A Purple Iris

May = a bed of irises :)

May = a busy, busy month for teachers :)

May = not much time or energy for painting. :(

May = the countdown... 8... days... left... :)

May = decisions... heat? or air? :)

May = a garden filled with baby plants and hope :)









This is the peacefulness that I get to come home to....

I love BOTH sides of my May!

Original Oil Painting - 6"x 12"

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!)

[SOLD]

Purple Iris

How long does it take to see the silver lining?


I always love hardy flowers like daffodils, lilies,and irises, but this one has a special story. 
A friend gave me a box of iris bulbs as a house warming gift for the house we were building. Unfortunately, we moved in during the week of September 11, 2001. As every American knows, that was a tumultuous time for many reasons. There didn't seem to be time to think through the perfect spot for planting the iris bulbs. Finally I poked them in the ground on a hillside beside our little pond just so they wouldn't dry up and be wasted. 
Every spring after that their flags (leaves) grew up strong and healthy, but never was a single bud or flower produced.
Then two years ago our part of the country suffered the worst ice storm in history. Our beautiful trees were broken and mangled. It took the summer to get the limbs cleaned up. The canopy of limbs was sparse to say the least.
But... surprise... the next spring the irises bloomed and were fabulous! 
The loss of tree limbs was the opportunity for sun that the irises had been patiently waiting 10 years for.


Visit Spring Irises or  Awesome Finds From Arkansas to enjoy an Etsy treasury (collection of vintage items and art pieces) that celebrates purple!  Or visit I Is For.  It's a clever collection of things that begin with the letter i.  And, of course, you have to see Stunning Iris Displays!


Click to purchase "Purple Iris."