Flower Mandala Book

I made a little accordion book of flower photographs.  These are flowers from my yard, cut flowers in my house and flowers from the San Francisco Zoo.  I'm working up to the Book of the Hours that I'll be making for my Way of the Monk Path of the Artist class.

First Apricots of the Season

I picked the first apricots of the season yesterday.  They are sweet and juicy and as good as I remember from last year.  These are Blenheim apricots--the best variety there is. I don't have enough ripe apricots to make jam yet, but I think I will be busy cooking in a few days.

Here is my tree.  I put a tarp under it to catch the windfalls and keep them clean.  I mostly just gather apricots from the ground, because those are the ripest and the best.  That way I don't have to use a ladder.  Unfortunately, about half my crop is eaten by squirrels.  They leave a lot of half-eaten apricots on the ground.

Here's a picture of a squirrel enjoying my crop!

Chicken Souvlaki

Last night we grilled Chicken Souvlaki for dinner.  It was the first time we've made kabobs and it was a success.  Also the first time to grill lemons.  John decided to add the tomatoes and they were delicious.  The recipe comes from Real Simple Magazine.  The recipe isn't on their website, but it's in the July 2012 issue.

Here's the finished product:

Here's the whole meal:

Summer!

It's summer and I'm feeling spacious and creative and ready to resume my blog.  I'm taking a wonderful online class called "Way of the Monk, Path of the Artist" from Abbey of the Arts.  So I thought I'd begin posting some of my projects from the class.

The first exciting project was Wisdom Cards, made with watercolor and collage.  These cards asked questions of our inner monk and inner artist.  We made the cards with the question written on the back, but without knowing which question went to which card.

The question for this card was for my inner artist: Why am I afraid?

For my inner monk: Where is God?

For both the monk and artist: How do I find peace?

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary...

These are the herbs from my garden that I used with my Thanksgiving turkey and dressing.

Rosemary

We Still Have Roses