something always happens

This must be the fastest flying month ever and yet it seemed to start out so slow. Those of you who check in here may already realize how I struggle with time, "the elastic band" as I call it.

I was sure I had nothing to show you today besides my growing portfolio of drawings, but somehow I managed to pull together a few pictures.

I peered down into the composter, filling with clematis,

creeping Charlie, an Echinacea Coneflower and even a weedy little tree.

I wandered out back of Forget-Me-Not Cabin and had another gander at the old wood shed we've been slowly dismantling, with no need for firewood anymore.

Our home and outbuildings are filled with handmade bits like this wooden spinner

this metal one

another rusting metal bit with washer

Looking from the other end you can see the makeshift bracing for shelving from a post and plywood and sticks

A homemade plywood bracket with its partner...

nailed to the wooden shake wall

Then there are the grapes, still intact

and a few apples hanging on

a nice little cucumber under the bean trellis

and tomatoes filling in amongst the dill

The wide angle lens dwarfs the far end of the vegetable garden with chard at the top, two rows of lettuces, and some tiny kale at the bottom

I pop the last perfect raspberry in my mouth

There are Cherry leaves in the lawn

another

and another

The garage garden has completely filled in with the hostas and the "prehistoric" plant.

As you will know from past posts, I am fascinated by the way the flowers seem to grow in a pod, a most unusual flowering. I finally had enough wherewithal to look up the name of this wonder.

It is called Ligularia Dentata, also known as Leopard Plant or Summer Ragwort.

Dentata refers to the jagged leaf edges. Collected and introduced to Europe by Carl Peter von Thunberg (1743-1828), student of Linnaeus at Uppsala University in Sweden. He made three trips to the Cape of Good Hope 1772-1775 where he collected about 1000 new species, Java and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) 1777 and 15 months in Japan (1775-1777) where he befriended local doctors who gave him hundreds of plants new to Western horticulture.  He succeeded Linnaeus as professor of medicine and botany at Uppsala.  Knighted by Swedish King Gustav.(thanks to heritageflowerfarm.com)

bursting forth, blooming in succession

They seem so gently coddled in their basket of leaves that I call a pod

though of course it isn't.

The bumblebees like them, face buried and rather camouflaged

I was startled to learn that bumblebees only live for 28 days.

I've grown very fond of them and their gentle ways.

Still playing catch-up with some week old pictures, I was inspired to do this piece after watching Jean Arthur play Calamity Jane in the old western, The Plainsman.

This section of my sketchbook is made of cheap quality kraft paper, the kind used for wrapping packages. The black is actually my Derwent watercolour pencil in Iron Blue, the flowers are outlined with an extra fine Pitt pen in India ink and coloured in with white is gel pen with pink pencil crayon over top.

The rest is done in Jane Davenport "Magic Wand Pencils" .

On another day I felt the call to draw a swan after seeing this mosaic online that comes from the Basilica in Soli, Cyprus. The patina of something old, its faded colours and random damage is a distinct part of its charm, its "wabi sabi".

My swan is fussed over with white paint pen and gel pen, the rest of the colours a mix of coloured pencils, the flowers outline in extra fine Pitt pen, an India ink.

I'm not sure how this will affect the world at large but there will be a partial to a total solar eclipse depending where you are in North America on Monday. Ours will be partial with a forecast of full sun, or maybe I should say no clouds.

Whatever you do DON'T LOOK AT THE SUN without proper protection!

And to see you off today here is one of my favourite performers Gracie Fields singing

Looking on the Bright Side (1932)