My Little Piece of Paradise

My Little Piece of Paradise

During the last few months I've also been doing quite a lot to beautify and add life to our yard and garden! It’s come a long way since it was just a sun-parched patch of dead grass, and while the it’s taken time to beautify the area, it’s been a very worthwhile project, and one that I've been enjoying quite a lot (even if the upkeep is a bit time-intensive).  The plus side of so much gardening, is that it is likewise encouraging me to keep eating healthy!

The photo on the left is from about two weeks before we took possession of our home. After that point, the yard got worse and worse to the point where it was nearly all dead and brown and full of large dirt-filled areas with no grass. After taking possession, I tended to the lawn 2-3 times a day, including thatching old and dead grass, watering, fertilizing, and planting new grass seed.

From there, my desire to beautify the garden took hold in earnest, and over these last Spring months, it's gone from this:

To this:

My little piece of paradise has all of these, and more:

Albion Strawberries, Aloe, Arugula, Australian Tree Fern, Bee Balm, Birds of Paradise, Bloodgood Japanese Maple, Blue Hibiscus, Blueberries, Bougainvillea, Carmen Sweet Pepper, Catnip, Chef's Choice Rosemary, Cherry Tomatoes, Creeping Myrtle, "Crystal Palace Lobelia," Dahlberg Daisy, Dwarf Lemon Tree, Dwarf Tangelo Tree, Forget-Me-Nots, Garden Sage, Golden Apricot Tree, Gypsy Sweet Peppers, Heritage Glass Gem Corn, Jade, Japanese Aralia, July Elberta Peach Tree, Lavender, Linaria, Lettuce, Marigolds, Miniature Japanese Maple, Orange Bell Sweet Pepper, Orange Thyme, Osteospermum, Pinkerton Avocado Tree, Purple and Green Kale, Rosemary, Sage, Scabiosa "Butterfly Blue," Scarlet Milkweed, Sequoia Strawberries, Serissa Japonica, Serrano Pepper, Snow Princess, “Spin the Bottle” Hibiscus, Sugar Snap Peas, Sunset Hibiscus, Sweet Basil, Sweet Pea Early Multiflora Mix, Telstar Scarlet Dianthus, Thyme, Yellow Cherry Tomatoes (Sun Gold Hybrid), Zucchini, some assorted plants, and three different varieties of milkweeds for the monarchs.

I may not be able to dig up our yard, but I'm darn well going to make the most of the space I have!

The yard has changed and evolved over the last few months, and the photos below showcase a few of my favorite shots (which aren't in chronological order since the garden is ever-changing).

The above section of my garden is one of those that I'm probably the most excited about. It includes the beginnings of some stalks of heritage glass gem corn! Among other residents, I have three hummingbirds who have made nests in my garden!

 

  

 

Peppers! So many peppers!

The Monarchs Arrive

Last year sometime around August, I noticed that some of the plants I’d recently purchased were being attacked by some manner of pest, and after a time I realized that it appeared to be some brightly-colored black, yellow, and white caterpillars that were responsible.

 

After some Googling, I discovered that these were monarch butterfly caterpillars, and that I had inadvertently invited them in when I’d purchased some milkweed plants. Unbeknownst to me, this initial generation of caterpillars would inspire me to seek out an ever-growing supply of milkweed for these voracious eaters, and it got me very interested in helping to support our local population of monarchs.  I plan to dive into that adventure a bit more deeply in a future blog, but it's related to...

The Plant Shelf Project

After realizing there were monarchs interested in my milkweeds, I started focusing a lot of effort of growing milkweed, and at some point this spring I realized that I really wasn't fond of just having a bunch of plastic-potted plants sitting on my entryway. Thus began the "How about I build some plant shelves?" project.

The cost and time-involvement of this particular project were were... much higher than anticipated, but at long last, they were completed! And over the passing months, this area has come to include and ever-growing assortment of herbs, flowers, and bonsai.

The wood were made from center-cut redwood, which was then sanded and dremeled, and then stained with 2 layers of red oak stain, and 3 layers of oil-based polyurethane. The wood shimmers like giant slabs of tiger's eye gemstone in the sunlight, and it was totally worth all the time and effort I put into laboring over them. The masonry section is red clay stone, and the lion is my two stone Lawn Lions!

The color of the planks is incredible in the sunlight! This shot shows how they looked after just one coat.

I was so happy when this project was complete, but like they say: gardening is a never-ending project, and I’m eager to see how the yard will continue to evolve and grow! For the moment though, it’s my little piece of paradise, and I’m ever-so thankful for that touch of nature outside my front door.

Lions and Other Statues

There's a lot of lion imagery in the stories I'm writing, so I also have two lion statues standing "guard" in my yard.  I'd love to sculpt my own statues, and hopefully one of these days I'll have time to do just that. :)

What things do you do or surround yourself with that bring you a sense of peace and tranquility?

Soaring on Feathered Wings and Wings Aflutter

It's been a downright busy year so far, but I've been trying to ensure that I make time for personal projects and hobbies along the way. I'm finding that every ounce of effort I put into such things has been time well-spent beyond words (especially the projects that get me outside and into nature)!

Soar

Soar - Completed on April 18th, 2014

This sketch started as a lunchtime doodle that I revisited a handful of times in order to try to capture the emotion I was striving to convey. It's rather low resolution, and I opted to keep it that way so that I could focus on the piece as a whole rather than minute details of feather and fur. I had a lot of fun (and challenge!) trying to figure out how to back-light a white creature and incorporate some sense of perspective, but on the whole I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out.

I watched to capture the feeling of soaring, and of the peace that comes from letting go of all your worries and inhibitions and just allowing yourself to "be." While I'd not originally planned to show stars up in the sky (since the gryphon might need to borrow an astronaut's helmet if she was really THAT high up), I felt compelled to put them in there as my mind was drawn to think about some of the people I've lost over the years, and the continued way they impact my life and inspire me through the light of their own lives. In a way, it's really wonderful to think of how many lives we touch along the way.

In any case, the gryphon featured here is a longtime original character of mine and is not fan art. You can see three other pieces of her here from 2012, 2009, and 2003: here.

Here are some of steps along the way:

 

 

 

Raising Monarch Butterflies

In addition to being incredibly active with beautifying my garden, I've also been raising new generations of Monarch butterflies this year! In a future update I'm hoping to share additional photos and information about them, as well as hopefully some videos of the incredible life cycle of these migratory winged wonders!

 

Have you been up to an exciting new hobbies or adventures this year thus far?

Updates in Growing Harmony

Some years ago, someone offered me a pearl of wisdom that I've carried with me ever since. Unfortunately, I don't know who exactly it was that passed it along to me, but it went something like this:

In our lives, we're always juggling a variety of responsibilities.

There are matters of work, of friends, and family. There are dreams and goals we strive for, and passions we crave. There are pets, bills, and mundane responsibilities, through to concerns for the health and well-being of both yourself and those you love.

Human as we are, we can only juggle so many of these responsibilities at once, and as we grow, we must learn to differentiate which are made of rubber, and that we can let falter and bounce, and which are like fragile glass that we ought to focus on, because they are at risk of cracking wide and shattering if they chance to drop.

At the time, the metaphor seemed a bit convoluted to me, the ultimate multitasker. I wanted to keep everything in play at all times, but truth to be told, it can get to be exhausting, especially when certain things truly do and should require more attention than others.

Health and family are two of these things that I've tried to make sure I maintain a steady focus on, as well as making sure that I make time for the wonderful people in my life, rather than giving away time to people who are prone to unnecessary or self-inflicted drama or insist on pulling others down. Life is too short to get caught up in those sorts of things, and you only have so many hours in the day, so I've founds it's important to make them count.

Health Stuff

Part of my way of doing this is to make sure that I'm doing what I can to stay healthy and make changes to improve things in that regard. This has meant a better diet overall (including more juicing), and trying to make sure my sleep schedule is a bit more regular (and earlier). I can safely say that both of these changes have made a lot of positive impact overall, and I'm eager to keep on trucking, and see how far I can take things. Health truly is important to me, so it's been sort of refreshing giving it the attention it deserves in recent years. :)  I can't recommend highly enough that others consider prioritizing it as well.

My Iced Tea Maker, Juicer, and Infuser

Moving

The last few weeks (and even the upcoming ones) really seem like there's too much to cram in at once!

Between my usual work and my full-time job, I also spent a sizable amount of time hunting for a larger place to live, which for anyone that's done a lot of moving, knows it's a job all unto itself. ;) A sizable reason for the lack of updates from me was actually because I felt that I needed to make sure that I was able to secure a great new place to live, and thankfully by the time I'm writing this, all the boxes have been moved and it's time to start unpacking! While it will still be a little while yet until things are all unpacked and sorted out, it's nice to feel like things are starting to settle into a pleasant routine once again, with some great new beats along the way (such as the addition of a lawn and the beginnings of a garden all my own!).

Conventions and Festivals

A couple months ago I had the pleasure of again attending Lightning in a Bottle, followed-up by San Diego Comic Con the following week! These two events couldn't be more different than one another, but both felt really good on the soul, not to mention Monsterpalooza some weeks before!

Monsterpalooza... please never change.

Lightning in a Bottle

For those of you unfamiliar with Lightning in a Bottle, it's sort of a mix of a music festival, art and performance festival, and a bunch of sort of healthy-living "hippie" stuff mixed in. It's a fantastic festival, and it has a really wholesome and approachable vibe to it. You can listen to music, dance, learn about healthy living, buy handmade clothing, eat exotic and ultra-healthy natural foods, listen to lectures, or even just lay out in a big tarp and just.. be. I get an incredible amount of peace from attending this event, so I was really thrilled to be able to make time for it this year and just breathe in all the good vibes from it.

So very peaceful and enlightening!

Giant Connect 4, thrumming beats, and huge sprinklers to dance around in? Don't mind if I do!

Relaxing and letting my mind drift on a downright GORGEOUS day.

San Diego Comic Con

San Diego Comic Con the following week was a very different beast.  It remains one of my favorite conventions, and the sheer variety of things to do, panels to see, and folks to geek out with is just awesome. Movies, books, comics, games, TV, cards, collectables, art: it's all here in all sorts of wonderful and inspiring forms, and the panels were just a rush of passion and inspiration. I left the con inspired and touched by just how awesome my group of friends is, but unfortunately I also left the con with a push to find a new place to live, so my creativity has sort of been treading water for the last two months or so waiting to be unleashed. It's not forgotten in the least, it's just nestled in a corner waiting for its chance to get back out.

If you didn't already, you now know someone who is one of those
"crazies" that gets up in the crazy morning hours for exclusive panels.
This is the line for Hall H about 8 hours in.

Here be dragons!

This photo... sort of defines that which is Comic Con.

Such sweet loot!

Of Writing and Art ... and Monarchs

If you hadn't already guessed, the last two months haven't been very productive for me in a creative sense. I could talk your ear off about all the boxes I packed and art supplies I've sorted-out and how I've been able to turn the dead shambles of a lawn lush to the point that we had 12 monarch caterpillars munching on some fresh milkweed, but in terms of art and writing... not so much.  I've worked on a few things under NDA I can't yet show here, but as far as my own stuff, I hope to get rolling on that in short order.  Where writing is concerned: there's been a bit of that to be sure, but I have a certain story point I'm still trying to work my way through, so even that's been delayed a bit (not having a computer hooked-up for about two weeks didn't help though, I tell you what).

I counted 12 caterpillars in all at one point!

 

So beautiful!

I'm also trying to figure out what I want to tackle next artistically. I have about a dozen "unfinished" or "WIP" pieces I want to finish eventually, but I also have some ideas for some new things, so we'll have to see!

In the meantime, here's a minor update on my gryphon model from late June (oh how time flies!):

Me at dinnertime - "Man, I can't wait to get home and do some writing."

Me at midnight - ".....well, that wasn't writing."

It's coming along, but it's tricky making those front paws look something between avian, feline, and dexterous/human. I'm still trying to figure out how much of each is mixed in there.

I'm still not altogether sure what I want to do about the wings and all those feathers. Talk about intimidating!

It was also a treat to see this huge older piece of mine all masterpiece-framed above my mother's piano. It brings back a lot of memories for me, and was one of my more "unique" self-portraits.

40 x 30 inches (which is HUGE for me).

Dream Spirit - Old Art - Completed on February 3, 2006 [More Info]

In Conclusion

That said, I hope you're all doing well, and I look forward to getting back in the groove with these updates. :)