Driftwood and Art

One weekend, Michael and I were sort of ambling about. We decided to check out the Events section of the paper and noticed that there was a Driftwood Association event in town. It was fascinating how ugly pieces of wood were transformed into a piece of art!

Always in the lookout for things to do during the Fall and Winter months, I decided to enroll in Driftwood Sculpting. I came to our first class with a big rather complicated looking piece of wood (looked the the rock spires in Silent City in Bryce Amphitheater from Bryce Point, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, USA). Most of the others did the same. Our instructor advised us that they were too complicated for our class and had us pick pieces of wood from a stack she had in the corner.

After endless cleaning, my piece of wood is evolving into either a skeleton of a hog head or from a different perspective, an interesting free form sculpture. I've been sanding it to a shine as you can see from the 2 pictures attached. This is not the finished product yet and if I may say so - IT IS LOOKING PRETTY DARN GOOD!

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Ladies Dinner Party and How to lengthen Peonies blooming time

I was at an All Ladies dinner party last Friday. It was loads of fun and my girl friend Lynda went all out with the spread. Scallops wrapped with bacon, Spinach balls, cheese and crackers, and spiced nuts for hors d'ouvre accompanied by non-ending mixture of drinks, wine and champagne. Then for dinner, we had Crab Cakes with Lemon Butter Sauce topped with Tomato salsa, Rotolo (yummy italian dish) for the main course and Tiramisu and Pumpkin Cream Cheese roll for dessert choices. We were stuffed and truly grateful for this wonderful meal! What a fantastic hostess/cook she is!

Then, as conversations go - one of the ladies brought up my website and peonies. She indicated that she didn't know there were so many varieties. She complained, however, that the plant is short lived when in bloom. And so, I explained to her how to lengthen the blooming time of peonies.

Her comment inspired me to create a pdf file title "Peonies Blooming Time". I just posted it on my website www.ilovepeonies.com. I hope that this helps you in your selection of peonies. Living here in the Pacific Northwest, one of the things I decided is that I will have flowers and color during all 4 seasons. I didn't want to face fall and especially bleak winter with nothing going on in my garden. And so, I chose plants and trees that would provide color during these seasons.

Thus, the Peonies Blooming Times. It takes a little bit of time to download because it has a lot of pictures to show you the colors of the peonies in bloom during specific times. This guide will help you choose cultivars that will lengthen the time to enjoy the peonies!

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Welcome to "In the Garden of Life!"

I thought of an all encompassing title to cover topics I'd be posting, which could be anywhere from my Passion about Peonies, Gardening, Bread Baking, Desserts, Cooking, home decorating and home remodeling, hobbies such as hunting for mushrooms, drawing, hiking, sewing and driftwood sculpting to name a few.

With the heavy emphasis on gardening, I thought why not "In the Garden of Life". Our life is like a Garden. We come up with ideas (the seed), whether it's about our careers, relationships, family, friends, hobbies, health, our dreams. Then we move forward with this idea (planting the seed) we begin to nurture it with good soil, amending it with nutrients to ensure its growth, cultivate it and wait for the reward of our work with the beautiful plants, trees and flowers. We share it with our family, friends, neighbors, and the birds, the bees, the butterflies, and even in my case with CZ, my cat, who seems to delight in accompanying me when I work in the garden; practice her runs and catching skills! In The Garden of Life provides us with a way to express ourselves, relax, be with nature and meditate about life.

So there you have it. Again, Welcome to "In the Garden of Life".

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