Summer Gardening

During this past long dreary winter, I discovered that there was a community garden a few blocks from my house.  I emailed them and asked for a a bed there, expecting to be on the waiting list for a year or more.  Community gardens are very popular in my city.  Early in June, they contacted me and said I was the proud renter of bed B8.
I grew this radish in that garden and I'm proud of it.  Every year, we plant radish seeds in a container on the deck, and every year we yield nothing.  This year, as I planted nasturtiums in the radish container  my beloved said "No radishes?"  "No" I said, "the seeds are old and we never get any radishes".  So when we planted the community garden, we decided to just throw all the (probably dead) radish seeds in and see what happened.  An explosion of radishes is what happened.  Hundreds of radishes!  We've been eating spicy, peppery radishes every day for two weeks. They were simply waiting for the right place and time.
This is also one of the first sketches I've been happy with for a long time.

Daisies

I bought these Gerbera daisies to plant in a large container on the patio.  They are quite flamboyant and spectacular.  The stems have a tinge of purple, and the new blossoms are green and ripen into a deep yellow.  The leaves look quite a bit like dandelion leaves (on steroids!) and also have a touch of purple.  They are actually from the sunflower family. They bloom nonstop, too.
Prince William and Kate are coming to town to attend the Calgary Stampede.  People are lining up overnight to get a wristband that entitles them to stand on the street in the hopes of getting a glimpse or a handshake.  They seem like a very nice young couple, but I can't see sleeping on the street just to see them.  The media frenzy is insane.  I want to go downtown to the river park to draw the ducks, but I think I'll wait till the insanity is over.  For now, I'll stay home and draw what's blooming in my back yard.
Ink and watercolor pencils

Back yard drama

I have a contract with the universe to care for the birds in my corner of the world.  I live in the end unit of a condo block, and the back yard is surrounded by a fence and a high, thick hedge.  There are also some big dense trees.  In the winter I put out a bird feeder and in the summer a bird bath.  It's  a perfect place for small birds - robins, sparrow, chickadees, finches, nuthatches.  The bigger birds like magpies and crows don't come in much because it's small.  The sparrows build nests under the hedge and the robins in the spruce tree.  There are plenty of fat worms in the garden for food.The pets are all well-fed and belled.
This year, a baby robin fell out of the nest before it was able to fly.  It flopped and hopped in the long grass.  The parents were, we think, trying to build a nest on the ground to protect the little one.  My tabby cat, Holly, walked out on the deck and sat down to survey her kingdom as usual.  The robins began to screech and dive bomb  her.  She crouched down and backed up to the door, wondering, I'm sure, how she lost her position as supreme ruler of the back yard.  We put her inside and the birds calmed down.  But the crows and magpie got word that there was a tender morsel available and they came in, once more causing the parents to go into safety mode.  That little robin went  right after that big crow and chased it away.  I flapped the rug at the rest and they flew off.  Eventually the new nest was ready, predators were averted, and they herded the little one into the bushes to safety.  A few days later the big robins spent lots of time in the birdbath, which is usually what they do once the little ones have found their wings and left the nest.  So I hope they all survived and left to start their own lives.  And Holly can reign supreme over the yard again.
Pen, ink. watercolor pencils in the little sketchbook

A Fresh Start

It's been  long, cold, sunless winter and its left me feeling discouraged and disheartened. It seemed that everything I attempted went wrong - colors smeared under a second layer of glaze, paper buckled unattractively and left ugly blotches, my wireless network was under relentless attack and so on.  I started many things and abandoned them.
One day on a routine mission to empty the garbage, I stood in a rare and unusual bit of sunshine (Ouch, what's that bright light?), and noticed the tulips blooming in the front.  I mean, I really noticed them.  I saw the voluptuous brashness of the yellow tulip, the graceful curves of the red one, the slender pointed petals of the purple ones, the tall straight stems, and the graceful leaves.  And I heard again that quiet, still voice that said "I could draw that".  And so I did, and determined to make a fresh start against the discouragement.  Start with what I've always loved to draw - flowers, birds, nature. Maybe with that simple start, my soul can stand as straight and bloom as bright.