Sixty-Six Morning Glories

Floor Cloth Update

Morning Glory Floor Cloth

Finally!

Finished!

I confess I got pretty tired of painting morning glories before I got to the magic number of 66.

Yep. The cloth is 57.5 inches wide, 122 inches long, 66 morning glories and 73 leaves.

I sketched them with charcoal five at a time.

It took me just over a month to paint.

I had to push myself many times because my little secret...

...I get bored with repetition.

The thing that kept me going was my daily visit to the morning glory trellis in the garden. 

Each morning I took new shots of the beautiful display for more floral reference in the studio. 

Before starting with the design, the front and back sides of this heavy duty canvas were primed with two coats of house piant. 

After painting 66 morning glories the back side was painted with one coat of the gray (floor paint), and three coats of high traffic formula polyurethane floor finish. 

The front received four coats of the floor finish. 

I moved the cloth off the studio table and onto the studio floor when it was time to use the poly floor finish. 

Not until I was totally finished did it occur to me what a folly the whole project was.

As you know, this is going to the Garden Palace.

A place where I go to daydream.

A place where few others may ever see.

And that my friends is when I realized,

I did it for myself.

Even though I had to push at times, It please me very much and that is all that matter. 

The Four Corners

Now it is time to get back over to the Garden Palace and paint the floor. 

Having this finished, as well as, the cooler weather is a real incentive to get back over there.

♥ 

Wild Things in my Garden

Rain Lilies (Zephyranthes Citrina)

 We had rain this week!

One and six tenths inches to be exact. 

Everything is perking up and greening up and popping up.

I never remember that we have rain lilies until they pop up. 

I'm going into a new direction with my gardens and landscaping. 

Well, I'm deep into the research and mostly day dreaming about a new direction. 

More on all that later.

For now, suffice it to say that I am embracing all the native plants that grow right here and now on my property. 

Rain lily ( Cooperia Drummondii)

Each day I go out with camera (iphone) in hand and select plants to research and identify and basically learn more about.
I want to learn their formal or botanical names even if I can't pronounce them.
Sometimes it is not easy to identify one from the other.
Consider this white rain lilie for example.
The only way I could differentiate Cooperia drummondii from Cooperia pedunculata was by the length of the floral tube, and their primary bloom period.
This one, the Cooperia drummondii has a floral tube 3-7" long and blooms most frequently in September and October.
Where as the Cooperia pedunculata has a floral tube 1-1.5" long and blooms primarily in the spring.

Yesterday the yellow rain lilies were blooming.

I didn't remember until I saw the blooms that I planned to dig some to plant in a garden rather than depend on seeing them in the lawn that gets mowed.

I stopped after potting 15 or 20.

And then I discovered a white one.

Only one. 

I didn't disturb it.

I was surprised this morning to discover all the yellow lilies closed and a large area of white lilies opened.

Why would one color bloom one day and the other color bloom the next day?

A curious thing until I dug the first white one and discovered the white lilie bulb was deeper than the yellow lilies.

I remembered from my research yesterday that the bulbs will suck themselves down to the correct depth.

I know this is more than you may be interested in but here is one more observance from by bulb digging.

The yellow lilie has no fragrance at all. 

The white lilies surprised me this morning with a sweet fragrance.

Creature of the Week 

Isn't he beautiful. 

I did a quick google search but could not identify him. 

He is just a Lizard.

 Old Business

I finally did get photos of the Four O'clocks. 

I think they are stunning.

♥

My View This Week

 Yesterday's harvest.

I always pick the tomatoes just after they start turning so I don't have to share them with creatures.

Peppers and morning glory seed pods. 

 My ever present buddy always checking out whatever I'm doing. 

 LOOK!

Who is this in my garden?

As I was watering this week, he scampered out from under the big leaves of a squash vine. 

On closer inspection, I found a nest with at least one more and probably several. I didn't disturb them.

After editing this photo, I can see that his fur looks wet and that is why he ran. 

Look at that cotton tail. 

 This bed hasn't been too successful.

But I do love the cosmos that are finally blooming.

 In the foreground is a four o'clock in full bud. 

I keep forgetting to go out in the late afternoon to catch them open.

Next year I will plant more four o'clocks at the feet of the trellis.

 Just me gazing ;)

 Forever, I have had this broken pillar. 

I left it outside on the Garden Palace step and it fell off and broke. 

I could not part with it and now look. 

 I love it now better with plants in it rather than in a pot sitting on top of it. 

In case you are wondering, the plant with the bamboo like leaves in the taller section is Inland Sea Oats that grow wild on my place. It is a grass native to central and eastern US that has beautiful seed pods. I dug this small clump that actually had been mowed; therefore no seed pods. 

A parting shot of Stupid Kitty because I can never get his eyes. 

He won't look me in the eyes. 

Why?

Go Away bad creatures

Produce bucket from yesterday. 

Beautiful!

Floor Cloth in Progress

Progress seems slow on the floor cloth. 

Maybe because there are many times that I'm in the chair zone and thinking I should be painting morning glories. 

That little halfway mark above is the halfway mark for this one side.

 Here is another view of this half of the cloth.

 This morning.

 When I get to the end of this corner, I will be halfway around. 

I have picked up speed a little because I need to get this done and off the table. 

I plan to turn the corner today.

In the Garden

From yesterday's pickin.

This was good.

And just above it I found........

.....Creatures in the morning glories. 

This was bad.

GO AWAY!!!