old tractor

here's an old tractor based on a 1961 Farmall.  living in rural Wisconsin hardly a day goes by that i don't see a tractor go past the house or pass one in the field or on the road.  this is my piece for  Mixed Media Monday where the theme is "something old."  i'm not happy with this piece at all, but i thought i'd still share it. 

Midsummer Fest

today we went to the Midsummer Festival at Norskedalen Nature and Heritage Center.
Norskedalen means Norwegian Valley and here at the center they celebrate the Norwegian Heritage of the region while also sharing the beautiful natural environment that surrounds it.  lots of hiking trails, ponds, streams,   and old log and stone buildings made by the immigrants to this area. 

We went on trails looking for trolls, caught bullfrogs, ate homemade ice cream, lefse, rommegrot (cream pudding), flat bread.  We watched Norwegian dancing and singing, basket making, and blacksmithing.  it was a very enjoyable afternoon.

strawberry bliss

it's strawberry season! 

here's our strawberry patch where all this yummy goodness is coming from.  i've been spending anywhere from a hour to a hour and a half here everyday for the past week.  ( yes, i've got a bit of a backache!)

many of the strawberries have been turned into scrumptious jam (21 pints!) to share with  friends and family. 

best of all though, is the homemade strawberry ice cream!   yum yum!

garden visitor

this beautiful dragonfly came to visit our garden this afternoon.   his wings were shining in the sun as he was flying about looking for bugs to eat.  he would do a little circle and then return back to the stake, and he did this over and over for close to 20 minutes, but then a bird came swooping down towards the dragonfly,  it missed, but the dragonfly flew away.

buttons

wow, i can't believe i haven't posted for a week.   i guess i've been a little distracted with life.   here's my piece for the three muses this week, the theme is buttons and/or bows.

lollipop

 the theme this week at the three muses is to pick a song, any song!  at first i thought this might be kind of hard coming up with a song, since the choices are endless, but within a minute i knew what i wanted to do and what the piece would look like.  it's nice when that happens. 
one of my favorite artists is Mika, who  is a British singer-songwriter, (his music is very pop).  the song i chose is lollipop  from his 2007 album "Life in Cartoon Motion."  my kids and i love to dance around the living room listening to Mika, he's very fun to listen to.   the title "lollipop"  also belongs to a 1958 pop song by "The Chordettes" which is definitely better known (Lollipop Lollipop Oh Lolli Lolli Lolli Lollipop.)  with lollipops on the mind, of course Shirley Temple and "On the Good Ship Lollipop"  starts to play in my head.  so much sweetness everywhere! 

so long poppies

this week at mixed media monday, the theme is "floral tributes."   there's  so many beautiful flowers in bloom in my yard right now, so much inspiration everywhere.  my poppies are already done blooming, they lasted just over a week, they come and go so fast!  i had to do one more painting of them because i'm just not ready to see them go,  it's like saying goodbye to a friend and knowing i won't see them for another year.  on the bright side though, i have so many other flowers which are now in full swing, and many more to look forward too.  at least  i won't be completely with out poppies for another year, the iceland poppy blooms later in the summer and they have such delicate paper thin petals and always inspire photos and paintings.

{this moment}

A Friday ritual started by Amanda Blake Soule, of Soule Mama

"A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week

A simple, special, extraordinary moment"

is this ok to have for supper?

it's been a pretty bad week for our family this week and with only 2 hours of sleep last night, this was all i could muster up for supper for the kids and i.  ( they did have some soup afterward too.)

it all started earlier in the week when fischer  had a tough  time with his allergies and had one night where his eyes were almost swollen shut from hives all over them.

on monday my nephew swallowed a quarter and ended up in the ER with it stuck in his throat.  they almost had to surgically remove it but luckily they were able to push it down and he is doing fine.

yesterday my mother-n-law had to put her dog to sleep unexpectedly.  her dog was 15 years old and had been steadily declining and then really took a turn for the worse overnight.  it's always hard loosing a pet even if they've had a great long life.

the real kicker for the week came last night when my husband was playing hockey and got hit in the mouth/face with a hockey puck, pretty brutal, so we were in the ER for a good portion of last night.  he's at home now, stable but very miserable.  he lost one tooth so far and there might be more to come,  his upper lip was split wide open, close to an inch up ( it was pretty gnarly to see), and he has multiple broken bones in his face (left cheek/ left eye orbit, left side of nose and his right upper jaw.)  monday he has to go in and have his jaw wired shut for a month and be on a liquid diet!  i'm going to have to research some good juicing recipes and blended meals, poor guy!  it's weird how bad things can happen all grouped together like this in such a short period of time, some sort of strange energy that is around us.  hopefully things will shift around here and some good energy will be flowing again.

time for tea

the theme for this week at the three muses is  "time, "  which i feel i have a lack of lately.  for one, i can't believe that it is already june!  where does the time go?   our days are becoming so full.  with the warmer weather came busier days, weeks and weekends.   i've been going to bed later and getting up earlier.  why is it that as i've gotten older the time passes faster? i've become so aware of each new day, week , month, year, change of seasons and the changes within the seasons,  and i can't believe how fast my kids are growing!  i remember being a kid and thinking that time moved so slow, a week could feel like forever, that's not the case anymore.  with all this busyness, i sometimes have to remind myself to sit down with a nice cup of tea and take a little time out  from it all and read, draw, paint  or even just daydream a bit. 
 (sorry about the poor photo, there wasn't any daylight left when i finished it, lack of time!   i'll take a better one tomorrow.)   done!