quickening of time…

the quickening of time is hard to ignore as we find ourselves at the end of February already…

Mother Nature has wobbled from winter to May like temperatures and back again…

I ended up at a garden center last week on a glorious 78 degree/25.5 Celsius day which was a good 20 degrees warmer than normal for this time of year here in northern Virginia…

a few plants came home with me and I will have to babysit them mostly indoors until planting time arrives in a month or more…

I can’t seem to snap enough photos of this potted Lenten Rose… how do you spell spring fever…

we have eaten a good bit of cake this month celebrating Mr Magpie’s birthday…

 still celebrating with a yummy Sunday treat of pear puff pastry tarte OH MY… 

wishing everyone over at Elizabeth’s Altered Book Lover a Happy T Day… 

♥ February ♥

here we are in February already…

heart month…  I have accumulated a bit of a he♥rt collection over the years and even have a “heart” category on my blog…

something very precious to me is a stool Mr Magpie made many years ago and my mother painted with intentions of giving it to me (the apple tart is from the shop in the photo above with the ♥I wheely like you♥ sign…they sell wonderful organic farm bread too)…

my mutti found the stool so useful (she wasn’t quite five feet tall) that she had it in her kitchen for many years before it came to me…

each speckle adds to the patina and charm of so many years in her pantry…

wishing you a Happy T Day along with everyone over at Elizabeth’s Altered Book Lover where all you need to join in the fun is to share anything related to a drink (guess what! I found a way to post photos again that can be clicked on for a closer look = hoorah!)…

as an aside a few of you have asked from previous blog posts what was inside the Paris box I have shared in photos…all is revealed above… (I was content with just the box but the candle is very nice too!)…

“February, a form
Pale-vestured, wildly fair,—
One of the North Wind’s daughters,
With icicles in her hair.”
~Edgar Fawcett, “The Masque of Months,” c.1878

the past is a foreign country…

inspiration for these pages came from some dotted green paper that I ended up not using and a couple of images torn from an old book…

J.P. Hartley’s quote: “The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there” really speaks to me…

we’ve had so many cloudy days this month I kept waiting for a good time to take some photographs…

it was nice to see a bit of blue sky again…

I am joining Erika’s “tell me a story” theme over at Art Journal Journey…

thank you for visiting …

I am sending Peace ♥ Love and Light your way…

Another Tea Time…

inspiration is everywhere and I marveled at how nicely my choice of drinks happened to match the colors I selected for my background for Erika’s “Tell me a Story” challenge over at Art Journal Journey…

blackberry and cucumber flavored sparkling water … 0-calorie  0-sweetener   0-sodium = Innocent! as written on the front of the can…

I am enjoying getting reacquainted with my water soluble crayons scrubbing after scribbling randomly with a damp brush to blend the colors (the book text also had some white gesso on it)…

Mano Svanidze’s brilliant photo “Another Tea Time” of the lady with her tea cup and tea pot inspired me along with pieces of corrugated cardboard  and heavy gesso…

for the left hand page I used one of my photos layered with artwork using iPhone apps along with some words I had jotted down…

I am also joining everyone over at Elizabeth’s Altered Book Lover for T Stands for Tuesday…

“The Universe has your back.   Instead of trying to control the outcome, just enjoy the journey.” -Dawn Gluskin

Bountiful September…

before too much more time passes I wanted to join everyone over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s T Stands for Tuesday to say hello…

my focus is still on purging and clearing out while we continue with some home improvements…

consequently I have not been on the computer much at all…

♥~ hope you are well and enjoying your September ~♥~

“Wherever you are, be all there.” -Jim Elliot

 

the silence of growing things

ever since I was a young girl I have had a strong connection to nature…

there were years when being a full time gardener was my saving grace helping me through difficult times…

I do not garden as much as I used to for various reasons but my Love of nature is still strong…

these pages were inspired as I came across some get well cards sent to me in 2003 (I know!!! I am working to alter my saving ways with most of the cards now in the recycle bin but the card front which is the centerpiece of my right hand page highlights the natural wonder of herb gardening so I decided to do another spread)…

many thanks to Gill for hosting the wonderful theme of NATURE’S WONDERS for Art Journal Journey this month…

there is boundless creativity and inspiration on the AJJ challenge blog month after month ~♥~ special thanks to Susi and Valerie for keeping the fun going!!!

Helianthus time again …

a local cut your own farm (Burnside Farms) planted over 30 varieties of “cutting” sunflowers (Helianthus) on about six acres in successive crops to ensure at least six weeks of blooming flowers…our August tropical heat and humidity kept me indoors a good bit and I almost missed them…

very happy that I made time to visit last Wednesday which was the last low heat and humidity day we would have for awhile…such a delight to see fields of flowers again this year…

 with so many cheerful blooms…

these two little girls were having lots of fun frolicking in the fields…

I took a quick photo of the flowers I cut before I left the farm (the sun bleached out the deep red of the top of my parasol)…

the cut blooms last a long time if you watch the water level…

we are still waiting for our replacement carpet in the sun room as we had a bad experience with the first toxic foam padding that  smelled horrible even after a week of airing out…

we soon realized we could not live with it…

so we are back to the concrete floor for now and have ordered new carpet and padding with low VOC which is what we should have gotten in the first place…

 we got excited rushing things a bit settling for what was quickly available… 

joining with T Stands for Tuesday and wishing you a happy day…

I also created a digital sunflower piece for Art Journal Journey’s NATURE’S WONDERS theme which ends on Wednesday…

August Visit to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens…

between scorching hot summer temperatures and all of the upheaval with our home improvements it had been four weeks since we last visited the aquatic gardens…

instead of a packed parking lot like at the end of July we were one of just a handful of visitors bright and early on Sunday…

even though there were fewer blooms than earlier in the summer the lotuses (loti) did not disappoint standing tall in the morning light with pearls of dew sparkling like diamonds…

there were lots of handsome lotus pods with their rattly black seeds…

and a fair number of fresh buds too…

the bees seemed extra busy…

this visit the tropical ponds really captured my attention…

the plants in these ponds have to be overwintered in greenhouses each year since they are not natives…

we were lucky to catch the big Victoria amazonica water lily in bloom as it only opens when it is cooler in the mornings and closes in the midday heat…

in the photo above you get an idea of how tall the loti are this time of year… surpassing Mr Magpie’s 6 foot 7 inches (measurement INCLUDES the FRED water bottle on his head)…

each visit to this national park is a delight with beauty and wonder at every turn (this was our fourth visit this summer)…

with dew soaked shoes we headed back to Virginia by way of PAUL’s  and had a yummy bite to eat…

joining everyone over at Elizabeth’s Altered Book Lover for T Stands for Tuesday…

and offering another digital piece combining my photo and artwork for Art Journal Journey’s NATURE’S WONDERS theme ~♥~ thank you for your visit

blossom and grow…

a recent photo of mine of a passion flower and some pink fairy roses

layered with the pages of an old ledger using lots of filters to create a digital piece for Art Journal Journey’s NATURE’S WONDERS theme…

flowers are an endless source of wonder and joy for me…

“Every flower blooms at a different pace.” –Suzy Kassem

… weeds make haste …

this page began with a copy of one of my recent background pages…

the daisies are stickers that I have had for a long long time having bought them just because…

 thanks to “The Sweet Swan of Avon” for the perfect quote above…

and here is a digital piece I also made for Yvonne’s Art Journal Journey  IN THE GARDEN there is challenge… there is a lot to say about weeds but I won’t go there

Lavender Blue…

for years now in our Virginia garden June means it is time for the Lavender to bloom…

it often happens around Father’s Day…there is nothing quite like the soothing natural fragrance…

which is right on time as I have been feeling a bit lost…

trying hard not to be too discouraged with world events…

nature always provides a precious respite…

in the early morning sun the other day I spotted these shiny silver slug trails on slates (try saying that five times quickly) near one of our bird baths… they were only visible for a short while and I had to tilt my head a certain way and use the real camera as my cell phone would not pick them up at all…

I just came across the plant tag I had tucked away to help remind me of the variety of Lavender that has done so well for us for so long…

Lavandula “Provence” (L. x intermedia) Lavandin enjoys the strong afternoon sun and very good drainage…

thank you for visiting… as always I am sending very best wishes your way…

“There is nothing but mystery in the world, how it hides behind the fabric of our poor, browbeat days, shining brightly, and we don’t even know it.”-Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

 

Le Mont Saint-Michel

the traveling tea cup and I are joining T Stands for Tuesday today with a little trip to Normandy, France…

built in the 11th century the Mont Saint-Michel Abbey Church has been an important pilgrimage destination…

it was exciting for me to return to a place that was magical so many years ago when I stayed there as a solo traveler…

back then before the addition of the bridge high tides would completely cut off traffic…

there are about 3 million visitors annually (even on a Tuesday in April it was crowded)…  there are 900 stairs from the bottom to the landing of the nave at the top along with lots of cobblestone streets…

we wished we’d had a little more time there…

good reason to return again one day…

I created two pages in my French Travel Journal using original text from two old books (the postcard lifts up and is from my nine week trip to Europe long ago… I sent a postcard to my parents almost every day)…I was also inspired to create two pages in one of my gesso journals using a vintage map of the abbey on pages I painted black…the ‘tell me everything’ image is a moo card enlarged and printed in black and white…this spread is for the Art Journal Journey MAPS challenge…

I had been playing with this image days before the horrific Orlando shootings… the French calligraphy was from a friend back when I participated in swaps… a dried rose mirrored the rose on the vintage plate…  the bee is painted tin…

I used Pixlr Express to alter my photo…

~♥ “Je te souchaite” = “I wish you” … LOVE ALWAYS ♥~

 

Avignon …

Avignon sits in the heart of Provence, France…

in the early 1300’s it was the seat of the Catholic Church for about 70+ years…and home to the Palace of the Popes with a beautiful castle and cathedral surrounded by lovely gardens…

lots of towns in France have a carousel…this two story one in the main square in Avignon was lovely…

the Palais des Papes was the largest Gothic palace ever built by Pope Clement V, who abandoned Rome in 1309…

such rich history…Avignon was immortalized in a song you may have heard about the famous medieval bridge which has been classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site...

we hiked up the hill for a great view of the Rhône River and recharged our batteries at le Cafe du Rocher while we watched a mother duck and her ducklings play in the fountain…

I was not much of a shopper on our trip concentrating more on collecting memories and photos…

BUT there were temptations (Linda the poppy mug made me think of you!)…

in the Provence region Lavender is a big attraction and I just had to snap a quick photo of these full length bathroom stall doors at a rest stop (designed with privacy in mind…they are not uncommon throughout Europe)… back at home after coming across three different napkins in my stash I got busy peeling away several layers and tearing and pasting pieces of napkin for quite a long time…

I added several sprigs of Lavender that I had pressed from our garden hoping that “fleurs partout” translates to “flowers everywhere” (French Lavender fields won’t be blooming until around late June – July I believe) …

joining Elizabeth’s T Stands for Tuesday and Art Journal Journey today for the last day of Erika’s lovely JOURNEYS challenge…(Avignon angel photo layered with Diana iphone app onto my teapot/cup photo)

~♥ thank you for visiting ♥~