Artists are different.
Artists are in a perpetual search for inspiration... for beauty, joy, light, magic.
Artists are inventive, expressive, adventurous, and intuitive with an overwhelming desire to share their world.
I am such an artist.
Each Friday, I'll share with you a few beautiful, delicious, intriguing treasures I'm grateful to have discovered.
Or simply things I'm just grateful for... Period.
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♥ Old Dogs
I love all dogs, but especially old dogs. They are wise, compassionate, and turn napping into performance art. I have three. Well, this week I have five, but two of them are fosters who will be going to their new home soon. Dean Koontz tells us, "Once you have lived with a wonderful dog, a life without one is a life diminished."
Amen, Mr. Koontz. Amen!
Today I send warm healing thoughts to my friends who have lost their beloved, old canine companions, especially to those few friends who lost their old dogs this week.
You were well loved Charlie, Black Jack, and Fluffer, and you are already sorely missed.
♥ US Military Veterans
June 6, 2019, marks the 75th anniversary of the WWII D-Day invasion, where 150,000+ troops from the US, Canada and Britain stormed the beaches of northern France, ultimately turning the tide of the war and leading to the unconditional surrender of Germany less than a year later.
I feel immense gratitude towards all US Veterans and their families and will never take for granted the sacrifices that were made for amazing life we enjoy daily here in the United States.
♥ Tiny, Travel Watercolor Kits
♥ Blue Hydrangeas
It's quite evident my hydrangeas are in dire need of water. The heat wave of 90+ degree days and no rain started mid-May, yet as I photograph these I see a thunderhead forming and hear the rattling of storms in the distance. A rainy weather pattern is in the forecast, so I'll wait to give them a drink.
I love a summer garden, but I especially love blue hydrangea. They possess such an old soul. I remember them planted at the corners of my grandmother's Victorian house in downtown Milan. Huge and glorious they were, and charming. Blue Hydrangeas are at the very least charming. Charming and welcoming all who drove down College Street.
ODE TO THE HYDRANGEA
by Phil Capitano, 2017
Misunderstood little Mophead,
They call her ‘Changing Rose’,
Her color comes from the soil
And the acidity in which she grows.
Chorus: Water in her name,
Water in her veins.
Blue Azorean Stranger,
Nothing rhymes with Hydrangea.
Graceful in the half-sun,
She turns pink with added lime.
At home in the Himalayas,
Found globally over time.
Water in her name,
Water in her veins.
Blue Azorean stranger,
Nothing rhymes with Hydrangea.
Not a flower but a shrub,
Grandiflora and Annabelle
Splash their petals radiant,
A most hardy perennial.
Water in her name,
Water in her veins.
Blue Azorean stranger,
Nothing rhymes with Hydrangea.
One of these days I'm going to get a Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangea or a Strawberry Sundae Hydrangea. But not right away. Crepe Myrtle is the next garden purchase on the list.
♥ Doris Day
She may have lived to be 97, but I'll always remember Doris Day looking like the day she sang "Sentimental Journey" with Les Brown and his Orchestra in 1944. I was heartbroken to learn of her death last month, but forever grateful to the entertainer and founder of the Doris Day Animal Foundation. For her complete biography, click here.
My favorite movies she starred in were "On Moonlight Bay" and "By the Light of the Silvery Moon." Mom used to sing the theme song to me so much that my first words as a baby were, "By the Light."
Joy is the simplest form of gratitude.” – Karl Barth
