I love vines!

The Odorata Clematis is in bloom on the front porch and is GORGEOUS! We've had an over-abundance of rain but not so bad that we've been flooded (we live on a rise) or in the path of a tornado.

The beautiful tulips are all gone. The spirea out by the road looks like a fountain and the doublefile viburnum is beginning to bloom. I can't believe how beautiful all the spring flowers have been! I'm sure the rain has done it. It is SO green out. I feel like I've landed in Ireland.

I'll be attending my long-awaited workshop in Virginia very soon. I've loaded my palette, drawn my nine portraits and bought my hot-shot easel. On the way, we stop by Stauton, VA to see Macbeth at Blackfriar's Playhouse.

Spring at my house . . .

Spring has come with extravagance. In one small wooded spot in my front yard a multitude of tulips have sprung up. Over the years we have transplanted the odd bulb we would find elsewhere in the yard (planted by former owners). Apparently they have taken their own sweet time (years) to bloom. Now they are naturalizing I suspect. I can count 30 to 40 in this one spot at the base of a tree.

I've been preparing for my watercolor workshop in early May. I have selected 8 "portraits" to reproduce on heavy smooth watercolor paper and am in the process of redrawing them. It's fun and totally consuming.