Tag Archives: environment

Chef at the Farmer’s Market

Chef at the Farmer’s Market This lively artwork was inspired by my trips to the many weekly  colorful, bountiful Farmer’s Markets along the California Central Coast region.  Such beautiful produce!  Wonderful flowers!  Arts & crafts!  I enjoyed painting the sunflowers … Continue reading

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Honey Bee Happy

Honey Bee Happy A trio of happy honey bees and dancing gerbera daisies adorn a colorful honey comb of fun.  Honey Bee Happy is my homage to the valuable honey bee in our ecosystem.  I tried to make Honey Bee … Continue reading

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Amazing Acrobatic Squirrel Defies Gravity!

Check out this video – this squirrel is AMAZING! It’s hard to believe how daring and fun this squirrel is, with lots of personality. As you will see in the film clip, this squirrel LOVES a challenge – rather than … Continue reading

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Yellow Light

Yellow LightYellow Light “Yellow Light” is about the tension between nature’s needs and man’s increasing urbanization, symbolized by the bird nesting in the yellow light, while human life and machinery happily go on in the background.  The from-the-stop-light-looking-down perspective was … Continue reading

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Contented Peace, Happiness and Bliss at the Bird Feeder – Grosbeaks and a Dove!

In the video below you will see Contented Peace, Bliss and Happiness at our magical bird feeder! If only the whole world got along this well! Our bird feeder is so busy, pretty soon we are going to need an … Continue reading

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Lion’s Paradise

Inspired by the beautiful lions at the Santa Barbara zoo and the romantic images of Africa and its unique flora,  Lion’s Paradise is a colorful work wth a few hidden bits of whimsy – note the “dancing” tree in the … Continue reading

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Our injured Black-Headed Grosbeak has a friend!

We are thrilled that so many black-headed grosbeaks have returned with the warmer weather, to keep our injured black-headed grosbeak company. Sometimes our little guy has as many as three fellow grosbeaks around him – all males. Once I saw … Continue reading

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Inspiring Santa Barbara “Ever-Bloom” Nursery Tour

Thanks to my amazing friend Carol, we went with the Ventura County Garden Club on a SPECTACULAR tour of Santa Babara’s Ever-Bloom nursery – and all I can say is… LOOK AT THESE PICTURES! I am so inspired! Imagine acres … Continue reading

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Next Painting to be of the Veggie Garden!

How can one not be inspired by this time of year in the garden? We just planted the vegetable garden, and it is amazing! Just as these little plants are the start of this year’s vegetable crop, so too shall … Continue reading

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The Veggie Garden is Planted!!!

This is such a miraculous time of the year. The garden boxes transform from barren to full of hope; the yard is all a-twitter with birds – even our blue bird houses have residents (but not blue birds!). As last … Continue reading

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On Bluebird Houses, “Grocery Chopping,” and our Black-Headed Grosbeak

My husband has been hard at work – harvesting today’s crop, making me smile, and putting up two blue bird houses, and being all around wonderful! I have seen a few bluebirds – beautiful red-breasted Western Bluebirds – in our … Continue reading

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Happy Ending!

For those of you that have been following my postings, you will know that at our birdfeeders we have seen a black-headed grosbeak wihich has a broken wing. He has wintered here with us, when instead he is supposed to … Continue reading

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The Ever Ravenous and Unendingly Cute Mort-the-Squirrel

Our squirrel Mort will eat and eat and eat. He just reaches into the bird feeder and chows down. He’s awesomely cute, and it’s fun to watch him hold the goodies in his paws and nibble away. It’s no great … Continue reading

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It’s a Squirrely Business!

As our Leonberger dog watched with his usual gentle fascination, we had two visitors to our bird feeder today – our inspirational Molly squirrel, whose broken leg happily still seems to be improving, and adorable Mort, who has the cutest … Continue reading

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Update on our Black-Headed Grosbeak

Those of you who follow this blog already know that we have a wonderful black-headed Grosbeak wintering in our garden – he is supposed to be in Southern Mexico or Latin America, but because of a wing injury, he has … Continue reading

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Brilliant Blue Jay masters a super-tough nut-to-crack, the Peanut Wreath!

Our wonderful neighbors gave us a heavy wire peanut wreath. It essentially is a super-tightly wound slinky, that is immobile – these wires are thick and can’t be adjusted even with human hands. The idea is to wedge the peanuts … Continue reading

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Update on Inspirational Molly Squirrel!

Our little squirrel with the broken leg, Molly, is hanging in there! Here you can see her progress – we are thrilled to see how much better Molly is doing on her broken leg. This post shares the follow-up video … Continue reading

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Thanks to Wonderful Neighbors Karen & Jim, Squirrels and Blue Jays have a GREAT Holiday!

We were so surprised when we came home and found a LARGE holiday gift bag, filled with what is best described as a large wire ring wreath, and a bag of peanuts, along with a lovely card. Our animal-loving-kindred-spirits-neighbors, Karen … Continue reading

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Two Best Buds – Our Bourke Parrots (aka Bourke Parakeets); Our Female bird gets the munchies!

These two birds have come a long way since they first met. Now they can share the same cage, and when they do, they are very sympatico. Here are some little glimpses into their world: Here is some footage of … Continue reading

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Rosie and Emma Plant a Seed™ Now Available on Amazon!

Rosie and Emma Plant a Seed™ is M. Nicole van Dam’s joyous and beautifully illustrated children’s book about a young girl Emma and her Leonberger dog Rosie, who find a mysterious seed and plant it. As the mysterious seed grows, … Continue reading

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