Tuesday Tea...

As evident from my last post... I have trouble sleeping.  I try to wind down before going to bed... Sometimes this helps...

I love this little vintage Nippon tea cup... Such a serene scene painted on it.  It's part of a small hand painted vintage Nippon collection that I have... all with landscape scenes.  I'll have to post it sometime...

For more Tuesday Tea participants, visit Kimmie and look for us on her sidebar.

A Life of Little Sleep...

The bed in the cottage behind the Bayboro House in St. Petersburg, FL.

Sleep doesn't come easily to me. It never has...
Night lights chased nightmares away.
A little girl's legs aching.

Creativity came in daylight hours...
Verse and embroidered flowers of blue.

Growing pains of growing up...
Loves found, loves lost...
A young woman's heart breaking.

Love poems in college years...
Of dreams not meant to come true.

Heart break of another kind...
Loss of  the dearest one...
Too soon a mother's taking.

Her creativity and life inspired...
Poems of honor and muse renewed.

Life keeps offering trials...
Injuries and illness, and more loss...
Love and hope not forsaking.

Inspiring strength and courage...
And a closeness to you.

Still sleep comes little and late...
Creativity comes day and night...
An artist's mind waking.

DDD2010

Haiku My Heart and Magpie 29...

Willow provided the photo prompt below for Magpie 29...
I've used it for a haiku prompt and short fiction prompt...

Photo prompt provided by Magpie Tales

Four walls and a roof...
shelter, comfort, safety, warmth.
Love holds home steadfast.
DDD2010

For more haiku visit Haiku My Heart

I always loved this old house. "Aunt Lou's cottage," Momma always called it. She had spent much time here as a child as well. Driving up, I caught a glimpse of Uncle Mylan's red velvet, wing back chair in the window. That's where he sat and read... or dozed with a book in his lap as he aged... his Beagle, "Kate" lying at his feet.
Stepping again on the hardwood floor brings back memories of hand sewn quilts, cut roses in crystal vases and tea from one of Aunt Lou's fine China tea sets... she had several. Uncle Mylan's pipe still lies on the table beside his chair, as if he would walk into the room, sit down, fill it and light it at any time. Even though the oven stands cold now, the aroma of hot apple cobbler fills my senses. Aunt Lou made it from the fruit we picked from the orchard out back.
The tea sets are mine now... as are the quilts and the rose garden. Hearing the "click click'" of Kate's toenails on the floor tells me it's time to go outside. The orchard is in full bloom now. Kate can't go as far as she used to or chase falling blossoms. I'll have to learn to tend the trees... and make apple cobbler...
DDD2010

For more Magpie visit Magpie Tales

Tea Tuesday... Early Post...

Okay... It's only Monday... But it's 10:45pm and I just finished a painting I've been working on...
So... I thought I'd have a cup of Green Tea and show it to you...

Green Tea and Baby Green Sea Turtle....

"On My Own"
Oil on 5" x 5" - 1.5" deep artist wrapped canvas

Be sure to visit Kimmie for more Tuesday Tea!

Haiku My Heart Friday...

bright morning sun shines
turns blooms to luminaries
to light my way home
DDD 2010

For more Friday Haiku visit
Haiku My Heart

Another Oil Experiment...

A Cerulean Warbler, with attitude...

Oil on 8" x 8" pearlized scrapbook paper. Let's hope it sticks!

Tuesday Tea...

Sleepy Tuesday morning... I'm drinking my usual morning black tea watching the dark sky turn orange, then a creamy blue as the sun rises.

The photo is one Bruce took (from his phone) last summer of a sun rise over San Carlos Bay in the Town of Ft. Myers Beach, Florida.  He was visiting his brother and sent it to me as a morning greeting. What a sweetie, huh?

Happy Tea Tuesday everyone...

For more Tuesday Tea, visit Kimmie's blog and look on her sidebar for us...

New Paintings...

This Indigo Bunting has personality...

Oil on gessoed 6" x 6" vellum

A hunting Green Heron...

Oil on gessoed 6" x 6" scrap book paper

A pair of Crows...

Oil on gessoed 6" x 6" scrap book paper

My first Sea Horse...

Oil on 5" x 7" canvas board with acrylic background

Friday Haiku...

evidence of life
remnants of growth left behind
grace my patio
D 2010

I had seen the Black Racer scurrying off the patio once as I slid open the door.  A few days after that, I found this snake skin in a basket type plant stand filled with epiphytes. I left it there for the birds to use as nest material, if they so chose.

For more Friday haiku...
haiku my heart

Sometimes inspiration comes from adversity...

This is the cover of the American Planning Association Magazine, Aug-Sept 2010 Issue. There's a feature article in it about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster.  The photo is of Brown Pelicans, which when in breeding plumage (as these are) are not brown. 

Where color once was
is now dark and brown.
The sleek and the buoyant,
now burdened... weighed down.

Greed is heavy among us,
encumbering the innocent.
Avoidable... sorrowful...
the consequences are salient.
D 2010

This is what they should look like...

Good to be home...

After 2 long days on the road... I'm back.  The flowers (from my last post) are called Coral Vine. They bloom during the summer and have pretty heart shaped leaves and tender, curly tendrils.  I don't think they are native to Florida, but I've seen them all my life, and they don't seem to be invasive...just pretty...  Glad you all liked them.

I took these with my phone today at our Sarasota office after a rain...

It's a very a popular and low maintenance "Florida Friendly" landscape plant, called Jatropha (sp?).

Monday Flowers and a Heartfelt Thank You...

I'll be out of town Tuesday night, so I won't be around for Tuesday Tea.  So I'm going to leave you with the flowers I sent out this morning...

And while I'm at it, I want to thank you all for your wonderful comments on my art and creative writing... I'm not one to email folks a lot, but I wanted to let you all know that I truly am appreciative of all of your visits and compliments.  I would never have imagined that so many of you would like it so well.  I feel I am in outstanding company in this community of bloggers.  Thank you so much...

Haiku Friday and New Painting...

morning sun rises
lovely lark welcomes the day
sings his lovely song
D2010 (revised)

alla prima painting
oil on gessoed 6"x 6" scrapbook paper

for more haiku
haiku my heart

Magpie 26

The watering can sat there entwined in vines, just as it had been entwined in her hands... in her life.  She had long since turned... first in color, gradually.  Then in substance... fingers... arms... becoming limber cane.  Feet rooted deep in the soil, leaves sprouted from her fingers and hair... The garden, which had thrived with her human nurturing, now grew wild and robust with her spirit. 
D2010

Magpie Tales

Tea Tuesday...

I'm having my normal black tea this morning in my travel mug... getting ready (okay I'm online and not getting ready at this moment) for work.  I thought I'd post my finished (touched up) Karner Blue painting...

and my Mourning Dove that I painted last night.  He's on a 5"x7" stretched, wrapped canvas that was textured with tissue paper (I was going to use it for a collage) and painted with acrylics. I'm not sure I'm pleased with the ruffled feathers on his back... They look kind of uniform... and I might use some more colors in the sky. Anyway... here he is... my "Morning Coo."

Kimmie's on vacation I think, but you can still see what the other Tuesday Tea ladies are up to by visiting her blog Art in Red Wagons.  We're a group listed on her sidebar.

Another (daily?) painting...

It seems lately that I've been enjoying my water mixable oil paints so much that I've been doing an "alla prima" painting every day...

Today it was a Karner Bluer Butterfly on acrylic paint primed, 6"x6" (trimmed to 6"x5 1/4") vellum. The dark colored stem, leaf and "buds" that all look black in the photo are a combination of black and dark green. After it's dried a bit, I'll go back in a add some lighter green shades to it.  I think I'm getting closer to the effect I want. I love the thickness and texture of the paint and the brush marks left.