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

out and about…

a visit to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens was the only outing we had planned for the 4th of July holiday…feeling hungry after hours of admiring the loti we thought we would try a local PAUL Bakery and cafe … which is located in a shopping mall we hardly ever visit…back in April we had enjoyed a tasty bite to eat at a PAUL concession in the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris (above) and were delighted to find out there were a few here in the US…so on the 4th of July we feasted on silky custard veggie quiche and some delicious French pastries with cappuccinos and brought home a delicious sesame seeded baguette made with organic flour that was baked on the premises…after all that we decided to walk around each of the three levels of the enclosed shopping mall…

you know how one thing can lead to another… we ended up going into one of my favorite window shopping stores…and made an unexpected purchase…

Mr Magpie was right that we needed the I ♥ Paris mug and then I spotted the I ♥ San Francisco mug (two of our favorite cities how could we resist)…we drove home in the rain but stopped for a quick out the car window photo shoot of a building being demolished…

it always fills me with a bit of sadness along with wonder and fascination to see buildings being taken down like that (fun reflections in the building across the street)…and finally I just had to share the beauty of some gorgeous allium bulbs planted at the entrance of a community recreation center which looked a bit like fireworks to me…

we walked out under umbrellas with me snapping photos while Mr M made sure we didn’t get run over…

on 10 July we enjoyed our second visit to the aquatic gardens and even snapped a couple of photos of the beautiful waterlilies which are quite different from our favorite lotus blooms above and waterlilies below (we also stopped in for a bite at PAUL’s  again = YUM!)…

wishing everyone a Happy T Day ~♥~ thank you as always for making the time to visit with me here

sacred lotus…

it is that time of year again when the loti are blooming about an hour’s drive away on the other side of Washington, DC…

it was a lovely low humidity day on the 4th of July so we made our first visit of the season…

since 2013 when we first visited we try and go as many times as we can during July and August…

I had to remind myself to breathe as all that beauty takes my breath away…because it was a bit of an overcast morning there were more photographers than usual with their fancy cameras…we don’t even use our tripod and manage to snap hundreds of photos that make us very happy…inspired by the loti I worked in a small art journal that I made using Citra Solv magazine pages washed with gesso and machine stitched down the middle…the little Debrina Pratt girl is a TAP transfer on delicate cotton and the dragonfly is a sticker that popped up when I was looking for something else…joining Yvonne’s lovely IN MY GARDEN challenge over at Art Journal Journey…

Fred in Lotusland

this year we have been lucky enough to visit Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens in Washington, D.C. six different times to enjoy the beautiful blooms…

as with any garden each visit is special and exciting in different ways…

we find the loti irresistible and so very photogenic…

early morning is our favorite time to watch the sunlight dance across the ponds…

we have a plan for next year to bring a short step ladder to snap a photo like the visitors above cleverly did…

on a few of our visits we saw this artist painting en plein air (you could smell the oil paints)…

and here is a photo of our good friend FRED…

it is not hard to spend two or three hours strolling in the gardens as there is so much to enjoy and discover…

soon the ponds will be filled with brown lotus pods and yellowing leaves until the magic happens all over again next summer…

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

the empty nest…

in a previous post I mentioned that wrens had moved in behind the fern in the corner of our covered porch (turns out it was a very smart choice with all of the summer showers we had on and off during their nesting time)…

during our son’s visit home from Colorado the wrens activity reached a peak and just when I thought I couldn’t take the sweet chirping any longer they moved out without us ever getting a look at the young ones…

our back porch acted like an echo chamber for Mr and Mrs Wren as they played tag team diligently feeding and cleaning out the nest and chirping all the while (wrens do sing some of the sweetest songs and boy were they busy!!!)…

and just like that it all went quiet and they were gone leaving behind their tidy empty nest…

our son made the most of his visit getting to meet up with friends and family… attending a music festival on his birthday and camping out at a favorite beach for a week…

we were very happy to have a perfect summer day (not too hot with low humidity) to visit the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens with him as he’d never been before…

his good sense of humor had us laughing as he posed with my parasol…

and just like that his two and a half week visit was over and he flew back to his mountain home in Colorado leaving us with a quiet house again…

here’s wishing you a Happy T Day along with everyone over at Elizabeth’s Altered Book Lover…

Loti time is here again…

 we were thrilled to visit nearby Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens recently to enjoy the parade of beautiful blooms…

it is a photographer’s paradise…

and a magnet for those who enjoy nature and lotuses (loti) and water lilies and fresh air…

there is so much beauty sometimes you have to focus a bit on the handsome architecture of the stems and leaves and pods to give your eyes a rest…

there are reflections waiting to be discovered too…

this year the paths were the wettest we have seen since we started visiting in 2013 (last month went down in the record books here in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area as the second wettest June ever recorded)…

Mr Magpie used our Sony Cybershot which is especially great for telephoto and I used my iphone 6 camera...

we did bring the Traveling Tea Cup along while enjoying some refreshing water to drink…

we were delighted at how well a couple of carefully chosen lotus leaves worked in place of a saucer…

here’s wishing you a very Happy T Day along with everyone over at Elizabeth’s Altered Book Lover…

Rinda’s 2014 Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt: Final Part 3

many thanks to Rinda for another great scavenger hunt this year…

to see my items 1 – 14 you can visit here and here and below you will find the remainder of my photo finds:

15. A juggler … a juggler remained elusive so I have substituted with Alternative B: a bird house  (I almost shared some photos I took from the television of a medieval fire ball juggler) 

16. A sign in a language other than English

Starbuck’s found in China Town, Washington, D.C.

Karaoke in the suburbs of northern Virginia

17. A lamp post

Lake Anne in Reston,Virginia

so many lamp posts!

18. A water fall

Great Falls Park, Maryland is a beautiful spot and we found a Great Blue Heron enjoying the view while waiting for his lunch to rush by

19. A public garden

Bartholdi Park in Washington, DC is one of our favorite “secret gardens“

it is part of the US Botanic Gardens tucked away across Independence Avenue in the shadow of the US Botanic Garden Conservatory… most enjoyable in every season

20. A bus (not a car, truck, lorry, camper or RV) with a picture painted on its sides.

Washington, D.C.

21. A photograph of you with something representing the season (recognizing that the season will be Winter for our friends in the southern hemisphere). Note: you may not use a substitute for this item.

for the last couple of years we have visited the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens outside of Washington, DC to enjoy the Loti and Water Lilies…there I am with my camera taking a photo of Mr Magpie taking my photo

If you find something on the list too difficult, you may substitute one of the following items for anything on the list, except for Item #21:

Alternative A: A kite, hot air balloon or blimp

kiteboarding is a popular sport on The Outer Banks of North Carolina… we enjoyed watching the boarders fly across the water rising up into the air now and again

Alternative B: A bird house substituted for a juggler at the beginning of my post

in case you were curious about the Medieval juggler I mentioned at the beginning of my post 😉 this photo was snapped from our television screen…

this is a scheduled post… I look forward to catching up with everyone soon… 

“Half of my Heart”

singer and songwriter John Mayer is a favorite artist of mine and I am lucky to have seen him live in concert several times over the years…

his song “Half of my Heart” from his Battle Studies album inspired some journal pages in one of my larger (7.5 x 10″) art journals…

lots and lots of layers using tissue paper… the inside of a pink security envelope with the window… scrap papers… stencils… paint… gesso… Behr Venetian Plaster and more…

the Tin Can Inkadinkadoo dreamy face rubber stamp from long ago and a favorite burst of mine using a bit of golden flimmerstern with some bits of German scrap…

my newest Stencil Girl burst stencil from our wonderful local Goldenshill Papercrafts helped add the finishing touches to my pages which I am entering for the first time in the Moo Mania & More challenge of “Music is in the air“ …

~♥~

music has been an inspiration to me since as long as I can remember

“I was born in the arms of imaginary friends
Free to roam, made a home out of everywhere I’ve been

Then you come on crashing in
Like the realest thing
Trying my best to understand
All that your love can bring

Oh, half of my heart’s got a grip on the situation
Half of my heart takes time
Half of my heart’s got a right mind
To tell you that I can’t keep lovin’ you, can’t keep lovin’ you
Oh, with half of my heart

I was made to believe I’d never love somebody else
Made a plan, stay the man who can only love himself

Lonely was the song I sang
‘Til the day you came
Showing me another way
And all that my love can bring

Oh, half of my heart’s got a grip on the situation
Half of my heart takes time
Half of my heart’s got a right mind
To tell you that I can’t keep lovin’ you, can’t keep lovin’ you
Oh, with half of my heart, with half of my heart

Your faith is strong, but I can only fall short for so long
Down the road, later on
You will hate that I never gave more to you
Than half of my heart

But I can’t stop lovin’ you, I can’t stop lovin’ you
I can’t stop lovin’ you, I can’t stop lovin’ you,
I can’t stop lovin’ you with half of my
Half of my heart, oh half of my heart

Half of my heart’s got a real good imagination
Half of my heart’s got you
Half of my heart’s got a right mind to tell you
That half of my heart won’t do

Half of my heart is a shot gun wedding
To a bride with a paper ring
And half of my heart is the part of a man
Who’s never truly loved anything

Half of my heart, oh half of my heart
Half of my heart, oh half of my heart
Half of my heart, oh half of my heart”

thoughtful silence…

in the past on this day many of you dear ones have helped create a circle of L♥ve and support both spoken and silent by sending healing wishes and kind thoughts and for that I am ♥ever grateful♥…

the grip of grief still holds us but over time it seems a bit of numbness has set in…

 still trying to hold it all together with bits of this and that…

little ♥ messages tucked away…

(one of my collaged postcards printed on used tea bag paper…blue background paper from my Mutti’s childhood school autograph book…tags and a bit of rubber stamping with shrink plastic of a favorite stamp “ART HELPS ME BREATHE“)…

we are always happy to hear his name…

Alex…

Alexander…

Alexander David…

“If you feel lost, disappointed, hesitant, or weak, return to yourself, to who you are, here and now and when you get there, you will discover yourself, like a lotus flower in full bloom, even in a muddy pond, beautiful and strong.”  ~Masura Emoto

♥sending caring thoughts to all those living with grief and loss♥

stronger …

the dinosaur book I have been working on since July…

now has all of the inside pages completed…

without consciously trying the words for my book pages have turned into a bit of flowing text that I will share with you after I complete the cover of the book…

paint…torn papers…drywall mesh tape…washi tape…rubber stamping…computer generated text and a mystery girl surrounded by lotus blooms  that surfaced on my work table…

another “She-Art” spread for Art Journal Journey’s challenge theme this month…

Breathe in…

still inspired by Birgit’s Art Journal Journey’s “Less is More” challenge I got busy in my spiral bound journal gluing pages together and adding a light coat of white gesso…

another special Renaissance image paired with a lotus blossom hat…

along with another lotus photograph we took at the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens added to a page with many layers of different kinds of paint and colored pencil…

my tea mug holds a good two cups worth of tea which kept me company while I doodled and scratched in some shadows and finishing touches…

I had most of this blog post ready to post but we had to make an emergency trip to California on 13 September (approximately 2,500 miles/4,023 km) 

to be with our eldest son (who is doing much better now) and there was hardly any time to be plugged in while we traveled…

we did manage to walk back and forth across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco which is something we had always wanted to do…

♥ hoping you are well ♥

Returning …

Art Journal Journey’s theme for September is “Less is More”  which I found to be a very good creative stretch…

I began by tea dying the pages of one of my hand sewn #140 lb hot press watercolor paper journals along with some pieces of fabric and lace (didn’t want to waste a drop)…

the beautiful image from an old Italian master’s painting is one I am drawn to again and again…

the pink lotus is a photograph we took on one of our many Lotus garden visits this year…

usually I create a spread of two pages (the snippet of graph paper on the lower left is from an EKG heart test I had done some years ago)…

this time I started with just one page with more to come soon…

here is a funny aside: I was working on this post in the wee hours and twice wrote MORE IS LESS until I noticed my mistake 😉 … this really was a challenge for me on many levels *ggg*

Loti and The Traveling Teacup

after returning home from our travels in June Mr Magpie and I decided to visit the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens which is a free National Park not too far from our house…

our traveling tea cup was not quite ready to be put back in her box…

I have always wanted to see the Lotuses in bloom (or Loti as they are also called)…

there were lovely varieties of water lilies as well in these water gardens (“This 12-acre sanctuary features over 45 ponds filled with a variety of tropical and hardy water lilies, lotus, and other aquatic species. Established on the east bank of the Anacostia River, the park contains human-made shallow ponds and dikes surrounded by 70 acres of fresh-water tidal wetlands.”)

it was not hard to lose track of time and spend hours enjoying nature and snapping photos like crazy (turned out that was the last low humidity day we had for awhile!)…

the lotuses typically bloom from June through August here in the Washington, DC area…

other flowers are in bloom from late May through September…

the lotuses were so beautiful we decided to return in a few weeks to check on them again…

and what a difference a few weeks and our tropical heat made (some loti were taller than Mr Magpie!)…

it has been very HOT and HUMID here in the Washington DC area …

 like so many states in the US recently…

we brought the traveling tea cup with us again carefully using a lily pad as a saucer at the edge of a lily pond…

here are some notes based on our experiences at the Aquatic Gardens so far…

accompanied by photos which are my favorite way of telling stories…

 You are more likely to be bitten by a mosquito in your own backyard than at the aquatic gardens with more on that here…

You may want to set aside several hours at least for your visit because there is lots to explore and it is so beautiful there…

Early morning is recommended for seeing night blooming plant species but any time of day there is something wonderful happening…

A parasol is very nice for shade from the sun AND for shading a blossom when the sun would be too bright to snap a good photograph…

It might be muddy so open shoes are not a great idea…

There is poison ivy in some spots so be mindful where you lean or step  * leaves of three let them be *…

Best to visit with someone as they can help save you stepping off the camouflaged edges into the water while you are trying to get that perfect shot OR from falling into a muskrat hole along the paths…

If you run out of water they sell bottled water at the information center near the picnic area and bathrooms …

I promise that my T stands for Tuesday post next week will be much much shorter ♥

“If you feel lost, disappointed, hesitant, or weak, return to yourself, to who you are, here and now and when you get there, you will discover yourself, like a lotus flower in full bloom, even in a muddy pond, beautiful and strong.”    -Masaru Emoto, The Secret Life of Water