Farmhouse Country Comforts

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Making some mulled apple cider. The colors are like sugared maple syrup. Stirring up delicious beverages and food is comforting. Sipping or eating afterwards is comforting, like firewood. They always say it warms you twice...when you chop it and when you burn it. I can say that about food. Do you get that warm, fuzzy feeling when you cook? I don't mean turning into an animal either. I mean a content feeling. Okay. There should be a third comforting...when I work it off by exercising. I just haven't got there yet...

Topiary Animals- Green Art Forms

Maybe next year we won't grow vegetables in our garden. We'll plant our own zoo like this. Isn't it gorgeous?





This Scottie is at Hyde Park.




The longhorn cattle are appropriately at a nursery in Texas.

The clipped birds below are in Asia.

Sedums For Everyone

Sedums are grown for their foliage and are getting more popular grown in pots. They look like succulents, but are very winter hardy, first to come up in spring and die down last in the fall. No green thumb needed.

Gather up a few different varieties and plant them together in a large pot or for the center of your outdoor table that gets full sun. They are super in sunny windowboxes. This year I am going to put a few cannas in the very center, for height, with the sedums. You could use ornamental grasses with them with wonderful results as well. Or a small topiary shrub. One thing about gardening everyone creates their gardens a bit differently and that is exciting.

My cannas I started earlier are starting to finally get going and stretch upwards. We've had so many cool rainy days the last two weeks that has almost put them back to sleep. Yesterday afternoon it got up to 80 and today is to be hot so they will shake a leg and get moving now. I think they give the garden a tropical exotic touch.

Siamese Cats Topiary Sculpture Garden Art Painting

Two Siamese cats with the results from their topiary garden class. A mouse running on a wheel in green topiary and a good-sized fish all in living green! Round ball standard topiaries are nice, but these two are taking topiary to another level. Having Siamese cats we know they are a little more active than most cats. They are very cute too!

I used some of the same colors as the westie with it's topiary art so that they could be grouped together. A nice long table of topiary art when they are side by side. This cute painting is for sale here.

Westie Dog Blog Editorial/Writer

I've always wanted to tell the world that I love where we live in the country. Tonight my parents are busy so I'm going to tell you about my life. We've had lots of snow which I love to romp in. The picture above is me standing down by our creek in my show dog style last night at sunset. Actually I'm listening intently for birds and squirrels and other animal whispering. You must stand very, very still...even if your parents ARE calling you.

I love this wooded section that looks bare in the winter. I can stand tall and erect just like a tree. There isn't much that I can't do if you ask me. I am actually listening again to hear the trees talking. Normally the deer camp out here and eat all of the leaves. The deer like the music the creek makes and with the leaves clapping their hands and the birds chirping...the bullfrogs bass notes... it's like a full orchestra. I like all the music makers.

Sometimes I can sound like a harmonica when my human brother plays his fife and stays on one note too long. I try to correct his timing and his notes by jumping on him until he stops. Then I know he has learned his lesson from me and I walk away.

I have always wanted to be a garden editor because I see alot here in the gardens and also in my parents catalogs and magazines. It smells so good to walk into a greenhouse. I love that earth smell. All the letters form wonderful words in my head when I am in there, but I never have the laptop handy to record them.

Just this for now because I need to babysit the cats who seem to finally wake up after 20 hours of sleep at night.

Westie Dog's Valentine Day & Pink Roses

How do you celebrate Valentine's Day? Do you dine in or dine out? Roses? Chocolates? Dinner? This little westie family is celebrating it together. That is how traditions are made.

For the colors of this painting I went with pink and green. Classic color combinations. A person can't go wrong with these two colors. They can be soft and romantic or bold and bright depending on how deep or dark you choose the colors to be.

Siamese Cats and Westie Dogs

Our not so shabby looking westie boy, Sir Salty. Snow or frost running is always on the daily agenda and he is wondering what is taking me so long to catch up. He has that look, "Don't tell me you're going back in the house now?

Two of our siamese cats getting some sun and waiting for spring like the rest of us. They are watching our westie run all around on the hill and thinking "He is crazy. It's much better to be a spectator today and move very little, but then that is what they say in the summer, too.

Yarn Knitting Girl Cat Folk Art

Fall and cool weather are here! A new little painting of the yarn girl knitting socks for santa. Yes, Santa Claus. Two kitties help with the production. One works with yarn tension and the other on her lap tests for durability. Up for sale now.

I think she looks cute in her beanie. They're not just for kids.