Blooming Trees: Magnolias

This year magnolia trees are blooming earlier than before. I took a bunch of my sketchbooks off the shelves and looked through the months of February and March. Based on my sketchbooks, my main hunt for blooming magnolia trees only begins at this time (mid-February); however, a few trees that I visited this week were already dropping petals faster than I could sketch them!
Never fear - there are still a few trees that I plan to visit - they were usually late bloomers - I like those :)

Yellow Chrysanthemums

I believe this was a potted flower destined to celebrate the Chinese New Year (Happy New Lunar Year of a Flaming Horse to all who celebrate!), but when I got it, it became a bright reminder to experiment with my art supplies! I have a whole bunch of small and large sketches of it already - and here is a first batch I wanted to share:

Nonagenarian Update: winter 2026

Winter's dark months are hard for our nonagenarian. She sleeps more and cares about her attire less. But when asked, she replies that she is happy and content. We got some additional help and things are more or less on track: doctors visited, meds taken, shots received, books read, plants watered, birds fed :) 

A Gift of Two Lemons

I got these beautiful lemons from a stranger. I was deep in conversation with my walking companion as we passed this lovely house and all of a sudden a lady came out in front of us, smiled and said - please take some free lemons! We could not resist the Cyrano (misspelled in my sketch) - or perhaps these are Don Quixote and Sancho Panza? Many other names were suggested by the time we got home. I took photos and sent them to my parents and friends. I enjoyed the fragrance and shapes, and how paint spilled and moved when I made this sketch. And very much enjoyed the lemon pie that these ended up in. The pie disappeared too quickly for me to make a sketch - but here are the lemons! 

Bike and Sketch

One of the best things to add to riding a bike is a sketching stop!