Pollen, Pollen...it's everywhere

For the past week everything has been coated in yellow with pollen. Yesterday we only had a teasing of rain, and what a mess that made. Instead of washing the pollen away it made it into a paste on my SUV. I washed my car late yesterday afternoon, and again this morning the car is  coated in yellow. Needless to say, everyone is coughing and sneezing. I haven't had the windows or doors open, or everything inside would have a coating of yellow as well. Thank goodness for air conditioning on these really warm days. Having pollen in the air is the worst part of spring.
Yesterday morning when I went outside to look at my flowers blooming  in the yard, I found this spiders web attached to some iris plants leaves.


can you see the dots of pollen on my Iris-Superstition?  Usually this variety of Iris-Superstition  is a deep, deep purple almost black in color, but for some reason it looks more wine colored as the bloom gets older.

This afternoon I made a pair of earrings that are tomato red in color to go with a top that I will be wearing to my granddaughter's graduation this weekend. The earrings look much larger than they actually are.



Elaine

Color Swatch inspiration

The color swatch photo above was the inspiration that Susan chose for our May mingle swap in the Yahoo group, An Affair with Art. I love hydrangeas and the colors. We had to use a Behr paint swatch (4 x 6 inches) from Home Depot, as our base for the post card.
I chose to water color the stamped Hampton Arts hydrangea with butterfly/musical notes background stamp as my focal piece for the post card.

this is the card I received in the swap from Jocelyn

Today my wonderful parents are celebrating their 66th wedding anniversary. Happy anniversary Mom and Dad. I love you very much and can't thank you enough for always being their for us.
 

Yesterday was Memorial Day, and we went to a clam boil at our sons. Steven's friend. Larry, has a shellfish permit and he had dug the clams and quahogs the day before in Duxbury, MA. The boil was yummy..clams, quahogs, corn on the cob, sausage, fish, linquica, and hot dogs. I brought one of the 2 Texas Sheet Cake that I made that morning for dessert.
Here are some photos that I took of Bella yesterday. Bella kept throwing her ball to the chickens. The chickens would run over to check out the ball, it was cute to watch them.
chickie's come out of the ferns...I want to play
Bella trying to play ball with her chickens. The ball is to the left..bright green.
  here chickie, chickie, chickie
  off and running.
ready, set, go
  Play ball
trying out her new slide
Elaine

Memorial Day Weekend

Above...my hanging red/white/blue flower pot with a hummingbird feeder

It has been awhile since I've had time to write on my blog. I've just been very busy and then too tired at night to sit and write.

Our granddaughter, Katie's final Choral at Bridgewater Raynham High School was held May  16th.                                                                                                                    Katie will be graduating high school next weekend, and then she will be attending Assumption College in the fall.

        

I also got to visit with my godmother who was visiting from Florida. My godmother, has been my mothers best friend since they they were 12 years old.

 

This past week I was at my parents house everyday. For the past two days I took my mom, dad and aunt to plant flowers on all the family graves for Memorial Day (New Bedford, Fairhaven, Acushnet, Carver, and Middleboro. I still have to put flowers on the graves that are on Cape Cod.

There was a family party last weekend for Bella to celebrate her 2nd. birthday.

           

Thursday, May 24th was her actual birthday.

 

Since I haven't had time to create any art, I will share some photos of spring flowers.

I don't know what kind of tree this is, but there is one in our town and saw another at the River View Cemetery in Fairhaven. The flowers are tubular, light lavender. The flowers have a faint sweet smell and the leaves are heart shaped. Both trees I saw were very tall. It also looked like there were brown nuts or something brown amongst the leaves..Can you tell me what kind of tree this is? Click on the photos for a better look.

 

I found this beautiful white wisteria at the River View Cemetery in Fairhaven.

my clematis

my clematis

my lovely orange/gold large bearded iris

if you click on this photo you will see an ant on the large peony flower. I gave this plant to my parents years ago.

 

I'm running out of room to plant things around my yard, but I couldn't resist buying the Peony bulbs. Picture of flowers below. Now to get them planted.

 

 

you really can't tell from this picture, but my aunt's peachy/pink iris was 8 inches across and the photo just doesn't show how BEAUTIFUL this iris really is.

lady slippers in the woods. I use to see these spring woodland flowers all over and now, where I always found them..they are no longer there. If someone picks the flowers the plants won't be able to reseed themselves.

Have a wonderful long holiday weekend. Also a big thank you to all of those who have served in the military.

Elaine

Unexpected plans over Mother's Day weekend

My cousins, Debbie and Cheryl called on Saturday afternoon to let me know they were coming from the Cape. I had picked up some vases for my cousin Cheryl at Michael's.  We were also going to go get some flowers for Cheryl to put in the vases for the Mashpee Garden Club monthly meeting.
As we  were getting ready to go for flowers we noticed Cheryl's car had a problem and water was draining out. As we added water, the water came out as fast as we put it in. I had Cheryl call my brother, and he came and looked at it.  Needless to say my cousins didn't make it home Saturday night. The car couldn't be driven and had to be towed.
Sunday, Mother's Day I went to visit my Mother.
After visiting with my parent, I took my cousin's back home to Cape Cod. Debbie had to work on Monday, and Cheryl had things she had to do. Once we got back to  the Cape my cousin Debbie bought 6 cooked lobsters and we had boiled lobster for dinner that night. 
Mom on Mother's Day
Monday, after Cheryl's meeting we hit Heartbeats, Tumbleweeds and Joann's so I could look for fabric. I bought quite a bit of fabric to make more pillow cases.
Monday night, while Cheryl went to her bowling banquet, Debbie and I cleaned the remaining lobsters and made lobster salad sandwiches for our supper. Yum!!!
Below are some photos I took at my cousins house on Monday.
columbine growing by the kitchen steps
double white lilac
a colorful moth that was flitting around the back yard.
Below...a hand made oriole feeder. Made of dowels with holes drilled thru so smaller dowels could be inserted to use as perches. Nails are used to hold orange halves that the orioles use to sit on the dowel perches and eat the oranges. Orioles also love grape jelly. I want to make one of these to attract the orioles that are in my yard.

Sunday evening after our lobster dinner we took a ride to Dennis along 6-A to go to Kate's for an ice cream. No luck..as Kate's wasn't open. As we driving back along 6-A I stopped to take a photo of this sunset. It was nowhere as beautiful in the photo as it was seeing it with the naked eye. I love the reflections on the water.

another photo from the same spot as above. The sky was a beautiful red. I got back into the car and headed down the road to Corporation Beach in Dennis. We made it just in time so I could get a few sunset photos at Corporation Beach. There were several other people also taking photos of the sunset.


leaving Corporation Beach I spotted several Beach Plum bushes growing in the sandy soil along the roadside. When I was young, my uncle Rei had beach plum shrubs growing in his yard, and my mother and aunt use to pick the small beach plum fruit and make beach plum jelly. Homemade Beach Plum jelly is so good.
After leaving the beach we did find an open ice cream stand, and I indulged in a hot fudge sundae. :-)
Yesterday morning before I headed back home from the  Cape, I drove Cheryl to  deliver her  flower arrangements to the Garden Club meeting. I made a quick stop home and then  I picked up my aunt to take her to her doctors appointment, and then to the drug and grocery store.
I came home to make our supper..shrimp and strip steak, homemade potato salad, steamed broccoli and for dessert sliced, fresh strawberries.
Today, I will probably cut out material for pillow cases as it is raining. Below some of the fabrics I bought. I also bought a lot of solid fabric. I have a lot of cutting to do.

Pink mermaid fabric..Joanns, multicolor aqua mermaid fabric Heartbeat Quilts

Below ..on left..Tumbleweeds, Pink/Lavender floral..Joanns
 
Hello Kitty fabric..Joann's

3 Horse fabrics..WalMart

Laurel Burch small colorful cat fabric..Heartbeat Quilts

Blue and Pink Cinderella fabric..WalMart

2 Cars and John Deere fabric..Joanns
Elaine