Happenings Today

Last year I had a banner vegetable garden year, I had more tomatoes than I could handle.  I made Homemade Marinara Sauce.  I peeled, seeded and froze the extra tomatoes before I found a much easier way to preserve by pureeing them in my blender.  I am still using up my pureed tomatoes that have been in my freezer!

My vegetable garden is off to a slower start this year but I still have plenty going on in other parts of the garden.

 

 

 I'm growing better strawberries this year thanks to a tip I learned in Sunset magazine - spend the first month of growing season pinching off all the pretty white flowers from your strawberry plants.  The berries that grow later will be bigger and sweeter.  It worked!

Hoping for a lot of blueberries, I have 6 bushes but they are still young.

These are baby Golden Dorsett apples which grow nicely here because they have a a very low chill requirement.  I have had this little tree for a few years and it's amazing how many apples I get.  Given my success pinching strawberries I thinned some apples hoping for better fruit but it was really hard to cut off the baby apples...I want them ALL to grow!  I also have a Fuji apple tree which is still young, it only gave me 2 apples last year.

Pole beans

Chives.  I love to put the purple blossom petals in mashed potatoes, they look so pretty.

Pomegranates.  I have two small trees in pots, I thought this one was non-fruit bearing because years went by with no fruit so I got another and then this one woke up!  I only got one fruit last year and it was tiny.  It's covered in blossoms, so I hope at least a few of them turn into fruit.

I also have Fuyu persimmon, Santa Rose Plum, a dwarf avocado, blood orange, Meyer Lemon, Pixie tangerine and a dwarf navel orange.  Nothing much going on there...I have a strangely hard time with all my citrus...but I keep tyring.

And today is Oberon's birthday!  He is one.  This is his serious look.

Color in the Garden

There has not been a lot of art happening lately.  I have carpal tunnel syndrome which makes it hard to do much of anything.  I am currently challenging my brain by trying to work using shortcut keys and moving the mouse to my left hand...makes for a slower day, that is for sure.  Luckily my work has not been busy so I have been able to enjoy the beach and this last week of summer before school starts.  Today ended up with thick fog that never burned off close to the beach so I took my 50mm lens out into the yard to experiment.  I like the watery backgrounds of the pictures.

A dwarf pomegranate...I wish the little fruit was in focus instead of the leaves in the foreground but I could not get the camera to cooperate!  I had almost given up on this little tree, it's been years with no fruit.  I was thinking it was just an ornamental variety and so glad to finally see fruit! 

  

Despite my neglect I've still got roses.  These are called Strike it Rich.

 

A little bit of the tropics on a foggy day.

 

I never get tired of these tiny orchids.

 

Blood oranges!  Like the pomegranate, this is another first for this tree.  I can't wait to taste these.

 

Giant fern.

 

I wish I could remember the name of this one...another tropical addition to the garden.

 

 

Amaryllis belladonna.  We like to call them "naked ladies"

Pink Melaleuca

 

Another one whose name I can't remember!

 

15 weeks old.  One more week before we can take this little guy to the beach.

 

A monarch chrysalis.  My 7 year old daughter thought it was so charmingly located in this little opening in a rosemary bush that she called it "pixie hollow" and decorated it with flowers and pretty stones.

 

 

A Puppy and A Doggy





Hello Oberon who is 13 weeks old today and often wet and muddy.  In this picture you can see his "flaw," the black spot that we found out about the day before he came home to us.  We had no plans to show or breed him and we think his spot is charming even if it is considered a fault. 

I was extra busy last week painting special pictures for two special girls this week.

I painted an owl for H and then this fluffy white doggy for M's 7th birthday.



Acrylic on canvas, 12" X 14"



Linking up to Hello Monday.

Hello Monday

It's Monday after a great weekend. 

Friday night I finally checked out some wine tasting rooms on the Urban Wine Trail in Santa Barbara. Saturday we spent all day at the pool with a bunch of friends, it finally felt like summer around here! Sunday was lazier but we managed to be productive (some of us more than others!)

Hello to this Hungarian folk art design I've been wanting to draw on an old book page for a long time and finally sat down to do it yesterday.  Inspired by this felt version on Pinterest.

Hello Oberon who is 11 weeks old today and got his next round of shots.  One step closer to the beach!  I can't wait.

Hello Io, mischief maker.

Hello to burning onions. 
No it's not a mistake, it's the first step to making the best beans EVER which will be our meatless Monday meal tonight.  
Try the recipe yourself and let me know what you think.

Hello beautiful orchids

Hello new fence husband was working on all weekend.  New dog, new fence.

I'm linking up with Lisa Leonard again, if you are visting me via Lisa's blog please say hello!

No Words Needed

 

Hello Monday

I'm linking up with Lisa Leonard today for the first time. 
She has a lovely blog and beautiful jewelry. 

Hello newly hatched Monarch

Hello sunflower

Hello apples from our tree

Hello Oriole nest

Hello new puppy, I hope you sleep better tonight!

Hello warm days for sprinkler play

Hello wet dog smell...

Kauai Sunset and the big day is here!

Have you ever wondered what keeps clouds suspended in the sky? 

 

I thought this worked nicely for Illustration Friday - Suspend

It's funny and very telling that one of my favorite journal pieces is this watercolor sunset I painted from our lanai looking north over the bluffs of Princeville.  It only took me 15 minutes...which is maybe why it looks so good to me.  I didn't have time to over think and mess it up!

In other big news...we have a new puppy...AND...a new kitty!  The new kitty actually came 10 days ago.  We decided it would be fun to have a kitten and a puppy grow up together.

Meet Io the kitty and Oberon the pup.

Io wasted no time taking charge.  Here she is stalking Obi.

All the excitement wore Obi out.

Io likes to help me work.