Double Winking Westie Dog Art Painting

It's like a westie festival this week at our house. I listed this new painting for sale today on ebay. Our Sir Salty is posing up a storm and loves to be praised for his hard work. Getting him to sit still for long is tricky.

This one is titled "Double Winking Westie" and this is the look I get when he is happy, and ever so slightly tired, he gives me the double wink! I love it. Check the auction here. There is such a painterly quality to painting alla prima, all in one sitting.

Hope your westies are happy, healthy and getting lots of play time!

Westie Dog Baseball Umpire Painting

Our westie loves any game that involves throwing, tossing or hitting balls. This spring he would sit out in the field by my son's red bat and large plastic ball. When we play he has his own rules sometimes. He runs with the bat, he runs with the ball. He runs with the glove. He laughs the whole game. We play in a field here in the country so that is why I painted it like this. Our westie boy, Sir Salty is the model. He looks very serious like most home-plate umpires.

View painting auction here!

I listed this painting today on ebay. It is 5 x 7-inches on canvas that is stretched over a wooden frame. The depth is 3/4-inches.

Check it out.

Summer Street Side Plantings

Even though it's hot, humid and pollutants from the cars are around these plants, look at what a cool composition and feel it gives the viewer. These green plantings always give a feeling of freshness and crispness even when we are a bit wilted ourselves! You forget you are in the city amongst skyscrapers and feel you have found a little green oasis.

The designer here used spirea, liriope, crepe myrtles, hostas, ornamental grasses and a few evergreens. None of these are hard to find in gardening nurseries...an added beauty. Plants and shrubs don't have to be rare and exotic to be beautiful.

We Shout for Sedums, Picolette and Autumn Charmer

Sedums are workaholics. They look great from March to November here. They are foliage plants that can take alot of neglect. They tank up on water and store it in their leaves (okay all plants do this, but sedums store alot of water in their fleshy leaves.)

Besides being survivors they also have a variety of leaf shapes and textures. And if that isn't enough they have different flower colors, too. Yes! Did I mention they can take alot of heat! Do not pass these up when you are shopping for perennials.

In the above photo on the far right is Autumn Charmer, a variegated variety with the same dusty red-rose flowers as Autumn Joy. To the left is the purple-gray Picolette sedum. Such a useful color in a perennial garden.

I want to add to my collection. We have some sunny, hot gravel areas, where these could stretch and shine. I have some in large pots that give a slightly tropical feel to the dining area outside.

First "Pink Girl" Tomato

Ring. Ring. Ring. I received the most excited call. All gardeners know this emotion. The caller Miss B. had just picked (and ate) her first homegrown tomato of the year!! Yes, that is exciting.

Me: Did you take a picture of it?

Miss B: Are you kidding me? I ate it.

The joys of gardening.

I sat down and sketched out what she must have looked like...and I am still smiling.

Vietri: Living and Eating with Italian Art

We visited this wonderful little piece of "Italy" on Florida soil simply called, The Villa, and it is anything but simple. When you first step inside you are treated to the most decorative and beautiful painted italian dishes, linens and oil paintings. This shop is about turning your home no matter how simple or grande into an italian haven.

Italians like to make eating a rewarding experience. It's not just the delicious pastas that make a meal memorable, but also the ceramics the pasta is served and devoured on. The flatware and the linens are also to be enjoyed and remembered.




Inside I took this photograph of the painted ceiling and wall. Art is expressed everywhere around you. Bravo! Please see Vietri's excellent photos at the below websites.


To learn a bit more about Vietri's very italian artisans visit: www.vietri.com/artisans/artisanfeature.cfm
Some families have been producing their wares for many generations.

Vietri's main website, a must to see their dishes, and for shopping;: http://www.vietri.com/

Climbing Rose 'Blaze' Around Town

How to make the harsh elements of the city a little softer...You've probably seen the bumper sticker "Random Acts of Kindness." Above is an random act of kindness by planting the climbing rose, "Blaze" in the city. The roses are unbelievably healthy. It clothes the metal legs of a large billboard sign along a busy road. It then slowly drops it's petals on you when you walk by (on the brick sidewalk) for a touch of rose fragrance and to lighten your mood.

We have blaze roses here and they are not this large. I'm making a mental note to add more fertilizer...Giving them something to cheer about.

Climbing roses often have bare legs that can easily be covered with perennials or annuals. Wouldn't this be a knockout with lavender lining the edges of the fence? Adding more fragrance and greenery and hiding the roses bare legs. Yes, roses need to be dressed, too.

Roof Top Gardening

Running out of gardening room? Try the roof. This one is lit at night and it looks good day and night. The evergreens give it year 'round appeal. There are no chickens, dogs, cats or sheep in it. Goats could be in it. I think they could jump on a low flying plane if they wanted. They are big time jumpers and munchers.

Unfortunately some roof top gardens are the unwanted ones. Sprouting tree seedlings in rain gutters. Rain gutters always need to be cleaned of debris to keep them from clogging and filling with water. The weight of water will cause them to pull away from the house.

Other gardening spaces are windowboxes and movable pots. Pots are great because you can move them (providing they are not too large) around an shaded outdoor dining table when entertaining and then move them back into full sun the next day.

Have fun in your garden wherever it is.

The Hazards of Mowing the Lawn

Most everyone knows that I am not a huge lawn fan since we have quite a bit to mow. My husband loves the mowing part since it is a riding mower. Saturday I took a turn at mowing and what happens? I accidently flip over the riding mower. On flat ground, too. We use a John Deere and it caught on the swingset and started to lift the front end up in the air. I put the clutch in and shifted back to reverse but it didn't go into reverse. So I move it up to neutral and it shoots ahead up and over.

A few thoughts shot through my head. One, I am so glad my son is not down here and two, I have to get off immediately. The third image went through my mind of the little hazard label of the stick figure in the air and the turning stick mower. As I dove to the left the mower did a backflip and then bounced over onto it's side.

I was on the ground so thankful not to be crushed. I could see gas leaking out and I got up and tried to turn it over. It was heavy but I held my breathe and amazingly lifted it back over. Somehow the green john deere frame was in the way and the gear shift stopped at the frame and could not go back to reverse. I don't know what would allow the shift in the frame since everything is bolted down. So, where I thought reverse was is now actually neutral and neutral is first. That explains why sometimes we have trouble starting it as it's not actually in neutral......acck.

I think I will go back to weeding, hoeing, planting and painting.

Westie Dog Stuffed Animal Doll Toys

On a recent trip we ran into some westies of another kind. Toy and doll westies from a company called Melissa and Doug. They were amazingly life size and only 24.99 and we found them in a children's section of an world import store.

Melissa and Doug started their business 20 years ago and sell educational toys and basically from their website have alot of fun doing it. Check it out.

www.melissadoug.com

Growing Lupines in your Garden

Lupine flowers have an architectural element in your garden whether you gro them in masses or in a mixed border. What they really like is compost and acidic soil. You can grow them in part shade/part sun as well.

After each stalk is finished blooming cut if off so it will send out more flowering spikes. Otherwise it will put it's energy into making seeds. You can still collect seeds just let it be from the last of the blooms in summer.

Niobe-Clematis Flowering Vine

The colors on this Niobe clematis vine are like a rich burgundy wine. The flowers are velvety and large. This is growing on my climbing roses right now. It found a dead rose branch (which I didn't get cut back this spring) and used all of it's energy sprawling out on this bare branch. No competiton for sunlight...only competing for compliments of each passerby. Niobe is a repeat bloomer. This one I highly recommend for every gardener.

Fine Gardening magazine has a wonderful page on pruning clematis vines and to find out what grouping your clematis vine is in. There are so many beautiful varities available for sale now. To find out what group (spring blooming, repeat bloomers, or summer and fall blooming) your clematis' vines are and how to prune them go to:

http://www.finegardening.com/pages/g00156.asp

President Obama's First Dog's Handshake at White House

A fun little youtube clip of President Obama and First Lady Michelle's First Dog Bo's handshake or rather pawshake. Did you ever ponder the thought that if they got a second puppy it would still be a First Dog, too?

There are no seconds in our First Families.

A Bright Spot (Westie) in my Shade Garden

There was a break in the clouds and clear skies so we ran out to pull weeds. Some weeds have turned into tree proportion sizes around here. I thought our Sir Salty looked so brilliant against the lime green. Lime green and white always look great together. Our westie was not too pleased to have to "sit" even though I was praising him the whole time. I asked him to look at me, and like kids, he did the opposite. Actually he heard some birds chattering and he finds them very, very interesting. Earlier in the spring if he heard robins fighting he would go crazy inside wanting to get outside immediately.



Okay his five seconds of sitting accomplished, he feels, and he romped right over to me. Whenever I sit on the grass he thinks he needs to be right there, too. He used to be hard to photograph as a puppy for that reason.

As soon as he was in the lawn he was a happy camper and inches from my face, I might add. Our lawn in it's sad state of needing mowing....again, mind you. He "sat" again for 5 seconds and then was down on his tummy in the cool green grass. Happiness. Simple pleasures.

Westies are really fun gardening pals. If you have one you will know exactly what I mean. Now if I could just get him to leave the toads alone. I was so pleased with his grooming a month ago. It grows so fast.

Sir Elton John's Gardens are a Top Hit

A big thank you to the English Garden Magazine for getting to gardens that I have a rather slim chance of visiting at present. Sir Elton John has extensive gardens...not just this boxwood Italian one in England. A walk around his property reveals a white garden, a grass or praire garden, a rose garden and much more.

Boxwood is a favorite of mine. Topiary and parterre. So you can imagine how stunning I found his garden from an older issue of English Garden Magazine. Elton John your gardens are magnificent.

The English Garden Magazine has a website: http://www.theenglishgarden.co.uk/ where they share more about their garden authors, gardening knowledge and beautiful pictures for inspiration. I just have my new issue and it's hard to put down.