Works in Progress, Part 1

Mad Hatter still needs finishing touches

elf

another elf

cardinal in early stages of painting

moose will have a small bird on back
birds will be painted like a chickadee and ???

As mentioned in my last post, there are many works in progress (WIP). Since my camera battery needs to recharge, I will share these, my paper clay sculptures, in progress and share my little felt figures later when I have a fully charged battery. There are more paper clay sculptures waiting to be born but these are the ones that actually have some recognizable form.

Now Appearing in My Garden

Same as last week! But it's amazing how much they grow when it's balmy outside. It's been near 90 all week with night temperatures in the mid 60's. Thank Goodness for gardens. I couldn't tolerate the heat if I didn't have something to tend to and admire.

Temperatures are going to be more bearable for me over the next couple of days so I am hoping to get out there and do some *remodeling*. There are some HUGE daylilies that I hope to divide and relocate. With such a small garden space, I need to maximize the plants that share the space. I haven't decided yet but I will either relocate them to the side of the house or top of the drive (blocking the pooch's pooping place:o). Either way we will have to create a small strip of garden space but they should be happy being divided and given more room to grow. Granted, it's not the optimal time to divide daylilies but if it doesn't happen now it never will. :o)

Also this week, I found we are being attacked by slime mold in the front flower bed. If you didn't know, these slime molds, also called dog vomit fungus (which gives you a lovely image of what it actually looks like since I'm not taking photos:o) often occur in gardens that are deeply mulched (3+ inches). I would imagine we won't have the same outbreak next year since I use mulch more decoratively and only put down about an inch and a half or so over newspaper to help cut down on weeds.

So there you have it. I hope to share some of my works in progress. There are many and I need to take the time to photograph their progress. Have a fun and safe Memorial Day weekend to those in the States.

Images From the Garden

Well, I must admit I haven't done much in the garden this year. I've planted a few things but haven't started all the seeds I should have by now. Here is a photo update of what's blooming in our neck of the woods. It seems like a much later start to the season than the old home (Could be because we are only a half mile from the lake).

I have been enjoying the varied wildlife in the meantime. We have many birds and I have even spotted 2 hummingbirds thus far. Hopefully, I will be able to get some great shots but I haven't had my camera on hand as much as I have in the past so when the opportunity arises, I'm usually caught cameraless :o(

My Fantail Goldfish: Snowball

Meet Snowball!

I've been working on new elf sculptures but in the meantime we had to move my poor neglected goldfish out of my studio and into the living room. At first she was a little wary of her new surroundings but today she seems much happier to be part of *society* and is joyfully swimming around her new space. Now I have more room to store art stuff and Snowball will have a cleaner environment since we can access and clean her tank on a more regular basis. (if you remember we had a small disaster with her tank a few months back when I accidentally cracked her tank with that track ball you see in the last picture)

She is a trooper and while my husband doesn't understand why I love my goldfish(he's more of a tropical fish guy and goldfish are dirty:oP) all I can say is she makes me happy. I love to watch her swim, her fins gracefully moving through the water. Goldfish are social fish and interact with their owners(at least mine always have) plus they really are pretty low maintenance [dirty tanks aside (they do poop A LOT!)you don't need to make sure the water is perfect, the right temperature, etc just cleaned every now and again) They are relatively hardy and rarely get sick. Plus...*bonus*... they are pretty inexpensive (I think Snowball cost around $2 and was pretty large when we got her) And there are so many varieties. I personally like the fantails, but that's me. If we had a huge tank I would experiment but since we don't, I'll stick to my fantails!

Our Trip to the Holden Arboretum

Hello Bumble!

So Long Butterfly!

Forget Me Not

Magnolia

Rhododendron

Trillium and decaying tree trunk

Oak Pond(where my husband and I married in 2005)

My sweet boy wanted his picture taken with the geese

Well Hello Baby!