sun at last having fun with art

Today is a perfect day weatherwise, as far as I am concerned. It was only 37 degrees this morning. It has warmed to a lovely 60 at 2:00. The sun is toasty warm; Deezel has been sunbathing most of the day. Zeek has gone out several times only to come in a short time later.
Deezel and I did 4 miles this morning. The water is very high in the ponds. I saw a great blue heron and we both watched and listened to the chatterings of a flock of turkeys . They were about to cross the road, saw us and turned around in that totally chaotic, turkey style.

Yesterday, I did leaf rubbing with the 4th graders. I liked it so much I did some at home today with water color pencils. I  outlined the leaves with a Micron 005.

The second is of only dandelion leaves.

Here is the owl art work from earlier in the summer. It is based on one from my "doodle book". I used envelope papers on this piece. I liked the richness of the scrapbooking paper. I'd gotten it on sale at Stamped Designs in Dover.

Owls on October 1

We went to Strafford to see an owl program with live owls. Actually she had six: a saw-whet, a screech, a barred, a snowy and a Eurasion eagle owl. I've heard a barred three times over the summer, around 3-4:00 am when the windows were open and no air conditioner humming.

This is a page from my doodle book. I also did an entry in ART JOURNAL MMXI-2, but need natural light to get a good photo.

This great horned owl was hurt as an owlet, rescued and now cared for at their aviary. It is not open to the public; they do shows.

Check out http://www.eyesonowls.com/

mixed media month

September is flying by.... it's the 26th - feeling like August, and us without a pool - gardens are not at their best, my containers do look good. All the begonias and impatients have found a spot in the windows of my studio; I brought them in to avoid the cold weather we had for about two seconds. We've had the hazy. hot and humid weather for several days.
Anne, Ila and I went to see "William Daley Selected Works" at the Lamont gallery on the campus of Phillips Exeter academy. We went to hear the gallery talk on Sept 17. It was fabulous. He's 87 and lectured for over an hour to a large, mixed audience. Lectured isn't close to what he did. We laughed and were awed by his energy, focus and fabulous slides of his work and the work that has inspired him. He'd been at classes during the week. check it out at  http://www.williamdaley.net/

I've done some work over the month. Several pages in my art journal revolved around the 11th.  These show the mixed emotions around the sadness and the hope for resolution around the memorial.

The final spread is from earlier in the month.

Labor Day weekend

We finished cleaning up the brush and wood from Hurricane Irene's visit a week ago today. It's 91degrees at noon.
Very humid day. I wondered about 2009.

 
 a single hungry
hummingbird visits blossoms
goodbye to summer

The hungry hummingbird

                                                       returns  for one last sip of lovely nectar.

I've seen very few hummingbirds this summer. Today's Haiku could read:

                                                          Hidden from view  birds

                                                  rest among faded blossoms.

                                                        Cooler air unfelt..

                                          

September 2, 2011 or 9/2/11

Looks like good numeration for some art journaling.... NINE, TWO,ELEVEN

Wednesday, I added a fun entry to my school blog http://www.ekesartistsworkshop.blogspot.com/. My fall focus is "color". This week I'll have the first graders see what paint can make on large sheets of white paper.

It's dreary this morning, cool and little humid. Deezel and I are planning a 4 mile walk in a bit. Here's a recent pic of the boy. He's actually sniffing a bee on the butterfly bush. So far he hasn't gotten stung and remains curious about the little buzzing things. He weighed 189 at the vet's earlier this summer, but we think he's lost a little. He doesn't eat well when it's hot.

We lost power for about 30 hours and celebrated when the tree and power teams showed up to remove the branch that fell from our locust tree. But we were so lucky to be spared the torrential floods AND power outages.

I brought in most of the containers from my gardens. I feared for heavy rains and branches falling on them. They look lush and lovely now and we'll have about another month for them to be outside. I'll bring them into the sun porch, then to various spots around the house for maximum light in the winter ahead.

This begonia is one I had last summer.

The new guinea impatient will have to be replaced next summer. I've never been able to have one over winter.

Of course, the supertunia is indescribable. 

 The geranium might survive in the house for next summer.

Coleus is always a success in my "container gardens'.

Yesterday, Anne, Ila and I visited the Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion on Little Harbor for their art and sculpture exhibits.  We enjoyed the out door sculpture. It was NH scenic at its best with the mansion and the harbor and the blue sky.
nhstateparks.org/explore/state-parks/wentworth-coolidge-mansion-state-historic-site.aspx

With lunch at the Ice House in Rye.

summer's end

It's hard to believe, but today marks the end of summer vacation. Tomorrow, Wednesday, we have a teachers' workshop, Thursday a staff meeting and Friday is a time to work in classrooms.

iris from June

I'm photographing all my container gardens today. They look fabulous. Regular watering and fertilizing helps. My art work has consisted of tangling, making a new glasses pouch and machine stitching new pillow covers.

bird from orioles' arrival

brain

The "brain" was what I worked on when in PA in July when my sister, Elizabeth, had brain surgery. The tumor was the size of an orange. She's at skilled nursing facility until Friday when she's scheduled to go home. I can tell each time I talk to her that she's regained much of her  language skills. She's still not great stamina wise, but considering she's been hospitalized since the beginning of July, that will take a while to get back. 

heat and watering

I watered all my plant pots and the vegetable garden this morning. Rain is in the forecast, but I didn't water yesterday, so decided the plants were in need of a little attention. I cleaned the day lily beds; they look so awful once the stems are dried and the leaves falling down.

coleus

Yesterday I went on a garden tour at the ProvenWinner gardens in Louden, NH. They wholesale to the garden centers and are the Supertunia people.

I'll be documenting my container gardens soon. I plan to use the photos as reference the following year, but somehow just go with what I like and each year they're a little different.
Hard to believe that fall will soon be requiring a different kind of work in the gardens.
My sister's still in the hospital, the rehab section and will soon be changing residence to a nursing home/rehab center. She's still needing a walker and lots of help.  We're looking at moving her here to NH as soon as we can figure out what her needs will be.
Roger's out in the pool after clearing brush this morning. Deezel's sprawled out on his bed in the living room. Zeek is pestering me for a treat; Buck wheats' passed out on the sofa and Zoey's making her rounds in the field hoping for a successful hunting trip.