Last Day of 2015

New Year's Eve Day is a day to look back at your accomplishment and to look forward, to dream of what you wish to accomplish in the upcoming year.
The day in Ogden Canyon started with chilled cold air, snow covered ground, and powder blue skies. There were even a few lazy flakes floating down.  Yah, but the sun is now peering over the mountain.  A beautiful cold day.  2015 has been filled with a number of beautiful days,  my dream for 2016 is to remind myself to take time to enjoy the beauty around me.  Sometimes with work, I may shut myself into my office, not noticing that the day has rushed by.
May you also remind yourself to stop for a moment to enjoy the beauty around you!

Work Accepted

I had two works accepted at the Eccles Community Art Center's Petite Impressions Competition, a still life and a landscape.  I was pleased to receive an honorable mention award on my landscape watercolor painting. 

Day of the Dog

I was informed via the news and Internet that this is the day of the dog.  I proceeded to make sure that my Mollie dog received a treat to celebrate the day.

  I was surprised when Bruno with his artists masters came to visit me at work.  They had included him for the drive to bring an entry for an art competition the the Eccles Community Art Center was sponsoring.  He is a rescue dog, and always so happy to enjoy a good rub.
Miss Picassa, the art center cat was displeased that we allowed a dog in the house, but let him be retreating to the second floor.

I must check for Picassa to see when it is the day of the cat.    Although, I surmised that everyday is the day of the cat, especially for Picassa.

Signs of Autumn

Summer has been filled things to be done, completed and accomplished.  You only have so many days of sunshine, you must fill every minute.  Today, in between laundry loads, and hand watering, I looked down to see my first orange, autumn, maple leaf.  Soon, I notice another.  The first signs of autumn,  and it seem fitting as local children head back to school tomorrow.

Rain,Rain,Rain

Another downpour today.  Rain water flooding the gutters and spraying up through sewer grates.  The spray of puddle water as car speed by.  We are set to make the record, it is the ninth wettest ( after Monday's rain it is now the eighth wetest) May on record for Utah.

With the rain, has come green.  The plants in my mothers garden are green with pink blooms on the bleeding hearts, lupines and cyclamen.  All colors of Iceland poppies add their lovely brightness to the garden, while small blue forget-me-not also add highlights of color.

Looking out my window, I am pleased to see a patch of blue sky amount the cumulus, white, fluffy clouds.  The gray clouds having moved on for a moment or two.  Maybe a break in the rain, rain,rain.

Rain?

We must have had a minor drizzle last night, the road showed signs of rain.  The early morning sun danced through the maple leaves, and lilac scented the breeze.  Mollie and I were out early, a quick walk before the day started.

Yesterday, we visited local nurseries.  Mom purchased more Iceland poppies for the garden, while I found some pea starts.  Peas although not abundant, do fine in the canyon.  And they are such a treat in June when they mature.

Many of the tulips are starting to fade.  They were  cheerful.  I love how their bloom seem to glow in the sunlight.  Their showy splash of color on a long straight green stem surrounded with large blades of leaves that seem to reach and then flop, curving back to the ground.

The sun is now in a dance with intermenent skies of clouds and blue.  The forecast is for rain.

Twilight View of My Mother's Garden

My mother's garden is always lovely.  Tonight, Mollie and I walked through the garden at twilight.  The garden hues subdued into a shaded beauty,  Lavender phlox,  draping blooms of basket of gold, dotted with sky blue forget me nots and spikes of grape hyacinth grow in dark dirt beds rimmed with blue grey dolomitic limestone rocks.  Under a budding spring green box elder tree, it bark supporting a garden of green moss and golden orange lichens, the leaves of white, blue green, and golden varieties of hosta speak through the dirt and uncurl.  Throughout the garden splashes of color, red, yellow, pink, orange and white as fuzzy flower buds open and crepe paper Iceland poppies bloom.

In the back garden, a bed of primroses in yellow, blue, pink, violet, and red share the garden with graceful tulips, yellow with red dust or red veins of flame, bright yellow,  pink and white with pink flames. A path of round stepping stones leads us around our childhood place house to the kitchen door.  The canyon sky has darken, as twilight passes.  Mollie and I enter through the kitchen door to settle for evening, and recall the loveliness of my mother's garden at twilight.

April Showers

After such a dry winter, April showers are visiting Ogden Canyon.  The canyon has turned green.  I understand the science of how rain provides nitrogen, which is necessary for the greening of lawns, and leaves.  But it is also great just to enjoy the beauty created by the coming of April showers.

Carpet of violets.

The lawns of Spring are often filled with a carpet of purple violet that scent the spring breeze with their perfume.

Early Spring

The apricots and other flowering  trees are in bloom,  a month earlier than last year.   We had such a warm winter this year,  with only a couple of snow storms.

Unusual Winter

This has been an unusual winter.  Only two snow storm, and temperature mostly above normal.  We are all wondering if the Spring will bring rain showers to provide water to the needed reserves?  Or will Mother Nature now hit us with Spring snows?

Mourning Song

Oh, the trills and chirps of the avian mourning song have returned.  I heard the first notes on Saturday mourning, a sure sign that Spring has returned.

Lunch in the company of an artist

Saturday,  My mother and I visited a friend, an artist -Terry C Johnson.  We went to lunch at Farmington Station at the Twigs restaurant.  I can recommend the roasted beet and pear salad.  My mother enjoyed the Ceasar with pecan salad.

We then shopped for a while.

After a little more conversation, I collected Terry's art for the art center's art auction.

Surrounded by Artists

I am always surrounded by artists.  Of course you are, you will say after I remind you that I work at an Art Center.  The month of February is always filled with artists.  It is the month that we collect work for our annual fundraising event- an Art auction.

It is almost as fun as Christmas to see the artist and the new works they bring in.  I enjoy my job and enjoy talking with these artists and I always am hopeful that we will sell their work.  The Art Center takes a commission on all works sold through the auction.

And of course, I work with artists.  The director was an award winning floral designer before he came to the center.  The curator of education is working on a master's degree in arts education.  The other day while teaching a printmaking class to teenagers, she created and printed a mermaid which she shared with me.  The newest employee is my niece.  She is a talented clay artist like her mother.  She gave us all small clay sculptures for Valentine's Day.

It is so fun to be always surrounded by artists, I recommend it.

To learn more about the Eccles Community Art Center please visit: www.ogden4arts.org

New calendar

A Christmas gift, a 2015 calendar, fresh, crisp, blank just waiting to be filled with new adventures.  I hope you have your 2015 calendar, crisp and blank ready to fill with your own adventures.  Happy New Year!

Visiting birds

As it has been cold and the ground covered with snow, the birds have been visiting our sunflower seed filled feeder.  We have seen chickadees, nuthatches, finches, and pine siskins.  Interesting enough the ground feeding Juncos will also visit the feeder as do the downy woodpeckers.  We have had a new nuthatch visitor, a white breasted nuthatch.