Tonight was my third foray into painting at Painting with a Twist, this time with Jen. The shot above is the palette we used.
And…. VOILA!! I give you…. Wildflowers at the Park:
The “after” photo.
Please hold your applause.
The one the teacher guided us through didn’t have any bluebonnets (!). Well, i simply couldn’t paint a hill country scene without bluebonnets, so we improvised.
I’m just realizing that the clouds look a bit like hats. Oh well. I’m sure Picasso had to work at it a bit before he got the hang of it, too. 🙂
A block or two away from our house is an empty field belonging to one of the neighboring lots. From early spring to summer the field is lit up in different colors, depending on the wildflower in bloom at the time. In late March to early April it is a brilliant blue, brimming with bluebonnets. As I drove by on my way home from work today, this last day of May, it pops with bright red and yellow. It is full of gallardia…a nice treat at the end of a long day.
We headed to the lake today to raft-up with Marty & Sue on Caribbean Hug, Lori, Dave & Jake on Camelot, and Mike and Kathy on Soul Healer. Julie joined us for the night, and Laura dropped by for a couple hours, too.
I paddled the kayak to shore to tie a stern line and saw these pretty little weeds growing in the rocks on the shore.
One view of Arky @ night
Mike had a pair of military grade night vision goggles, which everyone passed around for a while. This is a shot I took through the goggles. Just thought it looked cool.
And, finally, this is a shot off the stern, of the last moments of dusk.
..and another shot of Arky at night.
A good time was had by all.
Butterfly out back on the lantana. Maybe one of these days I’ll have (make) the time to take some proper shots out in the garden, with a tripod and patience. But for now, I’ll try to be quick on the shutter for these chance encounters.
Our mimosa tree out back is blooming. It’s had a hard couple of years with freezes and droughts. At one point we thought it was a goner. It appeared to have a split in its trunk. But, there’s still life in it. The canopy is not covered with blooms this year, just a couple dozen. I tried to capture one of the newer ones, here.
Doray & Tom gave Monte a lime tree for his birthday (aka his “margarita tree”). It’s blooming out back, now. And after the blooms are spent, little baby limes are left behind.
Can’t wait for them to grow up. Monte’s standing by with the juicer at the ready. 🙂
This morning started early, as usual. I’m leaving for NY again this morning and I still had to pack. I took a walk out back after a few calls. This is a shot of one of the recently planted pentas, well in bloom; with droplets from this morning’s watering still there.
I made it to La Guardia without incident. This is a shot going over the Whitestone Bridge – perennially under construction. The sunset was pretty. I was hoping to get a shot of Manhattan from the port side of the plane, but for some reason, the plane approached from the east on landing, instead of the west, so I missed getting a shot.
Lantana grows here in abundance, without needing anything from humans to help it along. It is one of the great native flowering plants in Central Texas.
We have yellow, orange, purple and white lantana in different places in our yard. But my favorite is the multi-colored pink & yellow lantana. Before we built the shop, there was a beautiful, huge multi-colored lantana growing right in the middle of where the slab was to be poured. It ended up getting torn out. I’ve mourned the loss of that lantana ever since.
So, today I was very happy to see a new lantana growing in the backyard that is just starting to pop out with those great multi-colored blooms.
We had a very nice weekend at the homestead. Soon weekends will be full of lake activity, so it’s nice to play homebodies for a while. We watched the Master’s final round coverage yesterday. And I grilled a ham on the weber, and topped it off with sweet potato casserole and baked beans. Everything turned out great.
These little lilies have been blooming every spring that we’ve lived here. The bulbs are extremely hardy, and can stand drought and hard freezes. But, their blooms are short lived, lasting only a week or so. I looked up their name online and am pretty sure they are alstroemeria, aka peruvian lily or lily of the incas. Your flower factoid of the day: alstroemeria flowers symbolize friendship and devotion — faithful bloomers.
Today was beautiful. Hit Home Depot. Worked outside in the yard. Got my new flowers planted. Fertilized the lawn out back and watered it in. Hoping a lawn will spring up any day now. Dug out a dead yaupon holly and replaced it with a new one. Grocery shopping. Filled the bird feeders. Some indoor cleaning. Reversed the ceiling fans – it’s officially spring now. (In case you were wondering: counter-clockwise for summer, clockwise for winter, as you look at the fan from below). Some work-work. Cooked a couple of yummy steaks. Watched Darjeeling Limited with Monte. Fell asleep on the couch. Just yer average Saturday. Waiting for the Easter bunny to show.
When we bought this house, we went from a yard that was about 1/10 of an acre to one that was about 3/4 of an acre. I enjoyed taking the first walks around the back to discover the trees, flowers and other features that came with the deal. One of them was a tiny little cactus, which uncharacteristically started growing in the very shady wooded part of our back yard. But, still it was my first cactus, and the only one on our property, so I wanted to keep an eye on it. In that first year it was pretty small, and ended up being run over by the lawnmower a couple times (you can see a cut on the top of one of the pads in the middle of the plant). So a couple years ago I marked it with stones.
Several years I’ve had to go out and dust it to deter an infestation of cactus-sucker-bugs. The droughts have been tough, too, but, hey, it’s a cactus. This is the 6th year since I discovered it, and this spring it is covered with lots of new pads. And it’s finally getting some height. The spines on the new pads are soft and green… but will soon turn into those horrible little spikes that you never want to touch.
Sheila365 