Six inches of rain here, no damage. A lovely May.

Our town is lush and glowing this Sunday morning. I love my tiny yard. I do not have an open space for veggies, so a group of big pots in my sunniest area  hold herbs and tomato plants.  NOTE added: After 6 inches on May 4th and 5th,  Three more inches on May 8th!  all in a very short ferocious storm.

When we lived in the country I had a garden!

I grew kitty cats.

And lots of pumpkins!

 See the pumpkins on the porch of this great red house we used to own on Schubert street.

 And I used them in the Red Cape of course.

 I miss my country garden, with black berries and eggplants and cucumbers and onions and tomatoes and so much more.  No way could I do the work of it now.  It is good to have done it at the right time.

The first two blooms have opened on the Little Gem Magnolia. High above my head but there are lots of buds lower.

The small atrium gives light and a view to the breakfast and dining areas. The outer wall is profusely  blooming Star Jasmine right now.

 St Frances watches over it.

Paintings usually sit out to dry on my breakfast table.  Some works in progress between painting sessions include Daphne a donkey at New Buffalo near Taos and some of the sheep Daphne usually protects.  As these paintings are in progress, I have received word that Daphne was in another pasture and coyotes struck and killed 4 lambs.

I am playing dolls as well.
The red haired doll with long curls was so much fun to paint.  This one is a sculpt by my friend Elaine and has been sent home now to join her doll family.

Below, my five completed at present from the series I am working on with Elaine, a few more to go. I like my red haired doll in blue, wish she had curls too! Each doll is different as they should be.

She is a doll, a painting and a textile.  This covers so many of my interests!  See this doll below finished and in an orchid dress.

Elaine found two of my paintings in an antique mall in Dallas. Here they are on a wall at Elaine's house, over a group of the  dolls.  Signature is 1977 before Jackie and I were married.   I had two one person shows in Dallas, large ones that to my amazement sold out! in 1973 and 1974.  Mary Emerling made that the look of the times.  My shows were sponsored byRalph Willard. 

I painted and sold over 250 of the primitive children, big ones like these, plus uncounted cats and lambs and lions and other small paintings and also a raft of fraktur in grained frames of Jack's making.   He is always so much in my heart, day by day.  e