Inspirations

Many artists are inspired by nature and I’m no exception I can’t go a day without the thought of some aspect of it. I do have my favorites, birding being one of them, I have had the privilege to be able to bird watch in more than 15 countries but as the saying goes “there’s no place like home” and I think Oregon has one of the best and diverse bird populations I have seen, now pair that with some of our exotic flowers and an artist only has to step outside to have enough experiences to fill their creative palette.

We worked very hard this weekend on the remodel and I watched the birds try to grab a seed between our trips in and out with sheetrock and lumber, they even scolded us about it. I did escape to mow a bit of the lawn for a break and spotted my first garden snake of the season, it was a yellow racer small but very fast.

This morning was so gorgeous I had to take some time to visit my garden (without gloves to weed) the Calla Lilies with their soft silky spirals posed for pictures, they sent my mind to think of painting and sculptures with curving lines, of Diego Rivera’s Nude with Calla Lilies. I then spotted a Cedar Waxwing in a rhododendron and was off chasing birds.

Look hard and you can see the Cedar Waxwing with his lovely crest, he has a yellow tip on his tail and the most beautiful warm tan body , his call is constant and high pitched, I watched them feeding on the red hot pokers along with Goldfinches and a very angry Hummer he thinks the back garden is for him alone.

Here is a better picture of a Evening Grosbeak

The Goldfinch's decorate the garden with bright spots of yellow

Robin loves her baths. A little nuthatch just flew into the house and tried to fly out of a closed kitchen window, I had to cup his very little body in my hands to free him what a feeling.