Glorious Garden

This morning Lala and I went to the GB Botanical Garden as soon as it opened and spent a lovely 2 hours walking around admiring all of the pretty plants and flowers. We were there so early that we practically had the place to ourselves but it was supposed to rain and we didn't want to miss the garden.  I think my favorite flower was this yellow peony. It just stood there smiling at me looking like sunshine with petals.

They've torn up the children's area to renovate it and make it better so there was this area where things were made with wood. One of the things was this tepee and Lala decided to pose in it. We think she looks pretty cute there.

I was pretty enamored of this white clematis that was climbing up an arched arbor

 

and look at the shade of green of this ginko tree's leaves. Can't you just taste the green?

I spent quite a bit of the afternoon trying to draw and then paint that yellow peony. I'm showing you the watercolor to prove that I did it but I think it may be one of my least successful efforts. Oh well, they can't all be good or even halfway decent.

I had better luck drawing. The next figure in The 15-Minute Artist was a light bulb. Pretty simple to draw but I like the way the base of the bulb turned out.

Then I pulled out my sure-fire cure for art frustration--10-Step Drawing: Nature. I always have good luck when I draw from that book. Today's effort is a little mouse that has shinnied up a wheat stalk. Pretty cute, huh?

Today's toss was a pair of books that a friend lent me and he doesn't want them back. I'll probably put them into a Little Free Library.

It's been fun having company the last couple days. We found lots to talk about and had a great time at the Botanical Garden. It'll be real quiet here when she leaves tomorrow but I'm down to one clean shirt so it's time to do laundry. Oh goodie.

--Barbara