Sheryl & Teddy's Place

Okay, not a flower yet, but it will be a trillium of some kind, I promise!

There is a little road that I travel a few times a week called Kirkpatrick Hollow. One of those roads that if you meet someone diving the other way, someone has to pull over – and pulling over can really put your life in your hands if you’re not careful.

Spotted Phacelia

Anywho, I noticed a number of spring wildflowers there – some I know the names of, some I don’t. But I hope you enjoy them.

Oh, and Yay Spring!!

Lobelia, maybe?

Mayapple's shiny leaves light up the forest floor

I shall pass through this world but once.
Any good that I may do,
Or any kindness I may show
To any human,
Let me do it now.
Let me not defer it
Nor neglect it,
For I shall not pass this way again.

- Stephen Grellet, 1773-1855, French-born Quaker Minister

I took a one day class this week, trying to improve my oil painting techniques along with my developing portraiture skills.  It was given by the wonderful Agnes Fuss at the Cumberland Art Society. Lucky for all of us, there were only 6 people in the class which allowed Agnes to pay us plenty of individual attention.

The point of the class is improving the artist’s ability to see the light values that all faces share.  We began with a model that emphasized the various planes using a singular light source.

Here’s the gang, hard at work- meet Bob, Vivian, Noel, Dave and Anna.

Anna, hard at work with Dave behind her.

Anna and Dave

Bob and Noel

After painting the model head, we painted a concrete bust of a young girl, allowing us to apply what we learned on a more naturalistic piece.  These are my finished pieces.

Black form of the Eastern Swallowtail (on White Swan Echinacea)

Eastern Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus)

I can’t believe how many butterflies my paltry selection of coneflowers have attracted.  Throw in some dianthus and zinnias, and you have quite a display – as delicate and ephemeral as they may be.

Sorry for how ratty the Echinacea looks  – we’ve had some really hot and dry weather here – especially for Middle Tennesee.

Zebra Swallowtail (Eurytides marcellus)

Just for fun, I thought I’d put up this lovely catepillar – seriously, isn’t s/ he  gorgeous?  I thinkit’s the catepillar of the big yellow Tiger Swallowtail, above.

The pic is from last summer when I found ithappily devouring my carrot leaves.  Oh well, it’s not like *I* eat them.

… because she doesn’t believe that my painting could be a small but dark and oily mess.

See?  See?  Told ya.

I love the centers that echo the leaf color.

Nope, it's not your monitor, they really are that green.

Usually I’m not *quite* as big of of a fan of Coneflowers (Echinacea spp.) but I wanted to show off these pics that I took from the NYBG last week.  I apologize in advance for only getting the name of one of the types, but it seemed like the signs were missing for only the ones I was interested in, grrrr…

Lucky me, I got to ride along to New York for Teddy’s bored meeting.  Is it just me, or is New York getting friendlier?  Everyone was so nice – people on the street, waitresses, cabbies … it was great.

Nice, huh?

While Teddy was working, I rode the train (subway?  not sure of the diff) to the New York Botanical Gardens.  Couldn’t believe how beautiful everything was.  All the lilies and the hydrangeas were in full bloom.   They had a tram to take you around to some of the highlights, but I’m sure there was much I missed: the garden is 250 acres, at least one huge library, a gigantic conservatory (that was closed, much to my disappointment,) conifer forest, perennial gardens, rose garden, an edible garden display and tons more.

Herb pot outside of The Martha's edible garden.

The edible garden was  a knot garden that somehow had Martha Stewart connected to it – typical boxwood outlines filled with cardoons and other food plants.  There were gardens  beyond that caught my eye (see above pic,) so I moved on.

Huge Savoy cabbage, overflowing parsley - how pretty can your vegetable garden be?

A little further on was a vegetable garden done in raised beds, beautifully laid out.  And, of course, filled with edible flowers and herbs along with the vegetables.  I can see where it might be difficult to actually pick anything and ruin the design.  Still, it was beautifully done.

More vegetable beds.

Hooray!  Looks like the treatment worked and Sassy is back to four full feet.  What a relief.