Gifts From The Garden

I can't imagine not having a garden, even if this new one is proving to be more challenging than I often have patience for! Sometimes the greeting I receive from the garden makes all the difference of how my day begins. The gifts in these photos greeted me today. A leaf had blown into the much-used garden clog that was weighting down a piece of burlap; a perfect still life with a little self-portrait thrown in. Much can be gleaned from items in a person's life without ever seeing a photo of the person, thus creating an interesting self-portrait.

The close-up of the philodendron leaf will remind me how perfect the plant was before becoming a victim of the heat; optimistic aren't I? And the cheerful Alyssum is nestled next to Portulaca (the ground-cover find) that has added brilliant color to the garden. Once we discovered how well this little plant, aka as moss rose, handled the heat we bought them by the dozens. Portulaca has the remarkable ability to change color as is evident in the photo. The current blooms are white but red blossoms are on the horizon. The same plant was a mixture of yellow and orange a mere two weeks ago.

Yesterday at 3pm exhaustion struck without warning and just before I fell asleep I noticed that the sky was filled with rain clouds. When I woke up a few hours later the sky was clear. In the newspaper today there was mention of sprinkles in Palm Springs along with lightning that had people running for cover! Weather never ceases to amaze me with its exclusive selectivity. We're a mere 40 minutes or so from Palm Springs and yet we didn't get a smidgen of the dramatic storm.

Quote: Painting is a nail to which I fasten my ideas. Georges Braque, 1882-1963. (from the Art Museum, Balboa Park)