Friday, October 9, 2009

Guess where I went today....

Can you tell? I spent the morning at the Desert Botanical Gardens, one of my most favorite places! I took pictures (have 76 good ones), painted in my journal, ate lunch under a shady cottonwood tree, and had peaceful, quiet time to myself. It was heavenly! Here are some of my favorite shots of the day:
This was my first shot of the day upon my arrival around 8:45 yesterday morning.


I love finding little surprised.. a different variety of cacti growing in the crevices of a sajuaro!

A very rare sight here in the valley but, I understand there are two pair of Cardinals that live at the garden now!
I was very pleasantly surprised to find several cactus blooming this time of year!
And some that I photographed in spring now have fruit. I love the rich contrast of color against the pale green.
There were also several reptile out roaming about but only two that posed for me.
And then there's the evidence of a reptile... way cool. The shed skin feels like thin, fragile paper.
kinda' looks like bubble wrap! hehehe!
love this little guy... he was only a couple inches long sitting in the water. I was thrilled he didn't hop away.
Then, there's the trees. LOVE the tree bark! And it is evident that fall is hear beneath the cottonwood trees.




And then, there are the Monarchs. They were fluttering everywhere in the wild but the garden also had an exhibit where I got some good shots. Don't you love their polka dots?




I'm not sure what this plant is but I love the colors, shape, and textures.

And finally, here are the two journal pages I managed to get painted while I was there. I'm a slow painter, seriously. The one on the left took me a while but since I wasn't "on the clock", I didn't pay attention to time. I got lost in the process. The second one I did in about 20 minutes because it was almost time for me to leave to pick up my kids at school and I was determines to get in at least two paintings for the morning.


And that's a wrap! Hope you've enjoyed the show!
I'll be heading over there again a lot in the near future now that it's cooling off!

8 comments:

Joanne Huffman said...

Absolutely beautiful photos!

Alex said...

Awesome pictures! You have great observations and I really like the one you composed with the dried leaf too.
Thanks for your kind words earlier ^^

A tired retired recluse @ Swallowcliffs.blogspot.com/ said...

What a lovely day you must have enjoyed. Your pictures are very interesting and fun and love your comments which add to them! Thanks for sharing!

donna said...

Great pictures. You will have a lot of reference photos to pick from for painting inspiration.

Timaree said...

I'm surprised the cacti are blooming also. They sure aren't up here in Kingman but then, we've only had one rain this summer.

Great photos. You keep the snakeskin - we had too many snakes around this year with one biting our big dog on the nose. Thankfully she lived to tell the tale but a dog can only have the antivenom one time which I didn't know.

Love that cactus in a cactus.

Ramona Davidson said...

I looked at your watercolors and your blog here. Good art. Please don't be a stranger- please post often. Look forward to seeing more.

Patty Ruthe said...

Great notebook pages and photos. Looks like you had a super day!

Ayala Art said...

Awesome pictures!!