Radishes, Radishes

The first handful of handgrown handpicked garden treasure.
Today I met the early dew and weeded another patch to throw in the next crop of radishes.
After reading this somewhere, I first put a spoonful of jello mix, I believe it was cherry, in my hand and then added the seeds before planting. I know… who knew. Whoever “they” was swears it will add nitrogen and other good stuff and make them even more delectable.

We shall see. In the meantime, this morning’s haul included…well was exclusively…one French Breakfast Radish and one Cherry Bell.

cherry  bell

And the taste test results…Cherry Bell comes out on top.
A tad sweeter which holds the spicy bits longer on the buds.
Plus I love the deeper true red.
They both have a place in my garden and we shall see what the next “Jello” batch yields.

In the meantime, I do have an art-radish related announcement…

Gallery 1261 has a new show opening June 6th… Group X-2
I admit that I am clueless as to the origin or concept for the title, but they are still letting us old farts in on the fun. And, in honor of the current harvest…

french breakfast radish
French Breakfast Radish   Oil on Panel   24″ x 20″

Hope you can find a bunch of these springtime wonders to help welcome your morning…ta for now.

Tis the Season…

heuters

Yes, I am painting.
Most of the hours of most of the days.
But the apprentice has lately been insisting on beauty breaks…

the finn

And, after the winter of discontent that we all shivered through, I am taking deep breaths of every single blooming flower in my garden..

beach rose

My beloved Beach Rose and irises and even the daisy that always reminds me of J O’H

white iris daisy

and, with a cart full of color, and a pair of sturdy gloves
I am taking full advantage of every single space between the brushes
to get outside and work in the dirt.
in waiting

Herself chuckles and grins as she reminds me of the day,
sometime in mid-January,
when I hung my winter weary head
and swore I was not going to do ANY gardening this year.

Certainly no new plants, and definitely not the heavy lifting of the vegetable beds.
No, I was going to keep that head down low and focus focus focus on the paintings.
And right up until about March I was right on track with that dark pledge and doing fine.

Then some plague germs bullied their way into the studio and I spent the next few months crawling out of a very deep hole of un-health. (Spell check didn’t like that last hyphen and neither did I.) Which has thrown some curve balls of perspective at me.

BUT… the veil has lifted.
(Insert a choir of angels here please)
and all verdant bets are off…
Life is so damned short and…
you simply can’t keep a gardener’s soul from a wheelbarrow filled with marigolds…

marigolds
And then there are those newly revised beds that I dreamed of through the wintery gauze of tissues…

new beds

and the annex to the asparagus bed that wants to try growing some beans this year…

asparagus bed

Everywhere I look there are things growing…

nest
wild chives

And chairs that call to sit a spell…

chairs

or swing…

sky chair finn

And so yes, I am painting, but I am also living large in the tiny corner of the planet that we are taming. And, when the brushes begin to whine, I settle back into my chair at the easel with a tiny token of the garden wonders to temp the muses…

sir bernard and the rose

May your paths be filled with clover
and strewn with beach rose petals…
now go out there and grab a trowel.