Sunday Sketching -

 Quickie heads...

...and after the Sunday afternoon nap, the first official nearly-summer leaf, herb and flower gathering for tonight's salad. :-) Always one of my favorite seasonal treats.

Music Monday - Pirates!

What do you mean it's not Monday? (yeah, well, it *has* been sunny out the last 2 days, so guess where I've been. NOT in the studio...)

Besides playing out in the garden, I also went to see the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie with the daughter. Whilst it was somewhat better than #2 & #3, it still fell entirely short of the great fun the first movie was. bummer. Made me long for The Curse of the Black Pearl again, so here is the very theme, along with one of the best movie entrances Evar:

and the 'ghost story' scene with it's Moonlight Serenade theme (it starts at about 2:17 in) -

- ah.... for a simpler time, and a less bloated and convoluted movie....

Sunday Sketching -

Quickie sketches in the teeny purse Moleskine upon my knee....

Figure Friday -

 (Camera on Very Wrong setting...bad photo...)

Lovely model....

WIP Wednesday - Garden update!

Apparently I am playing outside way more than in - so I'll show you what I'm working on (ie, gardens, not studio..). Here's a brief overview of some of the growing things in my yard -

My 'woodland area' underneath my firs out front.... Lots of undergrowth of various states of edibility-

One of my gates to the back gardens - with magnolia berry climbing on one side, and hops on the other.

The front berry bed - 7 different kinds of blueberry, 2 different gooseberries, aronia berry and seabuckthorn.

Pathway to the backyard - multiple varieties of (edible) daylilies, lavender, rosemary, santolina, yarrow, and lemon balm...

Herb boxes on the back deck (waiting for it to get warm enough for the addition of basils..)

More berries - jostaberry, red currant, red raspberry patch (and grapes just starting to bud against the fence).

Raised beds (in and out of shade here) - strawberries, greens, and assorted veggies and potherbs...

New spiral garden (with perennial, medicinal herbs just starting out), the potherb and perennial bed behind and a chicken coop full of very grumpy hens -

- they hop on their feed can and chastise me quite thoroughly because I am not letting them out while the new, young plants are growing... Maybe next month, girls - if it warms up enough for things to actually get going....

We'll see how things look in June!

Music Monday - The Two Trees

I know I'm late for Monday, but there has been So Much Time out in the gardens that I am falling behind on my 'indoors things'.  This Loreena McKennitt version of the W.B. Yeats poem of the same name is forever long, but it hauntingly beautiful and worth a listen...

And while you're listening, here are a few more photos from this weekends' Hermit's Garden session - in the woods (hence the 'tree' song...)

I do believe that spring is really going to come!

Sunday Sketching - plus, more garden...

 5-minute heads in the teensy purse Moleskine...

 A few more shots from the Hermit's Grove - of things that are finally blooming. :-)

 (LOOK at these amazing, gorgeous deep-red trilliums! I don't think I've ever seen them such a color before).

And we are in the height of bluebell season. Here it only grows where it's been purposefully put - although it does seem to gradually spread. Maybe someday, our woods may have naturalized bluebells as they grow elsewhere....

Succulent Saturday - more garden photos -

I got to go back to The Hermit's Grove today -

- this time to pick the caretaker's brain about my own gardens...

- I weeded alongside of him and took notes on all his words of wisdom and experience... 

It was fun to see how much everything had grown just since last week -

-it has actually been sunny and kind of *warm* the last couple of days. Leaves! Flowers! Growing things!

And this was the most clever thing I've seen - our incredibly invasive and prolific blackberries, sort of topiaried and curtailed and wrapped in a 'wreath'. Easy to pick and easy to contain.

Inspiration right and left....

Figure Friday - Renaissance Costume day.

We got our Renaissance-costume model back again today (yay)-

1-minute gestures...

5-minutes...

10-15 minutes..

About an hour... (had wished for a bit longer!)

WIP Wednesday - Line Art (seed packets!)

(Blogger would not let me post this the other day when I wanted to - so better late than never?)

Being inspired by *Spring* and planting and gardens and all, I thought I'd revisit my garden-seed collection (which I truly will package up and share with interested parties, I promise! I have any number of things that re-seed profusely!). These are the initial mock-ups. Will see how it progresses....

(and here are my very tiny, very late seeds-started-indoors. NOT from my garden-seeds who re-seed themselves quite.....readily).

(Let me know if you want seeds!)

Music Monday - The Secret Garden

Given the awesome gardens I've been visiting of late (and all the time I'm spending in mine), I thought I'd post this Tony performance of the original cast of The Secret Garden -

I religiously listen to this soundtrack every spring, when I'm starting to wither a bit from garden-and-growing-things withdrawal...

"Come a mild day, come a warm rain,
Come a snowdrop, a-comin' up!"_

Yesterday, I posted photos from the herb garden portion of The Hermit's Grove. Today, I'm posting pics from the gorgeous back, wooded area of the property -

From the decorative -(the ornamented out-buildings...)

The low-walled stone circle...

(complete with a 'marble' floor. :-)

The fairy-house under the big-leaf maple...

Into the woods....

The huckleberries growing from cedar trunks...

...and trees growing on trees...

...tis a magical place, truly.

"And all through the darkest nighttime,
It's waiting for the right time.
When a thing is wick, it will grow!"

Sunday Sketching -

Have been having a busy busy week, and forgot my camera in life drawing, etc.. etc... So today, a tiny quickie-sketch:

(More pen in teensy purse Moleskine upon my knee.....)

AND  I will include some pictures from the *awesome* herb garden I visited over the weekend:

 There were raised beds and raised beds -

 -and gravel pathways-

 -and plant labels identifying it all!

It is still very early spring weather-wise, so growing things are still small and sparse -

- but you can still get a glimpse of how lovely things will get as the season progresses!
I will definitely be visiting again. :-)