A Little Rain

We've been eating fresh food from the garden in the past couple of weeks, spinach, lettuces, radishes, green onions, and the rest of the crops are coming on quickly in the endless sunshine. Nothing is ever better than the food you grow and pick yourselves, from garden to plate in a few minutes. And tonight we had a much needed rain shower to help things along.

Endless Sun

Just past Solstice here in Two Rivers, and while the sun does set for a couple hours, it's never dark. So there's lots of time for biking and hiking, for fishing and camping, for gardening -- and painting!

Cirque

I'm delighted to have two poems in the new summer solstice issue of Cirque. Check it out here: http://www.cirquejournal.com/

Solstice!

Today we had 21 hours and 49 minutes of sun above the horizon here in Two Rivers, Alaska, and 24 hours of light. Summer is short, but the garden's making the most of all the light, growing like mad.

Back home

I've been painting nearly every day for the last several months, but just took a three-day break to give a poetry reading in Seattle. Now I'm happy to be back home and back to the canvasses. I missed them while I was gone! I've got an amaryllis, a black orchid and a poppy underway, and I collected some new images while I was roaming around madly blooming Seattle for future paintings.

Poetry, too.

And now for a little poetry break with some of Melt. Just follow the link below the iris.

http://www.thesmokingpoet.net/id20.html

Jessamine

And a new one by me. . .

Lightning

Here's Mirabel's newest canvas. She calls it Lightning.

Ah, Rain!

The garden's all planted here in Two Rivers, and now that we've had a little rain, things are looking good. Especially the chickweed. Let the weeding and thinning begin! Despite the busy season, both Mirabel and I have also been working on new canvases. Mirabel has been working in an abstract mode, and here's one by her, titled "Firedragon."

More planting. . .

Mirabel and I finished putting in flowers yesterday -- poppies and petunias, violas and pansies -- transplants and direct seeding and are already enjoying the color. Today, we finish the potatoes -- Alaska Blue, Yukon Gold, French Fingerlings and German Reds and Butterballs. And then the garden will be all in. Let the thinning and weeding begin!

Flower planting

Yesterday my daughter Mirabel and I picked up some flowers at our local greenhouse to fill in the corners of the garden -- petunias, snapdragons, violas -- and also some broccoli and cauliflower to replace the ones the escaped Australorp ate. Best of all, we discovered the Frigid Arnica -- a bright yellow Alaskan wildflower blossoming all along Chena Hotsprings Road. Looking forward to painting this one!

Attack of the Flying Australorp

The garden suffered a setback yesterday when an escaped chicken ravaged the broccoli, cauliflower and some of the cabbages too. Ah, retransplanting. . .