Bearded iris are hard flowers to draw, like roses. This took a couple of hours and isn't bad, although you're probably thinking it could use some color.
I like plain pencil drawing, because the tools are so simple and you can do it anywhere. My iris was copied from this how-to-draw-flowers book.
Maybe that's not as creative as drawing from life, but I find copying engaging, because the concentration quiets down the busy right side of the brain. For a few minutes, at least. Anyway, the hardest part of any drawing is staring at the blank paper and getting started.
We've passed the halfway mark of June, and not a drop of rain has fallen in Seattle so far this month. We might get a touch of wet over the weekend, which will be welcome.
We heard the super star violin virtuoso, Hillary Hahn, play the Beethoven Violin Concerto yesterday. It was an amazing performance, especially from our excellent 4th row seats. The packed Benaroya Hall audience went crazy, and then she played two encores!
Including this haunting Bach Partita:
Anyway, in decades of going to the Symphony, we've never heard more than one encore, and even those are getting few and far between. What a treat.
The second half was Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5. His ballet music is good (at the ballet) but I'm not a huge fan of Mr. Prokofiev's big orchestral works. The loud crashing music sounds like the end of the world has arrived. Well, the Russians didn't have much to be happy about when he wrote it in 1944.
Other than the concert, it was just a weekend of cooking and eating at home.
Homemade corned beef hash and Amanda's wonderful eggs on Saturday...
Strawberry crepes on Sunday...
A big vegetarian pizza on Saturday, then beef stew from the freezer when we finally got home from the Symphony.
Downtown was jammed with cars and crowds of people, having fun in the blinding June light. The Solstice is just around the corner, and sunset after 9 pm in Seattle.
Precious memories pulled from deep depths of the blog. That's Amanda and my horse Sizzle, right before Nova was born, almost sixteen years ago.
And months later, the delight on Baby Nova's face watching Sizzle munch a carrot. Sizzle was such a sensitive mare, spirited and fun to ride, but incredibly careful and gentle around children. She especially liked little girls and they loved her. She took a big piece of my heart with her.
Downright chilly this morning. We turned the heat on! The dark clouds might burn off by late afternoon topping out at 65 degrees-- typical June gloom weather in Seattle.
Happy Father's Day weekend. We are looking forward to the Symphony Sunday afternoon.
I should have taken a before picture of that messy window. Yesterday I threw out some struggling plants that no longer "sparked joy." Then I transplanted and drenched the cactus in those bright yellow pots. They had not been watered for months, and sucked it up like a sponge. Now the window is about as carefree as it gets with houseplants.
And not my favorite job, crawling up in there to clean out all the dead flies and poor lost bees from the neighbor's hives across the street.
We are chipping away at the summer projects. John primed the peeling and chipped front steps, which need to be touched up with paint every single year. The joy and charm of old houses. Always something to clean or fix.
“How does dirt find its way into old houses like it does? Sometimes I
think it's the house itself, old and disintegrating by degrees,
breathing out sighs of itself, sighs longing for a little bit of
notice.”
Corn today? When our sweet corn came in season on the farm, there were times when it was all we had for dinner--just a big platter on the middle of the table with butter and salt.
The housewife's trick was to get the pot boiling then head to the garden and pick the corn, so it stayed sweet as candy. In retrospect, that was lots of carbs and sugar, without any protein on the side.
Well, nature's air conditioning came on last night when the marine clouds rolled in, just like someone flipped a switch. On this grey morning a big sigh of relief went up over Seattle.
The heat gave the old jasmine vine a boost, and I'm happy to see it struggling back to the land of the living.
The tomato pots are going wild on the baking hot south side of the house.
And roses adore strong sun, as long as their feet stay damp. But they are whipping through their first bloom way too fast. More typical June weather in Seattle is morning clouds with afternoon clearing, which shall return tomorrow, to everyone's relief.
I've enjoyed the mini hot spell though, sitting on the side of the house, moving the sprinkler around and getting some vitamin D on my eggshell white arms and legs. Yes, yes, the sun should be avoided like the plague, but we rarely have that kind of bone-warming heat. It feels so good.
I'm happy with how this big project turned out. That evergreen was growing in a low bonsai-type pot for years and became completely root bound. I managed to wrench it out and transplant into this beautiful Vietnamese pot.
It needs light pruning to reveal the interesting old growth structure, but I'll give it time to recover from the harsh treatment first.
