Showers and Flowers

Recently a fellow blogger noticed the picture on my side bar of my Laughing Dog Sierra.  She asked if I would allow her to paint his portrait and of course I said yes if she would promise to send me a jpeg of the finished painting.  Well, not only did she send me a jpeg but she sent me the actual painting!!  Isn't it wonderful?  She captured that loving look in his eyes perfectly.  She is Patty of Listen to the Road blog.  Click on the link to go visit her.  She has been painting these portraits of dogs in shelters and then sells the paintings, contributing all the profit back to the shelter.  Some people are so amazing and kind and generous and Patty is one, to say nothing of talented!  I adore my painting.  Thank you so very much, Patty.  I love my painting!!!

Here are a few photos of the wild flowers sprouting up around here.  Above are the Fairy Bells.  So sweet and all over the place.

Big Leaf Maple is blossoming like crazy, waking up everyone's allergies and spewing out pollen. Lucky for me I don't suffer from allergies.  The yellow dust of it is covering cars and everything. 

Better click on this one to see the lovely profusion of wild bleeding hearts.

This is a blue bell, not wild but has gone feral, along with some cranesbill that is taking over after I brought a tiny plant in a few years back.

Can't end without showing our Oregon State flower, Oregon Grape.  The stiff glossy spiny leaves protect the short lived flowers.  Eventually there will be a cluster of blueberry looking grapes.  Yes, they are edible but as my friend says, not incredible.

I'm sitting out on my deck writing this post and it is the warmest day of the year so far.  Got up to 73 and tomorrow they predict 81.  I can smell my lilacs, they began opening in the warmth today.  The Goldfinches have arrived and are flocking to my sunflower feeders, soon the Black headed Grosbeaks will show up.  We already have the Evening Grosbeaks.

A funny thing I noticed when looking at the stats of my blog.  I've had the most hits on my long ago post that I titled Beading Larson.  That was nearly 4 years ago.  It has received 780 visits.  My post on the passing of Anne Lockard (Miss you Anne!!) received a lot but that was only 487.  I don't know why Beading Larson receives so many hits.  Funny.

I will leave you with this photo of me and my kitty Charlie.  He is a big love bug!But he is very shy and most people who come here don't even realize I have a cat.  He was feral, but I managed to tame him down and now he sleeps with me.

Don't forget to check out Patty's blog!  Until next time, 
Be well.

Waning summer

Hello blogging friends! It has been nearly two months since my last confession, er, I mean my last blog post.  I was looking at my photos today and thought I'd share some of my flowers with you.  Above is a tiny bouquet of sweet peas.  Aren't they sweet?  Of course, it is their nature to be sweet.  They are flowering wonderfully right now outside the studio door along with nasturtiums and morning glories.  Every day I enjoy the wonderful scent of these beauties.  Summer flowers!

But what is this?  I found these flowering in my front yard, autumn crocuses! What is an autumn flower doing out now?  Yes my friends, it heralds the coming of autumn.  It was 82 here today, but already at 6pm it is 10 degrees cooler and will likely be another 15 cooler yet before morning.

 

 

 

 

I just love these deep red nasturtiums!

 

I haven't only been flower gazing all summer.  I managed to finish up the king size quilt in time to give it to my nephew and his bride a month ago.  Since then I made this quilt and mailed it off to a friend yesterday.

The backing fabric is so lovely and soft to the touch.

In addition to quilting, I have been continuing to purge my closets of unneeded items.  The coat above belonged to my Grandma Betty, who passed away in 1976.  I have held on to this garment all these years, not really knowing what to do with it.  I don't want to wear fur, even if it is only a collar that I didn't purchase. I thought I would take pictures of it for my memory and then give it to a thrift store.  Now as it hangs in my studio, I am thinking I should instead make something from this wonderful quality coat fabric.  Any suggestions?  

I'm serious, I want suggestions, please!

Windy suggests that we all eat more watermelon while it is still available. She loves fruit.  I do hope you all make the most of these waning days of summer.  Me, I'm off to eat a piece of watermelon!
Be well. 

Book confession

I must confess, I have a book collection that might be getting out of hand. 

These are the books in my bedroom, on my head board.

Here is one of the shelf units holding some of my collection of beading magazines.

These are on my bedside table, the ones I'm reading or plan to read soon.  I'm currently reading A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin.  I'm also reading Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls, Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides and really want to dive into Pukka's Promise by Ted Kerasote.  I loved Merle's Door by him. I believe Pukka's Promise is the only book on this table that I bought brand new.

Most of my books I buy at garage sales and thrift stores.  Here is another book case in the bedroom, along with a few photos and my Oz clock I got from Linda at Olde Baggs and Stuft shirts blog.  Still ticking away!

This is the lower half of the same book case.  Barney guards this one.

Random pile in a corner.  I also get a lot of books in trade through Paperbackswap.  If you enjoy books you might want to check them out.  You can trade books for free other than postage.

This is one of the cases in the library.  I also have 4 shelves of some of my CD's and at the bottom you can see the ragged tops of some of my vinyl albums.  The cats liked using them as a scratch post unfortunately.

Another library case.  Many of these shelves have a second row behind the first, hidden gems.

More library cases.  
About 18 years ago I helped my Dad move and he couldn't take all his books.  It was really hard for him to choose which ones to keep.  I took the ones he didn't want.  I didn't keep them all!  Heavens no!  Most of them I took to Powell's City of Books used bookstore and they bought quite a few of them.   I shared them with friends and family and kept a lot including that set of History of Civilization you can see on the bottom shelf if you care to.  Maybe I will actually read them some day, one never knows.

The last few boxes I donated to a book sale fund raiser for a public radio station.  I got a tax deduction certificate and gave it to Dad.  They estimated the value of those remaining boxes at $400.00.  I know I got about $200 credit at Powell's.  Dad told me to keep it for my effort.
Here is the final shelf unit.  Hummm, it looks as though it may be slightly bowed in the middle.  Anyway, back to my story about Dad's books.  I swore then that I wouldn't keep getting more book cases but instead would get rid of books when I needed more room for the new ones.   I've mostly stuck to that promise, getting around it by double shelving and the random piles in corners.  I'm not even showing you the shelves in the studio with my art books and more CD's.  
So now my question to you is, do you consider me a hoarder?  I don't.  I consider myself more of a bibliophile.  
Funny, as I have written this blog post, I'm listening to Pandora radio and twice songs have mentioned books! 
By the way, in case you haven't guessed, I don't own a Kindle or any other e-reader device.

Happy Spring to you all!  I know too many of you have scenes like the one above.  I took that in my yard on the first day of spring.  Poor little daffodils!  

Now, this is one I took today.  That's more like it!  I hope this will be your view too, if it isn't already, where ever you all.  While you are shoveling snow, I'm mowing the grass.  I just love Oregon!

Be well.

Spring? walk

The calendar tells me it is spring but it is a little hard to tell around here.  The daffodils and primroses are beginning to bloom but as you can see from the photo above that I took this morning, we keep getting snow showers.  They have mostly been melting off quickly but it gives you an idea of our temperatures.

Today I decided to walk down the road for a change.  Usually I keep to my own sweet 38 acres, wandering around with my old doggies.  I left the two more fragile ones home and set out with frisky Tonka who though he is the oldest one he has the most get up and go.  Look at him there, as if he is saying "Hurry up hurry up hurry up!"  That's a Border Collie for you!

I really like these old mossy fence posts.  These look like they have moss hats on.  Notice the rotten tree behind it, maybe a woodpecker has been pecking on it, getting ready to build a nest perhaps?

This one has a lot of personality, don't you think?

I picked up this garbage along the way.  The receipt is from a grocery store and is for $61.29.  It is mostly chips and dip with some hamburger and lettuce thrown in.  Sheesh.  That is a lot of chips and dip! The wire thing was left behind by the phone company when they worked on a communications box.  I'm keeping it, might find a use for it in a mixed media project.

Sorry my posts are becoming more boring, good thing they are so infrequent too.  I have been working on some art and will show some of it soon.  Until then,
be well.

July flowers

ABOUT FACE rose 

With the cool damp weather we have had here in Oregon, our flowers are lasting late. I think many other people have already seen their roses first blush pass on by. Mine are only now coming on full. This first picture has got to be my most favorite at the moment.

My little chipmunk supervisor.

Come closer......I dare you.

Anyone else still have peonys?

Evening primrose has seeded itself all over my yard and I like it. Anything that can take care of itself is fine with me.

Valerian is flowering. I got this from Anne several years ago.  Smells so good and reminds me of heliotrope, except the Valerian is a perennial.

The lily is in full bloom.

It gets bigger every year.

A rose with some vegetable flowers.

The feathery Tonka near the feathery Italian dill. The dill is taller than I am now and smells so good.  Those are some tobacco plants in front of the dill.

Dog joy.  I wish you all your own form of joy.

Be well.