June Painting Challenge

This month's painting challenge was a photo of a metallic vase or goblet and some cherries. It's on a very dark background and the goblet blends into the background, The cherries are reflected partially in the goblet.
I found this pretty simple to sketch and almost impossible to paint in watercolor. I had forgotten how difficult it is to get a really dark contrast using watercolor without doing a great deal of washes.
This is my attempt.

I think I will try in the new few days to try one in acrylic and see if I can do any better.
I need a change anyhow!!

A Beautiful Lily

A beautiful Lily

Day Lily 2013 Photo by Mike

I know I wrote a blog on a day lily before but Mike took this beautiful photo of one of the last day lilies that are still blooming so had to show it to you.

I think this will be a great subject for painting as well so you might see it again later.

Feeding the Bees and Butterflies

Feeding the Bees and Butterflies

Monarda( bee balm)

Last year when I was buying native plants for my yard I was looking especially for a butterfly bush as I had seen these big lilac /blue bushes in everyone's yard but it took ages before I found one. I should have looked for buddleia a friend told me.

I planted it and it was a spindly looking thing with narrow leaves. It had a few buds growing and I kept checking it . Then the grasshoppers hit and for some reason they really liked this new bush. Within weeks the leaves were all gone and it looked miserable. The few buds came out and quickly disappeared. I didn't see many of the butterflies even going near it. By the fall it looked dead and by this Spring it was really dead so I yanked it out.

So this year at all the plant sales I kept looking for another replacement but couldn't find one even though I asked for buddleia.

Butterfly bush ( buddleia )

“Why not get some bee balm” said one helpful lady. “They are very pretty and the bees and butterflies love it”. So I did. It was also a spindly green plant with no blooms when I bought it in April but it really did turn out to be a very pretty plant. I found out it's real name is monarda and the flowers have a very complicated structure but they are a lovely color and yes, the bees do love it. The flowers have now all died away but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the grasshoppers will leave it alone and it will flourish and grow and will come back next year.

We need to keep the bees and butterflies happy.

Graduation time for baby birds

Graduation time for baby birds    

Blue Jay photo from googgle images

Its about that time of the year in Texas. The wild birds that made nests and had new babies are getting ready for a big change. We have lots of birds around here in the trees and bushes so we are always seeing many different kinds.

Outside of our front window in a hanging basket we have had a nest of nut hatches- pretty little brown birds( at least that is what I think they are). The parents have kept close check of the babies and we knew they were there by the very loud constant twittering of the parents especially when the saw a cat or larger bird in the area. They would visit throughout the day but always were very active in the twilight .We never saw the babies but occasionally we would hear faint chirping .Now today it is all quiet. The parents have gone. The chirping has stopped so I guess the little ones have all flown away.

We know for sure the baby blue jays are leaving the nest and trying to fly as one poor little fledgeling beginner landed on the deck outside our summer room and we watched while the parent birds tried to encourage him to get up and fly. They were not happy about anything( person or cat coming anywhere near).The baby kept taking to the bushes and I was worried the lazy cat who sleeps out there would catch him. So this evening with a lot of shooing noises and loud cawing from Mr amd Mrs Blue Jay , I persuaded him with lots of clapping and hand flapping to take off. He did this with little hops and miniature flights into the bamboo trees next door where he would have more protection.

Green heron,photo from google images

The other young bird we have been watching is a big dopey green heron. This is a fairly large bird but you can tell this one is young because he is so unbalanced. He lands in an old tree we have and in reaching with his long beak to pick up a bug, will overbalance and fall beFore he remembers he has to fly. Quite a comedy.

So our backyard birds are keeping us amused and reminding us Spring is almost over.

Guitar Man and Girl friend

Guitar Man and girlfriend

I have only to look at this tile which hangs in my hallway to remember the 60s.

It was a time when every young man and sometime ladies as well wanted to play the guitar. Folk singers were very popular and all the start up bands had at least one guitar player and sometimes two. Mike and many of his friends all had guitars and they would get together and play all kinds of tunes. As I remember some friends were a lot better at it than others. One friend called Ray that often came to these musical get- togethers was exceptional. He could REALLY play and it seemed effortless to him. I often wonder what happened to him in later life.

When we found this tile we had to have it. It shows a man with a beard ( fashionable)and also the very heavy sweaters that were really popular at the time. Mike could have modeled for the artist. The girl has long hair , a must for the time, listening to tunes on the guitar. I think we bought it before we got married but it is one of the things much treasured in our house.

Makes me remember being young.

Lost Dog Alert.

Lost Dog Alert.

Bud FOUND

So Saturday night a big storm with very loud thunder and heavy rain came through our area. We didn't worry about it as we really need the rain.

When I got up to make coffee I saw that Mocha, the brown lab came to greet me but there was no sign of big Bud. The German shepherd mix It was still raining and as I know that Bud hates getting wet, I wondered where he was. I called -, no Bud. I decided he must have braved the weather and gone out in the yard.

We had our coffee and after a while, we got up and I decided to delay my walk as the weather still looked cloudy. Looked all over the house and called for Bud again. No Bud.

So off I went to look around the yard. It was very wet but I looked under the trees and bushes, in the workshop, in the barn, in the garden, behind the barn , on the front porch, Then I checked the fence and gate just in case it had blown open. No everything was fine . Still no Bud.

Mike joined in the hunt and he went round again I went inside and opened all the doors again still calling Bud's name. I began to think he must have jumped the fence or been stolen. Should I call the police?

Then I decided to have one more look upstairs in the bedrooms. One bedroom I had missed when I first looked as that is the guest bedroom which we keep shut so the pets can't go in. I opened the door and out came Bud.

He was quite unconcerned and he hadn't barked or made a sound all the time we had been looking for him. I couldn't believe it.

Still I'm ver glad he wasn't lost!

Hand Signals

The other day when Mike and I were driving back from the park I saw something that I hadn't seen for a long, long time.

We were following very slowly, I might add ,an old guy driving a big old country tractor in front of us. No room to overtake and we were coming up to a part of the road that met another road that was coming in on the left side anyhow. We both hoped that the tractor driver would take that road and we could get on our way.

As we got close to the turning the old man put his left arm out straight so we could see which way he meant to go. Yes it was a real hand signal! Now I haven't seen one of those since ...well, I guess it was when I left England in the year dot.

pop up signal indicators in old cars

I think when I took my first driving test in England one of the requirement was that you knew hand signals for driving even though most of the cars then were equipped with pop up signals from inside the car. We all used hand signals when riding our bicycles too so it didn't seem strange.

So I do wonder why in these days with all the very sophisticated controls on cars why is it people can't seem to use those controls for the signals so the other drivers can have some idea of what they are planning to do.

Just a simple thing but often not used.

Yet an old guy on a tractor can remember!!