Grateful Heart

This page popped out this morning.  The only art I have done all week.  My creative pursuits have been focused on other forms like weaving and gardening. Last night I attended a Native American Pipe Ceremony.  There is one held monthly at a spiritual center in town.  A woman named Bright Owl comes down from her ranch in Moore Idaho to hold the ceremony. It is such a gift to be able to take part.  I like  to go when I can.  Last night it was all about gratitude, one of my favorite things. It was a close intimate sharing with about twenty people.  I am still filled with all the good wishes.  I think that is why this page came out today.

I made the background with Inktense blocks awhile ago. So as I sat looking at the beautiful colors I decided to try something different.  She is drawn in charcoal and embellished with chalk pastels. I added several layers with stamping.  The flowers were drawn with charcoal and filled in with pastel. I used white gel pen for the eyes and a china marker for the circles. Then I finished it by spraying a fixative on the piece.  There is too much smearing if you don't do that.  I used hair spray, it works great. The words say "A thankful heart is a grateful heart."

Gardening
I am not the best gardener by anyone standard but I do love my garden anyways. I have more weeds than flowers. I went out to tackle some of it today and found these.

I had planted some this spring but I don't think they made it. Then I noticed some that were a transplant from a friend that I planted last summer and they came up. Oh Was I excited. Anytime a plant comes back I see it as such a gift. Life renewed is such a joy to see. I am especially happy about the Lily of the Valley's though. I have tried planting them before with no success. They are the one flower from my childhood that I had not been able to grow. Its a bit of my mom coming back to me. We had a big patch of lily of the valleys on the side of the house. Now I can see I will finally be seeing them at my own place. A simple thing that really brings back memories.

The Fairies are here

Spring is here finally, so on the many errands I went on today I ended up at a garden center.

I was first drawn to this lovely lady and she just had to come home with me. The garden is bare but soon she'll have flowers all around her.

Then I saw this young boy and he was certain that he wanted to come home with me too.  I bought some new plants too. So this will be short so I can go get my hands in dirt.  I hope spring has made its way back to you too.

Prayer Flag Request

I am sending out a call for prayer flags, so let me explain.  As some of you know I am having surgery in July, A hysterctomy to take care of uterine cancer.  You also know I really worked in my garden to make it a healing place. Its where I plan to spend most of the summer, especially when I am convalescing.

Last summer my glitters sisters; a group of artists I met online all made prayer flags for one of us who was dealing with cancer. They were fun to make and something one could do to offer support so far away.  So I thought it would be wonderful to have more flags from my friends.  I have asked a few friends locally to make me one so I thought I would open this up to anyone who reads my blog who might like to do this. If you do leave a comment with contact infomation and I will send you my address.  My surgery is July 30th so I would like them before that, but if its later than that is ok too. I will just get Dave to hang them.

So if you want to do this you may be asking what do I do.  Most of my flags are 9 x 9 made from fabric,  you can make that size or any size you want but square works best.  You can decorate in anyway you want, even just write a word or phrase with a sharpie pen. You don't have to hem them or anything I will put them together when I receive them.










These are the prayer flags in my yard. The set closest were made by my glitter sisters and the others are traditional Tibetan Prayer Flags. If you go to this post you can see the glitter sister flags close up.


Some views from my garden










I invited my friend Kate over for lunch to see the garden.  Doesn't our food look lovely. We had Fettuccine Alfredo, a wonderful salad, ice tea and Mountain Huckleberry ice cream for dessert










Here is a plaque of the moon that I have added to a fence post.  I am so in tune with the moon that she had to have a place in my garden. It is comforting to see her there.

These are some pink daisy like flowers that I planted a couple years ago in honor of my friend Daisy Lupin.
 











These are yellow daisy and were planted last week.

This Dahlia is so gorgeous I am thinking of getting some more. Right now as we speak a mourning dove is walking through the garden just pecking away. Its like I am creating this space for me but all of nature is enjoying it.

Another cool thing that happened is I have discovered I can take my laptop outside and still access the Internet.  I couldn't do that with the old service we had.

Summer has Arrived

I would have to say we had our first summer weekend. Three full days of sun and warmth. I spent most of that time working in my garden.

Once more the owls that have graced our property have left me some gifts. I was working in the garden yesterday and found this beautiful feather. It is the biggest one I have seen so far. It almost looked luminous in the grass where I found it.













When you look at it with all the other feathers you can see what a range of sizes we have found in our yard. Dave found most of the small ones while he was cutting the grass.

A sneak peek into the Garden.

This is the small table I got  for my garden.  I love all the different colors of stone.  I am having trouble finding a chair to go with it. So for now its just an old cheap plastic chair.










and this is the Buddha who sits and guards everything.  He seems to give the garden a peace about it. I'll post more pics later, its pretty windy out right now. Tonight I am having a bonfire for the summer solstice, it should be fun. How are you welcoming summer?