Good July Morning to you.
Or at least it was when I first started this post. After a relatively brief time in the garden and a ridiculously extended time correcting my over/under exposed pictures on this fabulously sunny day it is now late afternoon.
The morning started as it often does with seeing yellow birdies flitting back and forth across the garden like I'm Snow White
in Walt Disney's famous first feature length animated movie
Then, to add to the magic, I saw the pheasant!
You would have laughed to see me run for my camera.
The shadow and light, the breeze and a moving subject, made it nearly impossible to capture a good image when he surprised me by coming back.
A lovely, handsome fellow, I'd been wondering what happened to him when the hayfield was mowed on the first of the month.
Clearly it was much too open for him to linger
so he headed back for shelter.
I had no intention of putting much up on the blog today, so I grabbed this bowl of lychees, a favourite treat this time of year, often on sale like these- not quite ripe- because I think the local produce people have no idea what they are. I thought they made a beautiful study in colour and texture.
This gorgeous little bowl is by Ontario salt glaze potter Paul Kaye.
The joyous morning drew me into the garden. That was my first mistake.
Once I begin shooting flowers, it's impossible to stop.
Here, the aromatic flowers of lavender.
The slightly deeper colour of what Wally informs me is not Salvia, but I've yet to discover what they are. It is a reliable standby in this corner of the composter garden.
On the outer corner of the same garden, the Echinacea are getting ready to take over the world with their leader, the only one blooming, standing out front as a leader does.
It is absolutely hypnotic as only a charismatic leader can be.
As I wandered around to the back, two yellow warblers followed me!
a little closer
I was amazed by their boldness.
Looking back at the massive hydrangea stand.
I call it a stand because it doesn't appear to grow from one plant like a bush, but from many, many stalks.
In a corner, the clover is blooming.
Walking to the back of the yard, the warblers are chip, chipping - much like that cardinal did last week when it saw the ginger cat. But I'm not convinced he's afraid of me as he appears to eat the little berries while he peers at me from overhead.
Pink Lupin is still blooming on the hayfield perimeter
though much of it has gone to seed
Lupin seed heads amidst the cow vetch on the hayfield perimeter
Like crop circles, the hay mower left these "islands" of grass and weeds in the middle of the hayfield.
I can see the little tree on the left which explains that one, but the rest...?
Wally has been mowing a patch behind Forget-Me-Not Cabin. At the back of it, the giant rose bush has lost many of its little blooms, and the hedge behind it is begging for a haircut.
In the foreground the little maple tree that we can't seem to remove is shading the honeysuckle.
Pink and white blossoms on the Honeysuckle
The yellow warbler is still watching me as I step back into the yard
probably my best shot yet
though this one seems clearer
altogether too many of these shots
I leave you today with this drawing done in graphite and Sharpie gold paint pen done from a picture of a stone bust of Eleonora d'Aragona made around 1468 by Francesco Laurana, a wonderful Renaissance sculptor whose work seems like a precursor to the stylized paintings of women by Modigliani ( who in fact was smitten with Egyptian art).
Yes, done on the 2nd, I didn't mean this to be connected with Leona, yet that was her birthday and I do miss her so much. I cannot believe it is only 4 1/2 months since she passed.
"Everything is ecstasy, inside... Close your eyes, let your hands and nerve-endings drop, stop breathing for 3 seconds, listen to the silence inside...and you will remember..."
Jack Kerouac
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