Dog Love

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The photo says it all, mm?

Yellow Pepper

If I could draw and paint better than I do, I would paint this still life:  the first yellow pepper ever grown in our yard, ever, ever, with delicate roses and a pleasing vase. It's simple, but I like it so much, this little vignette.

Do you draw/paint?

Squirrel Eats Tree Eye

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This little squirrel spent a good ten minutes nibbling at the plaster eye on the walnut tree outside my office window. All rather surreal.

And I only recently noticed the irony of having lived fourteen years in Walnut Tree Cottage (which had no walnut tree on the small lot) in England, but now at last walnut trees dot the yard here in western New York state.

Chipmunk Door

I received this mini door (about 10 inches high) from my grandchildren last year, after they had visited and been intrigued by a hole at the base of this tree. Each day they had placed various toy critters and dolls near or in the hole, all the while carrying on an endless story.

Chipmunks use the door now, but when the grandchildren return, it will be overrun with other creatures.

Whoever thought to make this little door?

Surprises in the Garden

This is the first year I've grown vegetables in addition to flowers, and it's been more fun than I ever expected. Everything surprises me.  Lettuce!  Tomatoes!

Green peppers! Yellow peppers!

Peas, sweet sweet peas!

And, most surprising of all--this (below) is going to be a cucumber. A cucumber!

Be still, my heart.

I apologize for all the !! exclamations !!  I can't help it.

I mean: did you ever grow a cucumber? 

Island on the Island

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I've shown this island before (see keyword island in list at right). It's a gathering of flowers and doo-dads that sits on the kitchen island, so we think of it as an island on an island.  Above are the last of the dogwoods and peonies and a few of the roses and herbs.

Just as in a book where I sometimes change point of view or perspective in order to highlight another aspect of the story, I thought it would be interesting to see the above rendered in black and white:

(Click to enlarge.)  

So different. The black and white feels more sculptural to me, with more emphasis on form.

Do you have a preference?

Reaping

This may not look like a bountiful harvest to you (lettuce, a few peas, one green bean and a marigold), but I am so excited by it! Although I've always grown flowers, this is the first year I've planted vegetables, and to be honest, I'm shocked that they actually grew! Into food! That you can eat! And they taste completely YUM.

My dad always planted a big garden, with tomatoes, corn, beans, cucumbers. My garden is a much smaller version, but I think he'd be proud to see it.

When I first began writing, I didn't believe that a page this day and another that day would actually ever grow into anything worthy of the word 'novel,' but I learned that with care and patience and trust, those words could grow into something worthy.

Not unlike gardening, when you think about it.  Do you plant vegetables or words or . . .?