Come and gone

                                                                     "Like a distant answer"  available here

Poppies, are one of my favorite flowers.  This painting I started I toward the end of May, well after they were done blooming.  They were just starting to bloom when I went out of town for 6 days and when I came back, they were already done. I've done a poppy painting the last several summers, so I thought I still needed to do one even though I barely had a chance to see them.  I have some Icelandic poppies that are blooming right now, but boy, they don't last long either. 

With this painting I knew I wanted to make the poppies out of painted tea bags and rip the paper for the petals, to give it that papery effect they have.   Right away the flowers looked like they needed something.  I decided to dip the edges of the petals in walnut ink and I really like the effect that had.  This worked so well, I did this for the leaves as well.  As for the background, I had no idea what I wanted to do.  It started out with a light watercolor wash, mostly aqua and orange, then I started to collage, but it just didn't feel right, so I started adding browns, this wasn't good either, along came green and then yellow and I was still not feeling it, I had thoughts of ditching the painting and starting over, but I stuck with it and I added some white and lime green.  This seemed to help a little but I still didn't like it, so in a last effort, I took a white wash over the entire background to tone it all down and I really liked the effect of that and felt that it finally made the painting come together.  I'm so tempted to add more to the poppies, like some white, but I think if I try that, it will ruin it.  I've decided to resist the urge and leave them alone. 

Garlic scapes

Garlic scapes are the curling top of hardneck garlic plants.  As they grow they get really curly and then they need to be cut off so the plant can put all of its energy into the bulb instead of the flower.  They can be used in pesto, saute, dips, soups, in dips, pretty much how you would use garlic, just a little more mellow flavor.    With their unique curls and slender stems, I thought it would be fun to turn them into a little piece of art. 

My Lucky Day

I was picking strawberries this afternoon and I have clover popping up here and there.  Sometimes I pull it, sometimes I just leave it, but today I looked at a large patch and thought "I'm going to find a four leaf clover" and within 30 seconds I had myself a four leaf clover!  As I was looking at it to make sure it was indeed a four leaf clover I noticed that two of the leaves were still connected at the base, so they were not completely separate.  I wondered if this would still qualify as a four leaf clover or not?  I then thought to myself, "I'm going to find another four leaf clover and within 15 seconds I had myself another four leaf clover!  This time it was without a doubt a four leaf clover, and that it indeed had four separate leaves.  What are the chances of that?  I haven't found a four leaf clover since I was a kid.  I pull a lot of clover out of our garden and flower beds and will sometimes quickly look or just keep my eyes open for that extra leaf, but today I just knew I would find one.  How cool is that?  I love it.  

Blooms

This little piece was a fun one to work on.  The paper had been used as practice  for stamping with  the plastic doily that I used in my last piece.  I didn't know what I wanted to do with it and had actually thought it might end up in the recycling bin, but then I just started to draw, doodle and paint on it with no worries of what will happen and this is what came about.  My garden is filled with little seed heads from my poppies and were the inspiration for these little flowers.  
I used coffee again for the background in this painting.  I'm really loving the feel that this gives. I used little bits of painted tea bags for the bottom and also used some little scraps that Amelia painted.  (they just happened to be laying on the table and seemed perfect for the piece, the purple and the brighter blue pieces are hers.) The piece is mostly painted with watercolor, but I did use acrylics in a few areas. 
This piece made me realize that I need to doodle more and loosen up, and that I don't always need to have a plan.  Just go with it, if it works, great, if not, oh well, nothing lost, but always experience gained.

ground cherries

have you ever heard of ground cherries?   they're one of my favorite fruits and a must have in my garden.  they are a small, yellow fruit, about the size of a small cherry tomato, and they are enclosed in a lantern type husk, similar to tomatillos. the taste is very hard to describe, a little tomato, maybe grape, but very sweet.  there is definitely some nostalgia for me when it comes to the ground cherry.  my grandma  always had ground cherries in her garden and  i always looked forward to going out to her garden to find them or better yet she had a bowl full waiting for me. every time i pop one of these little guys in my mouth, i think of her.  i love it.

it seemed that only people in the area where my grandma lived had ever heard of them and grew them.   we lived 3 hours away and no one around us knew what they were.  i now live in the same area as where my grandma lived and they are still popular around here, but if you go outside the area there aren't too many people who have heard of them.  i know very little about this yummy little berry, so i Googled it.  according to Wikipedia they are also called cape gooseberries, but i've never heard that name before. they are similar to the tomato plant and are in the same family as the tomatillo.   i think they are native to central and south america.  they are an annual for us but they will reseed.  i guess you can find them along roadsides, but there are many different plants in this family and not all are safe to eat.  

i grew mine from seeds from Seeds Savers Exchange.  the day i planted my little plants in the garden, we received an unexpected hail storm and they all died.  luckily i was able to get more from a friend who grows them on their farm.

last year i made jam from them,  this year i might try a pie.  my grandma used to can them with either apples or pears.  they also store very well for months.  last winter i was able to buy them at the farmers market in january!  what a treat.   my favorite way to eat them though is right out of the garden, that's amelia's favorite way too.