Vodka Martini Gardener

I'm reading a really good book right now called "The Gin and Tonic Gardener" by Janice Wells. It's very amusing but very helpful, too. I am more of a vodka martini gardener myself. I work in the garden until martini time which is 3 o'clock for me. Now don't gasp that it's too early for a cocktail at 3 because it usually takes me about three hours to drink the whole thing down. Here are some pictures of the front yard, known affectionately as "the semi-barren wasteland". I won't even show you the backyard, which is overrun with English ivy, an invasive plant in the area. I will tackle the back another day or should I say month. I had a couple of landscapers come in and at least chop down the "pricker" bushes; blackberries. I'm thinking of a rock garden for the front. I have been wandering up and down the allies with my shopping trolley picking up likely suspects. I found two beauties at the air show that we went to on the weekend and another couple at a rocky beach in Point Roberts, Wa. There was so much beautiful silvery grey driftwood but I didn't know how the customs people would be about me bringing back to Canada. My daughter and two grandchildren are at a cottage this week and I have given orders for rocks, rocks and more rocks. After looking at a gardening magazine I'm thinking maybe a dry bed stream might be nice too. I have also added a picture of my next door neighbour and friend's front yard and porch. You can see what I have to live up to.

I'm also starting a new series of paintings using the "impasto" method, huge slabs of paint piled onto the canvas. My studio is upstairs in our 100year old house and it's hot as hades up there in the afternoon.