Still Life

Peonies

The peonies are now officially in bloom here. The big gorgeous blooms and the fragrant aroma beg to be cut and brought in the home. I obliged.

Psssttt.........come closer.

................closer............

...........a little closer............

 .........oh how I wish you could smell them. 

Heavenly.


In other garden news, we have a garter snake living on the west side of The Bates Estate. I've dubbed it Henry/Henrietta since I don't know if it's male or female. I'm thinking female since I also saw a baby in the grass the other day. Today H/H was in the flower garden. Not terribly happy I was following close with a camera trying to get a shot.

Honestly though, there is no need to stick your tongue out at me! Cheeky snake.

It's another beautiful day here today. We are taking them as they come. Feels like the humidity is ramping up.  I'm working on the pool, but we still have more de-leafing and filtration to do. I am hoping by the weekend I'll be able to take the inaugural dip of the season. 

Did anyone catch the USA v Ghana World Cup Match last night? Well, let's put it this way.......my man Clint Dempsey came through with a goal 30 seconds in. It was a great match. Ghana is a tough team that came back to tie in the second half as we were nearing the end. Ugh. Luckily, our man Brooks came of the bench to score - the first USA goal by a replacement in World Cup history. Way to go Brooksie. Nice header! We held on to win so we were quite happy with  that result. And that has been your Tuesday World Cup update. Thanks for tuning in.

Lots of design work on the desk today. Mostly logo revisions and some ad design.  What's happening in your corner of the world?

Ciao for now,

Take A Walk With Us

Spring In Our Step

Hey you guys....Happy Monday!

I have to say, waking up to a bit of sunshine today was quite welcome here.  It's not meant to last so Lucan and I took to the yard for a walk about.  Despite the generally non-cooperative spring weather so far, things are doing their best to pop.

All sorts of tree buds....

.....including the forsythia!

Hello Gorgeous! (didn't need to make one single adjustment to this beauty).

In the woods, the ferns are unfurling and the evergreen remains, green.

And in the yard...........flowers, both gone-by and awakening.

Sunset Meadows

The weekend had a rather interesting end, gray clouds mixed with a bit of sun giving it its best shot.

 

 

I hope you all had a great weekend. I did a pretty good job staying away from the computer (other than spending time deleting a gazillion emails that were slowing my system down....more to do on that front for sure).  It wasn't very nice weather wise so we kind of just hunkered down for the count. Then Sunday, Gar woke up with a cold. So I went into a cleaning frenzy while he watched soccer on the tube.  Then I said, 'that's it. I'm quitting' and played around with watercolors for a couple of hours.  I was finally about to sit and watch some TV around 8, when our cable went out. Talk about timing. Oh well, I went back to sketching and painting. Why fight it?

In other news: I beat G in a game of Yahtzee, made a delicious white sauce veggie lasagna, had some nice toast for saturday brekkie topped with the apple jelly my nephew made and was kind enough to share from his pantry, visited with the neighbors, enjoyed a little bit of youtube singing and dancing, oh............and watched my Bruins beat Detroit to take their first series on the way to the Stanley Cup.  What did you do?

Make it one awesomely spectacular week and I'll do my best to do the same!

Ciao for now,

Take A Walk With Us: Springing Up

 

Around The Yard

Things are popping here.  They aren't waiting for me to get out and clean out the gardens and do yard work. The trees and flowers are springing up, with or without me.


honeysuckle & coreposis

 

apple & tiger lily

 

 

pear &  peony

 

 

burning bush & grape hyacinth

 

 

oak & jonquils

 

maple & wildflower

 

 

 

I confess. I'm not positive that's maple. It may be oak. I have absolutely no idea what the wildflower is. I've never even noticed it before.  What a treat to find it today. If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to identify it.


forsythia, grape hyacinth, jonquil and vinca

 

grape hyacinth & spring bouquet

 

Nothing like a little bouquet to brighten the day.  Is anything blooming yet in your yard? I can't wait for the apple blossoms to pop and my flowering crab apple.  Then it will really seem like Spring.

 

Make it a great Monday, and I'll do the same.

 

Ciao for now,