Poppies in February

Here is a bouquet of poppies and nasturtiums (my favorites) to enjoy on yet another snowy day.

Alas, the Landscape class didn't fill, we came close this time, and will offer it again in another semester this year.

Truthfully, I am grateful to not have to drive over the mountain two nights a week, considering the never ending ice and snow we are experiencing this season. I did get into Boone this week, and everyone was wondering when their children would ever go back to school.

I haven't posted in such a long time! It is as though my mind had been emptied of any meaningful thought. I read, and take in information, but nothing comes out! At least I am painting. Poor Finn, being a snow and rain wimp, just sits at the sliding glass door and sighs.....What kind of Lab doesn't love the snow? It is so funny to watch this huge brown bear dog tippy toe through the fluffy white stuff....I know he is strange.

I will mention an incident we had driving up interstate 81 on the way to Virginia for Christmas.

Finn had a seizure in the car while I was passing a line of trucks at 80 mph. When it began he jumped into the front seat, wanting to get into my lap, and seized into the steering wheel, turning off the car. His head sank down to the gas pedal near my foot and I had to yank on his collar to keep him from sliding down and affecting my control of the gas. I was afraid I was going to strangle him. His 90 lb body was stiff as a board and he was foaming at the mouth. I kept shouting at him 'Come on Finn you can do it!' I quickly turned the car back on and kept passing the trucks. Amazed that no one had plowed into me from behind. I realized, I am really good in a crisis! This is why I claim that everyday of my life is an adventure, and after this incident, I am grateful to still have one.

He came out of it and I exited off a ramp and right into a hotel parking lot. He was terrified, I was as well. I walked him on the leash in the parking lot until we both stopped shaking. He didn't want to get back in the car.

I realized the trip was worth it when my grand daughter wrapped her little arms around his thick fuzzy brown neck and whispered 'Oh Finn...I do love him! ' after he dropped her rubber ducky into the tub for her. He loves bath time with Barrie and all her toys!

When Finn & I got home to NC, I realized how much that incident affected me. We were exhausted! Thus January was for resting and recuperating. We have had one warm day where I could get to Blowing Rock and clean up from the Christmas day ice storm. Blowing Rock looks like a war zone.

There will be much to do come spring...devastating!

Snowdrops are blooming

This is it...spring is emerging from my dog ravaged garden.


Meet Finn....

This cinnamon colored lab is my constant garden companion during the warm months. In the winter he is on his own. I lock myself inside and focus on learning the art of painting botanical watercolors. At the ripe old age of fiftly, I have become a winter weenie...

Enclosed by an electric fence bordering my half acre wood, Finn stays home, safe from his crazy puppy behavior, while the neighbors dogs are still allowed in for play dates.

It is a wonder, that the pack, consisting of the Cinnamon Lab, the Golden Retriver and the ever spunky Cockapoo have not squashed EVERYTHING!

But Look...

So far all clumps of Galanthis novllis are intact.

I planted them last spring and fall. Some are from my friend Carols garden, that originally came from a plant rescue operation at a construction site over a decade ago.

I love the way they clump and naturalize in woodland areas.

They originally came from a neighbor, a holocaost survior from Holland. She brought the bulbs to Virginia from her home in the old country. By the time Carol & I rescued them from a neighbors new driveway they had become large drifts of white delight in the mostly dismal mountain landscape in April. We dug huge clumps and wrapped them in burlap diapers. Her garden is now massed with them. I tend to move often, Carol doesn't. She keeps the mothers of all my collections in her garden, so that I can get the originals for my latest home.

I have now transported them to North Carolina, blooming in late February now. I live in a wooded area, it looks as though they are enjoying thier new home. I am grateful to have moved south, spring is clearly on it's way. Virginia is still experiencing ice storms.

My Heronswood Helleborus is in Bloom....So, I painted it.
I have left it sitting in a pot all winter. Still waiting for inspiration on it's permanant home.

It also had to survive the winter construction project.

The new garden shed.

It is waiting to be painted as the weather settles. My Son in Law built it during Christmas, while I cooked and played with his little daughter.....my honeydoodle......and her Mother, my beloved youngest daughter.

I already have the Cinnamon Ferns planted in the area in front. I think it will need a window box.

Soon I will be able to get to these things. After all, the snowdrops are blooming already.

After a quiet painterly winter, that did produce some worthy plant studies, I look forward to working up a sweat, growing some food and creating beautiful gardens everywhere I am called.