No Make It a Scream

The way yesterday went, it needs to be a scream.

Here's how my morning started.

 7:00 AM.

I didn't know it at the time, but my fuel pump had been invaded by mice.  All I know is that the gas I pumped into my car was pouring out the bottom.

AHHHH!

No car and the big problem was I couldn't get to work yesterday. I was scrambling to figure out what the kids should do. Calling in sub-plans. And not a good week to take a day off. I need to give senior exams on Monday and we have a million things to do to wrap everything up.

But it was a gorgeous day. And by the time I would have gotten it work (waiting for the tow, getting home to get the truck, getting back to work)  most of my classes would be done, so I might as well enjoy the beautiful day.

Like taking the dogs for a walk.

 We finally got the plastic off the screen porch. Then I needed to give it a good cleaning as it was full of empty plant pots and chairs and yard decorations and a bunch of other stuff stored in there through the winter.

And of course I would wash the floor and a dog would come walking in and leave muddy paw prints all over the floor. 

But I did manage to get it cleaned up. I broke the hose in the process. One of the dogs walked through the garden a broke the new peony plant I had just put in the ground on Monday. Not my 

day for a few reasons I guess.

But I got the hammock set up in the screen porch by 4 PM, and then I made  myself a BIG margarita and said the heck with it. 

Hope your day was better than mine!

Happy Thursday.

In the Garden

Hi everyone.  Happy Wednesday.  Happy almost end of May. Wow, I can't believe how fast this month flew by. I say that every month so you'd think I wouldn't be so surprised how fast time flies every month. But it s always seem like the months zip right by.

This month Jo has hosted a great challenge over at Art Journal Journey  The theme was flora and fauna, and I really enjoyed participating. Thanks Jo for such a great theme.

This is my last page for this challenge. It's from my Japan journal and centered around a photo I found in a free travel magazine that I brought back with me. It reminded me of a moment on the trip when we visited the principal's (of our sister school) garden.

Here's the full spread. The card on the right is Principal Fujiwara's business card. Trading business cards in Japan is a big thing, and my school had to make some for each of us so we could participate in that custom.

You can see I layered some origami paper and some bits from a JApanese book to make my background. I used a vintage TH frame that I had around the magazine photo, and also added some little plastic flowers that I think came off of some cupcakes or a cake a long time ago.

Here's a few  other photos from our garden visit. Principal Fujiwara has both a huge vegetable garden and some beautiful flower beds too. And he even had some  tangerine trees laden with fruit.

And I want to send a shout to Jeanie at the The Marmelade Gypsy for a book recommendation. I just finished reading this book she wrote about in her post.

It's a fabulous story about a family, history and art. I'm with you Jeanie. It was a fantastic read that took me to Paris at the turn of the 20th century, Vienna up though 1940 and a few other spots including Japan.  I enjoyed a bit of armchair traveling!

That's all for me today.

I appreciate your stopping by and visiting.

T Stands for a Weekend Wrap Up

Hello everyone. It is Monday evening here in New Hampshire, the end of our long Memorial Day holiday weekend. I don't think we had any sun all weekend, but it didn't seem to interfere with my plans.

This week for T Day I am sharing a little recap of my  holiday weekend. 

Friday after work I went and bought a few plants for my garden and then took the hubby out to dinner. 

Seeing it is the official start of the summer tourist season (not the actual temperate season), and I live in a tourist area, lots of  places have opened back up after being closed since fall. Pop's is this fried food place that probably hasn't changed since it first opened in the summer of 1945, and it is SO good.

 And about a million calories! 

But it was a holiday weekend and did feel like summer. We ordered dinner and sat outside on their deck enjoy a very warm evening.

Saturday was my nephew's wedding. Between appetizers, a delicious meal and a piece of wedding cake, I had another big meal.

We had a good seat, with my brother and his wife, my cousin and his wife, along with 2 other couples.  It was nice to catch up with my cousin since I don't talk with him as frequently as I do my brother.

And here is my extended family. (And my bra strap too-eeks). That's me, my cousin and my brother. My brother is the father of the groom. The three of us spent a lot of time together as kids, and are the only 3 of this side of the family really left (of course minus our kids).

And here's the groom and his bride dancing.

In fact it was a dancing kind of event. I was dancing until after 11 PM.

And I only stopped then because they started playing music I didn't know as well. And the hubby was losing steam. 

It was nice, we stayed right at the hotel where the reception was. When we were ready to leave we just had to go upstairs.

And the next morning we met up with a lot of people at breakfast.

The hotel had a very nice breakfast buffet. I had a yummy waffle with fresh strawberries and real whipped cream. 

And I needed a diet coke since I was still pretty wiped out from all that dancing!

The wedding was a good 3 hours from home, and on our way back we passed by IKEA, so it seemed like a good opportunity to stop in.

The lines were pretty long since it was a really cloudy and cold Sunday. Our temperatures went from 91 on Saturday (33 degrees C) to 55 on Sunday (13 degrees C). We picked up a few little things we could use but my daughter scored a really nice returned rug for an extra 35% off.

By the time I got home I really needed a nap.

I was still dragging on this Monday holiday, and it was still cloudy, but it was at least a little warmer.

I spend a good chunk of today working in the garden, 

and not eating as much food as the rest of the weekend.

My azalea is just gorgeous right now.

 My Dad gave this plant about 20 years ago. At that time it was barely a foot tall. (about 30 centimeters)

This is the part of the garden I cleaned out today. It's been a few years since I did a real good clean out (other than just weeding) and the garden really needed that.

If you look on the left you can see the side I haven't cleaned, which doesn't look too bad from far away. 

Up close is another story. ( Kind of like the lawn too. It looks ok from this angle, but up close it isn't much grass and moree weeds.)

Every Tuesday is T Day where we share our drink related posts. Stop by Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog and join in! All you have to do is share your drink related post with us. 

Back to school now that the weekend is over.   :( 

This is the last week with my seniors. And 3 1/2 weeks until the year is done.

But who's counting?

Thanks for visiting, and

I hope you have a fantastic T day ladies.

Creatures

Hi everyone. A quick post with not much writing as I need to get moving! I tried walking today and the mosquitoes were soooo thick I came back and did manage to get a little time to write this post. :)

First of all a page from my calendar journal. The plants were the coloring page next to the date boxes, but I enhanced them and added a few bugs, birds, flowers, outlines, words, dots, Xs...you ladies are all very smart and  get the idea I am sure.

I am linking up to Jo's challenge at Art Journal Journey which is Flora and Fauna, and lots of fun to participate in also.

And then I think I shall show you some of the Glass Sea Creatures at the Harvard Museum of Natural History where I traveled with my students this past Tuesday.  They were made by the same father and son team who made the glass flowers I showed you here Blooming.  The Blaschka's were extremely talented people I think.

Pardon the shadows.  The display lights in the cases made it difficult to not get shadows and glare.

 But some of those shadows were cool in themselves.  Here's one.

We're heading off later this morning and driving towards Cape Cod. The wedding is not on the Cape, but is on the way, and since it's a long weekend, might mean lots of traffic. We shall see.

Have a fabulous weekend everyone.

And thanks for visiting today.

Mount Fuji

Happy Friday everyone. This weekend ahead looks like a mix of some very hot and then some cool temperatures, as well  the possibility of some rain too, which is too bad as it is a long holiday weekend. I have my nephew's wedding tomorrow evening, which should be fun. Rain or shine, it is indoors so I don't think it will matter too much what the weather is doing.  We need to travel for the wedding so the bonus is that I get  a night away too.

I have another page in my Japan travel journal to show you today. It's our view of Mt.Fuji that I reproduced with a bit of artistic license.
The border I put around it is because we saw it from the bullet train window. I also created some abstract buildings and trees which were also in the view.
I think I might have showed you this view before, but in case I didn't, here's the view we saw.

I am linking up to Try It On Tuesday and their latest challenge which is Destinations.
And while I'm at it, how about a couple more Japan photos.

 Today, it's just some random shots.

 It must be a big tourist thing to rent kimonos and walk around the city in them. We saw a lot of people doing this.
 I love the mask. I kind of wish I had bought myself one to hang in my studio.
And here are some mangoes-Nango mangoes. Nango is the town where they are grown. These are grown in greenhouses where people are not allowed in until the mangoes are ready to be picked. The  growers  have to put bees into these greenhouses to do the pollination

 Once picked they hand  package them and ship them around Japan and charge a fortune for them. The ones we saw (even at the Tokyo airport) sold between $25-$30 US dollars. I guess they are famous in Japan. (I didn't taste one-a little out of my price range.)

 Love the playground squirrel. And the Buddha in a cemetery.

And here's the whole girl manga section in a bookstore.

And I love these cute panda cakes in a bakery near the Tokyo zoo.
Thanks everyone for visiting and
Happy almost weekend!

Blooming

Hi everyone. Here we are at the middle of another week and May is flying right by. Flowers have bloomed and the trees have all their leaves  and the weather has been mostly fantastic.

Today I have a painted page from my Nature Journal to share with you. I am linking up with Jo's challenge at Art Journal Journey. This challenge is Flora and Fauna. Thanks Jo for a great theme this month.

I have a weeping cherry in my garden that we call Al. It's called Al after my dad, as the tree was a gift from my co-workers when he passed. A couple of weeks ago it was blooming and I decided to document it in my Nature Journal.

And it has a very weird shape because one winter in an ice storm the top broke off, so now it grows fat but not tall. But when it blooms in early May, it is really beautiful.

I used paint, stamped images and some sketching to create my page.

I am also going to link up to the latest challenge, More Flowers, at Moo Mania.

Yesterday I went with some of my students on a field trip to Harvard Museum of Natural History.

The pride of the museum is their collection of glass flowers, made between 187-1936 by a father and son Czech glass working team, Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka. 

 They created some amazing flowers. I went there a couple of years ago with some students also, but they had a few things in the exhibit I don't remember seeing before.

This is view of the back wall of the exhibit looking over 2 of the cases that display the flowers.

Here are some of the glass flowers.They are scientifically correct for study.  Everything here is made of glass. It is AMAZING!

Any guess what this is? It's not a plant.

 A common fungus-mold.

They also had an exhibit of sea animals made of glass from this samee father and son team. I will show you those another day.

Have a great day!

And thanks for visiting my blog also.