Pacific Ocean

What a lovely view, water crashing on the rocks and beach is a beautiful sight.

California Coastline 2011

We followed 1 for a while and got dizzy from the roller coaster ride and finally got on 101.

Oh but what a ride it was! This spot has the blackest sand I have ever seen.

April

Peacfull Contemplations

Madonna of the Magnificat

Painted by Sandro Botticelli in 1481

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=11552390

This 8" x 10" sits next to my computer tower. Every time I look upon it I am filled with peace and I think on how well my life is playing out for me.

I made this collage some years ago and thought others could find their inner peace if they also gazed on the perfect peacefull visage of utter innocence.

Coneflowers

For some reason I thought these were cornflowers? Very pretty with raised centers, the bees and bugs love this flower. Has Perennial Salvia violet blue. Very hardy, we went on vacation and we thought it was dead but I separated the 3 plants around the Coneflower and they came back to life. You cant see the Salvia very well, I took pictures too late they have already bloomed and spent but they comw back regularly with new blooms.

We planted these in a old antique cow bucket, whatever that means (?), over a place where a huge old oak tree has been cut down and the area where the roots were, are sinking in. The tree was cut because my husband was afraid of it falling on the house. As the droughts and heavy thunderstorms are proving him right with lots of trees falling on peoples houses here in Georgia.

Yesterday's post.....

I posted yesterday about my Hibiscus tree and the seedlings I received this year. My mother is 71 years old and she helped me plant the seedlings in my yard. We did the mother and daughter thing sharing and bonding and spent some time together with a common goal with a task to be done. Mind you these are 6"-8" wooden sticks we planted but they was well on their way becoming leafy in April.

Here is what the seedlings look like now after the incident in May. My husband put stakes down this time. I asked him to do this before we left on our vacation, as I reminded him our neighbors cut our grass for us while we are gone. Our daughter moved back home and can do this chore was his answer. One of or neighbor still felt the need to cut the lawn and proceeded to cut all the saplings down with the grass.

I'm glad to say they are alive and well, except for the 1 that perished. It was doing well just last week, but I found a wooden stump in its place the other day and wonder why it did so.

Hibiscus: Rose of Sharon

About 5 years ago my mother brought me these twiggy little seedlings she dug from her garden. She didn't know the name of the flowering bush just they are purple and some are white. Therefore I didn't know the name of this bush/tree until I asked my neighbor who told me they are called the Rose of Sharon. I had an a suspicion they was hibiscus but wasn't sure myself they truly are. I did research on the internet and had found out these are indeed Hibiscus and the Rose of Sharon. The internet is a wonderous place and a unending book of information if you know how to present the wording correctly. So those long years ago only one plant lived through my brown thumb and is a majestic flowering bush/tree with beautiful blooms.

This year in January for her birthday mother came to visit me and I took her out with my daughter to eat at the Chinese buffet, as this is a tradition we have started long ago in the 1980's. I also received a bunch more of the Hibiscus twigs and this time I am determined to keep them all alive. I believe there are about 19 or 20 of them we had planted.

In April my husband and I went on vacation and while we was gone our neighbor cut all the little seedlings down, but after babying with watering and plant food they all came back to life with tiny growths of leaves and they are thriving now except 1 that did not make it.

Fuchsia

I made this 8"x10" collage for the American Cancer Society as a donation and now think I want to make a larger piece of it. I have ideas and have already drafted in my mind what it will look like and what type of materials I will use. The black on this piece is real leather and is raised up and I think I will use something a little flatter.

Here is a link to read up on the fundraiser we was doing.

http://debbiesreflectionsofmyself.blogspot.com/2008/05/american-cancer-society-fundraiser.html

Cross Stitching

My mother gave me a lot of stuff over the years and there was a Korean Christmas card mom sent to dad when he was in Vietnam for the war. I tried to do a cross stitch of the card by drawing freehand in the cloth. This is my attempt and it has been 10 years since I worked on it, one day I do want to finish this. I love how the mother is doing embroidery as I am cross stitching her.