aaaaahhhhh.....

Four nights at the ballpark has ended with a great weekend of softball tournaments. I have found enough time to paint a few more little paintings. I should be able to move onto large projects now.

Picking

Today I picked strawberries from my little garden patch for the fourth time in the past couple of weeks. This pile is going in the freezer since I've been picking more than anyone is eating. Having perennial plants that bear fruit is quite wonderful.

Unfinished

Maybe it is finished? I don't know? When a painting sits for a while, sometimes they are hard to come back to. Sometimes what I thought was unfinished, might be enough?

Hermitage

Hermitage is my optimistic or polite way of saying "leave me alone."

My little Lucky dog shares my affinity for digging. However, I do not think lying in a dirt hole is a cool thing to do. She does. Actually, climbing in a hole doesn't sound half bad these days.

After a long week of unexplained extreme agitation I needed some quiet solitude and found it in my garden. Expanding the garden and turning it by shovel rather than rototiller is probably not good for my recently ailed back and feet, but I don't care. I spent hours and hours and hours gardening this weekend. I am fatigued and happy. At one point my neighbor came out to see me working so hard and said "You should get Darrin out here to finish this for you." My answer: "No. He's not the gardener. I'm the gardener."

before and after. whew.

I'll be sure to share the progress of growing veggies: Broccoli, celery, peppers, tomatoes, onions, green beans and cucumbers. All squeezed in a little too tight as my strawberries continue to encroach the space.

The patio is my sanctuary. I should spend more time there, even if it's just for a few moments. Below: wild indigo.