Friends We've Never Met

A couple of weeks ago, when I was up to my ears in spring cleaning, we received this beautiful painting in the mail.

This photo of a house in the Ventura Keys, posted a few years ago on Instagram, serendipitously led to an Instagram friendship with the artist, Diane Larson.

 Diane of @dlarsonpaints and Diane Larson Fine Art commented that she thought our boys went to high school together.

Despite our sons (hers is the graduate and mine is the redhead) being friends for over 25 years, we as parents never met. 

7 weeks ago Diane posted this pic of her studio on Instagram and asked me if I recognized the framed piece on the wall - a page torn from Coastal Living Magazine of her happy place -Ventura.

Diane did not know it was one of Steve's paintings until her son Eric asked her if she knew that the painting was done by Josh's dad.

When I learned that the picture was just a magazine page, I asked Steve if he had any more posters and as luck would have it, he had one poster left and it now hangs on Diane's wall on the east coast.

This is an old (somewhat blurry) collage of paintings Steve has done of Two Tree Hill - a Ventura landmark.

So this painting is even more special because Diane called it, Two Tree's, Bahamas style -  she and her husband have been sailing the seas and she's been painting on the boat.

With my company gone and spring cleaning over, I finally had time to create a mantel display worthy of the palm trees.

I love this mantel because it tells our story. 

The shells have been gathered over years and years - this sand dollar (3" across) is one of several we brought back from Costa Rica.

And now, this painting by a friend we have never met, adds to our story.

Love Grows Here

When I retired, my dream was to have a lovely cottage garden, but the multi-year California drought and the fact that I know nothing about gardening means that my dream garden is yet to be.

When my garden grows up, I would love for it to be this lush.

Early this morning I headed to the hills to the home of one of my dearest friends.

Wendy, (I shared her home here), is hosting a baby shower for my daughter KC on Saturday and I went to help her with the floral arrangements.

My helped consisted of snipping off the stems while Wendy created beautiful arrangements.

After lunch and before we began setting out china and silver on the tables, I grabbed my camera.

I've been busy getting our house and garden ready for a big family BBQ on Saturday night and hadn't planned on writing a blog post any time soon,

but after looking at the photos, I decided Wendy's garden needed to be shared.

I love all the statuary tucked here and there.

Wendy's favorites are the angels tucked all through the garden, 

but some have become hidden from the colorful explosion in the garden after abundant rain this winter.

 Wendy and her gardener have created a beautiful oasis for her to enjoy from both inside and outside the house.

The roses are just beginning to bloom -

isn't this rose a gorgeous color.

It's early yet and I can't wait to see the garden in May.

 It has been so windy lately and I hope the wind behaves itself on Saturday so guests can sit out in the garden for the luncheon.

As I left, I snapped a bunch of photos of the front garden -

 The variety of colors and flowers amaze me.

Just a few years ago, the front was a slopped lawn, but with the drought Wendy had the lawn removed to save water.

Yes, love grows in Wendy's garden,

 but while selecting photos for the post, I came across photos of my own garden.

 The quote, "Comparison is the thief of joy", came to mind

and I was reminded that love grows in my garden too!

You Never Know

I try to keep the house neat and tidy because we never know when someone will drop in.

Frequently people call asking if they can stop by the studio to check out a painting so it's important that the entry is welcoming.

That's my excuse for always creating new vignettes

and changing things on the shelves.

Thank goodness I do so because on Easter, my cousin unexpectedly brought my aunt to visit for a few days.

Both the house

and the garden were ready for entertaining.

My aunt, who is 92, didn't bring her kayak with her on this visit so instead of hitting the water, we drove to Los Olivos in search of poppies.

These are the only poppies we spotted, but we saw the ubiquitous California oak trees

and extensive fields of mustard - at least that's what I think it is.

My aunt called this Indian Paintbrush.

The weather was fickle and I'm kind of glad -

if not for the fog, my cousin would never have captured this beautiful shot.

With our company gone, it was right back to fluffing the house and garden because this time I do know.

By this time next week more company will arrive and we'll be hosting 14 for a family BBQ.

The weather has been great so I should have plenty of flowers for the tables, but you never know.