What's blooming...

Beautiful delphiniums in purple and pink.

Love in a mist or Nigella.

Knautia 'Melton Pastels'

I am in love with this penstemon 'Husker Red'.

 It is huge and the flowers are so pretty!

Made a video with some of my flower images from the last two years here.

Let the show begin!

Today is the first day of the Devon Horse Show but I got a little behind the scenes peek when I went to hang some of my paintings in the Caracol Inspired Jewelry booth yesterday (adjacent to the warm up ring if you are going). I wasn't able to get many photos of the horses but let me tell you, I was in heaven. Both rings were full of some of the finest riders in the country all preparing their mounts for the show.

 

All of my paintings were created from reference photos I had taken at the Devon Horse Show over the years. This bay beauty is a side saddle mount.

If you make it to Devon this year please be sure to stop by the Caracol booth!

Love and Scratches and Sweet Feed

For the first time in nearly 4 years I'm back to feeding horses.

I was asked by the barn owner if I wanted to feed once a day, 2-3 times a week.

Of course I couldn't say no. Now I get to give love and scratches and sweet feed to all the horses in the barn and they are all so nice. The top horse is Bo.

Dayo grazing. You should see this thoroughbred move. Takes my breath away.

Someday I'll get it on the camera.

Faust, dirty but still looking stunning.

Lily above, Sophie and her muzzled mother below.

Twister the POA (Pony of the Americas).

He's the sweetest pony you will ever meet.

Zoe loves to groom him and ride him out to his pasture.

Rosie and her neigh-bor V.

 They are in love.



"Hey Rosie, can I play with your ball?"

Garden Friends and Flowers

Are you sick of my garden photos yet?

Good because it's only just begun.

I walk the garden several times a day and always manage to find something new.

This morning I found this baby bunny in my veggie garden.



Got this awesome gnome over the weekend at the new Home Goods store.

He fits right in!

Love this false indigo. I bought it half dead last year so this was the first time I got to see it looking so beautiful. There were a ton of little bugs on it.

Another blue flower on the Jacob's ladder.

After lunch I saw this damsel fly on the scotch broom.

Or maybe it's a baby dragonfly?

It was really small.

My first coreopsis to bloom.

Spiderwort with a bee hiding behind it.

You can see his leg full of pollen.

Bee collecting pollen from my meadow rue.

Red Valerian just starting to bloom.

Also called Jupiter's beard (I like that name better).

Silly Pumpkin Pie likes to be carried through the garden when it's rainy.

Hard to hold a camera and a cat.

I guess he has me well trained!

Edible Garden

I'm not a huge vegetable gardener.

Mostly because for the first three years on this property, groundhogs ate everything I tried to grow.

Now that I got rid of our old shed, they have no place to hide and consequently, no place to live.

The buffet is closed.

We're just starting to eat the lettuce and radishes now. There is nothing so nice as free, yummy lettuce. Completely free of chemicals. I love it!

I noticed the peas are starting to bloom. 

 Such a beautiful flower.

One of the wettest seasons on record. I don't think my tomatoes are happy.

Trying some interesting heirlooms this year: Bloody Butcher, Charlie Chaplin, Kellogg's Breakfast, Sugar Plum and Big Rainbow. Also planted 2 Sungolds and a Brandywine.

Bought a tomatillo plant to try. I see a bug on it.

I just love salsa verde.

I'm in love with the colors on the purple cabbage leaves.

Even planted some strawberries. Fingers crossed I will get to taste these. I even put up a little fence, my feeble attempt to keep out the varmints.

"The first gatherings of the garden in May of salads, radishes and herbs made me feel

like a mother about her baby - how could anything so beautiful be mine. And this emotion

of wonder filled me for each vegetable as it was gathered every year. There is

nothing that is comparable to it, as satisfactory or as thrilling,

as gathering the vegetables one has grown."

- Alice B. Toklas