Happy New Year!

I still remember when we were all worried the world might end with January 1, 2000 because of Y2K. Our neighbors back then stocked up on firewood just in case, which they gave to us after midnight came and went and nothing happened. We didn't have to buy firewood for years!

And now it's 2020. Hard to believe that 20 years have passed. Especially since none of us are getting any older, right?!

This last year has been really wonderful at my new job. I really, really love what I do and I finally feel settled enough with working full-time after so many years of not working in a "regular" job that I am finding time and the frame of mind for other things. 

 

The Christmas season was cozy and quiet for us. We both seemed to want to cocoon rather than entertain or be out and about. We did travel to Richmond, Virginia one weekend to see a fantastic Edward Hopper exhibit, which was so inspiring!

Speaking of cocooning ... our year ended with this minor miracle in our garden. We got to watch a monarch butterfly transform from a caterpillar to butterfly in five weeks. I think it took so long because it's not so warm at the moment.

 Isn't the cocoon gorgeous? A little work of art!

And then one day you can see the butterfly through the now translucent cocoon and you know it will hatch that night.

The next morning, I got to watch it unfold. Nature is nothing short of amazing! 

Even though I haven't been in my studio yet (there's still hope I will get back there... :)), I have been doing a lot of knitting. Right now I am finishing up another entrelac scarf with gorgeous Noro yarn. It's such a fun pattern and I finally don't have to look at the instructions anymore while knitting!

I found a link on another blog of a site in Scandinavia, where you can create your own calendar/planner and use your own photo/artwork on the front cover. It arrived just in time for 2020! Let the planning begin! 

On Monday, the quarter starts for our students and things will get much busier at work. It's been nice to have it a little quieter to get caught up on a few things, but I'm looking forward to seeing the students and professors again.

I hope your 2020 is starting out well and wish you health, joy and happy surprises for the next year!

❧ Silke

May and June

It's been so long since I last wrote that I thought I'd break things up into months to let you know what we've been up to!

May was all about the end of the school year for Daniel and me working on commissions, some of which I can't show yet. 

However, Lola growing up was a big part of our summer. We all graduated from puppy school (and by now have forgotten much of what we learned). Lola is such a good dog - she loves to play with her toys, she doesn't chew on anything she isn't supposed to and she is the snuggliest dog we've ever had.

By now, she and Winslow are best buddies and love to hang out together. We have to make sure she doesn't get too wild with old Winslow, but other than that they get along wonderfully!

Other than that, May was all about the garden being at its most beautiful! 

Our fruit trees were coming along nicely as well. The kumquat tree has been blooming all summer and is full of fruit that will be ripe in the winter. 

Our quince tree, which had two quince last year, is full of slowly ripening fruit. We are looking forward to the winter when we can hopefully make a good bit of quince jam.

Which brings me to our fig tree and the month of June. 

In June, the figs started to ripen and we picked several pounds of figs every day, which had to be processed immediately. Luckily, they don't all get ripe at once!

We dried many pounds of them and made jam to last all year. My favorite jam from this batch was with added orange blossom water. So good! The dried figs we use in Muesli and a rye sourdough bread I make that is amazing!

We also gave many figs to friends and I baked a few of these gorgeous fig frangipani tarts. By the end of the month - and about 90 pounds of figs later - we were glad it would be a whole year before the next harvest!

And of course, there has to be some art in my post. These were two commissioned paintings I finished and sent off to France at the end of June.

I'm working on one more large one for this client, which should be done in the next few days. 

I hope you have all been well this summer and have enjoyed a slower pace, the joys of longer days and maybe a vacation. I visited Germany in July and will tell you all about that in my next post!

❧ Silke

Life keeps on moving...

I'm not sure anyone even looks at my blog anymore - it's been so neglected! I was going to post all the photos from the cruise, but it seems so long ago. Life just keeps on moving at great speed, doesn't it?

In the meantime, I finished another dog portrait using watercolor pencils, colored pencils and soft pastels. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out!

Lola keeps growing at warp speed. Just six weeks ago she was still a tiny puppy.

Now she's at least twice the size and is starting to lose her very sharp puppy teeth, which we are grateful for! 

Also, my sister, her husband and their two fantastic boys (12 and 13 years old) came to visit during their spring break. We had so much fun together and it was wonderful to spend so much quality time with all of them. When we visit them in Germany, our time is always so limited because we are trying to see everyone, so when they visit here it's quite different!

It's been a strange spring - much cooler than normal, which we are grateful for. The cats (peabody in this picture) are happy though that its finally warming up some. They love to just lounge around in the garden.

So now that taxes are behind me and my time is my own again, I am hoping to spend much more time in my studio again (if Lola lets me...). I have several commissioned paintings and drawings to work on and hope to show you progress as I go along. I hope you are all doing well!! 

❧ Silke

Winter in Savannah

Last Wednesday, something happened that was a first for us in Savannah. It snowed and the snow didn't melt right away!

Winlsow was in his element. He loved the snow! 

 I got to wear some of my knitted winter accessories! That also doesn't happen very often here... Can you see our cat Tucker in the background? He loves to go on walks with us, but he wasn't so sure about the snow...

Before it snowed, we had freezing rain which left beautiful icicle designs everywhere.  It also left most of the roads with a dangerous layer of ice, which closed down most bridges and some major roads in our area for a couple of days. 

And because everything (flowers in our yard and oranges on our neighbor's tree) was frozen, the Baltimore oriole came to our feeder instead. It stayed for a long time and showed off all it's beautiful color.

It took five days for the snow and ice to melt (this is unheard of for us) and temperatures to return to normal for our area. Now that it's milder again, we put all our more delicate plants outside again. The Christmas cacti in particular are happy and in full bloom!

I hope this was the last of really cold temperatures for us. Much of our yard froze back, but we are hoping everything will come back in the spring.

❧ Silke