botanical gardens

we went to the myriad botanical gardens in oklahoma city today.

greg and i had one of our first dates here seven years ago!

this was my first time back and i especially enjoyed seeing the

beautiful zebra long-wing butterflies flying in the atrium again.

  

seven years ago i choose the zebra long-wing as my second butterfly tattoo.   

"whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same." -emily bronte

greg & i had a fun and wonderful time here again. :)

downtown okc there are some giant ornaments!

One more day....

 

Portuguese Kale Soup (a recipe)

Portuguese Kale Soup

3 garlic cloves (minced)
1 large yellow onion
4 large carrots
3 large potatoes
1/2 lb kidney beans or black beans (soaked overnight)
1/2 to 1 lb sausage (I use Applegates Chicken & Apple Sausage)
1 large bunch of kale
Hot Paprika
Salt & pepper
Olive Oil

Add oil to a large soup pot and saute onion and garlic.  When onion is translucent add chopped carrots and potatoes, beans and sausage. Add 2 tbs of paprika and water. Bring to a boil and then simmer 1 hour.  Add extra water if needed. Chop the kale and add to soup then simmer an extra 1/2 hour.  Add S&P to taste.  Sometimes I add a soup bouillon as well . 

My sister shared this recipe with me years ago, 

and boy in the winter I really start craving this soup!

I thought I would share it, in case you'd like to try it one day.

Do you have any favorite soup recipes? :)

pecan tree

Pecan Tree

i love pecans and was so blessed to gather a

giant basket-full this year.  and  i just had to 

add a little pecan tree to my orchard. :)

(a pecan tree can produce nuts up to 300 years.)

  ~    ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~

picked up walden tonight.  

some wisdom from henry: 

"simplicity. simplicity. simplicity."

"rescue the drowning and tie your shoestrings."

"our moulting season, like that of the fowls, must be a crisis in our lives." 

"let us spend one day as deliberately as nature, and not be thrown off the 

track by every nutshell and mosquito's wing that falls on the rails."

-henry david thoreau

snow******

this was our christmas day snow storm. you may think mild, but not so! 

This snow shot by sideways with a bitter cold 48 mph wind!

christmas was a total bust for me this year.  i missed out on two family dinners.  i had to stick with rice

and carrots yesterday.  today there was finally some improvement. something i need to figure out is the

cause of this abdominal discomfort and all the symptoms that come with it.  i was speaking with someone

who also had an appendectomy a year ago and she told me of some food changes she had to make. 

zody has been by my constant side and greg on the other. :)

snowflake book

been enjoying this wonderful book.

are you getting lots of snow?

"everything is complicated; if that were not so, 

life and poetry and everything else would be a bore."

-wallace stevens

  

recovery

winter elm with mistletoe

not the holiday break i expected so far. first my mom with the heart scare,

and then i ended up at ER last night. it turns out i have a bladder infection.

i have no energy today. trying to take care of my body and expecting a

turn around.  i'm just thankful that my mom didn't require another stent. 

merry christmas!  i wish you happiness, health and much peace.

a prayer was answered

....44 geese a~flyin' over mount scott!

a prayer was answered...

my mom's angioplasty turned out well today -

no stent was needed, and she is 'home' for christmas. 

thanking faithful God. 

the herd

the sugar cookie herd

and a new favorite cup!

glass heart

it was an all-around lovely day,,,

and i was thrilled to find this heart amidst the old glass bottles in the ground.

i love its organic shape and those smooth edges.

so precious.

pink winter

 

 

my iphone camera picked up on the vibrant pink morning.  

what a sunrise!  the neighborhood was aglow.

"never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful,

for beauty is God's handwriting." - emerson

 

Deer Through The Post Oaks

Christmas card factory.

Can we play?

This year's Christmas card.

This lino print was inspired by our backyard view. 

Through the bare branches of the post oaks, deer can

 be seen grazing on distant ‘Prairie Hill.’ 

 I’ve framed their  miniature forms in my globes.

Linocuts are very similar to woodcuts.  It’s a printing technique 

using a sheet of linoleum in which subtractive cuts are made to 

create an original design.   The relief is then inked and printed. 

While linoleum was first invented in the  1860s,  it wasn't used

 as a medium for printing until the early 1900s in Germany, 

where it was first used for making patterns on wallpaper. 

Artists ranging from  Pablo Picasso to Henri Matisse have

 made linocuts, and today it is considered  a respected art form.

latest little trees (sculptures)

 

 the oklahoma state tree, the redbud (cercis canadensis)

this tree was a commission - "spring tree with robin's eggs" 

the hackberry tree with nest

i've got several more trees on my list that i'd like to make....

HOPE

Rose Rocks

we went shopping in oklahoma city today and decided to take a 

look at the timberlake rose rock museum in noble on the way home.

noble, oklahoma is the rose rock capital of the world. 

rose rocks are aggregates of barite (barium sulfate) crystals and sand whose

iron content gives them a reddish hue. the barite crystals form a circular array 

of flat plates, giving the rock a shape similar to a rose blossom. 

oklahoma designated the barite rose as the official state rock in 1968. 

they're found in only a few rare places around the globe, and are most

common in and near central oklahoma. an old cherokee legend says the 

rocks represent the blood of the braves and the tears of the maidens who

 made the  devastating "trail of tears" journey in the 1800's to oklahoma.

they can be found singularly or in clusters with only two roses to as many

 as hundreds of roses. some clusters weigh hundreds of pounds.

I-40 Oklahoma City

 i like passing under the "sky-dance pedestrian bridge" 

(inspired by the scissor-tail state bird). 

 

day 2

Happy Hanukkah! Day 2

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there 

male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  Galatians 3:28

amidst trees

greg is christmas tree hunting on prairie hill

7' juniperus virginiana

we picked a beautiful juniper from the prairie - it's perfect.

and the house smells like a forest now.

Juniper or Eastern Red cedar is a native plant that is infesting a large percentage 

of Oklahoma’s rangeland and forestland. Historical records reveal that eastern red cedar 

was mainly concentrated around canyons and streams or other places that were protected 

from the fires that swept the vast prairies. Fire prevented the encroachment of this 

problematic species, but with the settlement came the suppression of fire. 

The number of acres infested with red cedar doubles every 18 years even though 

eastern red cedar is one of the easiest brush species in Oklahoma to control.

 

a few pictures from tonight's walk.

 i'm on the look out for interesting bases for my mini tree sculptures.

little trees (sculpture)

dying cedar 

i'm making mini trees lately.

it all came about by my first inspiration 

while climbing to the top of mount scott....

twisted cedar on mount scott

then...

post oak at end of fall

i'm surrounded by post oaks. they're familiar and comforting to me.

backyard post oaks inspiration

 

the charlie brown christmas tree

i made the christmas tree for greg - it's one of his favorites...

sugar maple

inspired by the beautiful maples in hollis canyon at the wildlife refuge. 

sumac

inspired by the fiery red color in fall...

sumac leaves

and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.  

revelation 22:2

wishing you a peaceful, healthful and happy week ahead.