". Arranged Words: oasis
Showing posts with label oasis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oasis. Show all posts

14 Jan 2020

Mixing It Up


Jan.14, 2020

Hi there,

I hope you all had a lovely holiday. We did and it flew by. Now back to reality with plans for
painting, hiking, knitting and reading to add creativity to the hours and bolster the spirit.

Checking over last year's reading list, I didn't read as many books as I hoped, but I so enjoyed the ones that I did read. Cold Earth by Sarah Moss stands out in my memory, along with the very popular A Gentlemen in Moscow by Amor Towles. And Pachinko by Min Jin Lee was a definite eye opener.
Several more come to mind, but I will leave it there for now.  Since I am always on the outlook for good books, I'd love to hear what you enjoyed reading.


Feathered Friend


A bunny recently passed this way.


From the oasis corner.

In case you missed it, yesterday was national clean your desk day. That makes me laugh although I can make a hot mess in no time, and since I have limited space, I find it difficult to paint if things get out of hand.


So to help tame the upcoming chaos, I raced off to Ikea to buy a set of office drawers which hold, among other things, my watercolour paintings. 
 Although I drew the mistletoe and wreath, I must credit the wonderful botanical painter, Billy Showell, whose free you tube videos I watched as I tried to mix and match her colours.


A trillium line drawing added to my list of flowers to paint.


Recently, I also bought drawers for my pastels. Unfortunately the width of the drawers are too small for Unison pastels, but the Rembrandt's fit nicely.
So this year, among other things, it’s all about organization. A place for everything and everything in its place. 
'Til next time...

Cultivate Your Dreams

Linking to:  Our World Tuesday
                    My Corner of the World
                    Friday Bliss

5 Jun 2014

Garden Oasis


I love to garden.  And I find it liberating to pitch the gloves and just dig in.  For me, planting seeds and watching them grow lifts and nurtures the spirit, enhances my sense of wonder; promotes peace and satisfaction, and when I planted vegetables there was the added bonus of pure freshness. These days I only start Nasturtiums and Morning Glories from seed, but I am still enthusiastic about gardening.

 I keep saying that I am going to limited the number of containers I plant. After all, if I plant too many, the water brigade usually falters.  Perhaps I am a slow learner, but in recent years I've discovered that if I live in a area with good ventilation the best time to water is in the early evening. Then as I walk through the door in the morning, while taking that furtive glance over my shoulder at the pots outside, I catch a glimpse of quilt free beauty. The flowers, instead of giving me that droopy fatalistic look that emphatically states it's all over but the crying, sing halleluiahs. And the grateful Sweet Alyssum sings the loudest. Preferring cool temperatures, Alyssum craves extra water in the summer. It's a prissy plant that needs grooming, too, but if I treat it especially well, this year, the new variegated leafed variety just might bloom all summer.  Time will tell.

P.S.  I caved and bought more plants today ~ so much for the manicure and something called limits...


"To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves."

Mahatma Gandhi