Angry Birds cake

I like cake, and I like art, and I like Angry Birds, and I like my friend's son Simon. So, how could I not share this photo of this great birthday cake made by my friend Helga?

New school greenhouse

The weekend before last, my family and I volunteered some labor at school helping put up the new greenhouse.  Thanks to a grant from State Farm and some generous donations from school families, the school got a nice greenhouse kit and was able to hire Daniel Skinner to design and build the greenhouse.

Much of my time was spent running a tiller, which I had never done before, plus shoveling and raking dirt.  I also worked with a few others to set up about half the support ribs, spread out the tremendous sheet of plastic and get it over the top, and do some anchoring.  It was a lot of dirty work over a hot weekend, but it was also sort of interesting, and the other people were great to work with (and very patient with me.)

I’m excited to see the finished project; I don’t know when the inside will be all put in, but it won’t be too long.  There has been work going on every day.  When completed, it will be state-of-the-art, with a water circulation system for heating and cooling, half-sunken rain barrels to double as classroom seats, a large fish tank, and both floor-level and raised beds and pots.

Hard at work in the morning

 My fearless wife high atop a ladder

The official ribbon cutting

Caperton Swamp

I had a few minutes to kill the other day waiting for the rest of my family, so I took a short walk on a trail at Caperton Swamp.  It's a pretty area, but I didn't get far into it.  Might make for a nice hike with the kids.

Watermelon carving

I did this as a centerpiece for a fruit table at an elementery school art show.

Black walnut ink house portrait

I finished this one a few nights ago. It is 11 x 15 inches.  Overall, I am satisfied with it, although frankly there are some elements of the house I'm not entirely happy with.  I'm happiest with the trees.  I enjoy working on trees and I'll try to do some more tree drawings soon.

Fat asparagus

This is a hefty vegetable. I chopped it down and dragged it into the house last night.

Pen and ink house portrait

 Here's another, finished late last night.  This one is 6 x 9 inches on cold press watercolor paper. This is a pretty house and it was pleasant to draw.

Asparagus

The last blog post is a photo of asparagus from my garden. I planted it the year before last, and this is the first year that I’ve felt like it is coming in well enough to harvest. I’ve sautéed a few bunches, and it has been quite good—flavorful and tender.  I have had quite a few gardening flops, but this isn’t one of them.

Kim doesn’t seem to react this way, nor does anyone else I know, but I find asparagus comical.  Every other thing in my garden starts as a seedling or a sprout that I have to wait on to develop, or I have to wait for it to grow fruit to pick, or to grow enough leaves to snip off.  But asparagus gives me the goofy impression that there is a tiny guy hiding under the soil with a bundle of full-grown asparagus spears under his arm, and he keeps reaching up and poking them through the soil for me to pick.

Creekside art

I had some time to kill in Taylorsville while the girls attended a birthday party. Luckily, Waterford Park was nearby.

Bedecked

Maybe a little gardening, 2013

My own personal 2013 gardening season is underway.  I don’t have any big, long-term plans.  Judy gave me some spare broccoli, arugula, and kale seedlings, which I planted on Sunday.  They look pretty happy where they are.

I also sowed some bachelor’s button and cilantro seeds, all mixed in the same spot.  Next to those, one of the two rosemary plants from last year appears to have survived the winter.  I hope it starts growing again.

I’m looking for signs of my asparagus, of which I have four of five plants.  I recall from last year that it was sort of late in the spring before I saw it pop out of the soil.  This will be the first year that I’ll try harvesting from it.

The Asiatic lilies and glads are popping out.  Last year, the lilies had just been divided, so they were looking a little scrawny.  This year they should look pretty good.

I have seeds for green onions (scallions) and peas, but I need to find a spot for them.  My windfall of arugula and kale took their space.  The girls have little garden boxes Judy made with them last year, and which are so far empty.  Those might be just the spot for them, or at least the peas, which the girls like growing, picking, and eating.

The hostas by our front porch looked bad last year.  They didn’t do well, for some reason, and so far I haven’t seen a sign that they’ll be back this spring.  I wonder if they actually have been “done in”? Over the weekend, Helga gave us some ground cover that she had dug up.  It gets little purple flowers on it, but she didn’t remember the name, and I’ll have to try to figure it out somehow.  Anyway, I put that at either end of the hosta bed, and I guess we’d better start looking for a replacement for the hostas. I still like the astilbe idea, but have not been able to sell Kim on it.

Tree mural...done?

 Well, yeah, I'm calling it done.  I can easily rattle off five things I'd like to change or work on some more, but I am done with this section of the mural. I think I got it to a state where it looks attractive and the family I am painting it for can be very satisfied with it; I will only work on it some more if they tell me otherwise.

Egg dying at the Gilbert's

NCAAW, U of L vs. Purdue

"Horse & Jockey 3" pen & ink

11 x 14" on cold press watercolor paper.

Mark's Madness! Brackets!

Horse & Jockey prints

I just had reproductions run. This is the first time I have done this via offset printing; I had them run digitally before. I am very pleased with the results. I feel that there is a good range of tone and subtlety in the prints.

Tree Mural, in progress

I'm not far from completing another section of the play room mural I started for someone last year. This is in the same room as the giant Crayola box.  They asked for a tree in this corner, and left the rest up to me.  I liked the idea of putting in something extra colorful, so I chose macaws. I had planned out a mountainous background, but the water was a spur-of-the-moment idea.

 This isn't actually the most up-to-date photo. Last night I put a lot of work into the tree trunk and limbs, giving them a little more color and dimension.  I must get a good photo of the trunk as it is now, because I think it's my favorite thing about the painting.

Next I will add tall grass to the area between the tree and the water, and then some touching up, then I'll be done!