Images from Mexico City

Nopales - cactus, which we cut up, fried, & ate

 We stayed in a very modern high rise in Mexico City when we first arrived. Because it was hazy, the mountains surrounding the city couldn't be seen clearly.

 Zinn likes the mirrors in the elevators in the building. She's practice making faces.

 Flowers seen while out on a walk.

 Across the street from the building was the Viveros Coyoacan. A very large park, part of which was used to grow trees and plants that would be planted around the city.

 We walked across this park to get to Frida Kahlo's home.

Plants in pots, gown to be transplanted. There were tiny plants in tiny pots, and large plants and even trees.  The park was full of people jogging, walking, exercising, and even practicing bull fighting poses.

Lagging behind - a confession.

 I'm going to confess once more that I'm lagging behind in responding to people who've sent me wonderful Mail Art.

I'm too embarrassed to even post a photo of the two piles on my work table. Eventually, I'll catch up - won't I?

Meanwhile, I continue to MAKE Mail Art. My process is once again, taking bits of scraps out of one of my tins and seeing how I can compose them. 3 pieces of paper. Yes. Satisfying.

 Our garden is looking good. The plants are growing back now that we've had lots of rain and sun. Our formerly shady back area has been exposed to sun by our tree being cut back a lot.

The cement duck, one of a pair, looks quite content in the foliage.

Here's the motto again - don't forget this as you move ahead in your own practice.

And don't forget, this is the motto for The Alternative Speakers Bureau.

If you're a reader in the Richmond, VA area, here's an opportunity (click on this) to participate in a creativity experience. It'll help you get unstuck.

Flashback Tuesday - the Atlantic Ocean, N.C. USA

The Mail Art 189 series and more

"How cute," thought Sally, seeing the Tiny Town men & dogs playing.

 I decided that today was definitely a day to alter a number of cards. They just crack me up, and I'm making them. How fun to make oneself laugh.

I put some funny captions on them, too.

"Here, little pig, here's the trough," Nancy said.

"Helga & Gerda thought the men looked so dashing on horseback."

"Who's old stone face," Jed whispered to Seth.

 This is my experiment for what I plan to do for the asemic art book pieces. I'm going to have 8 of these collages, oh the fun gluing them down. Jdrn gave me some ideas for how to do that, I'll experiment with them to see what works best. Anyway, I'm happy with the way this is going. You'll see more as I complete them for the project, which is due the end of July.

 Spotted the flowers on this small hosta plant this morning. Really pretty looking. Another, smaller hosta, looks like it'll bloom in a few days.

The duck thermometer bobs along by the 4 ft/1.27m marker. The temperature was 80F/26C this morning, but I needed that to help with my foot. 
The little toe is so swollen and bruising up my foot. Waaa. Shoe wearing not so good, even my thong ones have a band across the top where there's bruising. But it's only a TOE!! It'll be fine soon and I can walk wobbly for awhile.
Isn't the rubber duck cute with it's sunglasses? He/she was stuck in one of the drains the other day and we had to rescue him/her.

#165 series & more garden photos

 I'm playing with Washi tape for these pieces of Mail Art. I had cut out a lot of words from magazine recently and these fit nicely within the tape spaces.

 I like the way the tape is somewhat transparent.

 My honey is experimenting with lighting. These candles might go around the big drain. The grate hasn't been put in place yet, but when it does, we can put potted plants on that, (Ns suggestion.) Meanwhile, we had a HUGE rain storm last night and the drain is now a little pond. Oh boy. We need someone to come tomorrow and clear the pipe.

These are the plantings that went into the ground yesterday. The workers were here all day finishing up little details, still a bit more to do. I think today is the last day. I can't wait to take final photos.  The inaugural party is next Saturday, followed by another big one in July. Woo Hoo, party city on the patio. I'm already thinking "fire pot" for the fall for cool weather parties.

The back yard/jardine, continued.

 We were so surprised when we entered our back yard last night after driving home from Lynchburg. It's like it had snowed!  This is the base on which the patio will be laid. The area behind the tree will be planted, as will the strip along the fence to the left.

 Chuck is contemplating how the yard furniture will look.

 The forsythia is in bloom adding a nice color contrast to the bricks and the "snow."

 More contemplation of where furniture will go.

My bench will return to it's corner by the garage and big pots of plants will go by that fence. We can't believe we waited so long to do this. We're imagining many fiestas out in this space.

The bench and pot garden

Chuck made the nicest arrangement of plants that he bought and I potted. (Except he did pot the calla lily) This makes the corner by my bench, which he gave me two years ago, look really special. The squirrels have pretty much left this corner alone. Well, they may have been responsible for two calla blooms being bent over, but maybe not. I love sitting out here and reading with my cup of coffee, or tea. It's so peaceful. If you want to see more of my bench, you can check my archive, May of 2006. Happy spring!