Golden Bowers

A few weeks ago, hubby and I took our first visit to the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana. It has one of the prettiest entryways, built in the Spanish style, I've seen for a museum.

This is a large mural which is mostly obscured by a tree.

I'm not sure what to make of this pruning work. Perhaps they were trying to create a pom-pom tree.

This is in a small garden off of a large hall.

This is a museum that covers a variety of subjects. We saw exhibitions on Beethoven's late works, art of the Pacific (specifically headhunters in New Guinea), early California settlers' artifacts, and 19th Century European paintings. 

I'm sure we will be returning there again in the near future.

Flowering Work

I've been painting again and here are the results.

'Solitude Awaits Below' 8"x10" Oil on Board.

'Gerbera Trio' 5"x5" Acrylic on Canvas.

Seeds of Change

It has been a long time (a very long time) since I have posted about my garden. That is because I haven't been able to work in it after my accident. It is looking a little neglected because of that, plus some of the plants were resting over the winter (despite the fact that we had a very mild winter).

But recently hubby and I went out in the garden to get it ready for spring. Actually I mostly stood around while hubby did all the work. 
Firstly, he dug over the vegetable patch ready for planting. Normally we plant tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, and peas. This year we made some very small changes.

We love fresh tomatoes so we planted two plants as normal.

We planted peas and beans along the back wall. Except for the tomatoes, we always sow seeds as it is less expensive and is fun to see them grow and develop.

We decided against carrots this year as we don't feel that the amount of crop we get is worth the time it takes for them to develop. We decided to grow kale in its place.

Lettuce is another must.

I also decided to plant some lettuce in the herb area to replace some of the strawberries I had planted there last year which did not work out.

Meanwhile, we also put in some California poppies in my flower garden area. Last summer I had some bare patches in the front. The year before the whole area was covered in flowers so I'm not sure why I got bare areas. I'm hoping that adding the poppies will fill in any gaps in future years. Plus they come up earlier than the black-eyed susans and coneflowers. Plus they are so pretty.

When we were visiting a nearby nursery a year ago, we met a lady outside who said she had some excess orchid plants that she wanted to give away. Those plants looked really tatty so I didn't want any of them but hubby said we'd take three or four of them. For a year they really didn't do anything (except stay alive) and still looked tatty.

Then...

I'm not a lover of orchids but these really add to the garden.

The calla lilies are coming out.

We still have two poinsettias left over from Christmas. I loved the look of the rain drops on the leaves.

There's Lovely

Happy St. David's Day. For those who don't know, St. David is the patron saint of Wales. Both hubby and I have Welsh ancestry.

'There's lovely' is a saying that the Welsh are supposed to say that comedians and impersonators use.

Blooming Lovely

My painting of yellow Gerbera daisies sold the day after Christmas at the San Clemente Art Gallery.

Loafing Around

I have a lot of recipe books because I love to cook. Even so, I am always looking out for new recipes. I came across this cake recipe at the website of a magazine from Britain called 'The Simple Things'.

For those who might not know, icing sugar is also known as powdered sugar. I used less sugar for the icing than was called for but with probably too much orange juice. This may be why the icing ran off so much. I just kept scooping it up and pouring it back onto the loaf. Next time I'll make sure the icing is thicker.
And yes, there will be a next time. Yum!

http://www.thesimplethings.com/janis-cake-in-the-house-pistachio-raspberry-loaf/

Sunny Flowers

The more I look at this painting, the more I like it. Though small, it really lights up the area around it.

'Sunny Bouquet' 5" x 7" Oil on Canvas.

I've had guests from England staying with me for the last few days and it has been fun to share some southern California experiences with them: bonfire and hot dogs at the beach, sunsets over the ocean, surfing, shopping and people watching at Laguna Beach, eating where the locals go, and a visit to the Mission in San Juan Capistrano.

This Lily is from one of the Mission's fountains.

Now the guests have gone it is time to wash and put away the sheets and towels, put the furniture back in place, and return to painting.

Friendly Flowers

It has been a little while since I have painted with acrylic paints and I had forgotten how fast they dry compared with oils. But it was fun to work with them again.
I call this a still-life because it was done from a photograph of flowers in my garden.

'Complimentary Companions' 5" x 7" Acrylic on Canvas.

Road Trip 6

This is the final post about my recent road trip. This post backtracks a little and deals with a reoccurring site we saw on the coastal portion, California Missions.

Read about the California Missions here and here.

Because of our schedule, we weren't always able to go into the Mission because we arrived outside of their visiting hours. However sometime we could get pictures of the gardens through the locked gates.

Mission San Jose de Guadalupe.

Mission Santa Cruz.

Mission San Juan Bautisa.

Father Serra who founded many of the missions.

Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo.

Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa.

Mission La Purisima Concepcion de Maria Santisima.

Displays showing how the rooms would have looked during the Mission era.

Adobe bricks.

How the bricks are made.

MIssion Santa Barbara.

Chalk artwork in front of the church.

Father Serra again.

Distance to the next missions.

Mission San Buenaventura.

For a review of my visit to Mission San Juan Capistrano see here and here.