Rosehaven Cottage

The January thaw

2012-01-27T00:35:00.001-08:00

I'm posting something different today... something that requires quite a bit of courage. I'm posting a watercolor landscape painting. I haven't painted a landscape in watercolor for a very long time... probably over a decade (if not more).

After I wrote my last post, I felt this urge to paint. It was the kind of urge that drives from a place deep inside like something needing a way to get out. That urge doesn't come very often. For many years it didn't come at all, and I never thought it would again. But a couple of days ago it did.

I taped up the watercolor paper onto my painting board, pulled out the paints and parked in front of the easel. I just started putting water and paint on the paper without any idea of what it would become or what I was painting. I was thinking I'd probably end up with a texture I could use for my Photoshop work.

I was way off.

In the end, I found myself with a landscape painting of the January thaw that often happened in the Rockies when I was small. For a brief time almost every January, the sun would come out, the temperature would rise and some of the snow would melt. It would be a brief respite before more snow would begin to fall again.

The painting really isn't that good, but I painted a landscape and that's a very good thing!

Winter pears, winter gardens and Alcinous

2012-01-24T13:24:00.000-08:00

Digitally painted photograph "Winter pears"

I spent a significant slice of time in my childhood (over 4 years) in a very cold clime in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado where the first snows of the year begin in September and the last snow of the year is usually the first or second week of June. My mom used to tell people that we had three seasons--Winter, July and August.

When I was 10 years old, we moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area where I was born. It was February, and we exited blizzard conditions in Colorado and entered what I thought was Eden on earth with sunny balmy days and frost-free nights. Daffodils were in bloom, almond trees were laden with pale pink blossoms, and the thrill of spring was in the air.

When I was a 15, we spent another 18 months living in Colorado. Again, I dealt with the cold and the snow. When we moved back to the Bay Area again, I was so grateful.

So many years have passed, but I have never forgotten the contrast between the two worlds I grew up in--Colorado and California's Bay Area.

I have never forgotten how much snow I lived in and through back then. How cold it was. How the world didn't bloom for so many months of the year.

It is why I have an extreme aversion to snow now as an adult. When others are dreaming of a white Christmas I am perfectly happy with my foggy San Francisco Christmas. When I see weather reports of blizzards and snowstorms in other parts of the United States, I shudder. When ski bums and snow bunnies are heading to the slopes in the Sierra Nevadas (only 3-4 hours north of us), I happily stay put in my snowless environs.

Homer spoke of the sublime mythical orchard, Alcinous:

"Therein grow trees, tall and luxuriant, pears and pomegranates and apple-trees with their bright fruit, and sweet figs, and luxuriant olives. Of these the fruit perishes not nor fails in winter or in summer, but lasts throughout the year."
Odyssey vii

Although I do not have a pear tree, I look out at my garden that is partially leafless with deciduous trees and partly lush and green with citrus, rosebushes and palm trees, and I often feel as if I am living in the mythical Alcinous.

The pomegranate is dormant right now, but the lemon tree is full of bright sunny fruit. The plum tree is waiting until spring, but the rosemary and lavender are blooming with periwinkle blue blossoms. The silvery leaves of the olive tree sway in the rain against a backdrop of pink winter roses from the rosebush that I loved back to life and has no name.

My childhood keeps me from ever taking this all for granted.

And in a corner of the garden under the dormant hydrangea, the yellow trumpets of daffodils are heralding the transition from January to February that is coming soon when the almonds will bloom and the pear trees will look like they're covered with snow.... but it won't be the snow that makes it shudder. It will be the delicate white petals of spring.

Click here to send the artwork above as a free e-card

Mourning dove in winter

2012-01-19T00:01:00.000-08:00

High on a branch

In the mulberry tree

The mourning dove sits

Waiting for spring.

The hummingbird calls from the winter wisteria

2012-01-16T00:01:00.000-08:00

I hear him before I see him.

His tiny chirp

Easily missed by unaware ears.

He sits atop a leaf-bare vine

Singing to the mid-day sun.

The little things brightening my January

2012-01-13T12:41:00.000-08:00

January is a never an easy month for me. I brace myself every year for the month when my seasonal affective disorder hits the hardest and I find myself surfing the internet at midnight looking for flights to Hawaii.

But this year has been a bit different, in a good way.

This time last year I had spent the last 5 months of 2010 significantly incapacitated by my own body, and I was waiting anxiously for surgery to rectify the issues. The garden was overgrown and unruly, and I was helpless to change that fact as I sat inside watching anything entertaining I could find on Netflix.

Having been through that experience and journaling it on a blog so I can go back and read about it has provided me with a significant amount of perspective. I took mental notes then and have enacted them this year.

This year I decided that I would make sure and plant a small winter container garden on the back deck. In the past I haven't wanted to spend money on annual flowers because it seemed like a waste of resources.

But this year was different.

In November, I went to the local nursery and bought potted herbs--chives, oregano, marjoram and a couple of varieties of thyme. Then I bought winter annuals (we have those here) to plant in the pots next to the herbs. I got pretty little violas with purple and white faces, pansies in rich jewel tones, and ruffled snapdragons in a pale peachy pink (my favorite). I couldn't resist a beautiful purple and green decorative kale so I got it too.

I filled the terra cots pots with the little splashes of color. When I was done, it seemed like a lot of work for such a small space. But I knew it would be worth it come January.

And I was right.

Sheltered against the house on our southwestern facing deck, the flowers have thrived despite frosty nights with temps below freezing. And around 1 pm when the afternoon sun makes its way to that side of the house, I go out and bask in it for a while to soak up the important rays that fend off my seasonal affective disorder. Along with some potted lavender that's chosen to continue blooming through the winter, the little potted flowers are my companions and they are brightening my January, making it so much easier this year than in years past.

If that isn't enough and I really need a pick-me-up, I stand under the loquat tree growing on the super-sunny-south-side of the house and watch honeybees buzz from blossom to blossom as if January never happens in their little world. The honeybees on the loquats remind me that February almond blossoms, daffodils and narcissus are right around the corner. And soon it will be spring.

Click here if you'd like to read the blog I mentioned above

Love and paradise

2012-01-11T00:01:00.000-08:00

There are two rosebushes that don't bloom during the warmer months along with the rest. Instead they bloom in the cooler months. I don't know why. They just do. One was a gift from a friend when my father-in-law passed away. It is fittingly called "Paradise". During the grey days of winter I have the bright luscious blooms of this rose to enjoy. It seems appropriate that it should be so.

Click here to send this art

as an online invite or ecard for free

January is when the rosemary blooms periwinkle blue

2012-01-09T00:01:00.000-08:00

A decade ago I browsed the herb section of our local nursery and picked up little 4-inch pots of various herbs. All the herbs came home and I put them in the ground right outside the kitchen window. Among them was a small little rosemary plant.

That same transplant is now a rosemary hedge that I keep cut down to just a little higher than the height of the white picket fence that borders our front garden. When I prune it the heady fragrance of rosemary wafts throughout the entire garden and settles all over my clothes, hair and skin.

The rosemary's grey-blue-green foliage has seasoned many of Hubby's culinary creations. Its winter blooms of brilliant periwinkle have provided much sweet nectar for countless honeybees, hummingbirds and other pollinators. When I see the blooms beginning to come out like they are now, I know that spring is not so far away.

1. The Color of January Series: 1

2. The Color of January Series: 2

3. Whispers between flowers

4. The Color of January Series: 3

Click here to read why I think periwinkle is "The Color of January"

A rare winter strawberry

2012-01-06T00:01:00.000-08:00

Imagine my surprise when I found this lone strawberry growing in my winter garden. In the winter, I always enjoy watching much of the foliage of the strawberries turn to a beautiful shade of cherry red. But I've never had a plant produce fruit at the same time as the leaves are turning for winter. It provided a rare opportunity to get a shot of the red fruit and the red leaves together--photographic serendipity indeed.

A photo-walk through the garden looking at the New Year's roses at Rosehaven Cottage

2012-01-04T15:24:00.000-08:00

There are many things I love about living in a mild-winter climate. I think one of my favorites is the chance of having New Year's roses blooming while the trees and plants in other parts of the garden have gone to sleep until spring. The overnight frosts nip at my bougainvillea and calla lilies making them wither and turn brown. But the roses seem impervious even to below-freezing temps.

The roses got a late summer haircut this year and spent the autumn sending out new green growth that resulted in a particularly spectacular late December bloom. When the skies are grey and overcast, the roses are just the splash of color needed to brighten my day. I hope these photos brighten your winter day too.

If you keep scrolling down you'll see the special surprise that I encountered at the end of my photo-walk through the rose garden.

While I was out photographing the roses, a cheeky male Anna's hummingbird decided that my presence was not going to deter him from taking his "regularly scheduled" afternoon bath in the chilly water of the fountain. He was very leisurely and also got a few drinks. If you look closely you can see his little tongue sticking out. I didn't have to use my zoom lens to photograph this little guy. He was only about 4 feet away when I shot this photo. Like I said... cheeky.

Wildlife "wisdom"

2011-12-26T16:06:00.000-08:00

I finally got a photograph of a woodpecker in our garden thanks to a cantankerous squirrel

2011-12-13T14:55:00.000-08:00

Maybe for other people getting a photograph of a woodpecker isn't such a major feat but for me it's HUGE! Over the past 11 years, I've heard woodpeckers in our neighbors' trees. I've tried to follow the sound to catch a glimpse of them. But the woodpeckers around here are very elusive, and the glimpses I've gotten are fleeting. Photographing them seemed impossible.

Today, I went out to catch some sun on our deck and brought my camera with me (something I usually don't do when catching rays). The usual birds were flitting about and eating the seed I put out yesterday. Several squirrels were helping themselves to the sunflower seeds I put out for them.

Then in my peripheral vision I saw a red flash on the trunk of the neighbor's pine tree. I turned and focused my attention and saw a male Nuttall's woodpecker casually pulling bugs from the cracks in the bark and eating them. I couldn't believe it! I focused my zoom lens and started shooting.

But it wasn't long before Mr. Woodpecker, was joined by one of the squirrels that had been dining in my garden. The squirrel stood on the tree, suspended head down, for quite some time just calmly observing Mr. Woodpecker. The woodpecker didn't seem bothered and continued to eat as if the squirrel wasn't there. All seemed right with the world...

...until another rotten-tempered squirrel came down from the upper branches of the pine tree having made up its mind that the tree belonged to him!

Mr. Woodpecker gave the two squirrels a glance as the cantakerous squirrel chased the other benevolent squirrel down the tree trunk. The two squirrels quickly looped back up the trunk and Mr. Woodpecker was forced to hop out of the way as the chase blasted over his dining spot.

The squirrels seemed to have continued the chase onto the ground, so Mr. Woodpecker started to settled into a new spot to eat...

... but the crabby squirrel, having evicted all other squirrels from the tree, came back up the ready to evict all other species as well.

Mr. Woodpecker had had enough and flew away.

I was disappointed. I thought my opportunity to get a decent shot had passed until I realized that the squirrels had done me a favor. Mr. Woodpecker flew into our garden and landed in the Santa Rosa plum tree next to the pond. In full view of my zoom lens, he commenced finding bugs again. I couldn't have asked for a better vantage point to watch and shoot. The squirrels and their shenanigans had created a moment of photographic serendipity in more ways than one.

Our olive tree "Miss Olive" produced her first olive

2011-11-18T14:34:00.000-08:00

Tucked into my favorite part of the garden with bearded and native Pacific Coast iris growing at her feet, "Miss Olive" has been slowly growing and growing. She's an OLEA europeaea of the Manzanillo variety ("the olive of Seville"), so we've known that she needed to be at least 7-10 years old before she will begin to produce fruit.

Ever since I read the The Olive Farm: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Olive Oil in the South of France by Carol Drinkwater, I've dreamed of growing and harvesting my own olives to make citrus-infused olive oils. When I read the book aloud to Hubby while on a road trip, he too shared that vision. We went to our local nursery, picked out Miss Olive and brought her home to become a part of our gardens. Because Miss Olive is adopted, we've never known how old she really is in order to chart when to expect olives.

Each spring since she got settled in, she's produced tiny little blossoms. I've watched them throughout each summer to see if any turn into fruit, mostly expecting that none of them will.

This year was the same.

But today when I was making the rounds checking on the garden before the rains blew in from the west, I walked past Miss Olive and a small black orb dangling in my peripheral vision caught my attention. I could hardly believe it, but it was indeed an olive!

Now we can finally officially begin to chart Miss Olive's progress toward her peak production years when she's 30-70 years old. By then, she will produce an average of 88 lbs. of olives a year (in good years as much as 150-200 lbs.). Manzanillo olives are traditionally a table olive because they produce less oil per olive and aren't economical for mass production. But the oil from a Manzanillo olive is of a fine quality and will be wonderful for our own personal production and use.

I guess it's time to start saving for the olive oil press I've had my eye on for a few years now.

The buddleia provides a rest stop for a migrating butterfly

2011-11-14T18:39:00.000-08:00

A very large buddleia (butterfly bush) grows in the front garden with its upper branches as high as the house. Every year around August, I give it a haircut and it responds by putting on an encore show of lovely sweet blooms late in October or early November.

This year the blooms provided a meal for a Painted Lady butterfly. The sweet nectar must have been a welcome rest stop snack for this tattered and tired lady as she was flying by during her autumn migration. Painted Lady butterflies migrate in the spring and again in the autumn.

When I see one of these beauties in its post-summer migration south I wonder where it must have spent the summer months. Did this lady enjoy breezy summer afternoons flitting over meadows of wildflowers in the Sierra Nevadas so dear to my heart?

I hope she did.

I discovered I have my very own "Charlotte" spider in my garden

2011-11-09T16:05:00.000-08:00

Years ago, on a drizzly autumn day in November we encountered a very fancy looking largish spider out in the garden. We'd never seen one before. We took photos of it. And then we spent the next several years wondering what kind of spider it was.

While out in the garden on Monday, I finally encountered another one. With her backend measuring about 1/2 inch in length she was hard to miss as she moved through some weeds that I had just cut down. I didn't have my camera with me, but studied her for quite some time so I could go inside later and use the internet to finally make a positive indentification.

Thanks to www.InsectIdentification.org I finally identified her species. She's a banded garden spider!

Today, I was back out in the garden working in the same general area and spotted another one (or maybe the same one). This time I went in and got my camera. I'm glad I did.

Here's some interesting facts I found out about this elusive spider:

Banded garden spiders (Argiope trifasciata) start to appear during the Autumn when temperatures start dropping
They are orb-weavers that produce large conspicuous webs amongst shrubbery and vegetation
They can weave a web 2 feet in diameter
Just like Charlotte's web in Charlotte's Web, the banded garden spider's web is very concentric--the quintessential spider's web
And also like in Charlotte's Web, banded garden "spiderlings" get around by "ballooning"--being carried on breezes that catch the silken threads the spiders produce
Banded garden spiders are a great predator to have in your garden because their webs catch lots of flying insects that you don't want

The autumnal red of leaves turning

2011-11-05T13:06:00.000-07:00

What is it about the autumnal red of leaves turning?

Hubby and I were driving to the nursery to look at pots yesterday. We rounded a bend in the road to see a stand of trees with the topmost leaves brilliant and bright red. It made us both gasp in a bit. My finger pointed reflexively at them, and I could feel that Hubby had unconsciously lifted his foot off the accelerator to slow just a bit as we drove by.

Why does the red of autumnal leaves make us do that... make us act like little children again?

'Tis the season of pineapple sage blossoms and hummingbirds

2011-10-25T15:25:00.000-07:00

All summer long the pineapple sage (Salvia elegans) grows without blooming. As a perennial in our climate, summer is its time to finish growing back from the annual "haircut" it gets in January or February when I cut it back almost all the way down to the ground. This bush has been in the ground for about 10 years and does better with the severe once-a-year prune as opposed to lighter more frequent pruning.

In autumn, when the rest of the flowers in the gardens have faded and fallen, the pineapple sage puts on its show. Dazzlingly bright scarlet trumpet flowers bloom and adorn the bushes from mid-October until often well into holiday season between American Thanksgiving and Christmas. In years past I've cut large sprigs off to decorate my Thanksgiving table.

This year, I tried growing pineapple sage in a pot on the deck outside my studio window, so I'd have hummingbirds there too like I used to before the deck was constructed a couple of years ago. The bush in the pot struggled throughout the summer but bounced back in September and is blooming nonetheless.

The pineapple sage comes by its name honestly. If you crush a leaf in your hand and hold it to your nose you can smell the tropical sweetness of pineapples.

The blooms must also be full of sweetness because the hummingbirds love them. Many a fight breaks out in the air over the pineapple sage as our Anna's hummingbirds refuse to share the bounty nicely.

This little gal didn't have to share this afternoon. Lucky her.

In only a couple of hours the mystery has been solved!

2011-10-20T21:30:00.000-07:00

I just LOVE technology! In a matter of hours, one comment from one person solved a mystery that's been bugging me for years (see the post below or click here to read it).

Thanks to Elaine I now know that this photo is of the Bernheimer Oriental Gardens in Pacific Palisades, California.

Once Elaine gave me a name, I was able to do a quick Google search and I found the following photograph at CardCow.com

Those elephants are definitely the same statuary in the photograph taken by my grandmother (below).

From www.image-archeology.com:

Bernheimer Residence and Oriental Japanese Gardens
Pacific Palisades & Hollywood, California
16980 Sunset Blvd, Pacific Palisades, California
Bernheimer Residence and Gardens

In 1924 Adolph Bernheimer leased the Pacific Palisades location, which was being used as a mule camp in the construction of highways. Adolph supervised every detail of building the complex of oriental structures as his personal residence. It housed his ancient oriental collection. It also was a horticultural showplace. The Bernheimer Gardens flourished as a tourist attraction until 1941, averaging 5,000 visitors a week. World War II was a factor in its fall from grace -- because it was oriental and because Adolph Bernheimer was of German origin. This triggered contempt and led to vandalism. Adolph's passing in 1944, financial difficulties and land erosion, caused the Oriental Gardens to slip into a state of disrepair. The property was vacated in the late 1940s and the treasures were sold at auction in 1951. All of the structures were demolished in the early 1950s. An apartment complex was built at the West End of the property and the rest of the property is still vacant land. The above map is from a Bernheimer Oriental Gardens brochure (see full brochure below).
Thanks to Mary Louise for providing this history; various sources used.

It looks like Hubby and I won't be taking any road trips to see this beautiful landmark. We're both sad that it no longer exists.

Want to help solve a mystery? Identify the California landmark in these photos from the 1930s

2011-10-20T18:27:00.000-07:00

My Grammy was quite the shutterbug. And, for the most part, she was really good about organizing her photos chronologically in nice neat photo albums (you know the kind with the thick construction paper pages and photo squares to secure the corners of the photos). In the late 1930s, as a single woman in her 20's she did a few road trips that she documented photographically and then put into a small album that surfaced a few years ago.

Here's where the mystery comes in...

She failed to label one section of photographs in the little album and I have no idea where they were taken.

Here's what I do know:

The photos are definitely from one particular road trip.
Based on proximity to other labeled photos and the ages of the people in the photos the trip happened around 1937-1939.
She took the trip with her widowed father and kid brother. The destination appears to have been Sequoia National Forest based on the photo below (the sign says, "Boundary Sequoia National Forest").

The road trip started in Oakland, California. I know from the photo above that they definitely visited the Sequoia National Forest in central California (see the map below) while on the road trip.

The Asian gardens in the photographs I've included in this post must have been located somewhere in central or southern-central California.
The first photograph (above) looks like the gardens may have been along the coast of California.
The sub-tropical plants in the photos of the Asian gardens indicate that the elevation isn't high enough for the climate to get a lot of winter frost and probably not any snow.

Can you help solve the mystery? Does anything in these photographs look familiar?

I would love to know if these gardens still exist, so Hubby and I could take our own road trip to visit them. The statuary in the photographs is amazing. I wonder if any of it still exists.

Look at the elephant statuary crossing the bridge (below)

Dahlia fireworks

2011-10-17T12:41:00.000-07:00

To me, the dahlia petals look like they are exploding from the center of each flower.

How many licks does it take to get the center of... a dahlia???

2011-10-15T11:32:00.000-07:00

These deep purple dahlias almost look good enough to eat... almost.

Meeting Mr. Gray Fox

2011-10-07T22:11:00.000-07:00

Local to us is a wonderful facility that rescues and rehabilitates wildlife called the Lindsay Wildlife Museum. A little over a week ago, Hubby and I took the opportunity to visit and had the pleasure of meeting this handsome little guy, a gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus californicus).

This handsome fellow was found by humans in their barn when he was a young orphaned kit (or pup) and tried to raise him on their own. But the well-meaning humans found that raising a wild animal is something better left to professionals when the fox got sick after a few months. That's how the fox came to the Lindsay Wildlife Museum where he was rehabilitated. But because he had been orphaned so young he hadn't learned the ability to hunt in the wild from his parents, so he couldn't be released back into the wild. When injury or circumstances preclude the optimal release back into the wild that is the goal of most rehabilitated animals, Lindsay Wildlife Museum makes a permanent residence for the animal in their educational facility where the animal can become an ambassador for teaching people of all ages.

Mr. Gray Fox is one of the museum's most popular ambassador right now. He's only a couple of years old so he has a long career ahead of him (he'll most likely live to be 12-14 years old in captivity).

We sat and watched Mr. Gray Fox for about an hour as he excitedly anticipated feeding and "training" time (which we were also able to watch). We were fascinated by his beauty and memorized everything about him. It was the first time we had seen a gray fox, so Mr. Gray Fox was definitely doing his educational ambassador job with us.

A week after our educational visit, Hubby and I came home late in the evening from being out. We pulled into our driveway, and Hubby got out of the truck to retrieve our recycling, green waste and garbage cans from the curb. As he did so, he saw an animal that he mistook for a neighborhood cat at first. It crossed from our neighbor's yard across the street less than 10 yards from where Hubby stood. Because of our educational experience with Mr. Gray Fox at the Lindsay Wildlife Museum, Hubby realized that the animal wasn't a cat. It was a gray fox!

Hubby slowly walked to where the fox had headed into our next door neighbor's driveway and had disappeared from view behind our jasmine hedge. As Hubby rounded the corner of the hedge, the fox trotted back out toward him across our narrow country-lane-of-a-street, then zig-zagged back across to our side of the street again to our other next door neighbor's yard. All the while Hubby was standing in the middle of the fox's zig-zagging getting a perfect view of this incredible creature that humans rarely see the in wild because of their shy nocturnal habits.

When the sighting finally ended with the fox disappearing into the neighbor's yard, Hubby called out to me (I was still up by the house) in a loud whisper, "I just saw a gray fox!" He was so excited. And so was I when he recounted the sighting to me. I wish I hadn't missed it.

We are thrilled that after 11 years here at Rosehaven Cottage, we finally witnessed a gray fox living here. We hope it has frequented our own backyard wildlife habitat and not just our neighbors' yards. The gray fox is the only member of the canine family that climbs trees, and we have some of those for it to climb during the night-time hours when it hunts. Hopefully, it hunts in our garden and helps itself to some rodents. Our garden wildlife habitat is small by most standards but the "welcome mat" is always out.

A helpful tip from the Lindsay Wildlife Museum's "Living With Wildlife" information:

Prune trees and shrubs between October and December

In Northern California and other temperate areas of the United States, some birds and mammals begin nesting in January. The nesting season lasts into August. When you prune trees and shrubs during those months, check carefully for nests and be sure any babies are gone before you prune. The safest time to prune is between October and December.

Click here to learn more about how you can garden for wildlife

(Insider info: My garden and produce are healthier and happier

since I started gardening for wildlife)

Thank you, Mr. Jobs

2011-10-07T00:01:00.000-07:00

On January 24, 1984, this happened...

I never saw this unveiling. But only a few months later, my father's employer (one of the first purchasers of the Macintosh) allowed him to bring home one of the first Macs for long-term off-site use. That evening, there was a much smaller unveiling at our house as my siblings and I were introduced to the Macintosh for the first time.

My world changed that day.

At first I wondered where the C:\ was (otherwise called a "C prompt"). I wanted to enter basic DOS commands to make the computer do tricks like the ones I'd played with at school. I was frustrated and thought this "toy" wasn't worth much if I couldn't interact with it and make it loop with some simple BASIC code. This couldn't be a true computer if it didn't have that C:\. My younger siblings were less jaded than I and immediately loved the Mac. I took a few days to embrace it.

I didn't know that I was in a unique position. I was 17 years old--old enough to embrace technology but not so old that it intimidated me. I didn't realize that the little box without the C:\ was going to change my world (and everyone else's too). I was going to be one of only a relatively few of the world's population that straddle the transition between life before the Mac-led PC revolution and after.

I became an early adopter by default. When the first version of Microsoft Word was released (originally for the Mac), I learned it so I could work at temp jobs during my breaks from college. When the first version of Microsoft Excel was released, I did the same. When on one of those temp jobs an employer handed me a box and said, "No one has time to learn this. Can you?" I took it and taught myself the first version of Adobe PageMaker and entered the world of desktop publishing.

I graduated with a two-year degree in Commercial Art having received all my graphic design training without touching a single computer. My fellow students and I were probably one of the last groups to do that. I was learning how to do layout using "old school" techniques with t-squares and waxed paper bits. All the while I was creating with the Mac on the side knowing there was an easier way to do things.

It doesn't seem that long ago.

As I sat here today in front of my beautiful trusty iMac with its gorgeous display that lets me post-process digital photographs with the utmost color accuracy, I reflected on all the ways that Steve Jobs' vision of the Mac and his passion for pushing the limits of technology has touched my life. It was very hard to contain the emotions that welled within me from the gratitude I felt for someone being willing to tenaciously push forward despite multiple setbacks, the odds being stacked against him so many times, and the voices of critics on all sides.

Thank you Steve Jobs for continuing to believe in your passion. Thank you for following that inner drive that pushed you to see what others couldn't. I thank you with tears in my eyes and the fullest heart.

It is because of you, Mr. Jobs, that I can sit here in the comfort of my home studio and be a creative professional today. It is because of that little box without a C:\ that I can do things I couldn't have dreamed of doing back on that day in 1984.

My world changed again today... because my world had to say goodbye to you.

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

A visit to the Conservatory of Flowers... like a trip to Hawaii without the cost of airfare

2011-10-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

Sitting like a white palace in Golden Gate Park is a magnificent building--the Conservatory of Flowers. Constructed in 1878, it has been there for a very long time. The building strikes me as a "she" for many reasons. She has survived a major fire in 1883; the horrific San Francisco earthquake of 1906; another fire in 1918; and devastating windstorms of 100 mph shattered the 30,000 glass panes and the glass dome in the winter of 1995-1996.

I'd say that sort of tenacity has to come from a "she" wouldn't you agree?

She reminds me of many of the women in my family that lived in the San Francisco area at the same time the Conservatory of Flowers was built.

The above image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.

For years after the catastrophic winter of 1995-1996, the Conservatory sat in a state of restoration. Whenever I would be driving through Golden Gate park I would wistfully look at her and wonder what she looked like inside. Fortunately, after a masterful restoration she is open to the public once again. And like any elect lady, her true beauties are within.

Stepping into the first of five separate climate rooms, I was enveloped with the warm moist tropical air of the Lowland Tropics room housed under the main dome. It was chilly outside so my glasses and camera lens fogged up right away. But once everything got acclimated, it was time to explore.

Stepping into the next annex, I found myself in the cool humidity of the Highland Tropics where more than 700 of the 1000 known species of high-altitude orchids native to Central and South America happily reside.

Then stepping through another set of double doors I was enveloped by warm moist air even denser than in the Lowland Tropics room. The Aquatic Plants room showcases a massive pond in the center with a breathtaking array of aquatic tropical plants growing within it.

Some pale blushing anthuriums were one of many tropical flowers growing around the pond.

Tracking back through the rooms and exiting the Lowland Tropics room on the opposite side, I found myself in my favorite room--the Potted Plants Gallery. Fashioned after what garden historians have termed the "Victorian Pot Culture", the room made me feel as if I had stepped back in time 100 years.

Click here to read more about the Potted Plants Gallery

Hubby and I sat for quite some time in this gallery on the large curved bench at one end. It was peaceful and serene. It felt like a home away from home. During certain times of the year this gallery's air is pungent with citrus blossoms, but on this particular day the air was only laced with the aroma of fresh soil and the smell of green life... and it felt like home.

More facts about The Conservatory of Flowers (from Wikipedia):

The building remains the oldest in Golden Gate Park and is the oldest municipal wooden conservatory remaining in the United States
The central dome rises nearly 60 feet (18 m) high and the arch-shaped symmetrical wings extending from it on either side make up 240 feet (73 m) in overall length
Physical evidence suggests that the Conservatory of Flowers was constructed originally of redwood milled on the West Coast

More wisdom from the feline ancients...

2011-09-26T17:38:00.000-07:00

In a not-so-far-distant land...

2011-09-18T23:54:00.000-07:00

On the edge of a very big city called San Francisco, is a misty magical forest.

And in the middle of the misty magical forest is a beautiful palace.

The palace is guarded by a lion.

The lion lies at the palace gates every day

and gazes out beyond the misty forest to the sea and the hills beyond the sea.

Through the mist, the hills on the other side of the sea

appear to be giant's toes dabbling in the waters.

The old lion thinks he is guarding the palace from the giant...

and no one tells the lion otherwise.

Just inside the palace gates,

one of the world's greatest thinkers sits and thinks very sage thoughts.

Inside the palace live many important people.

Courtiers converse with grand dames of elegance and refinement.

Queens grace the halls wearing their royal jewels and finery.

And despite the lion guarding the palace from giants that will never invade,

The world's greatest thinker pondering the universe,

And all the royalty walking and conversing with utmost refinement...

The palace cat must still endure all manner of indignities

at the sticky fur-grabbing hands of the palace tot.

All photos taken

at the Palace of the Legion of Honor museum of art

in San Francisco, California

Have you ever seen an Egyptian mummy smiling?

2011-09-14T12:11:00.000-07:00

I hadn't... until I saw this one at the Legion of Honor art museum in San Francisco.

Learning from Georges Seurat about the brushstrokes of life

2011-09-07T11:21:00.000-07:00

Hubby surprised me by taking an extra day off after the long Labor Day weekend and suggested we go into the city and visit the Legion of Honor, an art museum permanently housing some of the most famous pieces of art of all time. I was thrilled! It felt like we were playing hooky for the day and going to see great art just like Ferris Bueller did in the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

And like Ferris and his friends in the film, we had the choice experience of viewing an original painting by Georges Seurat. Thankfully, photography is allowed in the permanent collections so I could capture the experience of seeing a Seurat up close.

Each brushstroke is so beautiful when examined at close range. Some are brilliant colors with texture and vibrance. From this perspective each can be seen individually.

Taking a step or two back, the detail of each brushstroke recedes while the interplay of each brushstroke with its adjacent neighbors becomes more apparent.

Another few steps back, and the brushstrokes stop looking like brushstrokes. Then they seem to be dots that make up larger forms.

Finally, at a distance the individual dots aren't even apparent as the eye sees the whole picture of forms, shadows and highlights that Seurat created with thousands of small brushstrokes of many colors.

In that quiet gallery, many thoughts ran through my head...

Life is made up of moments, each like a tiny brushstroke with its own unique texture, brilliance, vibrance and color. Each relationship that influences my life, good and bad, adds a brushstroke with special nuances. Each experience I go through, good and bad, adds a brushstroke.

In Seurat's painting, muted, dark, or grey brushstrokes are necessary to create dimension, to accent the highlights or to anchor a form. Not every brushstroke can be a brilliant and vibrant color.

The dark and grey times in my life are like the dark and grey brushstrokes.

If I over focus on one of those dark or grey brushstrokes, I miss seeing how that one brushstroke fits into the greater whole of my life--how it is necessary in order to create the shapes and compositions that make up who I am.

Not every experience or relationship in my life can be brilliant and vibrant. Some must be muted. Some must have hints of grey. And some must be dark. I need them to give my character dimension. I need them to accent the high points because I cannot know the sweet without the bitter. I need them to anchor my soul in the faith which is born from affliction.

Wisdom from the ancient cat philosopher, Cat-fuscius

2011-09-01T18:12:00.000-07:00

Lemons... like summer hanging on a tree

2011-08-23T15:43:00.000-07:00

Letting go of old notions makes room for new ideas to hop on board

2011-08-19T12:27:00.000-07:00

As I post-processed this photo from the archives, this idiom formed in my mind. It sums up a lot of what I've been processing over the past few months. My second blog post I wrote on this blog 4 years ago was about the ferris wheel of my brain where I said:

"I have this process in my brain that I like to envision as a ferris wheel--each bucket of the ferris wheel containing an idea that I need to process and mull over."

The wheel rotates around so I can mentally work on each bucket for a time and then move on to the next. Each bucket in this ferris wheel in my head holds on to its "occupant" until I've revisited the idea enough to find a solution sufficient enough in my estimation to let the idea disembark and go into the area of my brain where things of those nature reside.

Now personal epiphany time...

My mental ferris wheel is almost always full, but if it's always full, where do new ideas go? Like eager kids at a carnival, do these new ideas stand in a proverbial line waiting and waiting for their turn on the ferris wheel... a turn that never comes because I'm holding on to riders in the buckets after they've occupied them for far too long when said "occupants" really need to get off the ride and move on?

If I expand my view this goes far beyond old notions and ideas. It can also include gripes, resentments and even views of myself. In the real world, a ticket to ride a ferris wheel is for a specified and finite period of time. So why do these mental riders get to ride on my ferris wheel longer than their tickets should allow?

Hmm... It makes me want to free up some buckets.

Watching goldfish play on an August afternoon

2011-08-16T18:42:00.000-07:00

Today I stood at the pond's edge
Under the shade of the lemon tree
Watching orange fish dart in the water
From the shade of one lily pad to the next.

As the waterfall burbled
The fish at play kept me transfixed.
Standing still
The hot August day didn't feel quite so hot.

A sleepy garden kitty spotted me,
Left her shady slumber spot
Traversing each patch of shade between her and me
To greet me and welcome me to her world for today.

I lost track of time.
I don't know how long I watched the fish
From my shady vantage point.
But as I left it to walk back to the house
I could smell the heat of summer
Radiating from my skin and clothes.

A twilight walk at the marina on a golden August evening

2011-08-09T14:58:00.000-07:00

As the sun slips down behind the hills to the west,
geese fly low over the water
honking as they slip home to their nests.

The water laps quietly against the rocks of the shoreline
gently bobbing the boats in their berths.

Ducks and geese get a bedtime snack
from a family's offerings of bread crumbs and bits.

Lady ducks glide over water that shines like a rippled mirror.

The oak-dappled hills are ready to stand guard over our sleepy town
and the wetlands that are ready for the restfulness of night.

Goodbye sun. We will see you tomorrow.

Chip... chip... chip... goes the little chick until it breaks free from the egg

2011-08-08T13:43:00.000-07:00

Ever have a span of a couple of days where there's a lot of deep thoughts on your mind? That's been me for the past weekend--a combination of soul searching, self-analysis, meditation and prayer... heavy stuff.

Yesterday evening as Hubby and I sat watching a show we had on the dvr, I had an epiphany. Fortunately, Hubby is good at pausing shows when I say, "Can you pause it?" and is wonderful at listening to me as I vocalize a cascade of jumbled thoughts that can't seem to find a focus until I've spoken them.

My epiphany was the realization that up until last January, I've spent my entire adult life (and most of my teen years) trapped by a disease. That concept sunk in hard.

I could see myself like a little baby chick chipping away from the inside of an egg.

Chip... chip... chip...

And suddenly I find myself a wet little chick with my head and body spilling out of the egg that took so long to break through. I feel wobbly. I feel weak. I feel vulnerable. But I feel free.

Freedom is something so new I don't know quite what to do with myself. My dream for so long was to finally be done with chipping through that eggshell... now that the eggshell lays behind me, I'm kind of stumped for a dream... a plan... some goals.

In the past, I've tried to define myself with titles based on what diversions I'm interested in at that given moment--artist, photographer, gardener. But I've flitted so much from one interest and pursuit to another over the years, those close to me have wearied of the long list of titles I've accumulated.

Yesterday, I realized the reason for my flitting is because no one thing was really my dream as in "I've always dreamed of... fill in the blank". They were really coping mechanisms to get through the rough things I was dealing with at the time. The days of "when I grow up I want to be..." were so long ago I've forgotten what I would say. The only real dream I really remember wanting more than anything was to find my soul mate. I found him. And fortunately he feels the same about me as I feel about him. *grin*

I'm just a funny looking little wet chick with my only dreams being getting my feathers to dry and my legs to not wobble. Maybe that's a good dream for the time being considering how long it took to break out of that blasted eggshell.

Seems like more and more every day is a Shania Twain "Today Is Your Day" kind of day...

Thanks Shania for writing this inspired song!

The wait is finally over... the hibiscus bloomed

2011-08-05T11:39:00.002-07:00

Two summers ago I bought this hibiscus, potted it and placed it in a sheltered area of the garden. It did well until the frosts of December and January hit.

I thought I'd lost it.

Over the next year, I kept it alive until deciding to relocate it. It came into the garage over last winter and then took up residence on the deck in a part-sun location right outside the back door.

I've anxiously awaited the day when it would finally bloom again. I've watched it grow lots of new greenery all spring and summer. Then finally a couple of weeks ago I noticed it was putting out buds--at least a dozen. I've been waiting impatiently for the first to bloom so I could see the lovely tropical blossoms again (the reason why I bought the unique variety in the first place).

This morning was the morning that my long anticipation was finally rewarded. It is beautiful!

Leaving some plums for the scrub jays to eat

2011-08-02T16:10:00.000-07:00

Our one Santa Rosa plum tree produced a bumper crop this year. Almost every evening last week, we went out and harvested plums filling 5-gallon buckets with them--six in all. As we harvested, I also pruned. This species of plum tree is such a fast grower that it sometimes needs a post-harvest haircut. This year it needed one desperately after having branches laden with plums.

Even though I had a long pole lopper for pruning the branches high up (Hubby called me "Cindy Lopper"), there were some plums that we just couldn't reach. So those plums get left on the tree for the birds.

The scrub jays particularly like to hop around in the branches pecking at the juicy sweet plums. They are having quite a feast this year. I'm happy to provide them with such a yummy treat.

Now the back garden has huge piles of plum branches laying about. They have to dry out so we can send them through the chipper and make them into mulch. Hopefully, those piles of branches will be fun for some other critter.

Here's what happened to the Vidalia onion that was FedEx'ed from Georgia

2011-07-28T21:23:00.000-07:00

Click here if you haven't read about how the mongo-sized Vidalia came to Rosehaven Cottage

We debated... should the onion be made into onion rings or should they become a wonderful pile of caramelized onion goodness. Friends put in their votes. We capitulated. In the end, two lovely steaks were pulled from the freezer to thaw and this bad boy was given the honor of being caramelized by the very talented Chef Hubby.

As he prepped and cooked, Chef Hubby took photos with his iPhone, so I could share them here on the blog.

I am happy to report that my steak was smothered with a pile of all that onion-y goodness and that Vidalia onion lived up to its reputation. Georgia can be proud.

Now a little bird from Texas tells me there's an onion from the Lonestar State that rivals the Vidalia--the Noonday onion. I'm thinking the Texan may be right. My Grampy was from Texas and said the onions were so sweet he'd eat them like apples. I just gotta get my hands on one to find out.

Chapter 12: The gift of a kitchen sink

2011-07-27T00:01:00.000-07:00

Click here to start at the beginning of the story of how Rosehaven Cottage came to be

Click on any image view it larger and read the captions easier

As our first Christmas in the house approached, we settled into our routine of roughing it. We had a warm bed in the larger of two bedrooms downstairs. We had a toilet and tiny sink vanity upstairs. We had a bathtub and shower downstairs.

We had no kitchen sink anywhere.

When we had to use “the facilities”, we would trek upstairs to use the toilet up there. When we showered, we gritted out teeth and braved the chilly December air coming through the cracks in the subfloor under the newly installed bathtub and got in and out as soon as possible. When we had to clean a dish or utensil on the odd day we didn’t get take-out or go to a restaurant, we cleaned them in a small plastic bin in the bathtub. It reminded me a lot of camping.

I had always been one to go all out for the holidays—decorating my current abode and filling the air with the smells of Christmas goodies. I figured I could still do a little decorating to make it feel like Christmas. That would have to suffice since we didn’t have a kitchen sink, let alone a clean space to roll out cookie dough. And since both of us were traumatized by the bathroom-plumbing incident, plumbing the kitchen sink wasn’t going to happen any time soon.

One Sunday only a couple of weeks before Christmas, I was sitting in the women's Relief Society meeting at church and the women were having a discussion about Christmas traditions. We were asked to share our Christmas traditions aloud. I sat there listening to wonderful suggestions. All of them sounded lovely—traditions I wanted to incorporate into our lives to make the season merry. But they all sounded so unattainable from the place we were at with the house.

I finally raised my hand and shared, “Every year for as long as I can remember, I’ve found joy in the Christmas tradition of baking cookies and making homemade fudge or English toffee from the recipe my mom had always used. But this year is different. I don’t even have a kitchen sink. So I’m learning that I have to find joy in the season in other ways that are within me. This year, I’m learning a valuable lesson about what the true meaning of Christmas really is.”

After the meeting, a newfound friend approached me and said, “If you really want to bake Christmas cookies, I have a wonderful kitchen with a big island that’s great for making cookies. You are welcome to come over any time and bake as much as you want.”

I was very touched by her thoughtfulness. Even though I couldn’t imagine myself taking her up on the offer, the fact that she had been willing to open up her home to me was gift enough.

Only a day or so went by, and we got a phone call from one of the men in our church congregation. He told us that his wife had been in the Relief Society meeting when I had made my comment. He then said, “You need a kitchen sink. I’m going to come over and install it for you. You will have a kitchen sink by Christmas.”

His blunt no-nonsense approach left us little room to object. Had he not said it in the way he had, Hubby probably would have simply said, “Oh thanks for the offer. We’ll call you when we’re ready,” and then let it go, never to take the man up on his generous offer. I think the man knew that, and he knew exactly how to approach the situation so he could get in to install that sink. He was bold. He was brief. And he meant business. He got Brent to commit to a day later in the week when the installation could happen.

Later in the week, we had another newfound friend (and his wife) in our home. In one evening he installed the kitchen sink and fitted all the plumbing while his wife and I sat in the living room and chatted to get to know one another. In a few short hours, we had a running kitchen sink instead of a hole in the countertop. It was the best Christmas present anyone could have given us—running water in our kitchen.

That Christmas, I learned so much from the example of that couple. I learned what it really means to have a heart willing to serve one’s fellowman. Many people feel charitable at Christmastime. Often the benefactors of that charitable sentiment are bell-ringing Santa’s outside department stores or toy/food drives sponsored by local fire departments. The people who truly benefit from our charity are often faceless and far removed from us. That Christmas in 2000, I realized that not many of us go the extra step of seeking out and finding benefactors personally, and then taking the steps to serve them in the way they need it most.

In the past decade, I haven’t been able to live up to the example of the stellar couple that gave us the best Christmas gift we've ever received, but the bar they've set has me I’m always looking to try.

A mongo-sized Vidalia onion Fed-Ex'ed all the way from Georgia

2011-07-25T12:43:00.000-07:00

Hubby has business colleagues that are located in Georgia, and while chatting with one recently he mentioned that we get Vidalia onions all the way out here on the West Coast in California. He then added the caveat that they're the best and sweetest onions we can buy. His colleague was surprised that Georgia's produce makes it all the way out here.

A few days later, an unexpected FedEx box came to Hubby's office addressed to him with a return address from Georgia. Inside the box Hubby found a beautiful assortment of Vidalia's--one being the biggest onion he has ever seen. He was giddy with laughter when he called me mid-day to tell me about his surprise package. Only a true foodie would do that.

When he came home later that day, I found he wasn't exaggerating about the size of the onion. He doesn't exaggerate so I expected it to be big, but not that big. We put it up next to the largest onion we had from our recent trip to buy produce and it dwarfed it (see photo above).

Then I put it next to a head of elephant garlic and the Vidalia's size was even more pronounced (see photo above). It was so striking the Vidalia deserved it's own photo shoot (hence the photos in this post).

Now like every onion in our kitchen, it sits in the onion bowl waiting to be cooked up into something super yummy in the hands of my skillful and talented Hubby. He's thinking it'll become homemade onion rings. I'm thinking it might become a lovely pile of aromatic caramelized goodness to be served with chicken or beef. Regardless, I know it will be yummy and live up to the reputation the Vidalia onion has in this household.

My tomato experiment: Yesterday's harvest of our weird and whacky tomatoes

2011-07-22T12:59:00.000-07:00

I don't do well growing tomatoes from seed so when it comes time to put some in I go to our local nursery and buy a couple of cell packs of tomato seedlings with 6 plants in each. This year I bought a cell pack of roma tomatoes and a cell pack of cherry tomatoes.

I then conducted my own not-so-scientific experiment.

I planted one each of the plants in clay pots on our deck with morning shade and full afternoon sun in super-fancy-schmancy Miracle-Gro soil that's supposed to produce outstanding veggies. Flanked by separate pots of chives, Italian parsley and basil I expected these plants to do very well with the full sun all afternoon to sunset and the influence of the herbs around them.

I planted a couple more plants down in the ground off the edge of our deck with the same exposure as the pots. I built up a funky little planter around them from scrap concrete blocks (a former mow strip) and put some of the Miracle-Gro soil on top. A week or so later I mulched with some donated rabbit droppings and alfalfa as well as chipped branches from our own yard. I anticipated the green growth might bolt because of the added nitrogen from the mulch but figured it would be a good part of the experiment anyway.

I planted two of the plants in the front garden where mostly roses grow. I have a 4x8 foot planter box in front of our living room window that gets full morning sun from dawn until around 1 or 2 pm then there's shade for the rest of the day from the house. The soil in the planter box is just cheapy top soil from WalMart that we had leftover from another project and had dumped in there and let sit for a season until we planted something in it. I also planted a couple of parsley plants in between the two tomato plants that were at opposite ends of the large planter. I anticipated these plants would do poorly but I wanted them to go into the ground anyway.

Each of the plants, regardless of location, got their own dripper on the drip mist system for watering 15 minutes every morning at a slow drip.

None of my plants were treated with pesticide or herbicide. There isn't any need with companion planting because the good bugs and birds eat the bad bugs, and the proximity to tomato-friendly companion plants takes care of the rest.

Results of my not-so-scientific experiment

The two plants in pots haven't grown larger than about 10 inches high. Their leaves are sickly looking like both plants are on the verge of kicking the bucket. Both produced fruit true to their labeling. The romas (pictured above and below) were the expected size for that variety while the cherry tomatoes were a little on the small side. I was just happy the plants produced anything considering what they've looked like.

The two plants in the ground below the edge of the deck are pretty spindly with tiny leaves but lots of blooms and are about 2 feet high. The fruit is neither a cherry tomato nor a roma. Instead the fruit is shaped like a roma but is smaller than even the smallest grape. Some fruit is smaller than my pinky fingernail with most fruit being the size of my thumbnail.

The two plants in the front planter box were the biggest shocker. The plants are 3 feet high and cover the entire 4x8 foot box. I've had to cut trunks back that were invading the front porch and beginning to block the front door. The size of the trunks are larger in circumference than my pinky finger! The leaves are big and lush as well. I would expect plants with so much energy going to greenery to not produce blooms or fruit. But these plants have been prolific bloomers and were the first ones to produce ripe fruit over a month earlier than the others in back. Like the plants in the ground in back, the fruit is oddly neither roma or cherry but a weird hybrid of the two.

I've spoken to other gardeners in our area that have said they've had some weird behavior with their tomatoes this year because of our wet spring, unseasonable June rain and cooler than normal temps. I feel better knowing I'm not alone. It was just nice to finally go out and get a harvest yesterday that consisted of more than just a handful of tiny tomato baubles. It's such a weird year for growing tomatoes.

Chapter 11: The birth of our kitchen

2011-07-18T14:31:00.000-07:00

Click here to start at the beginning of the story of how Rosehaven Cottage came to be

Click on any image view it larger and read the captions easier

Our "cave" of a kitchen before remodeling

Like everything else in the remodeling of our house, the kitchen had to be done on a very tight budget with as little money as possible. We tackled the issue of a normally costly kitchen installation three ways.

The first way to cut costs was to purchase unassembled kitchen cabinets and do the assembly ourselves on site. The second way to cut costs was to install the kitchen cabinets ourselves. The third way to cut costs even further was for us to build the countertops ourselves and then tile them ourselves.

Naiveté is such a beautiful thing sometimes. We didn’t have any experience doing any of the aforementioned work. But we had our handy-dandy Home Improvement 1-2-3 book from Home Depot with straightforward directions and illustrations, so we thought, “How hard can it be?”

The first thing we bought was a ready-made layout kit made by the manufacturer of the cabinets we were going to purchase. It included a large page with a layout grid as well as sheets of various assorted stickers in perfect scale to the grid. The idea was to lay out the entire space using the provided stickers for walls, doors and windows. Then using the stickers for all the standard-sized cabinets for that manufacturer, you were supposed to lay out the kitchen (including standard-sized stickers for appliances). Once the layout was to your liking, you could go to Home Depot and buy the cabinets using the product numbers on each sticker in your layout.

So that’s what I did.

I’ve been drawing floor plans for fun since I was 8 or 9 years old when I had aspirations of becoming an architect when I grew up. Laying out the floor plan of our kitchen using the sticker kit was a real treat for me. I figured out exactly what cabinets could fit and what configuration was the best for the diminutive space.

After I was done, we went and bought the whole kit and caboodle of various cabinet kits and doors. We had to place an order because they didn’t have them in stock. Our order came in, we got all the boxes home and, before we started to assemble the cabinets, we took the time to watch the DIY instructional video that had come with them. It was dry and boring, but we didn’t want to do anything wrong so we watched it all the way through. Over and over the monotone narrator would instruct how to construct the box that would become cabinets using cams and bolts. Again and again he would warn, “Do not tighten at this time”. By the end of the video, the only thing we really remembered was “do no tighten at this time”.

The upper cabinets had to go in first. Hubby built what is called a “dead man”—essentially a pair of 2x4’s in a T formation to prop under the bottom edge of a cabinet while attaching the cabinet to the wall. Hubby also installed a temporary leveling board on the first wall to aid in the process.

It was my job to put together the cabinets. I love puzzles and the assembly of cabinets (or furniture… even IKEA furniture) feels like putting together a puzzle to me, so I enjoyed it.

One by one each upper cabinet went up on the first wall until we were ready to begin hanging the cabinets on the opposite wall of what would be a galley-style kitchen layout. With each cabinet installation, we learned how to do it a little more efficiently and little faster.

After the upper cabinets were in, it was time to put in the base cabinets. Base cabinets are bit trickier in an old house with unlevel floors because you can’t simply draw a level line on the wall and hang them. Each cabinet has to be leveled independently with shims (triangular pieces of wood). Shimming made the process go slower than hanging the upper cabinets. But we managed to complete that too.

Once all the base cabinets were in, we could finally lay down a real floor on top of the plywood underlayment that had been our floor surface up to that point. We chose a vinyl composite tile (exactly like commercial floors) for its vintage look as well as its durability as we knew that during the rest of the phases of construction that the kitchen floor would have to survive a lot. The tiles (made by Armstrong) had to be installed using a caustic smelling runny adhesive that came in large buckets. The adhesive had to be troweled on with a specific toothed trowel, left to sit for a couple of minutes, and then the tile could be set on it. We learned to do workable patches of adhesive instead of trying to trowel large areas. We found ourselves laughing as we repeatedly got hands and shoes stuck on the adhesive because it was just like Wile E. Coyote in the old Warner Brothers Roadrunner cartoons with his “Acme glue” getting stuck on the railroad tracks right before a train bears down on him. We laughed as we joked about the possibility of a train barreling through our kitchen while we were stuck to the floor.

Once the floor tiles were all in place, we were able to move the appliances into their proper “homes” in the kitchen and free up much-needed floor space where they had resided after being delivered earlier than we were ready for them. I cannot express how wonderful it was to hook up the water line to the refrigerator and plug it in. The hum of an operating refrigerator was one of the best sounds in the world. We could finally keep food at the house because we could refrigerate it. And we had filtered and chilled water on tap! I never thought I would appreciate having a refrigerator so much. I was (and still am) reminded of how blessed I am to live where I can have this amazing luxury.

The next phase of the installation of the kitchen was the construction of the countertops. The original countertops had been tile, so we decided that we would stay true to the era of the house and put in tile. Our archangel in overalls had gone back to university so we were on our own with this tiling job. Turning to our handy-dandy home improvement books again, we read up on how to build tile-ready countertops. Again, naiveté was a blessing. We dove right in and built the plywood underlayment on all the base cabinets and then, working as a team, we tiled the countertops the way we had seen my brother tile our shower. We borrowed Josh’s tile saw he had used to tile our bathroom, and Hubby did the cutting while I did the measuring and laying of the tiles. I used the smallest tile spacers I could find so the grout lines would be the smallest I could make them. Then I went back in and grouted using a technique I came up with on my own. I put the grout in a large Ziploc bag and twisted it down like a cake decorating or pastry bag. I cut the tip off the Ziploc and piped the grout into the fine 1/16” grout lines before pressing the grout in with a grout paddle followed by a wipe down with a wet sponge. It worked! The grout has lasted for almost 11 years and is pretty easy to clean compared to wide grout lines.

We bought a beautiful cast iron Kohler sink, but because of the traumatic plumbing incident in the bathroom, the kitchen sink sat on the floor uninstalled. We were just so thrilled to have a fridge and stove we were willing to do dishes in the bathtub, especially if it meant preventing a fiasco like the flooding of the bathroom.

Our small pond makes for sweet strawberries

2011-07-14T12:28:00.001-07:00

There are certain nooks in my garden where strawberries grow very well. All those nooks are located very close to the pond so it must have something to do with the environmental influence of the water. I've tried to grow the strawberries only 20 feet away with horrible results. But when I've transplanted the plants that are struggling to a place by the pond, they flourish. It's amazing how much the proximity to the water affects them.

The interesting thing is our pond isn't large. It's not very deep either--less than 3 feet in the deepest spots. Our petite lot is only 50 feet wide so nothing can really be that large. The pond maybe holds 1200 gallons but I think that's a generous estimate.

It is fascinating to me that something so relatively diminutive like our pond has such a profound influence on the growth of something else like the strawberry plants and their fruit.

I think people are like our pond. In the overall view of the world and universe, each person is so small. But I've seen someone that is relatively diminutive have a profound effect on those within their sphere of influence. And then those that have benefitted from that seemingly small influence go on to produce families, homes, creations and spheres of influence that are sweet and wonderful fruits, just like my strawberries.

And like the pond, those influential individuals do what they do usually without any knowledge of the sweetness they brought into being. They just live their lives, sharing their essence. How fortunate we are to have them in our lives.

Another lesson learned from nature: even hummingbirds can look chubby in photos

2011-07-12T13:57:00.000-07:00

My photogenic hummingbird friend was completely unaware that she was the focus of my photo shoot as she sipped nectar from the blossoms of the Eureka lemon. I liked the back-lighting effect from the late evening summer sun, so I turned on my speed shutter and snapped away.

It wasn't until I got back in the studio to post-process the photos on the computer that I made an interesting discovery. Look at the adorable shot I managed to catch as she flew away...

I had to giggle. The graceful sleek little hummingbird looks like she has a backside that's quite chubby. I know she really doesn't. But the angle of the photo makes her look like she does.

A valuable lesson for those of us that hate to see ourselves in photos... photos don't necessarily reflect reality. They can even make a hummingbird have a "bad side".

Our backyard wildlife habitat: The dragonflies of summer

2011-07-07T13:47:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things about summer is the arrival of the dragonflies. They grace us with their presence until early autumn and then we don't get to see them again until the following summer.

Helpful and hospitable guests, dragonflies eat mosquitoes and gnats on the wing. On warm summer evenings right before sunset, if I look up I can see them zipping back and forth over the garden forming a canopy of sorts. Like our own tiny fleet of jet-fighters, they are waging and winning a war against the bugs we don't want and I rarely get bit by mosquitoes when the dragonflies are on patrol.

Dragonflies and damselflies (a smaller cousin) like water sources, so they love our pond. They also like to have foliage that hangs over the water's edge. The large lily pads in our pond serve as landing pads for females to lay their eggs by hanging their tails over the edge of the pads into the pond water.

Because our pond is kept chemical-free, dragonfly and damselfly eggs that get laid in the water eventually hatch into nymphs that burrow in the silt and sediment at the bottom of the pond to grow until they're big enough to go through metamorphosis and get their wings. Then they join their cousins that come from other nearby water sources to fly above our pond during the warm summer days and evenings.

This is one of those seasonal cycles of life that I only discovered since building our garden so it was wildlife-friendly. And the dragonflies of summer are something I have grown to love and cherish. I can't imagine summer without them now.

Click here to find out more about how you can garden for wildlife

Female Anna's Hummingbird on lemon tree

2011-06-25T13:02:00.000-07:00

Taking a break between sips of sweet nectar out of the lemon blossoms on our Eureka lemon tree, this little gal was the perfect model.

New pollinators visited the garden and heralded the official arrival of Summer

2011-06-22T12:49:00.000-07:00

I was standing outside in the late evening the day before the official arrival of Summer, and I noticed some activity on a lone volunteer garlic bloom growing at the edge of the pond. I quickly got my camera, installed my new zoom lens and made my way back out to garden to try and take some shots.

The garlic bloom was covered in little golden specks of pollen. Some honeybees were gathering sweetness from the tiny flowers while other honeybees were gathering water a few feet away on the rock of the pond waterfall.

I focused my attention on the garlic blossom again. Then I saw her!

I had never seen this garden visitor before. I didn't know what she was (or that she was a SHE) until I took my shots back in to the computer and did some quick internet hunting.

She is a female Valley Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa varipuncta)!

The honeybees moved aside and continued gathering while their much larger cousin did her share of gathering. I noticed she had a sister that was buzzing around the other flowers in the vicinity. When the first female I saw would buzz away to check out the other flowers, the honeybees would go back to gathering from the spots they had vacated while she was there.

Ms. Valley Carpenter Bee came back around and seemed to be particularly smitten with the nearby Japanese Water Iris. I didn't think the iris were a favorite of pollinators but I was wrong.

Ms. Valley Carpenter Bee loved the welcoming throats of the iris bloom because she could fit her whole round fat body inside without much effort.

I was also surprised to discover later that the Valley Carpenter Bee is usually in Southern California and in the Central Valley of California (the large flat topography running vertically through the center of our state). I don't know why these two girls are so far from "home" close to the waters of the San Francisco Bay, but I'm happy they came for a visit so I could see them for the first time.

And, ironically, this week just happens to be National Pollinator Week. Maybe the girls were doing a special publicity tour?

Sometimes food is so beautiful...

2011-06-20T18:09:00.000-07:00

... I have to photograph it before I eat it

Thank you Kim Klassen for the use of two of your free textures ("Not Too Shabby" and "Love")

The heat of summer has finally arrived

2011-06-17T15:57:00.000-07:00

I think it's finally decided to be summer around here. We've had an unseasonably wet and cool May and June. Finally, the heat decided to arrive this week with temps hovering around 85-91F (29-32C).

The only problem is that with the heat comes the western sun shining in my southwest facing studio windows in the late afternoon and evening. Since I don't have air conditioning this becomes a problem. Like every summer, I'm having to find a way to shift my creative clock so I feel inspired at different times of the day other than when the sun is streaming in my window.

It seems counter intuitive really. Artists and photographers love natural light. But when heat comes with that light it changes my priorities.

Thankfully, it cools off after the sun sets when gentle breezes blow in off the water of the San Francisco Bay. Then I can open my studio windows, air out the stuffiness and start creating again.

Two views of a purple Japanese Water Iris

2011-06-13T13:56:00.000-07:00

I think many people wonder why so many of my photographs and paintings feature flowers. I discovered the 20th century artist Georgia O'Keefe when I was an Art History major at Mills College in the early 1990's. Her floral work moved me and intrigued me. I felt myself connecting with the way she was viewing and representing the flowers in her work.

Georgia O'Keefe said:

"Nobody sees a flower, really, it is so small. We haven't time - and to see takes time like to have a friend takes time.

"If I could paint the flower exactly as I see it no one would see what I see because I would paint it small like the flower is small. So I said to myself - I'll paint what I see - what the flower is to me but I'll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it - I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers."

"I decided that if I could paint that flower in a huge scale, you could not ignore its beauty."

"When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not."

Read more quotes by clicking here

Her words could be my own. The small and subtle details of the many flowers that grace this earth have drawn me in since I was a small child. And finding a way to celebrate what I see in a flower through my art and photography has been one of my strongest creative motivations both before and after my discovery of Georgia O'Keefe.

The two images I've included in this post are a perfect example of what I mean. Below, is a photograph I took last week of one of the Japanese Water Iris that grows and blooms at the pond's edge in the back garden here at Rosehaven Cottage.

This shot is "SOOC" or straight out of the camera. That means that I haven't done any digital editing to it once I imported it into my computer from my camera. I just added a watermark and that's it.

The image at the beginning of this post is the same photo except I cropped it digitally after I imported it into my computer from my camera. It's the same photo of the same flower but looks at what you see now:

Because the flower doesn't automatically register in your mind as, "Oh, that's just a flower", your eye can pay attention to the details that your mind would gloss over otherwise.

The pearlescent sparkles on the petal of the iris become evident. It's a beautiful detail on most iris petals that is often missed.
The edges of the petals become more obvious and the forms they create become more striking especially against the darker background that creates the negative space in the composition of the photo.
Little details like the curl of a petal become strikingly prominent and make your eye follow their fluid flowing lines. Your eye moves through the composition differently because of it.
The small patch of yellow in the throat of the iris is now the central focus of the photo. Against the purples of the rest of the petal, it becomes an example of a perfect pairing of complementary colors (colors that sit opposite one another on the basic color wheel). Yellow and purples are complementary colors. The combination of red and green is another one. And the pairing of blue and orange is yet another. Complementary color pairings are very pleasing to the eye. And nature is demonstrating this with this flower.
Nature's artistry is also seen in the beautiful veining of the petals. The lines create symmetry, flow and interest in the photo.

The flower is no longer just a flower... it is a work of art that made you look more carefully. That is why there are so many flowers in my work. Yes, I love flowers, but what I truly love are their artful details.

A lizard named Scott: How he and his buddies help me grow strawberries, oranges and tomatoes

2011-06-10T00:01:00.000-07:00

We have a number of lizards that live in the nooks and crevices of our garden. Over the last few years I've built raised planters made out of chunks of concrete that needed to be re-purposed (it was that or send it all to the landfill). The planters were built with the lizards in mind because the planters offer lots of "hide-y holes" to get out of the rain but are also great for sunbathing (something lizards LOVE to do). I also have various sized rocks stacked around the edges of the pond I dug. The lizards like those too because they can sunbathe close to the water and snatch bugs that come by.

If I walk through the garden with calmness, lightly treading the paths, I can often catch a lizard sunning itself like the one pictured above. The little guy (or gal) is a Coast Range Fence Lizard Sceloporus occidentalis bocourtii that is native to our part of California.

During the summer and into September, I will often see very tiny little lizards scurrying about. Those are the babies that have recently hatched. They are less timid than the adults and will often let me get very close to snap a photo of them, sometimes cocking their head in curiosity as I approach.

I love having the lizards as part of my garden. Why? Because these lizards eat lots of small bugs including crickets, spiders, ticks and scorpions. The lizards live in the raised planters that my citrus trees are planted in as well as my strawberries, tomatoes and other seasonal veggies. They eat the bugs and I get to grow pesticide-free produce. It's a perfect partnership!

And you may be wondering why the lizard is named Scott... well... when I showed this photo to Hubby he said, "That lizard looks like a Scott". That's why.

Click here to find out how YOU can create
a wildlife-friendly veggie and fruit garden
so you can grow your produce organically
The NWF will show you how!

Click here to read more about the lizards at Rosehaven Cottage

The ladybugs in my lavender

2011-06-08T15:25:00.000-07:00

A beautiful phenomenon has happened in my garden... a phenomenon that's taken quite some time to come to fruition.

Over the last 10 years, I've made a conscious effort to transition away from using garden chemicals (particularly pesticides and fungicides) and tried more organic practices like companion planting.

After a year or two, I incorporated the necessary elements to be certified as a backyard wildlife habitat with the National Wildlife Federation--food sources, water sources, cover and places to raise young. Being a backyard wildlife habitat isn't about turning one's garden into a zoo or safari refuge. It's more about providing a place where smaller critters like birds can live, eat and visit. I had a feeling deep down inside that if I welcomed them, they would benefit my garden--even my fruit and vegetable gardens. We don't have a big yard, but it didn't matter. Even with our lot only 50 feet wide and much of it taken up with the house, as long as I provided the four basic elements I trusted the critters would come.

The first couple of years were hard as the garden took time to regain the natural balance that had been lost from not being cared for before I came here. Then I started to notice a shift. It was subtle at first but it was noticeable. I noticed beneficial insects and birds buzzing and flitting around the garden eating the bugs that would damage my produce (like grasshoppers) or make my life miserable (like mosquitoes). Flycatchers like the Black Phoebe, Anna's hummingbirds, dragonflies, and preying mantis all showed up on their own very early after I got the four elements installed in the garden. Then lizards and Pacific tree frogs followed over time.

But I really wanted ladybugs.

I planted a number of rosebushes in the front garden and everyone knows they are a target for aphids. I stuck to my resolve not to use pesticides on the aphids and simply waited. I planted some fennel (not knowing it grows up to 20 feet tall in our climate) and that attracted a few ladybugs that wandered over to the roses to dine on the aphids. Then tiny little birds called bushtits regularly showed up in small flocks to light on the rosebushes and pick aphids off. Even Bullock's Orioles came down from their usually lofty perches to dine amidst the roses.

The ladybug population was still light, but I had hope the ladybug population would continue to grow on its own without any help from me.

Then it happened.

Two years ago, I noticed that an old cherry tree in the back corner of the garden was covered with rather scary looking bugs. When I looked closer I realized they were ladybug larvae. I left them alone. Most of those larvae eventually transformed into beautiful little ladybugs that spread out throughout the garden. Needless to say, I haven't seen very many aphids after that spring when the cherry tree turned into a "ladybug tree". I realized that the more mulch I put in that corner of the garden where the foliage is a bit denser, the more ladybugs I would find. I had happened upon the perfect combination for a ladybug habitat. Without even knowing it I was mimicking a small forest thicket like the ones where wild ladybugs breed and are harvested for retail sale to nurseries.

This year I noticed the ladybugs in February amidst milkweeds that sprouted when I wasn't well enough to pull them. In March, I added two more potted lavender to my collection and repotted one I already had. The ladybugs didn't take any time at all before moseying over to the new lavender. They even found the pots I had put on the deck up away from the garden beds far from the "ladybug tree".

When I'm out in the garden, if I feel a tickle on my arm I look first before swatting because more often than not it's just a ladybug hitching a ride. I had it happen just yesterday when I was out shooting photos. In fact, it happened right about the time I shot the image above. I don't know if this seems weird, but whenever I find a ladybug, particularly when I find it on me, it makes me happy. It seems like a sign that I've done a good thing by helping nature restore balance in this little spot of earth I am a steward over.

The dance of the skippers and the romance of butterflies

2011-06-07T15:36:00.000-07:00

The sun is finally out after seemingly endless days of unseasonal cool rain and grey skies. The critters in the garden aren't wasting any time enjoying the warm rays.

I took a stroll through the mid-afternoon garden with my camera (and new lens) to see what serendipitous moments I could discover. I always stop at the potted lavender that attracts so many pollinators to its blossoms.

I spotted the female Skipper butterfly first (above). Then she began to flutter her wings while remaining on her perch (below).

A frantic flapping male quickly fluttered into the scene (above).

She kept gently fluttering her wings while he flitted all over. He was so fast and fleeting, it was hard to track where he was.

She would flutter to another stalk and the dance would commence. Then she would move again, and it would continue once more. Sometimes she would take flight and the two would dance in mid-air around me, performing a high-speed reel. I stood in one place and turned to see where they would sashay to next... to the mandarin tree... to the lavender... to a nearby stalk of milkweed... and back to the lavender.

So intrigued was I in the frenetic pace of their courtship. Romance seemed quite exhausting from my vantage point.

I have to chuckle. It's much the same with people in love. The frenetic pace of romance, particularly young love, seems so exhausting to those on the outside of the gyrations of courtship... yet many onlookers wish they could join the dance with their own partner nonetheless.

Look up and see the wonders and miracles that surround you

2011-05-20T13:57:00.000-07:00

Click here to send the above image as a FREE ecard

Thanks to the time required for my recovery the pace of my life has slowed down significantly. My priorities have shifted significantly as well.

The state of my recovering body has forced me to be still a lot. For me, sitting still begets pondering. Pondering begets enlightenment, inspiration and guidance. And those precious gifts beget more stillness... the kind of stillness that lets the world of nature happen around me as if I'm not there. It is a stillness that awakens my senses and lets me see with new eyes--eyes that can see all the wonders and miracles that surround me every day if I slow down enough to pay attention to them.

The sultry red velvet petals of the Abraham Lincoln

2011-05-11T20:46:00.000-07:00

Sometimes no words are necessary and a rose can speak for itself.

Creating my own secret garden with "curtains and fountains of roses"

2011-05-10T11:56:00.000-07:00

Send the above customizable e-card FREE by click here

I've posted before about my own little "Secret Garden" of sorts. In that post I said:

"There's a line from one of the film adaptations of 'The Secret Garden' that always come to mind when I'm in the garden--'curtains and fountains of roses' is the line. I think maybe I've been subconsciously using that movie line as a pattern for my plant-as-you-go form of garden design which has resulted in what we have now."

As I photographed the Cecile Brunner rosebush (seen above) that is spilling over with pale pink blossoms, I realized what "curtains and fountains of roses" really are.

The Cecile Brunner is a climbing rose that is a vigorous grower. In only a few short growing seasons, our bush now towers over us at 14-20 feet tall. The long sturdy canes form their own trellis if left to grow woody and the new canes grow fast into long arching limbs of blossoming sweetness. Our bush has created its own sizable garden arch that is the entrance to the back garden.

If that weren't enough serendipity, the sparrows also use the thick green foliage as a protective nesting site for their young swooping in and out with bugs they've gleaned from my garden to keep it pest free without chemicals.

After years of appreciating the aforementioned film, I finally understand what "curtains and fountains of roses" are and why every secret garden should have them. It is more blissful than I ever imagined years ago when I would watch the film and dream of creating my own secret garden someday.

Introducing... The Merrilee Esther Nature Collection

2011-05-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

Last Friday night, Hubby and I went out to dinner with a couple whom I hadn't met yet in person although Hubby had. We sat in a cozy local Italian place chatting and eating delicious authentic Italian food. It was one of those meetings when I felt like I really hadn't met someone new. It helped that because of Hubby we had been Facebook friends prior to the dinner. But there was something else in the ease in which the conversation flowed. It was very nice.

One of my newfound friends is the reason for this new collection I'm featuring. Like me, Merrilee is a nature lover through and through. And she graciously asked if I would like to offer some of her nature photography as free digital downloads at the Rosehaven Cottage Digital Download Shop. Of course I said yes!

Named after her, The Merrilee Esther Nature Collection will hopefully grow over time. The first set Bark and Branches and the second set Water and Waves are now available to download for FREE to use as desktop images, scrapbooking backgrounds, Photoshop textures or anything else creative you can think up. You can pick and choose which ones you want to download out of each set.

To receive announcements when future sets are released, "like" Rosehaven Cottage Inc. on Facebook or follow Rosehaven Cottage Inc. on Twitter.

Oh... and by the way... Merrilee is also the proprietor of Life Is But A Dream - Cupcakes and More. Click below to see some of her delectable desserts.

Let's face it... there are some times in life when the only remedy is chocolate.

2011-04-27T11:33:00.000-07:00

I decided to design an e-card/e-vite expressing just that sentiment. You are welcome to send it for FREE as many times as you wish to as many people as you want. Just head on over to pingg by clicking here. It's super easy to use and a great way to make someone smile.

Now where's the chocolate...

The Pacific Coast Native Iris is back and blooming

2011-04-19T16:48:00.000-07:00

Despite my love of iris, I'd never heard of this variety until a few years ago when I ran across it at the nursery. I got one and brought it home to Rosehaven Cottage. It lived in a pot for a couple of years but stopped blooming. So last fall I divided it and transplanted it to a raised planter at the base of the olive tree where other bearded iris live. To my delight its blooming again this year!

As soon as I turned my back, the cat was in the dryer sigh

2011-04-15T00:03:00.000-07:00

This has never happened... never! In the 10 years we've had kitties here at Rosehaven Cottage, I've never had Thomasina jump into the dryer while I'm loading or unloading it. She's meowed and cried from the nearby table asking to be picked up so she can see in, but this evening when my back was turned to put a folded item in the laundry basket she nimbly and silently jumped into the dryer and immediately disappeared in the folds of the newly-dried quilt contained within said dryer. She was ready to bed down and take a nap in there! Good grief! Life around here is like herding kittens... literally!

President Grevy (the lilac) is putting on a real show for the first time

2011-04-05T14:14:00.000-07:00

President Grevy (Common Lilac Syringa vulgaris) has been a resident at Rosehaven Cottage for 10 years now. But like many common lilac breeds, Mr. President doesn't necessarily do well in our mild winters and would prefer the stress of a very cold and frosty winter in order to set buds for a spectacular springtime show. Think New Hampshire and that's what it wants. It's why the lilac is the state flower of New Hampshire.

I finally found mild-winter breeds of lilacs that love residing here, but never had the heart to give President Grevy an eviction notice despite its rather pathetic existence (it should be close to 10-14 feet tall by now).

I continued to cultivate around it and a few years ago eventually planted roses on its southwest side--a Tahitian Sunset and a Hot Cocoa. The Tahitian Sunset must have gotten settled in quite nicely because it took off last year and towered over the rest of the plants in that corner of the garden despite minimal irrigation. Because my health began to decline in August, the roses were allowed to grow and grow. The Tahitian Sunset was thrilled. And, apparently, so was President Grevy. It liked the cool shade afforded by its towering neighbor, I guess... so much so that Mr. President is putting on quite a springtime show for us.

Nothing worse than being scolded by a crabby ginger tabby

2011-03-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

When does Dee Dee resort to her crabby scratchy meow?
Let's see...
When she wants a drink of water
When she wants her pre-bedtime snack
When she wants a drink of water
When we've been gone all day
When she wants a drink of water
When she's locked out of the bathroom
When she wants a drink of water

The air is sweet with rain-kissed hyacinths and lilacs

2011-03-23T18:13:00.000-07:00

"We would do well to slow down a little, proceed at the optimum speed for our circumstances, focus on the significant, lift up our eyes, and truly see the things that matter most."

Dieter F. Uchtdorf

The garden is all decked out in green for St. Patty's... guess it won't get pinched!

2011-03-17T17:21:00.000-07:00

Sweet surprise: We harvested the first fruit off the Moro blood orange tree

2011-03-14T13:29:00.000-07:00

With hope, the Moro blood orange tree was planted
Tended and pruned, it set its roots
Blossoms came
One showed promise of fruit
Months of waiting
To harvest
Then slice
An exotic orb of sweetness

Tom Tom kitty: The supervisor of spring

2011-03-09T11:19:00.000-08:00

Tom Tom kitty perches at the picture window.
He must supervise the coming of spring.
All birds must be counted.
Every ray of sunshine must be soaked up.
Outside, bulbs reveal their brilliance
Turning Tom Tom's picture window into
A Monet painting
For a season

The springtime view outside my studio window today

2011-02-27T12:41:00.000-08:00

As if by magic the blossoms appear
One by one their snow-white faces open.
Chilly February nights don't deter them.
The rain doesn't dampen their tenacity.

One by one the buds open
Until one morning,
This morning,
I look out, and...
The whole plum tree is laden with popcorn.
And Mr. Hummingbird seems to have claimed it all for himself.

Mr. Hummingbird: Monarch and king of the plum tree

2011-02-23T14:32:00.000-08:00

Photograph taken by Brent A. Iverson
Photograph post-processed by Cindy Garber Iverson

On days when the sun is shining,
We can find him sitting atop the tip of the highest branch
On the leaf-bare plum tree.
He surveys his kingdom from the perfect vantage point
Waiting for a bug to snatch from the air
Or a rival hummingbird to chase away.
It won't be long before his daily routine is expanded
To courting with spectacular aerial maneuvers
To impress his lady of choice.
But for now, he is content to sit on his spindly throne
Letting the sun reflect off his ruby crown
Sending a periodic flash of brilliance our way.

I know spring is near when the hardenbergia blooms

2011-02-08T19:32:00.000-08:00

"Dreaming in purple watercolors"

digitally painted photograph by Cindy Garber Iverson

The photo above is one I created in 2009 from a photograph I took while walking our street. The neighbor had a wonderful climbing vine that was covered in this tiny purple flowers that grew on a pergola right on the sidewalk.

After falling in love with the teeny tiny orchid-like blooms, I did some investigation and found out that the vine is called Hardenbergia violacea or "Happy Wanderer" and acquired two for my own garden. Their are going on their second spring here at Rosehaven Cottage.

Because I've been recovering from surgery for the past 2 weeks (click here to read more about that), I haven't been out walking the garden looking for blooms like I usually do in mid-February. Imagine my delighted surprise when I looked out my studio window to see swathes of purple billowing up on their fence-line trellises!

Spring is definitely near when the hardenbergia blooms.

I used my own texture "Irridescence" to create the above digitally painted photograph.
This and other textures are available for free download by clicking here to go to
the Rosehaven Cottage Digital Download Shop

And the winners of the Valentine giveaway are...

2011-02-02T07:13:00.001-08:00

Because this post also appeared on Facebook, I included commenters on Facebook as part of the pool of potential winners after the commenters on the original giveaway post for a total of 12 entrants. So the names of the five winners are:

Jen Vandervoort at Muddy Boot Dreams
Dana
Christine
Sarah Elizabeth at Queen of Kindergarten
Monica de Moss at Sharing with Positive Polly

All winners should contact me via email at cindy AT rosehavencottage DOT com to let me know the mailing address at which their package should be sent. Because I'm still in recovery my surgery, my sweet Hubby will be mailing your valentines to you as soon as I receive your mailing address.

Thank you to everyone that entered the giveaway!

Life at Rosehaven Cottage: Tucked in the corners of the January gardens

2011-01-16T17:53:00.000-08:00

The gray of January hangs in the damp chilly air over the gardens here at Rosehaven Cottage. There is no winter snow... just rain, fog, and an occasional early-morning frosting of shimmery crystals on the rooftop. The beauty of the winter garden often lies low and in protected corners where the frost cannot find it.

At the base of our young olive tree the sunny yellow heads of jonquils brighten the drab landscape, sending hints of their fragrance wafting on the chilly air.

Under the protective boughs of the oleander, the shy little violets bloom fragrant and sweet in the blue-purple color I associate with January.

On the shady side of the house, the camellias put on the annual show I wait the rest of the year to see. Their spectacular display of lipstick reds and rouge pinks are garden Valentines.

Blog Giveaway: School-style Valentines featuring "Kitty cat love"

2011-01-15T23:19:00.000-08:00

I had so much fun painting my "Kitty cat love" Valentine illustration. I love kitty cats, and I love Valentine's Day so the pairing of the two seemed perfect. My illustration shows Mr. Kitty giving a chocolate mouse (not mousse) truffle to his Valentine Miss Kitty who has a red-bowed fish to give to her beau in return.

To celebrate the completion of this illustration, I had some sweet "school style" Valentines printed so I could host a giveaway here on the blog!

What's fun is that there will be more than one winner! There will be five winners! Each winner will receive a pack of 20 "school style" Valentines (2.5"w x 3.5"h) like the kind I loved exchanging with classmates when I was in elementary school.

Valentine Giveaway Guidelines:

Everyone who leaves a comment here on this post will be entered. Each person will only be counted once so duplicate comments won't help your odds (sorry)
Entries will be accepted up to midnight February 1, 2011
I will pay shipping to the winners of the drawing
If you don't have an email link connected to the i.d. you use to leave the comment, then you'll have to check back on February 2, 2011 to find out if you won and then contact me via email so I can get your postal address privately.
If you do have an email link connected to the i.d. you use, then I will contact you off the blog as well as announce you as the winner.
Basically, it's the standard blog giveaway rules that are out there in the "blog-o-sphere" already.

To see other ways to send a Valentine featuring Mr. and Miss Kitty, click on any of the pics below:

FREE e-valentine at pingg.com

Left to right:

Opening the new year with hope and savoring the old one with thankfulness

2011-01-01T18:07:00.000-08:00

I look back at an old year...
And I am thankful

I look ahead at a new year...
And I am hopeful

Like cutting into and savoring a beautifully ripe orange
Such sweetness was held in each of last year's slices of time

I cannot fathom what lies in store in each of next year's juicy slices

Merry Christmas

2010-12-22T17:50:00.000-08:00

It's about that time of the Christmas season when many hearts turn toward home and hearth as they relive family traditions, make new ones, and enjoy the company of those they love. I've noticed a lot of my blogging/online friends have signed off via their blogs, Twitter or Facebook with messages that they won't be back online until after Christmas. I like that. I see it as a sign that we haven't gotten so completely entrenched in the virtual world of the internet that we have forgotten how to live the way we used to before technology.

I am extremely grateful this Christmas for the blessings of friends and family--"in person" friends and "online" friends alike. Your warmth, friendship and love is what makes this season bright--far brighter than thousands of twinkly lights ever could.

Merry Christmas to each and every one of you!

Behind the Scenes: "Building" a Snowman (a work in progress)

2010-12-11T14:38:00.000-08:00

As I often do, I tried to cram one too many designs on my "to do" list for my 2010 holiday designs. I was done and then decided to do "just one more". I was mostly done with it when I lost my head of steam. When this happens with a seasonal piece, I put it aside until the next year rolls around--which is what will happen with this snowman sketch.

Poor little snowman... it isn't his fault.

Then I decided he would be a good behind-the-scenes subject for a blog post. So Mr. Snowman does get to have some fun this year after all!

Above is the rough scan of the pencil sketch of Mr. Snowman. I do all my preliminary sketching by hand in one of my various sketchbooks (one for small sketches, one for large sketches and one for on-the-road sketching).

After I've scanned in the pencil sketch, I bring it into Photoshop CS3 and perform clean-up with the help of my Wacom Cintiq digital tablet. I do this because I want all the specks and flecks that are picked by the scanner up from the white paper to not transfer when I print out the outline sketch onto watercolor paper.

Next I print out the snow man on a piece of 12x17 watercolor paper using my Canon Pro9000 ink jet printer. I choose this size because that's the largest I can scan once the painting is done. Even if the original sketch isn't that large, I enlarge it to fill the paper.

Then I secure the watercolor paper that has the printed outline on it to my painting board, I break out the watercolors, and I begin painting.

Oftentimes, I will scan the painting after completing one stage (in this case the black hat and coal buttons). This is a good practice for me just in case I do something I don't like later in the painting process. If I do, I can always reprint the outline and repaint the elements I didn't like and then digitally marry them with the elements I did like from previous scans.

There is a quality of painting that I can only get with watercolor and haven't been able to replicate digitally. I paint the shapes and elements that I want to have that quality. In this case, I wanted a certain look to the shading as well as a certain brushstroke for each piece of the fringe of his scarf. At that stage, I scanned the painting again and brought it back into Photoshop CS3.

After some clean-up using the Wacom Cintiq again, I decided to apply one of my photo textures to Mr. Snowman to make him look more like he was made of snow (see the texture below).

Click on texture above to download for free

I also added some additional shading and highlights over the top of the snow to get this...

Although Mr. Snowman may look like he's done, he really has a way to go. I have to paint the additional elements like the holly berries for his hat and the patterns for the gifts he's carrying. Those will get painted separately and added digitally. Mr. Snowman is also going to need a snazzy background so he isn't floating in white space. And I'll have to design the layouts specifically for each thing he goes on. A 5x7 card layout is much different than an iPhone case and that's different from an e-card/e-vite (the list can go on and on). I may even offer him with different colored scarves and mittens... I don't know. All that work will happen when I begin putting together my 2011 holiday designs.

Mr. Snowman will wait until then. Luckily, he won't melt.

Emerald nostalgia

2010-12-04T20:00:00.000-08:00

I watched her hands as she made the ornaments.

Each jewel...

Each pearl...

Each ribbon...

Pinned in place.

My tiny 4 year old heart leapt.
Elegant glimmering beads and baubles
Dazzling a young romantic soul.

Too delicate for little hands to touch...

Precious enough to hang high on the tree
Until each was tucked in soft tissue cradles
To wait for the next year.

Available to send free as an e-vite or e-card by clicking here

Snow white and rose red

2010-11-29T15:01:00.000-08:00

From a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm:

"There was once a poor widow who lived in a lonely cottage. In front of the cottage was a garden wherein stood two rose-trees, one of which bore white and the other red roses. She had two children who were like the two rose-trees, and one was called Snow-white, and the other Rose- red. They were as good and happy, as busy and cheerful as ever two children in the world were, only Snow-white was more quiet and gentle than Rose-red. Rose-red liked better to run about in the meadows and fields seeking flowers and catching butterflies; but Snow-white sat at home with her mother, and helped her with her housework, or read to her when there was nothing to do.

"The two children were so fond of one another that they always held each other by the hand when they went out together, and when Snow- white said: ’We will not leave each other,’ Rose-red answered: ’Never so long as we live,’ and their mother would add: ’What one has she must share with the other.’

"They often ran about the forest alone and gathered red berries, and no beasts did them any harm, but came close to them trustfully. The little hare would eat a cabbage-leaf out of their hands, the roe grazed by their side, the stag leapt merrily by them, and the birds sat still upon the boughs, and sang whatever they knew."

This photo is available as custom-printed invitations at Rosehaven Cottage Stationers by clicking above
and is also available to send for FREE as an e-card or e-vite at pingg by clicking below.

Humility

2010-11-28T16:12:00.000-08:00

"Some suppose that humility is about beating ourselves up. Humility does not mean convincing ourselves that we are worthless, meaningless, or of little value. Nor does it mean denying or withholding talents God has given us. We don't discover humility by thinking less of ourselves; we discover humility by thinking less about ourselves. It comes as we go about our work with an attitude of serving God and our fellowman."

Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Abundance: What I see in a pomegranate

2010-11-22T15:59:00.000-08:00

I have a favorite book that I discovered the summer of 2007. It's entitled "Beloved Bridegroom" by Donna B. Nielsen. I love understanding historical contexts to symbols found in art, literature and poetry (no surprise I was an art history major in college). Donna Nielsen book about ancient Jewish marriage and family customs gave me so much more by making the symbolic meanings of things in my Mediterranean-climate garden come alive. One symbol that has become particularly poignant for me is the pomegranate.

"The Hebrew word translated 'pomegranate' is 'rimmon' or 'bell.' Pomegranates are notable for their beautiful red flowers, shapely fruit, sweet flavor (to those in the Middle East!), and prodigious number of seeds. The fruit is the size of an orange and has a calyx which resembles a crown." [p 80]

"In Jewish thought, pomegranates have an association with the clothing of the High Priest (Exodus 28:33-34), and also because of their many seeds, with the promises of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Genesis 15:5)." [p v]

"Because of its decorative form, [the pomegranate] has long been a popular motif in Jewish art. The flowers of the pomegranate served as patterns for the 'golden bells' and also for 'open flowers' embroidered on the temple robes of the High Priest [of the tabernacle]. Fabric pomegranates adorned the hem of the robe, alternating with golden bells. The erect calyx-lobes on the fruit served as inspiration for [King] Solomon's crown, and incidentally for all crowns from that time on.

"Israelites were exhorted by their sages to 'be as full of good deeds as a pomegranate is full of seeds,' and good students were said to model their study habits upon the pomegranate, eating only the good fruit, but discarding the bitter peel." [p 80]

Now when I see the ruby seeds a pomegranate spilled on the ground after the fruit has burst open with ripeness, I think of the abundance in my life. Each seed symbolizes one of the rich and treasured blessings I enjoy.

And I am thankful.

Click here to see the availability of
"Beloved Bridegroom" by Donna B. Nielsen

Autumn in the Rosehaven Cottage gardens: Canna lilies and bougainvillea blooming

2010-11-15T17:45:00.000-08:00

This morning I woke up from a dream that I was in my beloved Hawai'i. It was probably the morning sun shining through the window onto me as I slept ensconced by sun-loving cats. I found it unusual though. I usually don't yearn to escape to a tropical paradise until some time after Christmas and before Valentine's Day--in other words that cold month known as January. Since spending that entire month lounging in a chaise on the shores of Turtle Bay is completely unfeasible financially and logistically, a few years ago I set a goal to grow sub-tropical plants and shrubs in my own garden to create the feeling of being there.

After hunting around, I found quite a few sub-tropicals that can stand winter temperatures down to 20F (-7C) which is usually the coldest it gets here in winter. I've got some sub-tropicals that prefer to remain a few degrees above freezing like a tender hibiscus and a plumeria, so I put those in pots where I can pamper them through frosty nights. The bougainvillea doesn't like frost either, but it has to tough it out in the ground (sometimes I wonder if it will come back in the spring). The rest of my homage to Hawai'i (birds of paradise, canna lilies, palms, New Zealand flax and Japanese water iris) tough it out quite well in various spots throughout the garden when our overnight temps dip down into the frosty range.

Overnight frost is still a few weeks away in our micro-climate, so even though it's November I'm enjoying the beauty of gorgeous tropical looking canna lilies in my back garden. I put in quite a few new varieties last spring so the colors are all new to me. I'm really enjoying the pretty sherbet-toned surprises.

Despite hints and scowls from Hubby, I haven't had the heart to cut back the long invasion thorny tendrils of bougainvillea that creep toward the cars parked in the driveway. Our coolish summer got it off to a late start, and I want to savor their pink and orange tissue paper blooms before they're zapped by Jack Frost's breath in a few weeks.

Soon the leaves of the canna will succumb to the colder nights too. But I know that their hardy rhizomes are underground waiting for February and March to come so they can send up shoots again and dazzle me with their glory for the next 9 months. If they can tough out January, then I can too.

Never heard of a "micro climate"?
Click here to read about ours

Autumn in the Rosehaven Cottage gardens: White zinnia

2010-11-09T13:24:00.000-08:00

Scattered seeds some time in June or July
Hoped for quintessential summer pom poms
No seeds sprouted
Must have been a treat for the birds
Then one blossom comes in November
I don't remember planting white

Autumn in the Rosehaven Cottage gardens: Pomegranate on abalone

2010-11-06T13:01:00.000-07:00

There were a number of things left in the garden from the two previous owners when we bought our house that would become Rosehaven Cottage. But they were hidden like buried treasure.

One such treasure was the pomegranate bush that had been cut to the ground. Not one limb remained. I didn't know it was there until it started sending up shoots from the ground. I wondered what it was for a while, but it didn't take long for me to recognize its shiny thick leaves on straight light branches with a thorn here and there. It was indeed a pomegranate. Over the past 10 years, I've let it grow under the supervision of my gardener's shears, and it has rewarded us magnificently with a beautiful bush that now towers at least 12 feet over our heads. In late spring, its tropical looking deep coral-hued blossoms delight us and the hummingbirds alike. By mid summer, those blossoms have turned into green orbs hanging like ornaments on the boughs of the bush. By the first day of autumn, the orbs have taken on a lovely blush, and by October, the rosy skins of the fruits are bursting open to reveal the glistening ruby jewels within.

Another treasure we found throughout the garden were empty abalone shells from the former owners' abalone expeditions in the San Francisco Bay in years past. Some shells were embedded in the concrete half-walls of a dilapidated covered lanai at the back of the garden. Other shells I found in piles under a few layers of fresh earth formed from leaves and debris left to compost. Each shell I've found (intact or otherwise) I've added to a collection that dots the edges of the pond I dug the first winter we were here. It seems fitting to have the abalone at waters edge, catching rainwater for lizards and other small critters to drink from.

The pomegranate bush grows at the pond's edge as well with its autumn fruit often falling on the stones and abalones in its shade, thus making pomegranates on abalone a common sight here in Rosehaven Cottage's autumnal gardens.

By request, the above image has been made available in fine art prints, canvases and cards
Click here

Autumn in the Rosehaven Cottage gardens: Sun's last rays

2010-10-30T16:40:00.000-07:00

Digitally painted photo

In between the much-needed rain showers we've been receiving this week, I took the time to duck out into the garden and take some photos of the last vestiges of summer as well as the first signs of autumn.

Summer lasts longer and autumn comes later here in our climate. Sunflowers are a flower of August, September and October for me. This lovely is one of the last bunch blooming in the shaggy front garden that is in dire need of a "haircut".

Until the last heatwaves end and the autumn rains come in the latter part of October, the garden has to remain on the shaggy side to conserve water and prevent burn that could occur on newly trimmed roses and other bushes. The uncut fennel and sunflowers going to seed on their heady high stalks make for lovely natural bird feeders where finches, oak titmice and bushtits feed on their delectable seeds. The birds' flitting provides copious entertainment for the indoor kitties as they peer out the large living room picture window. With noses almost touching the glass their teeth chatter and whiskers twitter silently as they enjoy the show.

Over the next few posts, I'll be showing more vignettes of what this unique seasonal transition looks like in our gardens here at Rosehaven Cottage.

The above image is available in fine art prints and canvases by clicking here

Pearls of color filled with air

2010-10-21T21:40:00.000-07:00

Digitally painted photograph

The above image is available in fine art prints and photographs by clicking here

Behind the Scenes: Little Halloween Witch (and her kitten) from sketches to painting

2010-10-15T17:41:00.000-07:00

It's time for another "behind the scenes" post about my latest painting "Little Halloween Witch" so you can see the progression I went through to create it.

Every painting always starts out as a rough pencil sketch in one of my sketchbooks (I have several). Usually the sketches aren't in scale with one another. Rarely are they the size of what the finished painting will be. And often elements of the same finished composition aren't even on the same page in the sketchbook! Sometimes I don't know if I'm going to combine elements into one composition until much later in the process.

The sketching phase is the time to just get shapes and elements worked out. LOTS of erasing happens during this phase (you can even see my eraser lines if you look closely).

Once I like a sketch enough to take it on to the next phase, I scan it into the computer using my Epson Expression 10000 XL flatbed scanner that has a large glass especially for art. The digital version of the scan is cleaned up in Photoshop so all the eraser lines and boo boo's. It's at this point that I correct any proportion issues within the sketch by cutting and pasting pieces.

I'm left with a clean sketch that I reduce the opacity on so it looks like a light pencil sketch. I print the sketch onto regular watercolor paper that I send through my Canon Pro 9000. Even though my Canon can print up to 13x19 prints, I cut the watercolor paper down to 12x17 so it's the maximum size that my scanner will take once the painting is done.

Next, I tape the watercolor paper to a drawing board using white drafting tape. Then it's time to get out the brushes and paints! This is my favorite part. I love turning on iTunes and painting.

This painting process can take hours or days. Sometimes I can sit down and do a painting from start to finish all in one sitting (the black kitten for this painting was like that). But usually I work on different pieces of the painting, set it down, walk away, and then come back with fresh eyes and a clear head after a long break (sometimes overnight). I often do that several times. Even though I paint with a portable fan nearby to dry the paints quickly if need be, sometimes it's good for me to let the painting sit and let all the moisture in the paper really dry so I don't have to worry about cross-bleed between colors that are touching one another. That's the real secret to watercolors. Dry paper works like a "dam" with the paint that will usually only spread on moist or wet paper. When I'm painting something like the little witch's hair against the black hat, I definitely can get bleeding from one to the other. I have to let the paper completely dry or it would ruin it. That's when overnight drying is essential.

Even though the paintings look like they're done at this point, they usually aren't.

I scan them into the computer again using my flatbed art scanner. Then with Photoshop, I clean up any "oopsies" that happen (like when my hand spazzes and the paintbrush flies across the painting leaving a trail of purple paint in its wake).

After clean-up, I go in and digitally paint highlights like the little white sparkle in the eyes. I could do this last step with watercolors, but I have more flexibility if I do it digitally. I can try various placements and opacities on the highlights without altering the original painting.

The final step is to take the finalized art and place it in a composition so it can be used as stationery or reproduced as a print. Sometimes the two compositions will look very similar to one another and only differ in size to accommodate the end product. But other times (like this time) I can get creative and do a crisp "tight" version for use in e-cards/e-invites and then an "artsy" version for prints.

I still can't decide which one I like better. I think I like them both for different reasons.

Click here to send this e-card/e-invite for free

Click here to see this painting in fine art reproduction prints, canvases and cards

Scatter the smiles and sunshine all along your way

2010-09-30T01:08:00.000-07:00

When strolling through Golden Gate Park with Hubby, we came upon a seasonal planting area that is tended by volunteers from the community. It was in full bloom with dahlias. With camera in hand, I leaned over the iron fence protecting the gardens and drooled over the amazingly gorgeous dark-brown (and weedless) soil. I almost wanted the soil more than the flowers! I guess that's a sign of a gardener.

Anyway...

As I slowly walked the perimeter looking at the array of dahlias (and the soil at their feet), I came upon this bunch of dahlia petals that had fallen from an overly-heavy mop-head of a blossom. The petals were still so fresh and vibrant, as if they had just fallen minutes before when a volunteer brushed by to tend a neighboring plant.

I only took one photo.

I've looked at this photo several times since taking it.

When I look at the image, the words of a hymn come into my mind...

In a world where sorrow ever will be known,
Where are found the needy and the sad and lone,
How much joy and comfort you can all bestow,
If you scatter sunshine everywhere you go.

Chorus (for the altos):
Scatter the smiles and sunshine all along over your way.
Cheer and bless and brighten every passing... passing day
Scatter the smiles and sunshine all along over your way.
Cheer and bless and brighten every passing day

I've always thought it was interesting that the cheerful chorus is repeated twice after every verse. It makes me think that's probably the part that deserves most of my attention.

One dahlia blossom is so small in comparison to the rest of the world. So am I. Yet this dahlia scattered its petals on the ground which caught my eye (and my camera lens) and then made me think of something so sweet as this hymn... makes me wonder what I can learn from that dahlia.

"Scatter Sunshine" (click here to listen)
Text: Lanta Wilson Smith
Music: Edwin O. Excell, 1851-1921
Scripture references: Psalm 100:2 and James 1:27

Paths

2010-09-24T13:52:00.000-07:00

When we visited the Japanese tea gardens last month, I was intrigued by a couple of the paths that led over bodies of water. From a distance, the paths seemed like any other stone path, but when I got closer and began to traverse the path to get across the water I realized how treacherous the cracks between the stones were. I realized one false move could easily result in my foot going in between the stones and a nasty fall would follow. I had to carefully navigate from one stone to another to get to my destination. If I wanted to take a look around me to enjoy the beauty while I was on the path (like the purple Japanese water iris growing out in the water), I had to stop in order to take my eyes off the stones. It was only when I could give my undivided attention to the path again that I continued moving forward.

This path is a perfect metaphor for so many things in my life--actually a perfect metaphor for my life's journey in general.

Increasingly since this last spring, I've faced some health challenges that I haven't wanted to admit I was facing. Right now, I feel like I'm in the middle of a giant broken stone path that crosses water I don't want to fall into. Every step has to be made carefully and thoughtfully. One of my ways to deal with it is to write about it. But since I didn't want to fill my creative blog with the sarcastic humor that I tend to rely on to keep from whining, I decided to resurrect my health blog, rename it, and use it as an outlet.

So for those of you that want to follow my creative pursuits unencumbered with detours, just continue to read my posts here.

Anyone else interested in the "saga" of my health issues can go over to the newly dubbed "Could be worse... could be raining" blog I've dedicated to documenting my attempts at finding wellness and humor while living with the disease endometriosis [reading the health blog's revamped right sidebar and then clicking on the button that says "The Halloween that changed my life" is the best way to get up to speed].

My new book "What Kind of Pumpkin Are You?"

2010-09-07T14:07:00.000-07:00

I'm a bit shy about sharing this (don't ask me why), but I will anyway... I've self-published my first book--What Kind of Pumpkin Are You?

What Kind of Pumpkin Are You? is an inspirational and humorous book intended to bring a smile to your face and hope to your soul. I envisioned it being read on days you don't want to get out of your jammies and would just rather go back to bed and sleep the day away--yeah, those kinds of days.

Anyone who knows me well knows I enjoy finding meaning and analogies in the world around me. One day a few years ago I was visiting our local “pumpkin patch” (it becomes the Christmas tree lot by December and is a vacant lot the rest of the year). I took photographs of the groupings of pumpkins as I found them. I thought it was interesting how someone had had some fun with stacking the pumpkins various ways. Once I got home and began reviewing the photos in post-processing, I was surprised to find themes of hope, acceptance, and love in the unstaged shots. I ended up compiling them into a Halloween blog post that I re-posted as an annual post each year since.

Well, that blog post has now been expanded into this book, What Kind of Pumpkin Are You? The book is available in a selection of soft and hard cover bindings that fit various budgets (my personal preferences are the "Imagewrap Hardcover on Express Photo Silk Paper" and the "Perfect Bound Softcover on Express Satin Paper").

Click here to see a flip preview of the entire book
(you can also order your own copy while you're there)

Behind the Scenes with Sachi

2010-08-24T12:05:00.000-07:00

My brother and his wife have an adorable purebred Shiba Inu puppy named Sachi. Shiba's are a Japanese breed so her name, Sachi, is a Japanese name that means "girl child of joy, bliss, happiness or good fortune". At 16 weeks old, Sachi lives up to her name in a big way! Although capturing video of her is pretty easy, getting portrait photos of her can be a bit challenging.

I wanted to show how I worked my "magic" using Photoshop (PS) to take a run-of-the-mill chance shot of Sachi sitting still, and turned it into multiple versions of one of her first portraits.

To begin, I'll show you the shot SOOC ("straight out of the camera")...

Taking photos in indirect sunlight is good, but it can cause color issues. You can see there is a blue tint to the photo. This is caused by inappropriate white balance. Don't be scared off at this point... the term "white balance" describes something very basic. It simply means what the camera sees as true white. For a realistic photo, the goal is to get the camera to see white things in the shot as true white, because it uses that as the baseline for color balance throughout the other colors in the shot. Most digital cameras have auto white balance settings, but still they can be off (as seen above).

But never fear...

Clicking the shutter to take the shot with a digital camera is really only half the work. The other half happens once the shot is brought back to my computer and downloaded for me to do post-processing. Since I shoot in RAW format, the camera doesn't process any of the data it records when I click the shutter. It just records it so I can download the RAW data into my computer and tweak to my heart's content within a post-processing program (I use Camera RAW because it came with PS, but most pro's use Adobe Lightroom). I can do post-processing on images I shoot in jpg format but I get the most flexibility with RAW.

So with a bit of tweaking with the color balance, I can bring the colors out of the blue range and back to what it looked like in person...

You probably noticed that there's something else different in the shot above from the original. Sachi isn't wearing her harness or leash anymore. It really is the same shot... I promise. I used the patch tool in PS CS5 to carefully remove the harness and leash. Normally, I use PS CS3 for everything because the user interface is more friendly to my needs. But PS CS5 has a powerful "content aware" ability to patch things like this. So in this case, I pulled the image into PS CS5 temporarily to do the patch work, and then brought it back into PS CS3 to play and finish up. For less complex patching, I just stay in PS CS3.

The next step is what I call "playing" with PS actions. Actions are a way for a PS user to record a long list of steps they've performed so they can use them later or share them with others. I've collected a few actions from various users that share via their blogs or websites. I often will take a shot and run action after action on it to see the results I get--hence the term "playing". As long as I've saved the file up to the point that I start running actions, nothing is permanent and I can undo anything I don't like. It's really fun to watch the image as it goes through the action script and wonder how it will look when it's done.

For the shot above, I used the PS action "Soft Autumn Glow" by Rita at Coffee Shop Photography. I really like Rita's actions because Rita writes her actions so that the layers aren't merged once the script is done. That way I can go back and tweak any layer and customize for the specific image I'm working with.

For the shot above, I used Omar the Radwan's "Lomo Effect" action (another fave resource of mine). His lomo effect action always produces a cool, dramatic, and edgy look. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I never know until I run the action. [If you're wondering what the "lomo effect" is, click here for a great wikipedia write-up.]

Sometimes, I decide that I really want to get in there and be creative with a shot. That's when I break out my Wacom Cintiq digital tablet, my textures, and my drawing skills.

In PS, I can stack layers on top of the original image much like I'd put tissue paper over the top of a real print to trace it. My Cintiq lets me draw or erase directly on the image just like I'm holding a sketchbook. So I use my stylus like a pencil to "draw" and "paint" the image as I erase away textures that I've put on top of the original image.

I used a number of textures for the piece above--working one layer completely before adding another. I have my own library of textures but I also use the textures of others creatives that generously share through flickr. I used textures from playingwithbrushes and swimmingintheether.

I also used the burn and dodge tools on the original image layer to brighten up whites or darken shadows to get the painted or pastel effect.

Finally, I cropped the final "formal" portrait so that it would print at 11x14. Digital cameras shoot in non-standard sizes, so I think about that if I'm doing something for someone else that will possibly need a standard size for framing.

Dark pink hydrangea

2010-08-21T20:59:00.000-07:00

This hedge of dark pink hydrangea is in Golden Gate Park. I made sure not to change the color of the blossoms in post-processing because they were so beautiful.

Finding my own Tuscany

2010-08-16T19:44:00.000-07:00

I'm a little bit embarrassed to admit that until today I had not ever been to the Japanese Tea Gardens in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Despite being a native of the Bay Area and having gone to the museum adjacent to the gardens, I had never gone in until Hubby took me there today. Today was a typical summer day in San Francisco--overcast and cool... perfect conditions for shooting photographs.

Hubby and I like to listen to podcasts in the car whenever we take a road trip and today's short drive into the city was no exception. One podcast featured an interview with one of my favorite writers, Frances Mayes (author of Under the Tuscan Sun). I rarely read a book more than once but this is one book that I've read multiple times because of the way I'm drawn into Frances' memoirs of restoring an old villa in the Tuscan countryside. As I listened to the podcast interview today, I realized that it was the first time I'd heard her voice audibly. As she described her love of Tuscany with a hint of a soft southern accent, I had a few epiphanies. One epiphany that struck deeply is one that has tried to resound ever-so-softly in my inner core for some time now.

And it is this...

I live in an area that many non-locals see as a vacation destination. For some, a trip to San Francisco may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Just as I've dreamed of visiting Tuscany for the past 13 or so years since I first read Frances Mayes' book, there are others living around the globe that dream of visiting the San Francisco Bay Area. The land of my birth; the place I often take for granted and consider to be so ordinary; the horizon I've spent a lot of my life looking beyond... this is the very place that others dream of visiting in person.

My next thought was, "Why am I looking beyond the horizon then?" Yes, indeed... why am I?

Then a wave of wonderful epiphanies came as I realized if I was in Tuscany there is so much that I would miss.

I would have missed the first flight of the fledgling sparrows this past weekend as the little birds flapped their wings and took off from their nest under the eaves right outside my studio window--a wonderful small miracle I was blessed to witness just by chance.

I would miss the screech of barn owls soaring overhead in the midnight sky, their ghostly white silhouettes dancing against the backdrop of August's Perseid meteor shower.

I would miss the soft hoarse meows of a little feral garden kitty calling to me from the back garden as I return from an afternoon away. She doesn't need to trust me, but she does. And her meows are her way of asking me to sit with her in the garden just to pet her for a few minutes before she goes off on her way to do whatever it is she does when the sun sinks low in the sky.

The final epiphany then came... what am I waiting for? I need to embrace the reality that I am here. My roots have begun to take hold, and they're going deeper than they ever have in any place I've ever lived. So why not embrace it and live every day as fully as I live each day that I'm on vacation somewhere else?

Yes, indeed... why not?

So I'm on the precipice of starting a journey that isn't really a journey. I still don't know if it is worthy of writing about here. I know I will be toting my camera with me (that's just what I do). I may just share photos and not so many words. I don't know. Any thoughts?

The colors of August

2010-08-10T20:05:00.000-07:00

I've written before about the different colors I associate with the seasons and months of the year (like the color of January). August is one of those months that doesn't really have any American holiday attached to it that serves as a good iconic representation of the month the way one can draw a cute little jack-o-lantern in orange and black to represent the month of October. As a child I decided that the perfect representation of August was a big yellow sunshine wearing sunglasses with a smile. Any iconic representation of the beach seemed fitting too. Then I expanded to include sunflowers and black-eyed susan's as well. Over the years bright yellows and oranges have become the colors of August for me--not the more muted russet tones of autumn, but bright glowing oranges that seem to radiate heat. Yes, those are the colors of August for me.

Available as fine art canvas and prints by clicking here

Carousel

2010-08-03T23:43:00.000-07:00

The light was perfect and the horses were such good models. :-)

Enough

2010-07-27T17:44:00.000-07:00

Two legs
Two arms
A face and a nose
Parts that all work
That should be enough

Running water
Electricity
A roof over my head
That should be enough

A husband
A home
Purring kitties at my feet
That should be enough

Repeat
Repeat
I will keep repeating
That IS enough

I'd love to take credit for the illustrations in this post, but, alas, I cannot.

They are fun graphics generated by A&E's website madmenyourself.com.
I did think it was fun that one of the backgrounds to choose from was the bedroom above.
It looks a lot like my own bedroom.

Finding creative motivation through flickr

2010-07-19T16:56:00.000-07:00

"The County Fair"
collage created for flickr Creative Challenge group's weekly challenge "Collages"

One my greatest sources of inspiration are the creative communities that exist at flickr. There's a group for just about every niche, hobby or interest you can imagine. And within those groups are wonderfully talented individuals that "gather" to share and support others with like interests.

Not very long ago, a new group was formed by a very talented woman whose flickr handle is Simply Hue (aka Vicki Dvorak from the blog Simply Hue). The group is simply entitled Creative Challenge. As a challenge group, the purpose is to "motivate us as artists, photographers, and designers to keep our work fresh and new". Vicki presents a challenge each week and if we choose, we can share our own interpretation of that challenge theme.

This week's challenge was simply "collages" with no boundaries other than that. Last week was "your favorite color" with the only rules being "post anything (illustrations, collages, photos, mixed media work) that includes your favorite color! The work you submit should have about 75 percent of your favorite color with a few other colors sprinkled in" (my interpretation to last week's challenge is found below).

I've mentioned several times that being part of the flickr community is a lot like being in a master of arts seminar. I feel enlivened by the work of others, inspired by their views of the world, and buoyed up in my own creative attempts by their kind comments and insights on my own work. Flickr has been responsible for a great deal of my creative growth over the past couple of years. I can safely say that without it I probably wouldn't have pushed myself and discovered new styles of creative communication. I am so grateful for the technology that makes this wonderful phenomenon possible!

"My Favorite Color: Ballet Slipper Pink"
created for flickr Creative Challenge group's weekly challenge "Your Favorite Color"

Look up to see the music... look up to see the magic

2010-07-16T21:52:00.000-07:00

"Look up to see the music... look up to see the magic"

As I've read the feedback I've received on my last few images of the fair, I've contemplated how different people see things through different eyes and perspectives. The reflection caused introspection and finally it dawned on me one of the main reasons why I see the world from a childlike perspective... I'm short!

Unlike the rest of my family, I wasn't blessed with physical height. I am 5'2" on a good day, shorter on most, and probably getting shorter as I get older. Because I've never had the pleasure of being tall, I've spent my life looking up to have conversations with just about everyone except small children.

When one spends one's life looking up just to function, one creates a habit of generally looking in the upwards direction even when not carrying on conversations with those that are vertically blessed.

A child's world is also filled with a lot of looking up. And it is always amazing to me what a child can see that adults around them don't see. Is it because adults have gotten into the habit of looking down?

Down is where there's lint in the corners that needs to be vacuumed. Down is where there's gum on the pavement you don't want to step on. Down is where the plate of spaghetti fell when it slipped from your hand and onto the newly mopped kitchen floor.

But up...

Up is where the birds sing and dreams fly. Up is where the little wish fairies fly after you've blown them off a spent dandelion. Up is where music lilts and floats on the same breeze that carries the smells of homemade bread, apple pie and hot chocolate chip cookies. Up is the direction that a child looks to meet your gaze and know how much you love her without you speaking a single word.

This week, I finally figured out that my "vertically challenged" state has blessed me with a suspended state of looking up... looking up to see the music... looking up to see the magic.

Fresh hot buttered popcorn

2010-07-09T12:51:00.000-07:00

We have our favorite old movie theatre here in our area that has all the original elaborate architectural details of times gone by. I remember the first time I visited a similar movie theatre when I was a kid. I was enthralled with the ornate beauty and was a bit disappointed when the lights had to go down for the movie to start. I still have similar feelings when Hubby and I visit the vintage theatre we love.

When I was working on the above piece, I wanted to capture all those feelings somehow--the feelings of sitting and eating something fresh like the hot buttered popcorn while admiring the ambiance of the beautifully aged vintage theatre that surrounds us. It's a happy kind of paradox of emotions, and I think I captured a bit of it.

You can send this as a free customizable e-card or e-invite from pingg.com by clicking here

Souvenirs

2010-07-05T12:53:00.000-07:00

"Souvenirs" No. 2 in the Series "The Fair is in Town"

Pink and turquoise-aqua... one of my favorite color combinations... you can imagine what delight I had when I spotted this souvenir stand at the fair. I felt like a little kid again when I thought every bright light in the night meant the fair was in town.

Available in fine art prints, canvases and cards by clicking here

The Fair is in Town

2010-07-03T23:20:00.000-07:00

"Pomegranate Jewels" No. 1 in The Fair is in Town series

With kettle-korn and sno-cones
Cotton candy and bright lights
Frozen lemonade
On warm summer nights
Pomegranate jewels turn on
As the sun goes down
Everyone knows
The fair is in town.

Available in fine art prints, canvases, and card by clicking here

Photographic serendipity

2010-07-02T23:31:00.000-07:00

"Up high, down low" taken at Pismo Beach June 25, 2010

As we strolled along the beach just down from where we were staying in Pismo Beach last weekend, I had my camera in hand ready to take shots of whatever struck my fancy. I was mostly on a hunt for great textures to use as Photoshop overlays, but I'll never pass up a chance to take advantage of what I call "photographic serendipity"--those moments that are so perfect yet so fleeting that if I don't snap the shutter quickly, I'll have missed it. It's those candid moments that I am always on the lookout to find and shoot.

I had several of those fantastic moments as we took our stroll. The first is the shot above with the family ascending the stairs after spending the afternoon playing at the beach.

The second is the shot below. I saw these darling sandals sitting on the wall up close to the bluff and got behind them for macros. Then the girls appeared in the background and the rest was... well... "photographic serendipity".

"Kick off your shoes... and play" taken at Pismo Beach June 25, 2010
(Click here for to see this image as customizable greeting cards and event invitations)

Getaway

2010-07-02T13:33:00.000-07:00

"Distant Conversations" taken at Pismo Beach June 25, 2010

A week ago today, Hubby and I took a drive down the state of California a couple hundred miles to spend an overnighter at Pismo Beach. I was grateful to escape the heatwave that was hitting our part of the state and drive to the coast where it never seems to get too hot. As we always do on road-trips, we talked a lot and then we listened to an audio book together. I think the time spent in the car on the way there is almost as rewarding as the time spent at the destination.

To our delight, our accommodations included a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean. After the sun went down, we discovered another delightful surprise. If we opened our balcony door we were being serenaded by the sound of the surf crashing on the beach not far away and the cool ocean breezes fluttered gently into our room.

The coolest thing about this whole trip was that Hubby had gotten our accommodations from a co-worker that had redeemed his frequent flier miles for a hotel voucher and then couldn't use it before the expiration. So he offered it to Hubby for $100. It was the best $100 we've ever spent on a hotel room!

Creativity's journey

2010-06-24T17:21:00.000-07:00

The background photo in the above piece came out of an old family photo album and really was taken in the 1950's in San Francisco.
The illustration is a watercolor of my own creation.
I'm hoping to do a full series called 'Frisco in the Fifties because San Francisco and its history are so dear to my heart.

I am coming up on the three year anniversary of this blog and also the anniversary of me embarking on the journey of self-discovery and re-awakening the artist within that had stayed dormant for a decade.

The journey has been interesting thus far. It's far from over. I don't think it ever will be... thankfully.

I'd never been very open about my creative process (I'm really a cynical introvert by nature). The blog changed that... a lot. I think it has forced me to create differently and explore niches and avenues that I otherwise wouldn't have.

Hubby is convinced that all artists are "tortured souls" to some degree or another. I admit that I have my fair share of artistic torture and angst. Here are some questions I ask myself that probably other creatives do too...

When I'm tortured about submission rejections of my work I ask,

"Do I want to be a trend-chaser or a trendsetter?"

When I'm tortured about my agent not calling or emailing I ask,
"Does it matter if my art sells?"

Or I ask,
"If I license my artwork, have I sold out?"

Or this is a favorite,
"Does anyone like my work besides me?"

When I sit in front of a completed painting I really like, I ask,
"Where did this come from?"

The funny thing about blogging my creative journey and deepest creative musings is that its out there... in perpetuity... for all to see. That's pretty scary, because if my creative journey suddenly takes a detour or a complete U-turn, readers that are "along for the ride" may feel like they're getting whiplash. Of course, those that are creatives themselves know exactly what's going on because they do it themselves. At least I hope they do.

"'Frisco in the Fifties: Shopping at I. Magnin" is available in fine art prints and canvases by clicking here