finding beauty …

Mr Magpie and I took the traveling tea cup away for a long weekend recently and did a bit of garden hopping in Pennsylvania…

we were delighted to visit the beautiful Chanticleer Gardens  several years ago and knew we wanted to make a return visit again someday…

May and June in my view are fabulous garden months with so much blooming and temperatures that are not too hot or humid…

as it turned out this one day out of the four we were away did get a bit warm and sticky so my pretty paper parasol really came in handy for shade while strolling some of the 35 acres…

we discovered that the blooms in Pennsylvania were about two weeks behind us here in Virginia (next Tea Tuesday I have some really fabulous Wisteria pics to share from the other garden we toured as well)…

Chanticleer has been described as a “pleasure garden” that is “planted to perfection” with lots of welcoming places to sit and linger to enjoy the lush vistas along with the flora and fauna…

the arched veranda was especially lovely and cool with breezes blowing through and we were mesmerized by the ceramic pot filled with water that had fresh flowers floating in it…

there was a group of artists intently working  away with pastels en plein air…

joining Elizabeth and Bleubeard for Tea on Tuesday and sending up prayers for all those affected by the tornado on 20 May in  Oklahoma♥

it is difficult to try and make sense out of how beautiful AND destructive nature can be all at the same time…

♥Peace to you dear ones ♥

Mandala Monday: Dessert First

my mandala today was done on a dessert plate…

using a columbine blossom for the center on a bed of China Girl pink rose petals with a bit of fennel greenery…

robin redbreasts built a nest in our climbing rose trellis on the corner of our front porch…

in a fairly busy place as that is the direct path from our driveway to our front door…

I tried discouraging the robins from laying eggs there by removing the nests that now decorate a box on the back porch (I know! I felt horrible but it was before they laid any eggs and I hoped they would pick from the many other spots available in our garden)…

finally on a rainy day I gave up and Mrs Robin built nest #5 and laid a clutch of four eggs (I snapped the photo above before she added the fourth egg)…

now mockingbirds have moved in too and built a nest four posts down on the other end of the porch right by our front door… 

in all the years we’ve had mockingbirds in the garden we have never seen a nest…

“Life is short.  Eat dessert first” -Jacques Torres

joining Dawn for her Mandala Monday…

wherever you stand…

a couple more pages for both the Art Journal Journey (Challenge Yourself)  and Dawn’s Journal Journey’s (Birds) challenges this month…

I have wanted to try my hand at using water soluble oil pastels and gesso for some time now…

first scribbling on my encyclopedia pages…

then blending with the white gesso and adding a paper doily from a tea tray enjoyed with a special friend recently…

I made a copy of a face from a magazine and various cut out flowers from catalogs along with a birds nest for ‘hair’…

the bluebird of happiness…

Rumi’s quote speaks to me again and again…

a bit of sari fabric and some velvety rickrack…

my first pages for these two challenges can be found here…

Lily of the valley tea…

“The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses.”  ~Hanna Rion

one whiff of deliciously fragrant Lily of the Valley and you are instantly reminded of just how amazing nature can be…

each flower is so distinctive…

it seems that every one that blooms in our garden is my favorite…

“Nothing is more memorable than a smell.  One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains.” ~Diane Ackerman …

joining Elizabeth and Bleubeard for Tea on Tuesday

Mandala Monday: Honey Locust Delight

for several weeks each Spring our Honey Locust tree shines in chartreuse glory later turning to regular green until the Autumn when the tiny leaves turn golden…

our Wisteria has a few beautiful blooms but is nothing close to the breathtaking display we enjoyed at Dumbarton Oaks at the end of April…

since green leaves hid many of our blossoms I decided to pluck some flowers to enjoy up close and personal…

a few golden Buttercups in our lawn caught my attention too…

joining Dawn for her Mandala Monday…

“The tiniest dewdrop hanging from a blade of grass in the morning is big enough to reflect the sunshine and the blue of the sky.”  -Anonymous

♥Blessings to Mothers Everywhere♥

“Mothers hold their children’s hands for a short while, but their hearts forever.” -Unknown

Mom turned backwards is still MOM…

Mom flipped upside down is WOW…

Without mothers, our society would be doomed …

OXO

more than one kind of Bluebell Tea …

we have a few patches of these delicately fragrant and pretty Spanish Bluebells in our garden…

shared from my mother’s garden many years ago which are all together different from the Virginia Bluebells I have shown you in the past…

a dream of mine is to visit an English Bluebell forest one day (when we visit the UK next month the Bluebells will already be finished for the season so I will look forward to other blooming delights)…

nature is a constant reminder of how quickly things change…

that is one reason I am so grateful to be able to snap photographs of nature’s parade of blooms…

there was some conversation last week on my Tea Tuesday post about cutting old quilts…

I really appreciated your forthcoming reactions as there are so many different ways to look at things…

what you couldn’t see in my photos was some of the wear and tear these well loved quilts have (just a small sampling of some rips and holes above) which down the road will make it a bit easier to use them for assorted art projects…

thank you as always for stopping by and making Tuesdays extra special oxo