Resolution to continue to visit the Denver Botanic Gardens!

The new year is 2 days away. Resolve to continue to visit the Gardens! The mandala is the Chihuly Glass as seen during Blossoms of Light!

add some light on the solstice

On winter solstice day - adding some light! From the Blossoms of Light show at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Blue in the dark is very intense and beautiful - it was all a wonderland to behold!

Holiday Greetings

Christmas just a week away and the year end coming too. Whew - where did the year go. We are having a dry winter again down here, the ski areas are doing OK. But you know it's bad when you are watering in December! Colorful Bamboo from Denver Botanic Gardens.

Cleome

An interesting plant, found it at the Denver Botanic Gardens this past summer. Hope to get down to see their Blossoms of light display before December is over.

Under $100 Show

If you are shopping stop by the Aurora Mall and see our art work.

Happy Thanksgiving All!

On this cold overcast day a banana plant from the Denver Botanic Gardens Conservatory. It's one of the food groups for this Thanksgiving Day?! Enjoy Family!

clouds

Called this my snowflake cloud because it's a 6 pointed star. We got a good snow yesterday with lots of cloud cover. Today we have sunshine and melting snow - fortunately. I've been looking up at the clouds a lot lately, it is always good to look up.

voting day

A cold wind is blowing here today and in the picture of the apache plum seed head. I look at my work for images appropriate to be turned into a Black and White image, this was my selection for this months competition and I got a 1st place!!

Halloween at DBG

Denver Botanic Gardens is decorated for Halloween; the mandala is one of the interesting plants inside the conservatory. Always fun to visit!

pressed flower

Another way to preserve flowers that are now gone is to press them. I keep a garden journal and sometimes save flowers in its pages. Planted some red columbines this year and they were pretty prolific, thus today's mandala. Tried it with a black circle around it but liked it better just plain white.

fish eye

Sometimes the oddest things grab my attention. There were these ceramic fish in a bowl that formed an interesting pattern, so I took a picture. We put our pond to bed for the winter and lost a koi in the process. Oh well.

flower bouquet

Now that we have had our first hard frost my flowers will come from floral bouquets. All flowers are beautiful!

pumpkin time

Pumpkins all around! Kaleidoscope of the pumpkin image.

aspen mandala

Just because had shown the aspen branch turning, now the trees.

Swallowtail

The curves on the edge of the Swallow Tail Butterfly make interesting patterns - it wasn't until I looked at the whole circle that I saw the heart shapes toward the center. One never knows.

it's officially fall!

Got to see lots of aspen over the weekend driving on I-70 from east of Vail to Denver. Glorious!

Dahlia

Dahlia flowers are big and showy but still very pretty. They naturally form a big circle but I still like to play around with them to see whit kind of patterns form in the middle of the image.

bee

Our necessary bees - this one from the Botanic Gardens. Their star this weekend is the corpse flower "Stinky" that bloomed Sept 1st. It is not pollinated by bees.

artichoke

Artichoke flowers are this brilliant blue purple. here are layers of color.

prickly pear

I liked the random lines created by the spines of this Prickly Pear cactus down at the Botanic Gardens. I'm always surprised to see cactus bloom the flower is so delicate but the plant is so hardy and practical.

California Poppy

Feels like summer is winding down, school begins today for most and Labor Day is only 3 weeks away. Nights are cooler, too.

globe thistle

Globe Thistle is a curious plant and very blue. It is just an interesting shape. Speaking of blue we actually have some blue sky today, yesterday the sky was full of smoke from the fires in California.

rose bud

Rose bud from the Denver Botanic Gardens. DBG is having a Japanese Beetle infestation, on a recent visit there was a volunteer going around hand picking the beetles off the roses. I found an old bug book copyright 1956 that indicated the Japanese Beetle was only located on the east coast- not anymore!

daylilly stamen

More flower stamen - these from a daylily. They dance around the edge of the image. I put my images on all kinds of things - mugs, puzzles, playing cards, etc. I took advantage of a free offer and will now have a shopping bag with this image.

bird of paradise flower

The bird of paradise flower has these beautiful long red stamen. A friend held up her blue purse to give me a background and 'Atomic Flower' is the result.

show in Palmer Lake, CO

We had our opening last night, two people sold work. Show will be up thru August 24th. Got a nice drive thru pasture land on the way down.

Blue Flax Forth

For about a month I was greeted with a bouquet of Flax Flowers right outside my back door, so had to take a picture of them. There is a little bit of red, white and a lot of blue in this mandala So thought it might be appropriate for the 4th of July posting. Enjoy the day!

honeysuckle words

Every so often I add words to my mandala. To the mantra in the honey suckle flowers I would add - Eat, Sleep, Garden and take pictures!

sunny daylily

I have always loved flowers. They are colorful and come in many, many shapes. I was out early one morning when I found this daylily opening. In it's sunshine shape it is appropriate for all the sunshine we are going to get this week, already in the 90s.

amaryllis heart

Back to flowers, had one amaryllis bloom this spring and the stamen is heart shaped, it was not manipulated. Liked the bright red colors too.

the display

This is one of the orchids I put out with the staghorn fern. After the blooms quit I un-potted it to find there were no viable roots, so we are hoping it will recover outside.

mini orchid

A mini orchid in front of a mini barn, flowers in the middle. The image is a bit hard to read. I'll post the original image tomorrow. I have most of my fairy gardens outside now. They enjoy the summer outdoors and I get to clean up the sunroom. Orchids don't usually go outside, but I thought I'd experiment. I have a giant Staghorn Fern that has a cavity in it's middle so I put two mini orchids in the cavity, including the one above, they seem to be doing well growing new roots. They are totally in the shade of a big pine tree. I'll report back later.

Fairy Wings

These Fairy Wings are actually a close up of dragonfly wings in kaleidoscope form. The body of the dragonfly creates the brownish circle you see. I considered printing this mandala on transparent material, cutting them out and making wings for a physical 3D fairy, but it hasn't happened yet.

peppermint fairy table

Peppermint table and chairs outside a fairy door on a great lawn with bird bath. Found the table and chairs at a closeout sale they really don't go with anything, but it's make believe so.. . .

fairy fire picture

The image that made the last mandala.

fairy fire

Continuing the Fairy Theme I made a tiny campfire for the fairy gardens from a tea light, some twigs and rocks. Mandala above is the fire. Just for fun!

fairy gardens

Time to renew my Fairy Gardens, parts survive others don't. So I get new plants, found a tiny coleus, constructed a new jointed paper fairy seen in the mandala. When I first see it - all I see is patterns and I have to hunt for the fairy. It's easy once you find her face. Enjoy the garden!

bright colors

Back to Circles; this one a potato vine and red geranium - it's time for planting out of the annuals! We had hail yesterday which didn't help the broad leaves of the potato vine or the rhubarb but new leaves will grow. The rest of the garden got a pruning, but survived. Deep breath!

curling petals

curling petals

I liked the curling petals and the colors of this daisy.

orchid buds

Another cross shape, this time orchid buds arching to the center.

more spring flowers

Loved the pastel colors in this cross shaped mandala.

daffodil

Daffodils always remind me of Spring! liked the way this mandala formed a square with the elements of the flower. We are having a windy April here in Colorado, it's blowing outside my window right now.

Spring Snow Storm

We continue to have Spring snows in Colorado - the good thing is they melt fast! The last one flocked the trees with white and made this Celtic Cross look like lace in the middle - and the blue sky was really that blue!

morning susnrise

I enjoyed the soft pastel colors in this picture and the geese flying. They really were in a 'V' formation as they went by, the kaleidoscope program made it into a tighter 'V'.

Grape Hyacinths

Grape hyacinths are blooming! Spring is starting.

delicate butterfly cross

A different butterfly in the cross shape. Spring is officially here! am now patiently waiting for things to green up and start blooming!

black and orange and white

Another butterfly - I like the colors and the patterns!

butterfly picture

original picture