15 June, 2020 - An Interesting Find & MORE RAIN!

Dear, Mom - 

Well, it is almost 11 o'clock. You may notice that the blog looks different. I finally (FINALLY!!!) figured out how to change the main picture at the top. The kitty was adorable, but it was somebody else's cat. So, I figured out how to put a picture of Nancy, you, me, and Tad on there instead. Now it looks right. I just wish I would have taken my sunglasses off. That's the way it went and the way it goes, I suppose.

I took Elsa the dog on a very long walk this morning. On our walk down an alley in our neighborhood, I can across a very unique, if not strange, flower. For one, it was ginormous. Very large indeed. Secondly, I can say I have never before seen a flower like this before. I wish the picture could have showed more details, but the background just seems to all blend together. This is a Dragon arum, or Voodoo Lily. It is a bit of a spooky looking flower, if that is possible?

For reference, I could've put my hand inside the width of that large, purple petal. That's how big the flower was. It would be really neat to take a white board and put it behind it and take a picture. Just to show more of the character of the flower.  It is more weird than beautiful, I think. What do you think?

The rain last night and today was heavy. I thought for sure our roof was going to leak. It didn't, thank goodness. It was raining so hard I actually didn't want to walk next door to Birgit's. I figured I would get soaking wet between the two houses. After a while, the clouds cleared and it was 'sundoggin'. The sun was out while the rain was still falling. Then there would be another break of no rain, cloudy, sprinkle, sunny, heavy rain...it was, shall we say, unpredictable. The garden is growing like gangbusters from all the rain and sun. It's amazing. I may actually have a successful garden for the first time! I love how the rain was caught perfectly in the cup of these small succulent plants.

Elsa the dog and I were walking through the big, tall tree park this morning and I noticed a little patch of some wild raspberries. Some of them were ripe, but I figured it was better to them in nature. Paula and I share a huge patch of raspberries, so I didn't need to take from the park :)

We also came upon a really nice patch of wildflowers. Mainly you could see all the multi-color Bachelor Buttons. I loved that most of the primary colors were present. It made for a very balanced picture and made me smile.

It isn't a great picture, but it is colorful. I hope that my front walk looks this colorful in another month. I put down gobs of seeds. They are coming up now. I also have to get in there and remove all the darn grass that came back in my beds. Urgh. It is so frustrating to get it looking so nice and cleaned out and then the weeds make a come back. 

Tomorrow after work, I have got to buckle down and make some art. I have at least three cards I need to draw/paint/mail. The first two are a render of Korean playing cards. The third is a postcard I need to send to a stranger in Kansas whose brother has asked for people to send postcards of encouragement to. I guess she has been on her own and missing her family. She has 8 siblings! Her brother sounds like a nice kid wanting to cheer his sister up. I figured it would be a good start to getting me out of my current art rut.

It was really nice to talk to you for a short bit today. It was really nice to see you smile and laugh, too. 

I love you very much. I miss you terribly. I hope we can see each other very soon. Stay healthy and happy. Until tomorrow! Your Daughter, Sal