Scenes from the Garden

The artist is the confidant of nature, flowers carry on dialogues with him through the graceful bending of their stems and the harmoniously tinted nuances of their blossoms.  Every flower has a cordial word which nature directs towards him.  ~Auguste Rodin

Foggy Garden Magic

It's that time of year when there is something new and interesting happening in the backyard every day. This morning was magical. A heavy fog put tiny droplets of water on everything like the world was encrusted with minuscule diamonds or pearls. 

I have a fun, new, folk art  painting completed and in my Etsy shop!

"Gypsy Moon"

Happy Spring!

Our warm winter is now a warm spring. Temps in the 70's this week!

I spent the last weekend trying to get my gardens cleaned up. Trimming and weeding and moving plants to places they will look nicer and be happier. At the end of the day on Sunday, I felt like I was 100 years old, everything ached. If you have a garden, I know you can relate to the feeling!

I saw this idea on Pinterest - planting strawberries in cinderblocks. 

I also planted a few varieties of lettuce, some basil seeds, pansies and zinnias.  

A little sprinkle this morning looks great on the plants. 

Lady's mantle above and a tulip bud below which kind of looks like a 

sideways face with the two raindrop eyes. 

An old and not so full hyacinth above, lungwort below. 

Flowers look so dramatic on black. 

My newest custom Painted Pony now on ebay for a few more day. 

Lucky will be entered into the Trail of Painted Ponies new design contest honoring the American Paint Horse. 

Happy Spring!

"I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden. "

~Ruth Stout 

Un-bee-lievable

Scenes from my yard on the last day of January.

 I still can't believe I saw a honey bee!

The cats love to follow me outside and munch on grass.

And just a few random shots from this week. 

Susquehanna River from Chiques Rock. 

My daughter Zoe hiking back from the scenic overlook at sundown. 

Warm Winter

Like much of the country, it's been unusually warm this winter (except for snow in October). Today it's supposed to get into the mid 50's. 

I still have all sorts of plants growing in the garden. Even the snowdrops are threatening to bloom. 

I love how the raindrops cling to the leaf hairs on the lupine leaf above. 

The photo below is my kale. I wasn't able to harvest any in the fall because bugs were eating the leaves. 

Perhaps we'll be able to eat some soon. I heard kale chips are yummy. 

 Look, I still have a flower in my garden! I can't believe this pretty primrose keeps chugging along.

This morning I was playing around a really high aperture to get a sunburst effect on the raindrops. 

I think my camera was set at f/20 for these. 

And this week I received the most adorable original Holiday Hummingbird painting I won from my 

friend Sandy Sandy's blog giveaway. Have I mentioned before that I'm lucky? 

Longwood on Sunday

We went  to Longwood Gardens on Sunday and had a fabulous time.

The gardens are so lovely this time of year and with all the recent rain we've been getting, the flowers looked amazing.

"How deeply seated in the human heart is the liking for gardens and gardening."

~Alexander Smith