Rogues in my garden.

We are having a lovely wet winter so far and I found some rogue visitors in my garden: mushrooms are growing on my succulents!!!

Internet was full of helpful suggestions like "may be a sign that your succulents need better-draining soil or a less-humid environment" or "That means the soil microbiology is super healthy" or "Mushroom won't harm your plant - but it is usually a sign of soil that is too organic. That may be a bigger problem". There was also discussion as to how to get rid of them and if. 

I decided to sketch the situation instead of continuing down that rabbit hole on the internet :)

Reading Notes: Secret World of Slugs and Snails

I read about this book from by David George Gordon in a couple of different places (but forgot to write down where) and then Austin Kleon mentioned it in one of his posts and after a short wait for a library hold I had a lovely little tome of snail and slug knowledge in my hands: The Secret World of Slugs and Snails: Life in the Very Slow Lane. One thing I would like to tell you right away - it reads like a good mystery! Popular science book with a layer of humor, poetry, and lots of amazing references and interesting drawings full of character.

One of the main things I made notes on while reading this book were other books referenced in the text - see below (I mean - who does not want to learn "How to Attract a Wombat"? Or page through "Adventures with a Hand Lens:? or learn what is "Gardening for Independence" or what happens "When Snails Come to Paris"? :) 

Lovely illustrations (by Karen Luke Fildes on instagram:karenlukefildes) reminded me of one of my art heroes - Hannah Hinchman and her wonderful book "A Life In Hand" (here is a youtube video Danny Gregory put up about this book). And I ended up digging into all sorts of things in biology (did you know that snails use copper to bind oxygen in their blood?), linguistics, and nature history (different words for science that studies shells and those who live in them: conchology and malacology) and statistics (Numbers and percentages of dextral and sinistral shells). 

I will enjoy following the trails that this book left for some time :)

Drawn reports in the form of the portraits - Two Years of war in Ukraine. February 24, 2024.

Above are all the portraits of my parents that I drew during the last two years of war in more or less chronological order starting on February 24, 2022. 

It's been two years since the unthinkable happened and the war became a part of the everyday life of my parents. And through them it became a part of our lives. From the horror of the first weeks to the endless bombings of Kharkiv (that continue till today). Escaping the city to live in a small town: befriending cats, learning to live without their home of many decades. My parents faced the cold and dark winter when russia started destroying power infrastructure and agreed to move outside Ukraine and lived as refugees in Europe until at the very end of last year they became refugees in California. Two years of war and a long long time away from where they thought they would be. So many dark, horrific stories from these two years, so many losses. So many people lost much more than anything my parents experienced yet it all adds up to one big pain and loss but also strength to oppose the evil and courage to fight it with everything. We saw so much kindness from people all around the world during these two years.

I wish this time was over and we could invite all our friends and supporters to celebrate our victory and freedom with good borscht in Ukraine. One day. But today the war is not over - and we still need all the help.

If you live in the States please consider writing to your elected officials and support unblocking and increasing military aid to Ukraine. 

Every note counts.

Find your senator: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm

Find your representative: https://www.house.gov/representatives

Write to your president: https://www.whitehouse.gov/get-involved/write-or-call/

In my letters I ask that they you do everything in their power to unblock and increase military aid to Ukraine. This is a fight against world evil and we should do everything to help those on the front line. 

I also opened a fundraiser through Facebook to collect money through Nova Ukraine - an organization whose work and people I know personally. These are people who are organizing aid in Ukraine and helping Ukrainian refugees in America. 

Please consider donating here:

https://www.facebook.com/donate/1483095855573386/

I organized all my war-related posts (including a month-by-month journey my parents took) in this post:

https://blog.apple-pine.com/2022/08/war-in-ukraine-guide-through-posts-on.html

Winter Europe Trip: Madrid Museums

We visited a whole bunch of museums and historical sites on this trip, however museums of Madrid were the ones I spent the most time preparing for and where I drew the most. 

In Prado, I was excited to find a Museum guide and map in Ukrainian and marked my plan for everyone in our group so that they would know where to find me (follow along!). Goya is always a hit and this time I went not from earlier works to the late years but in the opposite direction and it created even a bigger contrast and wonder. In the Naval Museum, I drew some figureheads and spent my time finding the best depiction of the sea (there were quite a few spectacular ones!). We also went to the home and museum of my art hero Joaquin Sorolla, found his works in two more museums, and visited a little but fantastic exhibit "Sorolla's Summers" on its last day in Madrid. I ended up painting a "bunch of Sorollas" in my sketchbook as I could not stop thinking about all the light that he saw! 

More from the trip (winter 2023-24, Spain)

1. Sketching Tools that came with me on this trip.
2. Public Transportation is amazing (sketching people).
3. Sketching landscapes from a moving train.
4. Cordoba Part 1
5. Cordoba Part 2
6. Seville
7. Granada
8. Madrid
9. Toledo
10. Museums
11. Organizing my notes for these posts after the trip :)

Plant Eviction

I bought this little garden-in-a-pot (a concept I enjoy) and sketched it a couple of days into its stay on our kitchen table. But very quickly my allergies informed me that the hyacinth is not my friend and in fact is a serious enemy. It filled the whole house with fragrance and despite some effort put into denial, I had to evict the whole little garden outside. Where there was a lot of wind and rain and... well, I did not draw it after eviction. But it is getting a lot of watering!