animals

I am outwitted be the animals and bugs. After planting my vegetables, to keep the chickens out of the garden I enclosed their coop with a flimsy enclosure, then one day about a week ago I saw them roaming the yard. I thought I fixed the place they got out but when I went out to weed who should appear but the two chickens looking for worms as I pulled the weeds and uncovered the dirt. I put them back in their enclosure and watched. One of they them is smarter then the other. The original way to get out didn't work so the darker colored chicken jumped up on the the pen that is part of their coop and after looking over the situation took off and flew over the three foot wire fence. Now the both of them are happily free and going where they please. One photo shows them taking a dust bath up by the flower bed I just weeded. 

These chickens lay huge eggs as you can see in the photo.
Now I must spent time building a higher, stronger fence. 

You probably think I have beautiful prolific gardens, because I take great photos of the flowers and vegetables. I don't show you the weeds and bug eaten vegetables. Well here is a photo of a bug eaten kale plant, hardly surviving.

One day I was talking to Doug, my brilliant son on the computer with face time and the lamp shade was over his head. It was so funny I took a photo with my camera of the computer screen.

The cove I live near. The place I paint. The place where I swim and go for a paddle in the kayak.

friends

   Sorry we are not home right now. We flew over the chicken coop.

Would anyone like to help mow the lawn and weed the garden?  I need goats not chickens.

Is this an angel or a guy with a dunce cap?

big eggs

This is fun. Taking a dirt bath.

where are we going? 

always together

the bugs are wining

Summer

Summer is here at last. It was a long wait. Some things in the garden are doing well and others not. I have been eating lettuce for weeks and now it is bolting. Nothing else is ready to eat. Last year I had the best carrots I have ever grown and this year very few have come up. Bugs are bad. They have their favorite vegetables. They have eaten all the broccoli and most kale. Even the summer squash is not doing well. It is a sad day when I have to buy zucchini.
Water is still cold in the cove. I have been in a few times but not for long. The older I get the colder the water feels.
The fire flies have been great this year. I love watching them. I haven'y walked much at night because of the mosquitoes.
There is more to do here than I can handle. My main objective is to keep the weeds in the gardens to a minimum so the vegetables can grow. I do not understand why weeds grow so much faster then the vegetables. The grasses and other plants that grow in the so called lawn are now about 10 inches high. I haven't  mowed for about three weeks. The perennial flowers in my overcrowded, overgrown garden are big and beautiful. They bring so much pleasure to look at.
I have been sitting in the galleries, walking the dog and going to the jazz jams twice a month, and the reading group once a week. I paint as much as possible, thirty two so far. I have painted some small ones but they take as much time as the larger paintings. I just can't do loose and fast.

Photos of flowers and vegetables

Sage in flower.  First time I had it winter over. It is a mystery to me

White Mauve with the sage.  Beautiful flower. Not invasive like the pink one

Feverfew comes up every year.  Seeds itself. This is the largest plant I have had

Sun drops

Poppies in the vegetable garden. Come up from last summers seed

This peony has a beautify color the camera can not capture

Here it is July 9th and I am planting basil again along with cucumbers and kale.
Bugs and weather have done them in.

Sage and garlic

Garlic scapes, so beautiful

Young cabbages

Beets and Johnny Jump Ups