Something New...

Well, I have not been able to get back into my art. A little, but not really. And then, today I talked with my sister and she told me to paint something and that was the kick in the behind I needed.  

There was something I wanted to try this summer - creating texture with Plaster of Paris. I had bought some the other day and I finally got it out and prepped two canvases with it.

.It was mixed up quickly and then applied. I pressed some bubble wrap and shelf liner into it while still wet and just love the resulting texture!

It was a little bit like mixing and applying icing to a cake - except I am quite sure the taste would be different.

And because this was a very colorless post, I thought I'd finish with a couple of flower photos from the yard...

 ...and of the sunset we had two nights ago after some good storms.

 The sky was on fire! So beautiful!

Wishing you a terrific Tuesday!!

❧ Silke

Garden News

This is the time of year I don't get into the garden much aside from watering in the morning. It's just too hot and humid for me. However, much is still blooming and growing and so I thought I'd give you a little sampling!

The kumquat tree is filled (and I mean FILLED) with tiny fruit that will be ripe next winter. We can hardly wait!

The mexican petunias are the most wonderful plants here where it is hot. They LOVE the heat. The hotter it is, the more they bloom. We have them in purple, pink and the ground cover variety.

Our hydrangeas are still producing new blooms while the old ones are getting that beautiful antique look. They are some of my favorite bushes in the garden.

And our veggie garden is still producing plenty of eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, and fresh basil.

In other words, the garden is doing fine in our summer heat and humidity. It's just me who is wilting...

Wishing you a beautiful Sunday, dear friends!!

❧ Silke

Animal Interlude

Most of you know our two furry babies - Ramses, our cat and Winslow, our dog.

Well for a few weeks this summer, we took care of our friends' and neighbors' cat, Princess, who proceeded to live on our front porch while "her people" were gone.

Her real house has a cat door, so she could visit and hang out there whenever she wanted to. But we fed her on our front porch, since some of the wild cats of the neighborhood had figured out the magic of the cat door as well and were helping themselves to her food.

Well, now that princess has her family back and gets fed at her home again, one of the wild cats continued to hang around. At least, we though he was wild. It turns out he is intensely affectionate now that he decided we weren't so scary. He must have been owned by someone at some point, but for months now, he's been roaming our street and living in the storm drains.

He is so sweet and seems to have adopted us completely. He even allowed Winslow to lick his head and ears. And he and Ramses are peaceful as well. That said, we'll just wait and see for a while before we decide to really take him in. For now, he has taken over Princess' spot on the front porch and seems to be very content.

And I have to admit that I am just a tiny bit (ok ... quite a lot) in love with him already.

Now ... on to other garden creatures (ALERT - snake photo coming up).

Daniel discovered the most wonderful mama toad in our vegetable garden this morning. She was happy in the mud until Winslow got too close and she had to hop out!

And just because I love snakes, I had to snap this photo of a beautiful and harmless garter snake that was in a little corner in the backyard.

And that's all the animal news from our little corner of the world for today.

I hope you are having a beautiful and fun Friday!

❧ Silke

Movie in Savannah

While our friend, Sadia, was visiting we discovered that a movie was being filmed in Savannah about the famous (and now closed) CBGB music club in New York City. You can click here to find out more about the club and here to see who all is playing in the movie.

It was all very exciting, watching them transform Congress street into a little piece of the Bowery in New York, right down to the trash, the many cigarette butts and empty liquor bottles.

Because Congress street has many shops, they did not completely close it off, which allowed us to watch the happenings from quite close up!

That's Alan Rickman with the red curly hair
(by the time I realized it was him, I only got a photo from the back)

Most exciting for Sadia and I (we are both great Harry Potter fans) was that both Alan Rickman (Professor Snape in the Harry Potter movies) and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) are in this movie. Alan Rickman plays Hilly Kristal, the owner of the club, and Rupert Grint is playing Cheetah Chrome of The Dead Boys.

Rupert Grint in the background. Not a great photo, but I'm keeping it!

We saw and heard them act and we had so much fun! For a few days I turned into a star-struck teenager again...

Besides the two big stars, we also got to see Stana Katic (she plays Kate Becket in Castle), Johnny Galecki (Leonard of the Big Bang Theory), Justin Bartha, Donal Logan and the real Cheetah Chrome.

They brought in cars from the 70s. Not very many and I'll be curious to see if the same five cars keep driving by in the movie.

Don't you love this old cab?

And there's Savannah's famous Paula Deen restaurant and store in the background.

They are still filming now, but inside the studio. I'm sure all the actors and the crew are happy to be out of the great heat and humidity. This is probably not a movie I would have watched, but of course after all of this I can't wait for it to come to the movie theaters!

❧ Silke

Transition

Well, I feel like I am back and yet not quite. I find that I am not one of those people who can just pick up where they left off after a vacation or - as in this case - having a friend visit for a while. I seem to go through a time of transition for a while and there's always a slight feeling of discomfort that comes with it.

I hadn't been in my studio for about a month and tonight I decided to finally get out my paints again. I didn't know where to start, but I figured I had to do just that - start!

So I took a small canvas board and just started doodling with paints. I mixed colors that were pleasing to my eye and just painted from my intuition. Which was harder to do than I thought. I kept wondering if the resulting painting would be "good." The break seems to have made me a little insecure.

But ... I started and that's good. And tomorrow I'll paint some more.

And I'll go through my photos and tell you all about the movie we watched being filmed in Savannah recently. It was actually quite exciting! Stay tuned...

And thank you all for welcoming me back so warmly after my blog break! It sure feels great to be connected again!

❧ Silke

I missed you all!!

I am not quite sure how to ease back into blogging after such a long break, so I thought why not do it with food! Food is always good, right?!

This is a new Fig Frangipane Tart I baked while our figs were ripe and made it three times in a row. It is delicious! Extremely so!!

You can find the recipe here at one of my favorite sites: They Draw and Cook.

Use your own favorite pie crust. It's easy to make, especially if you don't blanch the almonds before grinding them up. I imagine it would be good with any fruit that goes with the almond-based custard. I think next I'll try it with apricots!

Otherwise, we had a great few weeks with a friend visiting from Germany. We did lots of sight seeing, eating, cooking, shopping, and even got to hang out watching a movie being filmed in downtown Savannah. I'll fill you in on some of this over my next few posts.

In the meantime, I am looking forward to getting caught up with your blogs and hope that you are all enjoying a beautiful summer!!

❧ Silke