Drawing With My Non-Dominant Hand

 

This will only be a short post. Last week has been quite crazy due to a rather large order I got in my Etsy shop and many things didn't get done that I have to do this week before it heats up again, especially in the garden.

Back in April (yes, I know, I have a lot of catch-up to do) I took one of the short workshops by Laly Mille. Her style of art work speaks to me and I like her calm and very personal way of teaching. I think this class was called "Flower Flow", but maybe I remember this incorrectly - well, anyway I call it this way. The most surprising 'thing' I learned in this class was that I can actually draw with my non-dominant hand. We were encouraged to use a Stabilo All pencil - if I remember correctly I actually used an aquarellable graphite pencil by Faber-Castell, one of my favorite tools. First, I gessoed some book pages and music sheets, then with my non-dominant hand I drew flowers and leaves on those pages after they had dried. The flowers were then "smudged" with matte medium. It became quite addictive and I created way more than I needed (they will go into some future artwork or in my art journal).

With some bits of scrapbook paper I collaged four pieces of watercolor paper and then arranged my flowers and leaves with the images of Japanese Maple leaves I had found in a German magazine and glued everything down when I was happy with the design. I drew a few more flowers and leaves directly on the collage, used a bit of gesso to mute the colors of the Japanese Maple leaves, a piece of gauze and some subtle watercolor. Done. 

I am quite happy with the results. They aren't master pieces, but it was fun to make them.

Have you created anything recently? Or taken a class that you really liked?

Raindrops

 

Last Sunday night we had some rain again. As I wrote before, California had an extremely wet and also chilly winter, but it had been a week or so since the last rain before that Sunday. It was a much lighter and steady rain than what we had experienced before. Hopefully it wasn't the last rain of the season. When I went in the garden on Monday morning, I was delighted by the raindrops on the plants. Everything looked so fresh and it smelled so good as well. 

In the picture above you can see the raindrops on the new leaves of the photinia. This was a beautiful tree when we bought this house, but then it started to die off and I couldn't figure out why. Now, only this one new branch is alive, the rest of the tree is dead. We cut back some parts of it because of fire hazard, but we left a good part standing. This is the base of my main bird feeding station and I can tell you that it is very well visited by our feathered friends. I can see it while I sit at my worktable and sometimes I get very distracted by it while I should actually prepare my classes or grade homework.

There are new leaves on my rose as well and the raindrops circle it like a little crown. Fitting for the "queen of flowers", even though roses aren't exactly favorites of mine. I like them, especially when they have a lovely scent, but there are other flowers that I like way more.

Tulips, for example, but you already know that. 

I also love freesias, mainly for their sweet fragrance. My friend Kris gave me a bag of freesia bulbs as a house warming present 11 years ago, and they have been doing reliably well every spring. Some of them I cut and bring in the house so that the living/dining room smells so nicely. Friends of us came for dinner last Saturday and brought me flowers from their garden, and I simply put the freesias in there as well for the three primary colors.

Water on the sedum "Autumn Joy" are fat big drops, so different from all the other ones. Sometimes you can see reflections in them, but of course not in this photo.

Look who's here!

The Hooded Orioles arrived at the end of March. One morning I stepped out and heard the familiar chatter - these are very talkative birds. I saw the male at the hummingbird/oriole feeder and immediately brought the grape jelly out. A couple days later his mate turned up as well. Later in the summer they will bring their offspring as well. That's when I have to constantly refill the jelly bowl. Other birds like the jelly as well - I've seen the Northern Mockingbird going for it as well as the Oak Titmouse; I also saw the squirrel with a red sticky mouth...

What about dandelions? I don't pull them since they are one of the first flowers in the spring for the pollinators. Since I don't have a lawn, I don't mind dandelions. 

The raindrops look very pretty on the Desert or Globe Mallow. I was a bit surprised to see it flowering so early. Last year the blooms appeared much later.

Of course Clematis is a stunner, with or without raindrops. These two are always early and often crank out a second blooming period later in the year.

I shouldn't forget "Roger's Red", a native California wild grape that grows abundantly and turns to a stunning red in the fall - hence the name. The birds love to seek shelter there in the summer.

So what is missing? Of course, it's the food part for Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date. Here I cooked a Chinese cuisine inspired dish with baked tofu, broccoli, red pepper and udon. I don't usually use a recipe for these kinds of dishes, but just remember what I ate when I lived in Taiwan and try to make something similar with different ingredients. As you can see, my wok is well used.

T is for Thriving Summer Garden

 

In summer our gardens often look a bit tired. May usually is a striking month in the garden with blooming flowers galore, but when July rolls around some plants already look a bit spent. This year, however, is different - maybe because of the rather late rain in April we had. I'm out there working in the dirt every day and I take so much delight the way the garden looks right now.

Let me show you some of my favorites.

The hebe I bought several years ago at the jail which has a great program where inmates work in the gardens and grow and nurture drought tolerant plants that they sell to the public. You have to make an appointment and go through security, but the selection (and the prices) are excellent. At first I had planted the hebe in the front garden. It was very slow growing and when it finally displayed a few buds, the deer came rushing in and nibbled them up. In the following fall I moved the plant to the back where no deer can enter and it finally took off.

Coyote mint  (Monardella villosa) is a California native wildflower, drought tolerant and loved by bees. It's a rather low growing plant, sprawling widely, sometimes climbing. It grows well in both sun and shade. I can't imagine a garden without it.

One of my most beloved favorites is another California native, Red Buckwheat (Eriogonum grande var. rubescens). It is low growing with brilliant reddish pink flowers that bees go crazy over. It pretty much doesn't need summer water and thrives on neglect. I'm planning to plant more of them in the fall.

A drought tolerant garden is not complete without lavender - I have several varieties, but my favorite one is "Provence" (Lavandula x intermedia 'Provence'). The bees agree with me.

You might notice that I have many flowers in purple and magenta shades. They do mix so well with each other. In the garden bed in front of my kitchen Clary sage (Salvia sclarea) mingles with lavender, some other salvias, butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii) and Shasta daisies (Leucanthemum x superbum).

But I also have plants in other colors, of course. Clockwise from top left: Helianthus annus Sunbelievable 'Brown Eyed Girl' (an annual sunflower), Verbena bonariensis, Shasta daisy (Leucanthemum x superbum), and Trumpet vine (Campsis radicans).

I also love small trees that don't need much water, but give some shade and thus cool down the garden a bit. Blue Elderberry (sambucus mexicana) is a California native with cream colored flowers in flat topped clusters.

My favorite tree, however, (I have four blue and one white) is the Chaste tree (Vitex agnus-castus). This one is "Sensational" - it attracts a wide array of pollinators. No extra summer water needed.

A hollyhock (my guilty pleasure) grows right into it.

The garden wouldn't be complete if there weren't some seedpods that I left standing on purpose - poppies (Papaver somniferum) and Love-in-a-Mist (Nigella damascena).

My neighbor's Mimosa tree (Albizia julibrissin) is reaching over the fence, gently waving in the breeze. While I wouldn't grow one in my garden, I do take delight in it.

It probably comes as no surprise that I love to spend a lot of time in the garden. Yes, there is an enourmous amount of work to be done - work I love to do - but I also enjoy sitting in the shade of a tree, reading a book, writing in my journal or knitting. A drink is always there - here I'm having Karkade, the cool hibiscus drink I first had in Egypt 26 years ago and that I have been making every summer. It is so good. This is for Elizabeth's T Tuesday.

I hope you enjoyed this tour through my summer garden. Come autumn and it will look different again.

Chasing the Light

 

What a wonderful time of spring! The sun rises earlier and is higher in the sky, lightening up different parts of the garden. I love to go out in the morning and follow the light how it moves from one area to another, playing with the darker parts and brightening up others. There is constant change until the garden is bathed into golden morning light.

The filigrane shapes of this decorative piece that I found at a yard sale is highlighted in a narrow strip of sunlight.

The flower bed with its Jupiter's beard (Centranthus) and the young pomegranate tree slowly emerges from the shadows. The flower stalks of Jupiter's beard - which is also called Red Valerian - look gorgeous when backlit before a dark background.

Kibeau is looking for a sunny spot as well where he can watch the little bugs and spiders bustling through the leaves.

Look at the leaves of the Japanese Maple!

The birds have turned up as well. If you look hard at the left picture, you can see a male Hooded Oriole in the leaves of the Pineapple guava whereas the Cedar Waxwings are easy to spot at the top of my neighbor's gingko tree.

The clematis is spectacular. It blooms like crazy in the spring and then again later in the summer, but not quite as vivid.

There are peony buds and the blue-green foliage of California poppies (Eschscholzia californica) caught in the light...

... as well as Coyote mint (Monardella villosa) and Calamintha nepeta, a bee magnet later in the summer that also has a lovely scent...

... and even some succulents like Sedum Autumn Joy and the little decorative bird next to the Echeveria.

I love this little angel sitting on a piece of driftwood right in front of the birdbath.

Some plants are fully immersed in the morning light...

... while others just capture the first little bits of light. Oh, how do I love this!