More Garden Art

Last week I enjoyed the beautiful fall weather at Lake Chelan here in Washington.

Perfect days of sunshine relaxing, kayaking, hiking, wine tasting, farmers markets, and SHOPPING! Between the town of Chelan and Manson, there is this fun guy, Bill King, who sells whimsical metal sculptures at Red Duck Nursery.

I could NOT resist this little character!

Garden Art

The last two weekends in September, Southwest Washington entertains art enthusiasts with ARTrails. About 60 artist participated in this year's studio tour through the region's historic communities and the back roads of Lewis County. The studio tour is free and self-guided.

What I have learned over the past few years is that you can only do a handfull of artist's studios in one day as each one is a delight and requires time to visit. I do find myself visiting several of the same artists, but always add a couple of new ones.

This year my new artist is a rare gem; Ron & Victoria Smith. They create metal yard art welded from recycled "found objects" collected throughout the West which include farm machinery parts, garden tools, car parts, horseshoes, ranch items, antique items, and the list goes on......

It was love at first sight! I saw the sculpture I wanted as we entered their driveway. The bird has found a happy home in my front yard.

Is that cool or what?!?!?!

The wings move with the wind!

Tea Time

Last Saturday I went to the 4th annual Designing Devas Garden Tour. I was set to visit Cathy Johnson's Dandelion Gardens because I met her and saw her garden art creations at Olympia Country and Golf Club "Spring Fling".

No way is her garden filled with dandelions! She has acres of gorgeous landscaped gardens overlooking St. Clair Lake. I was so glad I made the journey out to see it and thankful that the day was sunny and beautiful, too.

At the art show, I fell in love with a tea cup planter but for some unknown reason did not purchase it at that time. I have been thinking about it ever since that day. After our initial greeting, I asked Cathy if she still had the tea cup. That is when she told me this story: The tea cup was in her car after the art show. She met a man who was looking for a gift for his wife for Mothers' Day. When Cathy showed him the tea cup, he bought it. Fortunately for me, his wife did not like the tea cup and returned it to Kathy in exchange for another planter. So, the tea cup was there waiting for me!

After a couple of days of moving it around my yard, I found the perfect spot where I can see it from my kitchen. I selected a hardy geranium to plant inside.

Here is how it looks......


I love it!!!

Time to make a cup of tea......

Dinosaur Egg

A couple of blogs back I shared about the Northwest Horticultural Society's Garden Tour at Joyce Hawkins' home. I also mentioned Joyce's art of cement leaves and dinosaur eggs.

Joyce described her process to me of how she creates dinosaur eggs using patching cement. I now have my very own dinosaur egg in my yard.




I am not sure of its permanent placement or maybe it will move around? At the moment it sits in my front yard in a patch of weeds. I definitely need a more exciting ground cover for it to sit upon. Any suggestions?

Here is the view from my deck.


I decided to add water and a glass float. The sun popped out as I finished this process. Do you like the addition of water and float? Other ideas?


Joyce is working on a website; her business name is Leaf Art Plus