Jenny Mendes

The morning light of spring always feels like a miracle to me. new growth green.  i love this color. i planted these peas march 19.  fast forward a month....... Rhubarb!!

Urghhhhh. I broke this one after I photographed it.  But at lease I've got a photo!

When it's been a while since I've done something familiar, I have to figure it out all over again.  It starts out slow.   Let's see what tomorrow brings....

Exciting news.  My clivia is blooming, a rare event.  Actually I have three blooms.  And here is my little not so little Claude, now 54 pounds, and exactly one year after I first met him.  He's near impossible to photograph, because  1. I am a terrible photographer, and  2. he was designed to run and he is never still.  I'd love to catch an image of him mid air.  He looks like an albino flying deer.

I always need a good book when I'm working, especially when painting lots of dots.  I just finished listening to Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. I finished it today, sadly.  19 discs of wonderous story.  Now I need a new one.  Any suggestions?

Mary's breakfast.....sent via i-phone.... I love cucumbers and tomatoes for breakfast myself.....looks like a good way to start the day to me!

You know when you notice something for the first time, and then you realize it is everywhere all around you, but you just never noticed consciously?  Like a word, or a concept, or a native plant?  My neighbor has the most glorious red bushy thing.  I couldn't believe I didn't remember it in all its glory from years past.  Then I started looking around, and realized little self sown shaggier varieties are all over the place, some even on our property.  Actually quite a few small ones here and there.  When they are green they are not too exciting to look at, but apparently come October they lose their anonymity in an explosion of color.  In the spring, I am going to find some little shoots, and nurture them so that one day,  I too will have an incredible red burst come October.  Here is my little Claude, nearly one year old. He is so nice.  I feel really lucky to have found him.  

I was thinking to try and use as my this color palette today. It is so beautiful now, even when it's raining.

I watched Mark try and fix the bridge that was all twisted from the flood.   He says it is ok to walk on now... I had no idea what exactly he was doing, but it looked serious! I admired my garden, that I had recently spent a week plus completely digging up....you can see an old friend of mine that got way overfired and warped who lives here now... Found this thing washed up in one of the major rains, and it has become a garden goddess of sorts.... threw the cat outside to enjoy the last days of sun...she looks a bit vexed?! and admired my darling teenage dog, who needed his little nap, as he is nearly 1 years old!! and lastly, made myself work on this old thing, one of many I'm trying to finish up in the my studio of  work left unfinished.    Interestingly after looking at it here, I can see it needs something more.  Some leaf shapes maybe.  Sometimes you need a more far away eye to witness the obvious.    Not too...

You can see the vine coming out of my compost bin.... Not a lot of pumpkins, but the plant is amazing.... Thought these were going to be sweet....wrong! These seeds were from my friend in Macedonia, I'm not sure if the peppers will be hot or sweet. From some seeds I saved when I was a resident at Penland School.  I love this color. A wonderful Zinnia, long lasting, lots of flowers.  A favorite!! Lots of flowers but not many pumpkins.  This was after a big rain...... Almost 10 months old....

The best thing happening in my garden at the moment are the tomatoes .... somehow I don't have as much color as I'd like this year, but the tomatoes look great.  The cucumbers however have been a disaster.  Out of 10 or more plants most have died.  And I had been dreaming of pickling, might just have to pickle the tomatoes instead.