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.

The Country Cousin Lilies

The Country Cousin Lilies

A late bloomer this year but lovely all the same. These daylilies are seen all over the place in Texas gardens and usually grow profusely once they are established. Whether or not they are considered “native” plants or not I don't know . We had lots growing in our yard when we moved in but mostly in shady areas so we don't get as many blooms as we would like.

I will try and move at least some of them into a sunny spot where we will get a better display next year.

The other lilies ( the birthday lilies)are cultivated lilies and did very well but are entirely a different kind of lily. These country cousins as the name implies , only last a day before they fade away. The good thing is they often have 2 or 3 buds then waiting to open.

I just love the color among the green.

Too much Green

Too much Green  

First attempt.

I tried my first water color landscape painting and I think I bit off more than I could chew. The original photo was one I had taken in our garden in early Spring just when the trees were all coming out in that fresh apple green color and a few irises were blooming. I liked the photo and thought it gave a lovely feeling of Spring.

My photo

I started the painting by covering the whole paper with a light green yellow wash. The tree trunks were the main element in the composition with the bridge thrown in for added interest. To say painting it was difficult was an understatement. The green was just overwhelming and I kept losing the tree trunks and branches in the foliage. It never seemed to be just right. The more I kept trying to make it correct, the more it seemed to get worse so finally I stopped and thought next time I do a landscape I'll keep it simple.

I can see by comparing the painting with the photo I needed to make a lot more contrast in the painting.

Mexican Hats

Mexican Hats

A dull cloudy but warm day so I went out to do yard work mostly clearing up the dead stuff, pulling up finished flowers and de -seeding poppies. If you have a garden area as big as mine you could work outside for 24 hours a day and never finish so I do a bit here and there whenever I feel like it. I am definitely a “pottering gardener”.

I was checking on the front easement along the road outside our house. The local ordinance requires us to keep the grasses etc under 12inches. A couple of weeks ago I had cut the grasses being careful to leave anything I thought might just be a wild flower . It looked rather messy when I had finished as I had tufts of grasses sticking up all over the place. Since then we have had a little rain and lots of sun so I thought I would check this morning to see if it needed mowing again.

What a lovely surprise I got.

Mexican hat

( No nobody had been out there and mowed it for me.)

There was a lovely area of Mexican hat wild flowers growing. These are pretty tall flowers in various shades of yellow and browns and you can see they get their name from the very distinctive shape. So pretty when nearly all the other flowers have gone.

Looks like the mowing will have to wait until another day.