Last Walk Around this year in the little gardens

Winter isn't here yet!

Surface Embroidery - Spring Ride After The First Mowing

I don't often feel I need to write a "statement" but this scene
 is very dear to me.
I've dreamed of doing a piece depicting it for a few years.  Surface
Embroidery gives me the opportunity to express textures like  on the
cream-colored gravel trail, all raked and ready for the season,  The
bark of the trees, the old fence.  The freshly mowed grass. Mowed by
someone that didn't really do it in neat rows.  And the bushes...the bushes
that  spread onto the ground and cover everything behind them.  The
blossoms and blooms look almost fuzzy.  The crocuses under the trees
were left unmowed and nothing can stop the dandylions from popping up
wherever they choose.  

Saguaro - Blackwork Beads and Stones

Inspired by Carol A. Bruno, artist for
Saguaro National Park in
Tucson, Arizona

Pre-invasion of "The Ladybugs"

 It's that time of the year again!  "Asian Lady Beetles like to hibernate each winter inside a nice warm house. That’s why most ladybug infestations occur during the fall months.As it turns out, the ladybugs are attracted to light colors, including the color white.  They are also attracted to warm, south-facing rooms."   And wouldn't you guess...they just love our building and love my apartment!  Every day now, I've been waiting for the "great invasion" which comes one time a year, usually the first week in October.  Today was a pre-invasion.  Enjoy the pictures!!

Reinhard said this is a "manbug"

The colour range of the Harmonia axyridis  (a large coccinellid beetle) is from yellow-orange to black, and the number of spots between none and 22. It is native to eastern Asia, but has been artificially introduced to North Americaand Europe to control aphids and scale insects. It is now common, well known, and spreading in those regions, and has also established in South Africa and widely across South America.