Butterfly on Dogwood

We built our house in 2001 and moved in the week of 9/11/2001... (I know... easy/hard date to remember.) Of course, a few trees had to come down in the building process, but we wanted to save as many as possible.

The builder said, "There's a scraggly tree in the back that got pretty scuffed up.  We can take it down or you can wait and see if it survives. It might it a year or so." We decided to leave it.  What a treat that next spring to discover that it was a dogwood!  Even being scruffy and scuffed up, it did survive!

For two decades our little backyard dogwood blessed us with beautiful white blossoms in early spring, a ground-covering snow shower of white petals in late spring, shade in the summer,  red leaves in the fall, and cardinals at the feeder in winter.

Every winter we wondered if it would make it another year. 

When spring of 2022 came, there was something different... 

No tiny green leaves... no white blossoms...

Our scruffy little dogwood tree had finally given up.

Thank you for 21 years of blooms, Scruffy Little Dogwood Tree!

My weekly-ish challenge this time was "Yellow & White." That was a good opportunity to paint this sweet image of a yellow swallowtail on some white dogwood blossoms.

Original Oil Painting on 6"x 8" Wrapped Canvas

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Watching the Dogwood Snow

See that beautiful dogwood? When we were building our house, the builder asked if we wanted him to take down the scraggly little tree beside the back porch.  He said it had gotten scuffed up during the building and might not make survive anyway.  When that first spring came and it burst in to big white blossoms, we were so surprised and so glad we'd kept it.  It is pretty scrappy.  Every year wonder if it will last through one more winter. (That's been since 2001!)

This is another in the front near the mailbox.

And we pass these when we go for a walk toward our neighbor's house.

Today was windy, and the petals fell like giant snowflakes.

The 10th painting I did after three months of lessons was of some blossoms from this very tree. (April 2007)

I painted some of her blossoms again for my 300th painting.
(May 2015)

It was a good day to spend on the back porch watching the dogwood snow.... and wonder if our dogwood friend will be here to put on her show next spring.

Dogwood Blossoms

Do you love what you see outside your home?

I hope so. 

My blog friend Renee posted a photo of some dogwood blossoms a while back... gorgeous!  Right away I knew wanted to put some on canvas.

When our house was being built, the builder asked if we wanted to keep the scraggly tree beside the deck. He said, "It kinda got banged up.  Don't know if it'll last more'n a year or so."  We kept it.  And we were delighted the next spring (and every spring since) when we discovered it was a dogwood.  

If you look closely you'll see the white blossoms hanging down behind my herbs... my herbs that I'm having fun growing, but am just learning how/what to cook with them...

Here are a few other favorite springtime things I love to see  (and smell) around my house... 

Purple Irises... Yellow Irises... Honey Suckle Vines... My Vegetable Garden... Marigolds...

My pitiful one-eyed trusty brave owl guards the garden.

(It's my 300th painting by the way!)

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Dogwood

Do you have a favorite tree?

When we built our house, there was a scraggly tree right beside our deck. Our builder left it but warned us that it would probably die because of the trauma that building around it would have caused to its root system. But... it didn't die. And to our delight and surprise it gave us a show of fabulous dogwood blossoms the next spring and every spring since. A couple of winters ago, however, our part of Arkansas suffered a devasting ice storm that left many trees toppled and stripped of branches. We wondered if the damage had been too much for our faithful little dogwood. Sure enough, its blossoms were just as beautiful as always. It's a survivor!

Original Oil Painting on 9"x 12" Canvas Board
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