A SECOND HARVEST (OF SORTS)

Late Fall sneaked up on me. It seems like we were just enjoying the trees' colors at their peak, and now we're in the midst of those gray, November days. There were 6 Blue Jays at my feeders this morning and that was about all the color there was!

My garden has long since been harvested, pulled up, and hauled away. We've finished raking leaves which are now on my compost piles and flower beds are mulched in.While finishing up with storing away statuary and the last minute chores, I enjoyed a second harvest of sorts. In addition to leaves gathered during prime color and pressed in my trusty encyclopedia, I found 2 little nests which were blown from the front shrubs. I cut back my hydrangea before mulching and covering it.

I've framed 6 of my "harvested" leaves and the nests and hydrangeas have been sprayed with hairspray. My second harvest has brought more fodder to use in my art.

The Last of the Shirleys

   

   Sometime, during the months after my mom passed away in April of 1997, I'd stopped in by Daddy on my way home from work to check up on him and to spend a little time.  I found him sitting at the diningroom table looking through a flower catalog that had arrived in the mail that morning. He pointed out, sort of forlornly, a variety of tulip named "Shirley". That was Mom's name. So I decided to order a bunch of Shirley bulbs for the two of us to share. The bulbs arrived that Fall and we split them up and planted them.
      The following spring arrived. The last thing I had time for was to check on my Shirleys, let alone Daddy's. He'd been diagnosed with cancer and was staying with Jeffrey and me. I was doing other things--lots of other things.  Daddy passed away that June and, oddly, I honestly don't know if he ever saw his Shirleys.
   Over the years, my Shirleys have poked their heads up each spring, blossomed, lost petals, and retired until the following year. I've planted tother tulip bulbs, dug up bulbs, stored bulbs, moved bulbs, lost bulbs. My Shirleys sort of waned. THIS spring, after planting many, many inexpensive bulbs in October, I had lots of tulip color. Last week when I was out diggin' in my tulip beds, I found 6 precious, precious Shirleys! The last of them came up in 3 different areas of my yard.
  My Shirleys have been carefully marked. As soon as the leaves start to brown and wither, I'm going to dig them up and move them to the sunniest, warmest spot in my yard, right next to the Clematis. Now, I'm wondering if there's a variety of tulip named "Alfred". hummm..........
 

All Things Happen for a Reason

Yesterday, April 2nd, marked 16 years since my mom passed away.  I was thinking about her, on and off, all day.  I was busy all day and it's not as if I was grieving or anything. On April 2nd, though, I just take time to reminisce.

Since I started drawing faces, portraits if you will, I've so, so wished that I'd saved some of mom's "ladies" as we called them. When we were little, she'd draw her ladies in that 1940's-'50's style. We'd beg her to draw a lady--just the face-- so we could complete the hair. I don't think Mom ever took any sort of art classes, but I believe  she had more talent than was ever known. Because she never kept a journal or sketch book,  her drawings were just tossed away.

Right now, after accumulating lots of "stuff" over the course of 31 years, we are downsizing. Last night, while going through boxes, Jeffrey came across a box of my things. Can you believe it? Tucked away in a file, I found these 2 little sketches of mom's ladies. I was almost crying when I found these! Idon't know when these were drawn or why they were ever saved. I just know that I'm thrilled to have them. Now why in the world did this ever happen? When it did?  There's a reason, for which I'm not sure. For right now I'm thrilled to have these and need to get them matted and framed to hang in my studio.