45th B-Day

Yesterday was my 45th birthday. I had a fabulous day puttering outside in the garden, getting a few art things ready and sold orders ready to send out. I varnished my triptych “Mellifluous Wind” and it’s awaiting the final coats today.

The sun was shining and I listened to my favorite jams while tending to seedlings and moving plants here and there.

One of my favorite things to do is walk around and see what is blooming or what has popped up. Every day brings something new. That’s the magic of gardening.

I was treated to dinner and I picked a barbecue place called Bandana’s in Evansville and it was delicious. Then we went to Menard’s to get the rest of my stones to finish my patio area of Studio Gardens posts… finally! I’m so excited!

Even though this little beauty has been blooming for some time, I’ve not given it any credit. This coreopsis and a bunch of other plants are happily growing and blooming underneath my very large and old black walnut tree. Growing plants under a large mature tree is always risky, but make that a black walnut tree and there are plenty of plants that say no way man.

listening to tunes outside

Above right you’ll see my favorite little investment for myself (well one of them at least) and that is my Klipsch Gig Bluetooth speaker. Well worth the money, I love the sound and haven’t had any trouble linking up anything that is Bluetooth to it.

Here’s my view of seedlings under the deck hardening off. That is the process of getting the tender seedlings that have been babied inside ready for the outside world. I usually harden them off over a period of about a week. Taking them out for a few hours at first and then longer each day. I think today is the day they will spend the first night outside. Take a look at that gorgeous upright fuchsia ‘Gartenmeister’, the hummingbirds love it.

Do you ever have those Aha! moments when you do or use something that you’ve never done or used in that fashion before and find out you just might be a closet genius? Occasionally I do and this was one of them. I have these wrought iron connect together trellis like divder thingy’s. I sometimes pull them out and let a vine grow up them but this year I’ve pulled them out and wrapped them around a corner of my greenhouse. I’ve planted nasturtium seeds under them and can’t wait for the show! I’ll share pictures as it goes of course.

My son and I got a treat yesterday morning and saw a large Barred Owl perched in the tree across the lake. See him? He’s right in the middle of the photo.

I took this photo with my phone and decided to grab my camera and put my zoom lens on it and try to get a better picture.

This is the best my camera could do through the window and being held with my hand. Still cool though, huh? We’ve been listening to two of them call out to each other for quite a while now. I loved seeing him. (?him/her?)

Finally, I saved the best for last. You know my junker, hoarding tendency ways… Always stopping to load up something if I can. Well I hit the jackpot with these two Adirondack chairs. I was so excited to see them as I was taking my son to school and was scared they wouldn’t be there by the time I made it back.

To my surprise they were! They are in great shape, too. Not rickety at all. I kinda like the chippy black paint. I’ve not decided yet to paint or not. That would be a summer project, I’m too busy right now. Aren’t they fabulous?!

Happy Birthday to me!

By the way, my selfie above was taken sitting in my new chair! Catch ya on the flip side!

If you’re new to my blog and website have a look at my ‘About’ page in the menu at the top. I’m an artist – a painter mostly. I paint a variety of subjects including cranes, ravens and crows, flowers as well as anything having to do with nature especially trees and tropical scenes. If you’re interested in my art, I have a newsletter mailed about once a month that gives you special status for invitations, birthday greeting and more. Sign up here for it.