My Garden Clubs Year Book

From the back leaf of my garden clubs year book which I took over creating in 2018…

The violets at the top of the image were created by one of our members, artist Pat Pritchard. She graciously made 9 images for my use in the book. I think this violet is my favorite, it’s done with a graphite pencil. Her color images were done with colored pencils.

The butterfly image is mine, from a color photo I took in 2013. You can see it in color here.

This is the front and back cover of this years book (pages get cut in half and bound). FYI, the front is the only page that can be color but since the back is on the same page before cutting . . .

I will post parts from the two previous years books I made in my next two posts.

 

This is my third year putting this book together. The first year I spent at least 200 hours making it from scratch in Photoshop. I told the board members I will do the book until I get tired of doing it since I put so much time and effort into it three years ago.

It has become a labor of love.

  I put my heart and soul into it for this wonderful group of ladies.

 ❤️️

 

 

Pink Flush Amaryllis

The third of my Christmas Amaryllis, Pink Flush

Pre-bloom. I loved how the bloom stalk curved back into the foliage.

Was a beautiful bloom, although not my favorite of the three.

I am not sure if the bulbs are worthy of keeping until next season. I am letting them grow on and will will put in storage. Time will tell. In the past I have always thrown them away but this year I felt like giving something new a try…

We are now about two weeks into the Coronavirus quarantine. So far the illness has not touched any of my family members or friends. My daughter is a surgeon and is now in charge of setting-up a field hospital in her area – unless she has an emergency surgery, she is available and, thank God, is currently working from home.

My thoughts and prayers are with everyone to stay safe and healthy through this pandemic.

God bless and keep you safe…

 

 

Winter hibernation

The second of my three amaryllis I received for Christmas just finished blooming

Hippeastrum ‘Samba’ (Amaryllis)

I’ll have pictures of the third, and last, next week.

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52/52 Botanical Letter

As I desperately searched for something to shoot before the clock struck midnight…

My final picture for Photo/52 2019

This was a birthday card from a dear friend that does beautiful calligraphy. She took an on-line class with Heather Held, whose work I LOVE!

This late shoot worked out well for me – a lightbulb went off as to how I shall move forward with Colorpoems. Stay tuned…

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51/52 Amaryllis surprise

I received three amaryllis bulbs earlier this month as part of a Christmas gift.

I haven’t potted them yet!

The one with many roots started with one green frond peeking out, it’s brown now. The one with a few roots had one green frond, now it has two. Here is the one without any roots

Hippeastrum ‘Picasso’ (Amaryllis)

I have them on my light shelf where the lights are on for twelve hours a day. I haven’t watered them either. I’m planning on potting them tomorrow.

“The Hippeastrum genus, commonly known as Amaryllis, is native to the warm, tropical and subtropical regions of South America and the Caribbean. The Amaryllis genus is native to South Africa.”                                                                            

                                          

                   

Wikipedia: Hippeastrum 

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Two Guitars

In an effort to keep more money in my pocket instead of Hallmarks, I have been making some of my cards this year for birthdays, as we have turned into a large family. I am also able to make my cards more personal, heart-felt, and thoughtful. Sometimes they aren’t as ‘great’ as I’d like them to be…

These two cards go to our son and grandson who’s birthdays are in December. They both play guitar. I found a picture on Pinterest earlier this year and thought it perfect! Mine didn’t turn out as well as I would have liked, but I ran out of time so had to run with them.

Don’t laugh, Jim!

Happy birthday Brad and Tyler

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49/52 December at Kate’s Garden

Just a random picture I took while doing errands. This is at Kate’s Garden where the Purdue Extension Master Gardeners maintain a 21-plot border along the riverwalk. Another week I failed to take a deliberate picture for my Photo/52. A very gloomy day after a very light snow.

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A Frax-y Sweet Christmas

Using the app Frax on my iPhone, I used 48/52 picture of the candy sleigh.

Quite a few years ago I had a program, Ultra Fractal, on my pc; I have this app on my iphone which is very simple, 4 options, compared to Ultra Fractals infinite possibilities…

I just came across my 2010 calendar/journal mentioning purchasing the e-books for the classes I took online for Ultra Fractal with Janet Parke, years ago. I had downloaded them on my external hard drive back in 2011 when I purchased. Since then I went from a pc to a mac and a new external hard drive. So I can’t open on my mac and can’t open on my old pc since there is no internet connection (I loved the XP operating system), which I still have. I recently contacted Janet and she sent me a new link to access the books that can now be used on a mac – Ultra Fractal can now be used on a mac too. Ultra Fractal is a program, using mathematics, to make fractal art, no mathematical knowledge required  🙂  So I’ve downloaded it on my mac and using my ebooks can reacquaint myself with it if the mood strikes. I took her classes at a place that is no longer and Janet doesn’t teach anymore. She put her three classes into these three ebooks as these classes are pretty heavy; there is so much you can do within Ultra Fractal that you more than likely won’t figure out on your own unless you are a very mathematical and brainy person, which I am not…She still sells these books for $50, no inflation there…