Roses and Peonies

About 18 months ago, I visited the home of a friend for the first time.  Her husband is an avid gardener.  It was there, I fell in love with roses.  I have loved peonies for a long time though I never had any. but I always thought roses were just 'okay'.  Admittedly, I love a fragrant rose, but it seems to me they don't smell as delicious as they once did.

This is the Sarah Bernhardt Peony ( photo from Google search and nydecay.org)

Yesterday, I went back to Micki's home and I, along with the rest of the guests, were invited to help ourselves to any of the roses and peonies.  Wow, I went crazy, but as I live 40 miles away over very winding roads, I would have to carry them.  I restrained myself Thankfully, another was driving.

Photo by moi

The blossoms on the left are peonies. The ones on the right are roses except for the large yellow one. That is a Lithuanian peony.

Photo by me a bit blurry.

In this one you can really see the Lithuanian peony.

Last week was Mother's Day,  You knew that, didn't you?

 I had a lovely visit with my oldest daughter and her family, with delicious burgers and gifts I love.  My other daughter, who lives far away, sent some flowers which arrived Monday.  She knew I wouldn't be home for a Sunday delivery.

I had beautiful flowers.

 The full view

The overhead view showing the peonies. This was the next morning.

These are the same peonies four days later. See the color difference and how large they opened.

Here are some roses I love. Some are mine, some are hoped for.

This is St. Patrick's Rose in my yard.

Gold Strike Rose

A new favorite. The Jude the Obscure Rose. It's gorgeous and it smells wonderful.  I mean, amazing.

Both of these Jude the Obscure photos were from Google search.  I didn't get a photo at Micki's. She has a lovely, large bush  covered with them.

Jude again.

And for my last photo for this post, a still life.

This photo by me is titled:

Still Life with Rose

Let's all be thankful for the beauty of flowers.

Blog A Lot Not

Hello to All Three or Four of you who stop by

I apparently am not the Blogger I thought I would be.  Not even once in April did I manage a post.  And now I'm hungry.    This happens to me when I must do something I don't want to do.  Or I do want to do it, but keep putting it off.  

Does this sound self pitying?  You're right it does.  I apologize.  Enough.  

Here is a poem.

         Garage
I've got a garage, it's filled up to here.
tires and rims and tubing and tools
Boxes of stuff, yes more than a hundred
compressors and vacs and engine stands
nuts and bolts and rubber bands
There's a perfectly good blue race car
dzeus fasteners, do you know what they are?  
There's funnels and drip pans and bottles of oil
Extension cords and cordless drills
and lots of dust on the window sills.
At the back is an astrovan seat, cat sleeps there to
get out of the heat. Then there's an EZ up still works well
Boxes of washers, an amorphus lamp and many more than one kind of clamp
We wouldn't be complete without duct tape and nails, gas cans and 
fire bottles and bright orange pails.

This is only a small view of the total mess it was. (The race car is gone and the EZ up)





How about a cloud?

God is good.







Well, I do wish you a lovely day/night.  But there is no more coming out the keyboard at this time.

I Love the Piano

This is my piano.

I bought it a few years ago at the local hospice thrift store.  I grew up with a piano, but I hadn't had one in more than 25 years.  This is an old piano manufactured in 1910 and probably not cared for very well.  Nevertheless, I was so happy to get it.  It was only $350, but I spent more than that to get it home and tuned.

When I was a child I took piano lessons at different ages with different teachers and different styles.  I learned to read music and I learned the chord method.

Playing the piano was and still is a favorite past time for me.  I love music, listening to it, singing along with it and making it.  I want to let anyone who might be reading this blog know that I am not very accomplished at my chosen instrument.  This is not false modesty.

But the truth is, I love to play anyway even though I get frustrated by my mistakes.

Some of my favorite pianists are:

Liberace

Boogie Woogie Live

Vince Guaraldi

Ginza Samba by Vince



Lori Line

Hymne

(I can play this, but not like Lori. It is one of my favorite melodies)



Roger Williams

Autumn Leaves



Thelonious Monk

"Round Midnight



Brian Crain 

Italian Summer
Composed and played by Brian.
 (I can play this one too)


Dear friends, I cannot even begin to name all of the pianists, piano players that I love. So I won't try. However, if you think of one and I've heard of them, I more than likely love to hear them play.

So today and everyday, I am thankful to God for music and the piano.

P.S.  All the photos are from the internet and all the links are from YouTube.

Art is Personal

Patterns in the sand

 Mini mixed media

 Huge Sculpture with globes

 Tapestry

 Photograph

 Wood carving of a dragon

 Paper art collage

 Food: pink sauerkraut

Costume sewing

 Metal decor on a roadway

 Mucha

Book binding

Weaving

Well, these are only a small portion of the arts.  There is so much more out there. I didn't even mention music or theater, tile, mosaics, jewelry.  So much to enjoy and explore.

Enjoy something that stirs your heart and mind every day.

Thank you, Lord, for giving us art.

Maybe I'm Repeating Myself

Here in the foothills of  North California (If they ever decide to divide the state, I will live in the North. However I don't expect it will happen because no one will ever agree on where the border should be.) it is spring weather, false spring, craziness or what ever. But it is not unusual.  Some years it may be in January others, like now, in February.

In 2014 I wrote a poem whilst sitting in the overly warm sun on my porch in February. Here it is.

  Too Warm in February

When February turns as warm as May
My mind drifts off and far away
Where snow lies deep upon the ground
And silence is the only sound;
Where mornings are dark, the air is chill
And I see foxes on the hill.

A fire burning in the grate
And steaming soup upon my plate.
Needing a coat when I go out, 
'I love winter' I want to shout.

Yet here I sit my arms all bare
Hearing bird calls everywhere,
Not even a rain cloud in the sky.
'Where is winter?', I want to cry,
When did winter pass me by?

Springtime weather is very nice
When coming after cold and ice.
The new green leaves on the old oak tree
Just now it's hot out in the sun.

Say it's not true that winter's done.

What is nice about the warmer weather, is that is just so pleasant to be out in it.  Our summers are very warm (90's to 107ish) and it's no fun going outdoors.  Oh wait!  It's absolutely lovely going out at 0500 on a July day to pull some weeds or take a walk.  But now, one can go out in the afternoon and putter around or sit and read.

Have you noticed adults are coloring in coloring books like crazy? 

 Every where one turns there are adult coloring books like these.

Apparently one can go online and just download a page to color.

Looky here!

Back in the 1970's,  I discovered a catalog from Dover Publishing.

 They had wonderful color books and paper dolls.  I bought paper dolls for the girls, like Goldilocks and the Three Bears etc.  I bought a couple of coloring books for me.  I used fine line markers, not pencils.  I remember one was the alphabet.  Each page a letter.  Inside the letter were items and animals that started with the letter.

Looking just now at their paper dolls, I saw Kate, the Duchess; Shirley Temple, Viking Children, Abe Lincoln and family and many more.  

All photos today were from the net. And here's one more  from a previous post on color.

There's no double about I have repeated myself a little bit, but I'm okay with it.

Wishing you a splendid day.

Always Remember

Always remember:   You are important
                                Someone loves you
                                Someone always knows where you are
                                There is something to look forward to
                                The past is done, learn from it, but . . .
                                 Don't live in the past
                                 It's free to be kind and there are rewards
                                 The Lord is near.
                              

Just some random photos of mine.  They make me happy.  All were taken by me, except the second one.  I cannot remember where I got it, but I love the ceiling art.  The first and last are of items I did. The third is titled "Coffee Table Still Life."

Now look again at the 4th.

Take joy and spread it around.

These are the smallest orchids I have ever seen. 

I'm spreading joy here.

Buns

No. I am not speaking of food or anatomy.  It's bunnies.  I know it's not Easter.  I love buns all the time, not just in spring.   When I was very small, yes, it was Easter, the Easter Bunny brought me a rabbit.  It's odd because he already had a name, my little self thought I should name him.  He was called Wimpy.  I had him for a long time.

 After I was married and had 3 kids,  I wanted another bun.  I decided that the next time someone was giving away rabbits in front of K Mart  I would get one.  I got two.  Michaela and  Sweet Bun.  Sweet Bun was not sweet.  Who knew that  rabbits could growl? I'm sorry to say that I have no photos of Wimpy, Michaela or Sweet Bun.  There maybe some in my archives, but I don't know where the archives are.

You know about Pinterest, yes?  I discovered some bunnies on there. Here is one:

Here is a link to the artist's Etsy page.  She does all types of animals, well this is also a rabbit, but look around you'll see some beautiful work.

I then fell in love with this little guy from Fresh Tracks also on Etsy.  and maybe a year later I had to buy him. And here is skiing across the kitchen counter.

This is Jean Louis.  He is from France, made by an artist named Catherine.  There are other bunnies from Catherine.

This little guy is a librarian bun.  He lives on the desk at the Cochise College library.  He pals around with my daughter, Alex, who is the technologies librarian.

See his little backpack? His map?  This is a hiking bunny.  He's gone to live at a friend's house.  A hiking friend.

Le lapin blanc

The White Rabbit

This one lives with Sarah, who played the White Rabbit in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Here she is.

Buns are also wonderful on calendars.

Ooh la la.

And on the bottoms of bowls.

See it?

And inside beautiful bake ware by Alex.

In literature there are two favorite buns.

The Velveteen Rabbit and

Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter Rabbit.


I will hop on my way now and be back another day. I am thankful for buns.