CREATIVE TUESDAYS

Theme:     UNDER THE LEAVES

This theme was right up my street.  I knew almost immediately what I was going to draw.

In our back yard we have a cheeky and noisy wren who lives under the leaves of our large bougainvillea which serves as the  hedge between us and our neighbors. Late afternoons he starts his routine of scratching and fluttering  while singing loudly.  I'm hoping we'll have a family of wrens this year though I haven't seen any suitors yet.

This was created in Prismacolors with a little black pen, on card, 5 x 7inches.

To see how others chose to illustrate our theme, please click HERE

G IS FOR.....GROWTH

It's that time of year.  Our plants and trees are in the growing mood.  We do already have flowers which for our climate is not unusual.  Some flowers are blooming almost all winter.  But we look forward to the new growth on trees and shrubs as true signs of spring.

There are buds beginning to open on our myrtle tree.  We have two of them and they are quite young. They are not planted in the best place in the yard.  They don't get much sun and the soil in that small area is not good.  In addition, because we have had so little rain in the two years in which we have lived here, it has been a struggle to keep them alive.  But here they are budding to leaf already this year.

The liquid amber tree that the association planted in the fall, on the bank of the creek at the bottom of our small stretch of yard, is doing really well.  Big fat buds beginning to break out into leaf.

This weird looking thing is actually my plumeria which has some green growth at the end of the stumps with tiny little shoots on the tips.  It will not actually bloom until late summer, but large green leaves will hopefully appear before then.  Early spring ice plant flowers in the background.

When we moved here two  years ago, we brought with us several cuttings from our Jade plant.  Jades are plentiful around here so they weren't a priority for us.  We stuck them in a bucket with some water and there they stayed for almost a year.  Finally we got around to planting them at the edge of our property on the bank of the creek.  We planted three small clippings hoping they would develop into three small bushes making a kind of hedge.  Then if we liked that effect we might plant more and develop a low hedge defining our property from the bank of the creek. Well they have tripled in size and this little one even has the tiny pale pink flowers.  Jade plants flower in the winter and are very easy to grow and to propagate, but I wanted at least one plant from our old house, just for memory's sake.

This is my entry to ABC Wednesday, the project set up by Mrs. Nesbitt and continued by Roger Owen Green.  We are now in our 15th round.  Click HERE to see what other members of this fine group have chosen to represent the letter G.

I'M STILL HERE

THIS IS 'JASMINE' August last year.

MY NIECE

This was taken last summer in Hawaii when she and my sister, Kaybee, spent some time with us on vacation.

Today she is entering her third week in the hospital with continuing intermittent seizures -- not epileptic.  Today she has had a 24 hour EEG while under heavy sedation.  Of course we have no idea of the results yet.

Haley, my granddaughter, is continuing on the same level with her Crohn's disease and they are still considering surgery.

This is just an update for my blogging friends and a request for continuing prayer.  We are all doing well given the circumstances.  Pray for continued peace and strength for Kaybee. Jasmine is doing well between medical procedures and keeping her spirits up, but it's been a long haul.

I'll be back to more regular blogging once the urgent needs have subsided. Right now I just need all my concentration for whatever each day brings. 

'JASMINE'S SPECIAL NEEDS

For my praying friends...my niece, 'Jasmine', Kaybee's daughter, needs our prayers.  She was taken to the emergency room a week ago after suffering a seizure, (she's 45 years old) and has been having numerous seizures daily since then.  All tests have come back normal and no diagnosis is available.   They're trying various medicines but nothing seems to be working, in fact they seem to be giving her more problems than helping.  We've just had word that she is having a rough night. Please pray for her.  Pray for encouragement and comfort for Kaybee.

It's been a difficult week.  Haley is not progressing well either.  Another flare-up and now she is back to square one. Much prayer needed there too.

Then of course, minuscule in proportion, there has been Scruffy's sudden demise.

We know and believe that God is good all the time and this is not just blind belief.  These things we know and believe from past experiences.  God is greater than we can ever comprehend and His plans for us are great and good -- for 'Jasmine' and Haley too.   He has His reasons and one day we will know why and be able to praise Him for His unsearchable knowledge and wisdom.

"He has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel."

2 Timothy 1:10b

E IS FOR.......THE END

R.I.P.
SCRUFFY
He was put to sleep today.
He was 12 years old.

Please no questions, comments or thoughts.  Just trust us that it was the inevitable.  Know that we did everything we could. His passing was illness related -- not the coyotes -- I thank the Lord for that!  It was a wonderful four years of love -- his for us, ours for him.

We are doing OK, though I'm not sure when I will write my next blog.  
But I will be back.

Please link to Mrs. Nesbitt and Roger Owen Green for ABC WEDNESDAY by clicking
HERE

D IS FOR.....

...DESSERT
I must give full credit for this idea for the letter D, to Diana of   HEART-SHAPED  . She had a post about a PUD CRAWL , not a PuB  crawl.  'Pud' is short for 'pudding' which is often what the British call dessert -- at least it was when I lived there. We are not at the letter P in ABC Wednesday, but...we are at the letter D and D is for DESSERT.  So thanks to Diana, we are going on a Dessert Drive.  (A bit of convoluted thinking I admit, but that's really how it came about).

I chose my favorite desserts, found pictures of them and now present them to you.  If you are easily tempted you'd better stop reading now.

I am not a cake and pie person, but anything with fresh cream, sugar, caramel or meringue is my favorite.  So in alphabetical  order here they are:

BAKED ALASKA  (pound cake basis, topped with large bricks of home-made ice cream covered with mounds of meringue and baked for brief minutes in a VERY hot oven.)

CREME BRULEE  (Forgive me, please, for no accents.  I don't know if it can be done in Blogger and I'm still fighting Windows 8.)  This is a smooth, very creamy custard topped with a thin, crisp, crunchy caramel layer).

ENGLISH TRIFLE  (Fruit, angel food cake soaked in jello and sherry -- in my case fruit juice,  covered with thick custard and whipped cream and usually topped with slivered almonds.)

GERMAN CHOCOLATE CAKE (This is out of deference to my husband.  Not for me, but one dessert for him out of five for me seems to be fair enough!)

MEXICAN FLAN  ( a smooth egg custard topped with caramel -- there are several versions of this)

PAVLOVA  (meringue base, whipped cream and fruit -- Australian)

                                                                                                                                            

TIRAMISU  (Cream, chocolate and coffee flavors with Lady Fingers --Italian)

I just realized that each of these desserts come from a different country.  No special significance, just interesting.  Sorry no recipes because as I've said before, baking and cooking are not my gifts, but eating these could be !

Got to go find something good to eat now, but if you are still reading and have not gone off in search of your favorite dessert, please visit ABC WEDNESDAY by clicking HERE.  I know Mrs. Nesbitt, the creator of this project, could probably expertly produce each of these desserts, but how about you Roger, our worthy leader?  Do you have any cooking skills?  I've heard it said that men make the best chefs (I wouldn't dare say that!)

CREATIVE TUESDAY --Feb.3rd, 2015

THEME  --   AROUND THE WORLD

Have to do something colorful, sorry.  It's not mine if it isn't colorful.

Actually, I found it difficult to come up with something different or unusual.  I started out with the idea of doing some tangling around the globe, but once I had done the first one (golden leaves), I decided, it would be enough with the bright swoosh of color.  I had already decided to link it with Christopher Columbus as someone who really thought he was going around the world -- hence the question mark.  He didn't really know where he was going. 

For more Creative Tuesday entries and to see what others have done with the theme please click HERE