Little Things

I went to Whole Foods yesterday.

I don't know why ... I just did!

I did have a grocery list (of sorts) of those things I forgot on my regular run to my neighborhood store. 

Whole Foods is a little "out of" the neighborhood.

I found these pretty little Calla lilies there.

I'd forgotten how pretty the flowers are at Whole Foods.

The callas were grown in California.

Thank you, California!

I'll be making more trips to Whole Foods and next time,

maybe with a "real" grocery list!

Oh, before I forget.

If you like Hatch Green Chile.

Whole Foods has the best chicken salad made with Hatch Green Chile!

May you be filled with loving-kindness.

May you be well.

May you be peaceful and at ease.

May you be happy.

Party Time!

It's time for Vee's Note Card Party!
On the third Wednesday of each month we meet at
A Haven For Vee for party time.

We select four photographs that we think would make a nice set of note cards
and we share them.


Here are my four:

It's A Good Thing

Earth Day

Earth Day

Meet Julia

Wishing YOU well and much joy!

Thank you, Vee!

Pretty In Red!

For the last tea day in February,

I've pulled out an old favorite, some red transferware.

My Granny called these luncheon plates.

Victorian Trading Company calls them tea and scone sets.

Tea and toast sounds good to me!

Is Spring around the corner?

I hope so! 

The Huffington Post shared an article from the Elephant Journal on Tea and Ritual

that you might be interested in reading.

I'm joining some tea parties today:

Tea Time Tuesday

Teacup Tuesday

Friends Sharing Tea

Tuesday Cuppa Tea

Wishing you well, much joy and a lovely cup of tea!

It's Party Time!

Vee's Note Card Party Time!

We get to pick 4 images from our blog that we think would make good note cards.

I think we are all looking forward to spring.

With that in mind, here are my four Note Cards.
The first three are from recent blog posts.

And last, but not least, from a Wednesday Wisdom post in 2013:

A big thank you to Vee for hosting the Note Card Party.

Wishing YOU well and much joy!

I hope the sun is shining on you today! 

Good Morning, Glory!

Musashi's Garden is my postage stamp size backyard.

It is named for one of our favorite kitties, Musashi-San.

He was quite the guy.

This is what Fall looks like in Musashi's Garden.

Golden Ixora

Morning Glory

This is my volunteer Morning Glory.

If you look closely you can see the visitor that I captured.

Good Morning, Glory!

I do not know the name of this rose.

But I can tell you, she is a beauty and she smells just like a rose should!

I'm joining Mary at Mosaic Monday.

Wishing all of you well and much joy!

Wednesday Wisdom

"Nothing is permanent:

The sun and the moon rise and then set,

The bright, clear day is followed by the deep, dark night.

From hour to hour, everything changes."

~Kalu Rinpoche

Cranberry Pink

I decided that Cranberry is Pink!

I love hobnail and I love cranberry glass.

No one does it better than Fenton.

I had the hots for gerbera daisies last week.

Hot Pink Is Good!

A little old-fashioned glamour! 

I'm joining Beverly for Pink Saturday.

Wishing YOU well and much joy!

Blooming In Musashi's Garden

Zinnia Blooming In Musashi's Garden

Tea and Flowers

Do you Rue La La?

I do a lot of window shopping there.

Every now and then I find something I really La-La over!

DD (dear daughter) spoiled me during her father's illness.

After his passing, she made sure I had flowers for Valentine's Day.

She knows how much I like Tracy Porter.

I love Porter's color combinations and wild and crazy designs.

DD found this tea set: teapot, sugar and creamer on Rue La La.
Each piece is a little sculpture.

And, now it lives with me!

It is from the Vivre Collection.

Beautiful tea and flowers ... good for the soul.

Big THANK YOUS to our hostesses:

Mary at Mosaic Monday

Martha and Teri who host Teacup Tuesday

Teapot and Tea Things Tuesday: Wanda Lee and Pam

Sandi at Teatime Tuesday

Party On!

Wishing you well.

***
Edit: My back has gone on the fritz and I can't sit for very long.
My apologies to all of you for not visiting and I'll try to catch up another day.
Wishing you well and good backs!!!

Mosaic Monday: Japanese Garden

It's Monday and that means Mosaic Monday, hosted every week by the lovely Mary at The Dear Little Red House. Be sure you visit.

Edited to include link to Today's Flowers -- a virtual flower garden. So many of you have enjoyed the iris, I thought I should share them a little more!

Mr. Dragon and I went to the Japanese Garden in Hermann Park last week.

It was a beautiful afternoon. The humidity was low and we had the garden almost to ourselves.

With its waterfalls, bridges, and stone paths that wander among crepe myrtles, azaleas, Japanese maples, dogwoods, and peach and cherry trees, the Japanese Garden is a peaceful hideaway in the Park. This particular garden is a daimyo style, and includes a tea garden, a kaiyushiki stroll garden, and a scroll garden.

I have lots of photos and you may have to put up with them for several weeks!

This is the Japanese Tea House and all of these photos are shots from or around the Tea House.

We were too late for the azaleas in the Japanese Garden, but there were a few Iris still blooming.

More next week!

***

A quick update on Mr. Dragon. The feeding tube is out and he is learning how to eat all over again. Much easier said than done. He doesn't have much energy, so when we go out we make sure there are plenty of places to sit and rest. The Japanese Garden was perfect. Going in the afternoon, all the school children (at the museum of natural science or the zoo) were gone and we could find a good parking place. He's lost weight. Each day is an adventure, but the doctors are happy about the pathology report and very optimistic. We keep plugging along.

Thanks again for all your love, prayers, support, white light, et al.

We do appreciate it and you!

Mosaic Monday

Winter was very hard on Musashi's Garden.

The lime trees did not survive along with the red and gold Ixora.

We weren't sure what Spring would bring us, but we aren't disappointed.

Here are a few of the Spring blooms in Musashi's Garden.

A little of everything: ranunculus, roses, wild flowers, dragon lady crossvine,

freesia, dianthus, Mexican lavender, hibiscus, camellia.

We will replant the Ixora -- eventually. We love that they bloom year round.

And there are more citrus trees in our future.

Happy Mosaic Monday. Be sure to visit Mary and the other participants.

Todays Flowers

Visiting Today's Flowers will take you to a virtual flower garden from around the world.

Last weekend, the zoo had a photography day. They opened the gates early for around 150 of us with our cameras and umbrellas. We had the zoo to ourselves until the regular admission time.

You can see the first animal photos we took in the Camera Critters post below. But it wasn't only animals we were looking at. This shrub stopped us dead in our tracks. It was quite impressive. In other words, the WOW factor was off the scale!




The shrub with its stunning blooms was over five feet in height. I just had to know what kind of plant it is and the zoo folks were happy to find out for me.



Megaskepasma erythrochlamys ‘Brazilian Red Cloak’, ‘Brazilian Plume’, ‘Red Justicia’
‘Brazilian Cloak’ is a herbaceous shrub that is very showy and fast growing.

A blazing mixture of flaming red and vivid pink flowers, is what Brazilian Red Cloak in full bloom looks like. In spite of its name, this splendid plant comes from Venezuela where it is found naturally in tropical woodland. An evergreen shrub with boldly veined, shiny green leaves, it bears from early autumn into winter spikes of very showy, 12 inch, crimson flower spikes. (Actually white or pink flowers in the cloak of the very conspicuous crimson bracts.) The showy ‘flower’ consists of red bracts surrounding the white true flower. The growth habit of the Brazilian red cloak is considered by horticulturalists to be a shrub. It does not grow compactly as many shrub's do but instead is tall and lanky (an average of approximately 10 feet) while yet full. Under ideal growing conditions the plant can hit fifteen feet (4.5 meters) in height.

Where flowers bloom, so does hope - Lady Bird Johnson

Mail Call

A month or so ago, Karen Harvey Cox had a give-a-way on her blog, the beautiful Scrapbook of Inspiration. The winner received a custom water color painting by Karen. You can go here to see the winner's painting. It is amazing.

Karen decided that everyone who entered the give-a-way should receive a gift from her -- a miniature water color of their favorite flower! Picking my favorite flower was the hardest part. I finally decided on the pansy because of their happy little faces and wonderful color.

My pot of pansies has arrived. What a mail call! Karen is talented, generous and sure knows how to spread the joy around!

Thank you again, Karen.

Joy To You All On This Beautiful Friday!

Journal Friday

It's been awhile since I've posted just journal pages. I've been spreading them around in other posts. So, today -- Just Journal Pages -- sort of!

Flower Bomb
This just fell right into place.
No thinking involved!

B is For ....
Birds and Butterflies
This took a while.
Mostly paper, a stencil, stamp, clip art.
I wanted to do this in my journal before I tried it on canvas.
I'm thinking about transferring it to cloth and making something.

Lastly, this is Teddy when he was a baby.
Always ruling the roost!
4 x 5 canvas kept simple

Enjoy your Friday.

Joy to You!

Mr. Dragon's Art

Mr. Dragon took two workshops at the Glassell School of Art this summer - one in pen and ink (eight 3 hour classes) and the other in color pencils (four 3 hour classes). These are my favorites. There are others, but these were easy for me to scan. He says he will photograph all his artwork from this summer. I'll share when it happens (at least my favorites). I'm happy to report that he really liked both of his instructors for these workshops.

This is Rocket and I plan on framing his portrait.

The color pencil class was the first color class for Mr. Dragon.
All of the work was based on photos one or the other of us had taken.
The apricot rose from Musashi's Garden was his first ever color pencil.

Next he tried the iris.
The original photo was taken at the Japanese Garden in Hermann Park.

The seagull is my favorite and the last one he did in the class.
(Taken in Seattle.)
It has a frame in its future.
Mr. D said the instructor said "see, you've gotten better".
He said it took him a week and a half to figure out what questions to ask!

Happy Friday!

Joy to You!