My Tenant sent me these pics from my Garden in SF

She says that it is a very good garden year there...All kinds of things that I have planted have come up, without me. I can see the garden needs a major cleaning up and refining. I wish my little house and garden could be transplanted here.

Love this color! Hollyhawk. Always trying to find black flowers.

All of my succulents and bamboo in front of the studio. 

Park La Barge to the right. 

Park La Barge..Dahlia Tree, Japanese Maple, vertrokia

boxes in the front...kind of a mess. 

front

Irises, balloon flowers, dahlia, hollyhawks in the distance

Under the big tree, a crazy mix. 

sweet peas coming up wild now in Park La Barge...please prune these!

Dinner plate Dahlia

Trying to finish...

Before I came to France, I had this vision of myself painting canvas after canvas. I was not happy that I could not buy a huge canvas here. This one is the biggest I could find at the time. ( now I know where I can get bigger canvases for OUTRAGEOUS prices, oh how I miss Blicks in Berkeley!)

But when you don't paint consistently, you loose your mojo...and I am in the muddy lows in this painting. ( a year and half of looking at this.)  Perhaps I would turn it to the wall and give up on it, but I can't. I have a few in that condition at home in SF. 

No, I am determined to finish it, even it is ugly, in the end...but I need to start something again very soon. For some reason I think that my life will take a turn when I finish this and move on to a fresh blank canvas, but then I always think that there is always something better  coming in the future if I can just get through the now. 

My tiny garden.

I have limited space. There are plants that were there originally that she won't let me move...mainly the white jack frost plants. I have put concrete blocks in between so that I can put pots on them ...and that's the way I have to garden. I have rescued many almost dead plants and brought them back. I do the best I can with what I have. 

I am growing, phlox, roses, zinnias, marigolds, saliva, a tomato, lots of lobelia at the base of other plants, echinecea, balloon flower, nicotania, cosmos, rock rose, poppies, dahlias, and more

For D.

He told me that he wanted to see pics of me in the scenery.  Here I am in Antibes. 

Dogs we saw

in a basket under the table.  His mother woke him up so that I could take a photo. 

This dog looks better blurry. 

Dinner at Le Carnot De Bord in Antibes

with S and A.
The restaurant is tiny and quickly filled up so everything was slow. The presentation was very nice. My tuna was great... S and A were happy with what they ordered but the food was a little too fussy we thought. The desert was strawberries with coconut sorbet and it was mediocre at best. The place is very pretty, ( it has a nautical theme)  but I think they need to perfect their menu and their service situation.

Pork

stuffed with chicken

Tuna

Sly shots

I love the groups of old French men . I would love to do a series of photographs on them. I love to see them grouped around town squares, discussing what goes on in the world. 

A Weimaraners first concert

Look at this beautiful puppy! His father explains live music to him.

and gives him some love. 

A Concert in Vence

This boy didn't like what he was hearing. 

Old Dog, Young Girl

 The dog's name was Jack. I asked her if I could take the pic ( in French)...she was so flatterred. She was a tough little girl  and Jack was giving her a hard time...When I walked away I could her her say " Oh la la Jacky!" Jacky wanted to run.

Vence late afternoon

You have to do your food shopping on Saturday's as nothing is open on Sunday. I thought I would check into Vence to see what was going on there. Tonight is the Fete de la music all over France. They were setting up for things to start. Meanwhile, life goes on. I love this big square in the middle of Vence. There are always all kinds of things going on. 

One hour hike today

Fron this spot..if you listen. you can hear...all kinds of birds, the rushing river, whinneying horses, thunder,  dogs panting and butterfly wings thumping. 

Emile is still a bit under the weather. It has taken him 2 weeks to process a plastic dog toy that he ate. We have had all kinds of problems. 4 visits to the vet! Yesterday, he was really hurting so I took him back. They somehow gave him barium, orally

 (  Barium sulfate has a low toxicity and relatively high density of ca. 4.5 g·cm⁻³ (and thus opacity to X-rays). For this reason it is used as a radiocontrast agent in X-ray imaging of the digestive system ("barium meals" and "barium enemas").^[3]:4–5Lithopone, a pigment that contains barium sulfate and zinc sulfide, is a permanent white that has good covering power, and does not darken when exposed to sulfides)

. I was to come back in an hour for another xray with the barium in his system. I drove back home and he threw everything up including the huge piece of plastic that was jamming him up and all of the barium. 

All of the people were so nice and so concerned about Emile at the vet. The doctor  had always been kind of stand offish, but my French is improved and he was suddenly very nice and helpful. 

I had to speak...I can express myself. I make mistakes all over the place but they correct me. 

Each time I get a correction, I have a visual memory of the experience and it cements the word or usage for me. I know this is the way I learn. 

Emile was a bit weak on the hike, but tonight he is much better. He ate all of his dinner and went back for seconds as is his habit. 

This trail goes to the secret olive grove, but we only did half of it. It was hot for the dogs.

Happy always,  in the woods. 

Throw the damned stick Mom...stop making me crazy.