GREEN PEPPER, HOMEGROWN!

Hi~

This 7x5 acrylic painting is of a 3" pepper from my garden. The first one picked!

Please visit this LINK if you would like to see only my art and not the other miscellaneous posts.

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Last Day of Summer - Last HooRa!

Hi!

Went to Hampton Beach, NH, for our last day before school starts. Laura brought her best friend and Meredith got two temporary henna tattoos!

Water was wonderful, as you can see Laura thoroughly enjoying the waves. Look at how clear and green the water is. It was late in the morning and the tide was coming in; you can see how far the shallow part had grown, by the time we got there.

Meredith was content with just hangin' on the beach and being camera shy.

This is a picture of Hampton Beach, half way between. Sort of like the Seaside Heights, the shore where I went when I was young. However, there's no amusement rides at one end, and not as many carnival style games of chance.

Here's a shot of Hampton Beach, from the beach.

This was a weekday, so the beach isn't busy, but holidays and weekends it can be really tight quarters. Unfortunately there isn't a lot of coast line in NH. We do have a TON of lakes and mountains to climb... best time of year's coming for climbing, caverns and mining!

Finally a Good Show!

Well, finally the Morning Glory are bursting at the seams!!! Unfortunately, the flowering side (facing south) is the side which faces the house. The side that faces the road has hardly (if not no) flowers on that side. Just looks like a big green blob to the passer-byers.

In the second picture, you can see the cool flower, fully bloomin'! The plant's very similar to an iris in that one flower opens at a time.

Thank you so much for dropping by. Please come visit again, soon.

Cool Plant

Year before last, I saw this plant in front of a store and thought it was the strangest looking thing. Then I saw it again this year, when driving the girls to Maine for camp. Then about a month ago, I saw and bought the plant; it didn't have a tag on it, so I don't know what it is called. I am sure I'll find out, eventually.

Here you can it's starting to bloom!

Thank you so much for dropping by. Please come visit again, soon.

Sadly The Summer's Winding Down

But the gardens suer are not!!!

The image just below is the big arch I have in the backyard. It's covered with two different types of Morning Glory; pink and blue. You can see the blue, in the photo below the arch's picture.

The next two photos are of the Four O'Clocks which are growing at the base of the big arch (also in the large garden, in the front). These cool flowers are both multi-colored and solid. The picture of the white flowers started off all white, but eventually I started seeing flowers that had colors from the other two plants, next to it; the pink and the yellow (also both also started off solid).

In this photo, you can see how the Morning Glory is growing up the lattice.

And this is the FIRST pepper of the season. Do you see a future painting here? I thinkin' I do! :)

Thank you so much for dropping by. Please come visit again, soon.

Ummmm, Homemade Sauce A-Simmerin'!

Well, as expected... the tomatoes are all ripening at once! So, it's time for some homemade tomato sauce.

This is about 5 tomatoes and after 3 hours of a good simmer. I cheated and added a small can of generic tomato sauce because 7 tomatoes wouldn't make anything, much. To this batch, I plan on adding more boiled down tomatoes as they ripen. Even with salads, open-face tomato melts and sandwiches, making a sauce is the only final way to consume these. Even friends have had a couple forced their way! :)

Aaaah, with all the fresh stuff included, the kitchen smells of such good stuff. Once the chunks of fresh garden cook down tomato (par-boiled to peal the skins), the chunks literally POP in your mouth, along with the garlic, and onion... celery... oh I love this time of year.

Cooking is such good therapy for the soul, huh? Even without a garden, this sauce will be good when all the ingredients are fresh from the local farmers....

WetCanvas August Forum Project

Well, the big reveal was yesterday!

This is what I contributed.

(Awesome reference image library contribution "Tomatoes Basil & Garlic" by member, Caulfield.)

(Delicious reference image library contribution "Tomatoes" by member, Olika)

Some of the photos I contributed to the library of peppers were also included in this project! How flattering they would include mine images!

Thank you so much for dropping by. Please come visit again, soon.

Another Passionflower

Here's another flower on another plant. Isn't the Passionflower the craziest looking flower?

Thank you so much for dropping by. Please come visit again, soon.

UCK!

Blah!
Our poor beagle, Hazel was sprayed by a skunk. Nasty!

Happy Birthday!!!

My dear Meredith Catherine! Boy it was a struggle to have you, you came early and certainly on your own terms! You rolled early, walked early and was out of your crib before most could stand and walk. You haven't stopped living life that way and I hope you always live it on your own terms. I celebrate your uniqueness and am thrilled you are my daughter.

PS
I also really dig the birthday haircut!

WhAt?!!?

Couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this display in our food store! Halloween cards, already?

Thank you so much for dropping by. Please come visit again, soon.

More From the Garden Off the Vine!

Hi!

Check these puppies out!!! Just picked them! Picked the whole cluster instead of just the red ones because they will all turn red quicker this way and there are so many more, just on one one plant alone, yet to come. Things made with tomes will be menu items for weeks to come!

Girls are so busy with their end of the summer activities, there has been a lot of quiet time, around here. A couple days ago, they had a chance to go to Boston to see Wicked, with their aunt and uncle. What a great weekend that was and the girls are still talking about it all.

An end of the summer fun activity for me; just finished a WetCanvas acrylic project of the month; August. A WC prokect of the month is fun and usually a subject I like painting. This time, the project host picked a bunch of still life food photos. Don't ya know, a couple were pics of peppers which I took! I was so flattered. There were a couple of some tomatoes, which have been in the Reference LIbrary for a long time and I've always wanted to paint… (I'm just saying'.)

To play by the rules, I have to wait until the actual deadline before I can post/show the painting (visitors to the house don't count - most aren't WC members, anyway). That way everyone reveals at the same time and everyone's surprised.

The big Reveal is August 21st and then until the end of the month (I believe). Since my painting is now done, I think I'll try to do another. Maybe I'll have it done, by the end of the weekend… again, no showing until the 21st! (this is SO fun).

So Very Sad

Please read about Joshua... Candlight Vigil Planned for Joshua Savyon

If you can't attend the vigil, please keep this poor boy in your hearts.

The school he would have gone to was the same school as my daughters went to when they were his age. They loved that school so much, especially when it was a morning when their father had a traumatizing episode. The school really took care loving care of them and a watchful eye.

It would have been a good place for Joshua to blossom during his difficult days.

I Can Never Say No

This is why I can never say "No" to a Tropical Hibiscus. They are such flower work-horses.

More Hardy Hibiscus is budding. I cannot wait to see them all in bloom; especially the maroon one, which I bought this year (last hibiscus at the store!).

GREEN TOMATO NOT SO GREEN!

Seems this is a tomato painting summer!

This is the same tomato, only not so green anymore!!! It is also an acrylic, 6"x6" painting on MDF board.

And for fun, here's the painting and the reference photo!

Monitor's still a bit funky. Think I'm saving up for a new computer... this one's getting a bit flaky and slow, too. Ah, always saving for something!!!

I Have Always Loved...

This New Jersey girl has always loved the New England accent! Wicked bettah! Click Here to learn Boston as a second language!

Thank you so much for dropping by. Please come visit again, soon.

More Of My Fav Hardy Hibiscus.

More Hibiscus have bloomed!

Poor plants have been eaten by the bugs so badly this summer, but I finally found the right spray to make them stay away. Both the bushes look so painfully awful, but I love hibiscus flowers and had to photograph the plants despite their awful leaves.

Thankfully these plants are in the backyard. The hibiscus (still not bloomed) in the front only just started to be attacked and I sprayed before they got too bad.

This is the same DINNER PLATE hibiscus I took a pic of the other day. The flower averages around 10" wide and I have a bunch more on the bush.

This is a medium sized hibiscus flower. These are around 4" or 5" across. Other hibiscus flowers (the white with the touches of red, the maroon, and the blue kind) are smaller and grow on larger trees.

Here are more Morning Glory! The plant is really covering the lattice work; an ugly part of underneath the porch where a lot of the gardening tools are kept. (Figures when I grow climbing plants to cover the lattice, under the porch it was cleaned up of tools I never use and things look better under there). Underneath looks so magical, with the vines and flowers... great place to escape the sun and heat.

Hoping I can do a little painting today. Also trying to crank out a sweater for my cousin's daughter's birthday. Great fall colors and perfect to wear when she goes off to Europe for a semester of study!

As Suspected...

Hello again!

As I was showing my neighbors around the gardens, I noticed a Morning Glory peaking out, in the back! What a surprise. Not long after, I visited the front plant and confirmed the deer ARE eating my flower buds. There are some starting toward the very top and I don't think the deer can reach them.

Time to take evasive deer action! Action taken against the hibiscus bugs was very successful... (too bad I can't regrow those leaves).

And here's the first Mum of the season! This plant and several others were from a box-store, purchased several falls ago. They still faithfully bloom. This color's hard to capture; it's a gorgeous maroon color.

More Beauty in the Gardens!

Hello again!

That huge green thing is my front yard's Morning Glory. No flowers yet but the deer certainly have found it tasty. I am hoping they are not nibbling off the flower buds. You can see the Four O'clocks, in front. I also have some behind the Morning Glories which the deer also keep nibbling. I think they keep hoping they'll like the plant but never seem to do and leave the others in the front garden, alone.

I do have more growing up the back of the house. Too close for the deer to eat (never see their hoof prints back there.

Not many Hydrangea grew this year, on my bushes. Each one still shows off it's unique color which is different from the others.

These are more of my Jibiscus plants. The top one is a hardy Hibiscus. I have many different kinds of hardy, planted around the yard. Some were bought a couple years ago and are either flowering or about to flower. Same year as I bought these plants, I also germinated a few. This will be the first year I see buds on them!!!!

Amd of course I've posted these bright orange and pink tropical Hibiscus which once they started blooming, they haven't stopped. Back stoop is really pretty with them and the passion flower vine trailing up.

GREEN TOMATO

Acrylic 5x7 gallery wrapped canvas (painted sides).

Another tomato grown in the garden. Soon, TONS will be ready to go and all at once. I am definitely going to make sauce with them because there is no way all of them can be eaten separately - that's a lot of salads!

LOL, Recently someone jokingly said that I paint the painting and then take the ref photo so that they look the same. That was such a compliment!

Thanks for comin'!

From Myself To Me!

This is one way of feelin' better. Did it work? Yes, a little bit!

Thank you for coming! See you again, soon.

Sad Dreams

Ever dream of something that happened a long time ago? Lately, every few weeks I do about something from what seems to be another lifetime and I did again last night. Wake up so sad, all over again.

So Much In So LIttle

Hi!

What a busy past week! Not a boring moment for all the days.

Went to see my cousin, CT. Whatta a fun few days we had. They all really showed us a great time and their house is as beautiful as ever. It's been so long since we had a chance to drive down. The girls and I made the trip down in great time; around 3 hours. But the ride home was quite the road trip, taking 6 1/2 hrs. The fastest part about the trip was my VERY FIRST speeding ticket - can't say that anymore. I got it on Route 84! :\ Cop said he cut it down for me... (Ooops!) Sporty car, vanity plate and plate out of state. Perfect storm. So now I got it - STAY IN THE MIDDLE.

We had to come home early because Laura was swimming in States. Well, don't you know that due to some clerical error, she wasn't on the roster, for yesterday or today? They tried to find a spot for her to swim but there wasn't one. Then, suddenly last night, she developed swimmer's ear. Go figure. But she still wanted to stay ALL 7 HRS, and I still volunteered for my 2hr shift as one of the "Official Timers" yesterday and as one of the runners for the officials for today's meet (which thankfully ended earlier than expected).

(Laura and her BFF. at 7:30a. It was still very chilly. Then it turned HOT)

And look what the garden gave me, this morning! My first passion flower from one of the 12 plants! Next year, maybe a few will bloom at once. Then they might pollenate and give passion fruit. How fun.

Exotic, huh?

Thanks for lookin'!