Looking and seeing

I've been looking more closely at things that are around me every day.  Things I may have been taking for granted a bit.  And in some ways it's like seeing them for the first time.  Like the beauty of fern leaves after the rain.

And the moss on the tree, which looked a lot like an abstract landscape when I looked at the photo in a horizontal format.  (Or is it lichen?  It may be lichen, not moss. :0) )

I really liked all the different colors of moss/lichen found on this one tree.

This is a small, but tall, zinnia which has been blooming for about 8 weeks. Instead of going to seed, she just gets bigger and better.  I like that!

This grasshopper and I looked at each other for quite a while. I think he won the staring contest.

Different fields, different grasshoppers.

Different seas, different fish.

~ Indonesian proverb

I'm including this photo of the last few wild geraniums just because I love everything about these flowers.  They bloom for months, and the gorgeous color reminds me of my favorite crayon from when I was a little girl - periwinkle.

I've been spending a lot of time with our old Beau-doggy.  He's around 11 or 12 years old, and we've had him almost 5 1/2 of those years.  He's had lots of trouble with his hips and legs since before we adopted him, but it's gotten worse and now his front legs are getting weaker, too.  He stumbles and falls more frequently these days, so he needs extra tender care.  Beau is one of the great loves of my life, and I hope he makes it through the winter.  It would be so nice if he had one more spring, so he could lie on the grass one more time, dreaming his doggy-dreams under the warming sun.

In my many travels around the house with Beau, I always see this bit of tree root in the grass.  Lately I get the feeling it's looking back.  Is it only me, or does this look like a slightly demented cross-eyed owl to you too?
:0)
And since I seem to be going in so many unplanned directions lately, I thought you might enjoy this silly quote I found:

A woman,

like a cross-eyed man,

looks one way

but goes another,

hence her mysteriousness.

~ Austin O'Malley

(United Irish leader, 1760-1854)

I hope you find some sunshine, warm days, and light-hearted moments in your travels.

Daisy Rose

After reading all the sweet comments left on yesterday's post, I've decided to show you something else I just did!

I probably should mention that I am currently in my third phase of a kind of creative frenzy when I draw and paint and want to make decorative things. My first was when I was a child. Up until the age of 14, I was drawing all the time. My very favorite thing to draw at that time was faces. I absolutely adored sketching faces!

My next phase started about 10 years ago, when I painted dozens of watercolor flower paintings, and made hundreds of pieces of jewelry. I sold or gave away almost everything, but I never took pictures of anything. It was before I had a digital camera, and it didn't seem important at the time. Everything I did was for someone else.

"The primary benefit of practicing art,
whether well or badly,
is that it enables one's soul to grow."
~ Kurt Vonnegut

When I picked up those children's crayons a few days ago, it was almost as if my hands remembered that joy of drawing again. So I took out some watercolor crayons I had been saving for "just the right project." If I wait for that perfect project, I'll never use them, so I just jumped in and let my hands make something without my head getting too involved.

That's how Daisy Rose was born.

I must also confess, that I sometimes am afflicted with a rather annoying habit of making up rhymes, poems and songs.
:0)
This is why this portrait of Daisy Rose includes the words:

Daisy Rose was her name,
she had a loving heart.
And everywhere sweet Daisy went
A buzz was sure to start!

Buzz, buzz!

The smell of crayons on a warm summer day

"You know you are over the hill
when you start to use
your own children's hand-me-downs!"
(This is something I find myself saying a lot lately!)

I found a tin of long-forgotten crayons yesterday. They were hiding in the back of a closet, in a collector's tin celebrating Crayola's 90th anniversary in 1993.

When my children were younger, I always made sure they had plenty of art supplies so that their creativity would be nurtured and encouraged. When I saw all the wonderful colors, still vibrant after all these years, and smelled that wonderful familiar wax crayon smell, I couldn't help myself.

I had to draw something!

It felt wonderful to let my inner child out, to draw something freely, without any pressure to make ART.

It's just a crayon drawing of a cat in a window. And I think this is exactly what I needed to get myself drawing and painting again. No pressure - just pleasure. What fun!