Walking the Garden

Goldfinch are flitting between this birdbath and feeder

(when I'm not standing so close)

The purslane look really good!  They have filled

in nicely under one of my live oaks

my small crop of Satsuma oranges is beginning to "turn"

this fossilized rock was discovered during a landscaping project

What is the curved-area?  Initially I thought it was a tusk!

Tim thinks it is some sort of plant.

I should have it evaluated by someone who can tell me...

close-up of the cool fossil rock

another view

I ordered some additional plants yesterday from one of my favorite purveyors:  High Country Gardens

http://www.highcountrygardens.com/.  They specialize is xeric landscape plants with a special focus on the southwest.  They are located in Santa Fe NM.  I have had good luck with their products:  they are shipped very carefully packaged and the plants are especially healthy, with vigorous root systems.

I cannot recommend them enough!  The drought, coupled with our summer heat, was brutal on my garden despite the fact that I have a very tough, mostly-xeric, environment.  I intend to replace a few things and augment a few areas that need more filling-in.  I am in love with all of the agastache varieties because they attract both hummingbirds and butterflies, and have a nice minty fragrance.

This is one of my favorite varieties:  

                                                         'Ava' hummingbird mint

The Bee Charmer

A bee comes to sit on Claire's finger

Claire makes friends with a hen

Claire spent last weekend in New Jersey at one of her college friend's house.  They own 4 laying hens

and have an extensive garden with loads of bees hanging around.  Claire is one of the few people I know who adores bees, and they always seem to return the affection.  They frequently land on her when she is outside in our garden.  She sent these photos to me and I wanted to share.

isn't she pretty?

Butterflies enjoy the lovely weather

a gorgeous Monarch graces the cosmos flowers

this guy, along with a huge black swallowtail butterfly,

have been drifting around the garden today

(this photo courtesy of the National Butterfly Center)

I am pleased to see that the recent rain has assisted in speeding along the germination of my wildflower bed.  I have loads of tiny seedlings making an appearance.  I think this bodes well for the entire Hill Country-area wildflower crop next spring:  it all comes down to getting rain in the right amounts & intervals during the fall season.

I was talking to my daughter, Claire, on the phone while this butterfly was wafting about.  She told me it makes her happy that I send photos of the garden to her (she is in college far away @ SUNY Purchase).

I think it helps her feel connected to home.

I didn't know that South Texas is recognized as America's Butterfly Center!  I found this informative website about the varieties that can be found in this area:  http://www.naba.org/chapters/nabast/index.html

Farmer's Market & the new "River Reach"

Another Saturday morning visit to the Pearl Farmer's market.  This time I remembered to bring my camera for the walk along the new river-area.  The following are a few photos of our stroll...

A beautifully embellished loaf of bread at the Pearl Market,

this one from Sol y Luna Bakery

The river taxi moves past the grotto sculpture

Look out for the scary monster inside!

Natalie walks through the grotto

The landscaping along the new river-area is lovely.

It will be breath-taking once it has filled in.

This beautiful butterfly, a Gulf Fritillary, was enjoying the lantana

This new falls was created just behind the Pearl Market

(note the footbridge in the upper left portion of the photo)

The headwaters of the San Antonio river are about a mile north of this site.

Tiny watercolor book & more garden images

Another wonderful day in San Antonio!  After performing the requisite tasks of the day I gathered my camera, watercolors, pencils, sketchbook, and my cute & tiny watercolor book and headed outside.
I walked around the garden and admired the recently cleaned-out lavender/sage berm.  It had become quite overgrown with nutgrass since we've had so much rain.  The mowers spent some extra time working in the bed, and I planted a new lavender in place of one I lost over the summer.

This berm is over 30 feet in length.

May Night salvia on right edge, and lavender mounds to the left of it.

Looking back from the opposite end.  This side has Russian Sage.

Close-up of Russian Sage & the bees (see one in the lower right corner?)

A cool piece of limestone dug up during a garden project

Here's another one.  Oh, how I love rocks!

We live over the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwards_Aquifer which means we have a tiny little bit of bad (BAD!) soil barely covering hundreds of feet of limestone.  Soil-amendment takes on a religious fervor if you are a gardener in this area.  The soil is incredibly alkaline.

my roses are very happy right now

This is my cute little watercolor sketchbook,

purchased from Strikebooks on Etsy

http://www.etsy.com/shop/strikebooks

here's the inside cover.  It is lovely.

one of my tiny drawings to which I will later add watercolor

(one of our outdoor light fixtures)

A modified contour drawing of my shoe,

which I later filled in a bit with prismacolor pencils

(Hey!  I didn't say they would be good, just that I would be posting them!)

I'm really pushing myself to spend time drawing and/or painting every day.  I want to get better, to be more accurate in proportion/perspective, and working with intent on a daily basis is the only way I will get there.  I feel that by devoting some studio-time to these activities I will be improving my skill-set in a more general way.

More Life Drawing & a couple of tiny watercolors

It was such a beautiful day that I decided to take my sweet little Etsy-purchased Strikebook made with watercolor paper outside and start a couple of paintings.  One is finished and one is in-progress.  The book pages are 3 inches x 4 inches.  It is such a cute little book!

A pot of aloe vera with two tin-punch luminaria

Bright Lights Chard

(unfinished)

Natalie and I went back to the Coppini Academy Thursday evening to do another life-drawing session.
This was another round of short poses:  15 1-minute, 10 3-minute, 5 5-minute, one 10-minute, and one 15-minute.  The model was really good because he presented some very challenging poses.  I stuck with charcoal on all but one pose.  I'm still trying to decide which tool I prefer for the quick poses.
Here are a few examples of my work from this session:

1-minute pose

3-minute pose

3-minute

10-minute

(drawn over clear gessoed paper...don't ask me why cause I couldn't tell you!)

After we left Coppini we went home, changed, and went to the gym and did 45-minutes of cardio.

We felt pretty self-righteous afterward!

Amelia Earhart as fashionista

A friend of mine, a fellow woman-pilot from the 99's (an international organization for women pilots),

sent a link to an interesting article about Amelia in the Huffington Post.  Presumably, the renewed interest in Amelia is due to the new movie about her life.  I was aware that she had designed a line of accessories and clothing, but did not realize that she is widely considered the first "celebrity designer".  Huh.

Many people view Amelia as a very androgynous creature because she was mainly photographed in her flying attire, which admittedly looked quite masculine, especially for the era in which she was living.  This article offers a view of her through a much different lens.

 A beautiful and seldom seen photo of Amelia from a poster for her lecture tour. Her aviator pin, pearls and open collar look contemporary.

Pictured: The dress Amelia Earhart designed and gave to her friend and flying student Mary Packwood.  This dress is in the Hanford Carnegie exhibit today, in Hanford, CA.

Pictured: Amelia Earhart's Fashion Label, the little red airplane taking off complimented her signature.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-hall/amelia-earharts-fashion-l_b_341283.html&cp