I know I have written a blog on many of the flowers that have either been in my garden or we have been lucky enough to get good photos of but which are the ones haven't I done?

I quickly went through the blog titles and think I didn't do one on the beautiful roses we have had this year. I know they came out very early in the year and continued until quite recently. Now the roses are all taking a summer sleep because they know like I do, it's about to get miserably hot. Hopefully they will bloom again later in the Fall.

Couldn't let the blog go without some of the photo of the lovely roses. Photos all taken by Mike.

Indian Blanket

Indian Blanket

Photo of one of the lovely flowers in my garden

At this time of the year in Texas, the wildflower that you see lining many of the country roads or growing in the pastures is the gaillardia or by its common name Indian blanket or fire wheel. It is a lovely red flower with petals tipped with orange yellow or brown, quite distinctive. The flowers are about 1”-2'' and they grow about a foot high and usually in large clusters.

I have always liked the tales or legends that explain why things are called their name or about famous people in history.

The story of where the flower got it's name is self descriptive for firewheel but here's how it became Indian blanket.

Photo by www.highlandlakes.com

In the days when Indians ruled this land a famous blanket maker made lovely woven blankets. They were much prized. As the old Indian came towards the end of his life he decided to make one final blanket for himself so he made his very best blanket choosing all his favorite colors,red, yellow , orange and brown. It was truly a work of art and when he died he was buried wrapped in the blanket.

The Great Spirit considered this and decided that this beauty should not go to waste so every year the flowers called Indian blanket grow to remind us of the old Indian's blanket and to show us it's magnificence. 

Now isn't that a neat story?

Lunch - The Ultimate Paella

Lunch - The Ultimate Paella

A few weeks ago when our friend Ros was over here she asked if we liked crayfish or crawdads as Mike calls them. Mike said “yes “. I said “maybe”, having not remembered if I had ever had them.

So today she brought some over to us for Mike to add to his Ultimate Paella recipe. We had had paella before, once in Spain and once when Mike had made it It's basically a mix with a selection of meat or fish which is cooked in a bed of rice colored with saffron. This recipe Mike used was ingredient rich. It had 16 ingredients. I guess that's why it's called the ultimate paella. I know as well as the crawfish there was chicken, chorizo sausage, shrimp as well as a number of spices and veggies. It looked great and tasted excellent. 

Ready for lunch

It takes a while to cook but that was ok. I guess when you are making one of these paella dishes you can choose your own meats or fish or probably use just veggies. It comes out rather like a well cooked gumbo or stew .

Mike served it with a Yellow Tail chardonnay white Casella wine which was just right for the meal. It was very light and refreshing.

I always like these Yellow Tail wines and especially their logo which is a hopping kangaroo because they are Australian wines.

This one that you can see by my very poor and blurry photo is red and orange .I guess they chose those colors to denote the hot climate.

I guess if you drank the whole bottle the kanga might look like my photo!!.

Great lunch, nice company.

We will have to do this again.

Happiness is ??

One of the daily emails l get each day, Harold's Planet  has cute drawings and cartoons. Each cartoon is simple, cute and very clever.  The cartoons are very inoffensive and quite original. The theme of this week's cartoons is  Happiness. Each starts out Happiness is and ends with a different thought and a different cartoon. Today's for instance had the ending-finding that missing sock!

Now that made me think that happiness comes in all forms to different people.
One of my endings would be Happiness is having a nice hot shower on a really cold day. Another probably is Happiness is finding my glasses after I had looked for them all day.

All simple but isn't that what true  happiness is?

Subscribe to the free Harold's Planet daily cartoon here: http://lastlemon.com/harolds-planet/ or check out his page on facebook

Portrait of Pug

Portrait of Pug 

My painting of Pug 2013

I have written about little Pug before. She is one of our old cats , a real character cat who eats little and must weigh only 2 or 3 lbs now. Although she is old and tiny she is still very feisty and will take on the other cats and dogs if needed especially if they are eating and she wants it!!

She spends a lot of her time sleeping with her head on the carpet with her eyes watching to make sure she isn't missing anything.

With this painting I tried to capture the look in her eyes and the texture of her coat.

Red Dog ,a movie

I saw a movie a few days ago and it was a delight to watch. The movie Red Dog is an Australian film set in the outback of Western Australia and tells the tale of a red dog , a cattle dog/kelpie mix who hangs around a group of mining men in Dampier. He is a very personal friendly dog who knows how to get his own way and soon becomes a friend of all the camp. A stranger turns up and Red Dog decides this will be his owner. Tragedy happens and the man dies in an accident and Red Dog starts on his travels looking for him.

It is interesting to watch, The characters are true Aussies and the dog is lovable.

What I found out right at the end of the movie was that this is actually the legend of a red dog that lived in 1972-79 and was well known for his travels throughout Western Australia. In Dampier where the movie takes place there is a statue erected to the memory of Red Dog.

The movie did very well in Australia where it became the 8^th highest-grossing movie in 2011. It was not so well known in the States.

If you can ever see it , I think you'll enjoy it. I did.

Lola

Lola

I hadn't painted Lola since she was very small and it is surprising how big she already is at 4 months. Her ears are already standing up as all good German Shepherd's should.She looks as if she will be a  beautiful dog when she is fully grown. 

Black dogs are always a challenge to paint or to photograph as the light on the coat shines in odd places.Lola is not completely black so that helped a lot.She had been swimming so her coat looked a lot rougher than it usually is.

This was fun to do.