makes me happy

Friday 5

5 things I want to do this summer, in no particular order.

1) hula hoop in the back yard

2) go on a day hike with my friend Jan and stop for a reading break

3) swim in a pond

4) have tea with Mom on her patio

5) have a long chat around the firepit with my friends

My favourite colour

Is this an ordinary tree?

Absolutely.

Did the cheery green of its leaves make me very happy all the same?

Absolutely.

A photo of bright green leaves, small narrow ones on either side of a central twig, on the thin branches of a tree. There is grass beneath.
A photo of bright green leaves, small narrow ones on either side of a central twig, on the thin branches of a tree. There is grass beneath.

Words and Pictures

Yesterday, while listening to the podcast ‘The Antique Shop,’ by Ghostly Thistle media, I had a great idea for a series of stories.

My plan is to draw a series of objects and then write a story about each one.

I started by practicing drawing bottles.

A photo of drawings and painting of a variety of bottles.
Image description: a photo of a coil-bound sketchbook with white paper featuring some rough pencil sketches of a variety of bottles on the right hand side and some drawings of bottles painted with watercolours on the left.

Selective viewing

Parts of my yard are still a mess but from this angle, things are starting to look quite summery and inviting.

A photo of part of my yard - grass, a fence, a swing, and a lawn chair and some flowers.
A photo of a section of my backyard. The foreground is mostly lush green grass and toward the back of my yard is an orange Adirondack style plastic lawn chair, my green circular swing, some trees with leaves starting to come out, some wildflowers, and a weathered grey fence.

I didn’t plant flowers last fall

I had good intentions but things didn’t play out the way I hoped they would.

I’ll be mostly buying flowers this year and maybe sprinkling a few seeds so they’ll bloom in late summer early fall.

But we’ve had such crappy weather for so long now that I don’t even know if things would have grown yet anyway.

That’s my story and I’m sticking with it!

Do you know who *did* plant bulbs last fall?

My mother-in-law!

So I’m living vicariously through her garden.

A photo of pink tulips, white tulips, and a daffodil surrounded by greenery in a flowerbed.
Image description: a photo of pink tulips, white tulips, and a daffodil surrounded by greenery in a flowerbed.