CREATIVE TUESDAY

THEME:  I want to go to...

CONWY, North Wales

CONWY CASTLE

(Water color, pencil and Prisma color pencils)

Conwy, (known in English as Conway, rather than the Welsh version), is a small town located on the coast of North Wales at the estuary of the River Conwy.  It is a walled town with both trains and roads having to go through the walls to get to the town center. It is a quaint town of the middle ages with a large castle built by Edward 1 in the thirteenth century.  

The reason I would like to go back to Conwy is because I have happy memories of our time spent there as a family.  Our boys in their teens were able to scramble all over the castle, up and down towers and waving to me in a heart-stopping way from the top of of the unfenced towers.  We ate dinner at a wonderful fish and chip restaurant across the road from the castle.  In the narrow main street of the town there are some other tea shops where they serve absolutely delicious cream teas, some in Victorian style rooms and some located in small flower-filled cobbled gardens.  There are book shops, art galleries and gift shops full of Welsh crafts. Turn a corner off the main street and you are at the harbor.  There you can find the Smallest House in Great Britain which is approximately 9 x 3 feet with a ceiling height of less than six feet. To crown it all the harbor has enough boats to keep my husband happy and the boys too, for that matter.

One last thing.  I have been to Conwy numerous times and each time the sun was shining! 

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Do you wonder where other participants of Creative Tuesday decided they wanted to go? Go take a look and hop on over to the Creative Tuesday page by clicking  HERE

MOVING FROM SPRING TO SUMMER

The bright lavenders and purples of the spring ice plant have all turned shrubby and woody looking  -- not very attractive.  But I don't mind because they remind me of the heather on the Yorkshire moors after it has bloomed.

So now color pots are our mainstay for the yard, apart from the shrubs which have still to bloom. The bouganvillea is still blooming, I don't think it ever stops.  It is a favorite spot for the birds to survey the scene before making for the feeders.

The beautiful oriole visits many times a day now, with his wife and young son taking their turns at the grape jelly.  I took this photo three days ago.  I was just sitting out on the porch and there he was -- what a picture!

The song sparrow is nesting in there somewhere ...

.....as well as house finches and wrens.

The lavenders and purples turn to red and yellow

A pot of lantana...

The New Zealand Christmas tree, though it looks  like a small bottle brush to me...

....the golden euonymous

There are still several other bushes set to bloom as the summer moves on.

No rain for the creek now -- probably not now until October.   Thankfully the park have released a little water so the ducks, egrets and heron are not totally without some to enjoy.

THANK YOU LORD

My step granddaughter is doing much better.  She is still very limited in her diet and tires quickly. But she is making great progress.  Thank you for your prayers.

CREATIVE TUESDAY, June 10

THEME  -- BIRD CAGE

I freely admit that the idea for this picture came from Tweetie Pie and Felix.  I was going to copy a picture of them from the web but it gave me the idea for this much milder version.

I thought this was going to be an easy theme, but it wasn't as easy as I expected.  However with all the "No-No's" going on with Scruffy, my cat, who is obsessed with escaping again, it soon came to me.  As my husband frequently quotes, "How are you going to keep them down on the farm once they've seen gay Paree (Paris)".

Please visit other participants in CREATIVE TUESDAY if you can.  After working on a piece of art for several hours -- or even days, everyone loves to have encouraging comments and most of

us will then visit your blog. 

To visit CREATIVE TUESDAY please click HERE

PROGRESS EVERYWHERE

First Medical Transfusion.

I'm not quite sure what this entails, but I'm assuming it is some kind of blood transfusion to help heal the infection.  Our granddaughter has to have one every 8 weeks.  They are so busy taking care of Haley that I have hesitated to ask too many questions just yet. It all must be very overwhelming for them. The photo below was taken while Haley was in the hospital two weeks ago.  She is home now and getting antibiotics by IV and very small amounts of food of very limited variety.

This one is of Haley while she is sleeping during the transfusion.  It takes a while and they give her 

something to make her sleep.  She has another session in a couple of weeks.

 The doctors are pleased with her progress.  Mom is happy with her great attitude. Thank you for your prayers and good thoughts.  Please continue to pray.  It is going to be a long process but we know God is good!

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In the mean time summer is almost here and the Jacaranda trees are in full bloom.  They really must have liked that hot weather we had a couple of weeks ago because they are spectacular all over town.  They are my absolute favorite tree.  This one is in our park just a couple of streets over, but we can see it from the back of our house.

By the way, I've been told this week that we don't live in a park but a community, and the homes we live in are manufactured or modular homes! 

To me 'park' is the right word because it is a community located in what we Brits officially consider park land.  But I do understand the feelings of those who do not want us to be confused with a trailer park.  So... we are a 'senior community' with lakes, flowers, many trees, grassy stretches, beautiful front yards, (carefully administered and held to high standards by the HOA !) and my beloved creek, which is having a hard time to keep flowing in this our fourth year of drought.  

As for our house, this is the view from the back. If you compare the photo below with my blog banner photo above, you would think it could hardly be the same place.  But it is.  All the brightly glowing ice plant is over, and now we have what looks more like heather on the moors when it is not in bloom.  So bit by bit we are trying to add some color.  The small yellow euonymous bushes really help.  The empty pot of just soil in front of one of the bushes contains bulbs of the Lily of the Valley, so generously given to me by a friend at church, because she knows I like them. Unfortunately they will not bloom now until next spring. The creek is in the top left part of the photo.

Now that we are settled into the house and my husband is not doing all the traveling this year, we are putting a lot of effort into the yard, as small as it is.  A couple of days ago I took time to go to the other side of the creek to see what we looked like from there. 

 Hmm...not as good as I would like.  Got to get more creative for this view of the house.  

We have a wonderful back porch, verandah or deck, whichever you'd like to call it. We are able to sit out there probably two thirds of the year. It is protected from cold winds in the winter and spring and from hot sun in the summer and fall. Our actual property ends at the bird feeder. How nice of the bird to perch there for my photo! From there, the land slopes down to the creek. That is all park property, not ours. Officially we are not supposed to do anything with it. Behind the central large pine tree, actually on the left in this photo, on our land we have a couple of bird feeders, and two or three small trees/bushes that are now doing quite well with Moth's conscientious care. 

Between the ivy and the heather-like ice plant there is nothing much growing. We have planted four or five small jade plants that will in time grow enough to fill in like a low hedge.They are planted in a line from the bouganvillea to the little red stone Mexican man. On the right hand side of the pine tree the soil is poor and there are large roots from the trees. So I'm thinking something like a low picket fence or a line of fairly large, light colored rocks would help to delineate the boundary. Got to give it some more thought and then meander around the garden centers. Expense, minimum upkeep and little water will be our guidelines I'm thinking.

Well, I'll see you all on Creative Tuesday.  Have to get to work on that next.

More Ups and Downs

Saw a Momma duck and five ducklings on the creek right below our house yesterday.

Suddenly there was a screeching and flapping of wings as a hawk zoomed in out of nowhere.  Even as I clapped my hands to shoo him away (poor hawk, I know he has to eat too -- but not while I'm watching, please), two big black crows dive-bombed him.  There was smack on the water and a slapping of wings.  The hawk took off -- not very far -- with the crows after him.  Just then the Pappa drake came squawking down the creek and landed near his family.  But all the excitement was over by the time he got there.  A few moments later the hawk did make another half-hearted attempt while flying back across the creek but the crows were on him like a shot.  I stood and watched for a while and was happy to see that there were still five ducklings, but now swimming close to Mom.

Now I'm wondering, were the crows actually protecting the ducklings or were they just thinking of their own nests high up in the pine tree close-by, taking this chance to get at their enemy while his attention was distracted?

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The wild fires came very close to us a couple of weeks ago.  We were next in line to be evacuated and actually did receive the reverse 911 call  but just to tell us that the evacuations were over.  The fire fighters and all the resources available were right on top of it all even though the event was more dangerous than ones we have had in the past.  Nine separate fires all sprang up in various parts of the city, some looking suspiciously like arson.

Since the Cedar fires of a few years ago when so many people lost their homes, the various departments, which included the military, have seriously overcome the red tape which was hampering their efforts to work together and provide necessary equipment to fight fires.  There was much criticism back then, mostly derived from the entangling red tape and bureaucracy.   What a difference this time!  The work of all the departments was magnificent!  I think there were only three homes lost.

Most people unfamiliar with our wild fires do not realize the speed with which these fires move given the right environment.   We have had no winter this year, it has been a delight, but it is going to be a long, dangerous wildfire season.

For those who may not know, 911 is our emergency phone call, like 999 in Britain.  But the reverse 911 is when the authorities call you to let you know of imminent danger such as floods and fire.  A great idea!

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Now for some anxiety-ridden news.  Our granddaughter, Haley, not yet 13 years old, has just been diagnosed with stage five Crohn's disease.  Of course everyone thinks their grandchildren are amazingly special and gifted.  We're no exception.  But she really is!

It is barely three weeks since she was first admitted to the hospital.  Then after tests and medication for about ten days, the diagnosis was made.  She is on antibiotics intravenously and can only eat very limited food until the abscess is healed.  It was very large and had pushed through the wall of the small intestine, collapsing her colon.

It's a lot for a young girl to go through never mind the future implications, so we are asking that if you are a praying person, please pray for Haley -- and her mother, who has taken on the immense task of nursing her and administering medications as well as being Mom.

A month or so ago I asked Haley what her favorite flower was as I have been doing drawings for all the 'girls' in our family.  She said it was a deep, dark red rose.  I posted my drawings here on my blog not too long ago.

My sister Kay, sent her some drawing templates of tangles and Haley has created one as her favorite flower. It is now placed in her room along with mine.

Then just to top it all off, her step-Dad, my son Glyn,

brought her a dozen long stem roses while she was in the hospital.

Look at that smile!  She was certainly pleased to receive these!

She is surrounded with prayers and love as well as the unfailing love of her heavenly Father, so we are expecting the Lord to do wonderful things in her life.

Here's a thought for those of us who sometimes wonder why God doesn't just heal those who love Him.  If He did, I wonder how many of us would love Him for all the wrong reasons --  just for what we could get.

GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME. ALL THE TIME GOD IS GOOD

CREATIVE TUESDAY -- TOPIC: SOCKS

I was a bit perverse in my entry for this week's Creative Tuesday.  I wanted to do something unusual and I came up with this idea.  I have to tell you that this topic in no way has anything to do with my political views. It is just a drawing.  I wanted to do Socks but when I found this photo on line I thought it would be a good opportunity to practice drawing faces too, since that is something I have been doing recently.

 Actually, I think Clinton's face came out better than Socks.

If you would like to see other entries in Creative Tuesday please click HERE

CREATIVE TUESDAY

OUR THEME THIS WEEK:        THE OLD OAK TREE

THE OLD OAK TREE AT HOTHORPE HALL Leicestershire UK.
( This was drawn with Prismacolor pencils on a water color background.)

In 2007 we stayed at Hothorpe Hall for our denomination's Triennial Conference.  It is a magnificent venue.  The hall is set in beautiful grounds.  This old Oak tree was located near the driveway that drove up to the Hall.  At dusk it looked quite eerie indeed.  I took a photo of it but that was three computers and probably a thousand photos ago and I couldn't find it.  So I had to do it by memory  I'm quite pleased with it because it does look like I remembered it.  

One evening while there, I was sitting outside in the dusk when over in a group of large trees I saw a strange, large creature slowly climbing one of the trees.  It looked like a humped-backed creature with twisted legs. I wasn't scared because I don't believe in monsters.  But I watched it for a while and then I remembered the Hall had quite a few peacocks.  I didn't realize that peacocks roost in trees!

I'm going to take a look now at what some of my other cohorts did for their interpretation of the Oak Tree.  Come on over and visit us -- even better, join our group and see what you can do in the way of interpreting our bi-weekly themes.  You can find us HERE