Hi Everybody!
We had a long weekend here, so I have enjoyed being really lazy for three days, and I must say I might repeat this at another time when the weather is bad! There's something very therapeutic about reading, catching up on mail, and watching some films on TV.
Today we are starting a new challenge at TIOT. The theme is
🦋 butterflies 🦋
As always, projects of all formats are welcome, and you have 2 weeks to link to us. Have a look at our blog to see the beautiful inspiration from my teamies!
The lady in my piece was a distant relation, I just know she was called Emily:
I am also linking to Elle's language challenge at AJJ - beauty speaks its own language.
I have had lots of visitors on my balcony and window boxes, they are all hungry just now:
I love to see plants and lichens growing out of the cracks in the castle walls:
More visitors:
An evening rainbow after a day of clouds and rain:
The pigeon looking to see if it's still worth visiting:
Beautiful clematis:
This one is also always hungry:
And the magpie is a speed eater:
The poor jay came for some food after the rain:
Have a great day, take care,
and thanks a lot for coming by!
How joyful, Valerie! I love the wisteria blooming - always an elegant flower! Such a beautiful butterfly collage with her pretty wings - such a happy cheerful post! Hugs! xo
ReplyDeleteThanks Kelly, wisteria is always special for me, too! Have a great week, hugs!
DeleteBeautiful butterfly art Valerie and your photos are gorgeous. I love to see plants and lichens growing out of the cracks in the walls too. We don't see things like that here in Florida. So glad you had three nice lazy days. Enjoy the rest of the week too. Hugs!
ReplyDeleteThanks Martha. I think you have other things worth seeing over there! Have a great week, hugs!
DeleteO wie schön dein Schmetterlingsseite und all die Fotos dazu mit dem nassen Eichelhäher und die anderen Vögel und den vielen Pflanzen die überall herraus wachsen.
ReplyDeleteDrei Tage nicht viel sich zu bewegen hat was ... lach nahja wenn die Sonne und mal das Wetter wärmer wird hoffe ich mal wirds auch anders ... nun es regnet und ist kalt bei mir und morgen solls genauso sein mit 12 Grad am Tag für Ende Mai puhhh ist nicht schön.
Ich wünsche dir ein schönen Tag!
Lieben Gruss Elke
Das Wetter hier war so grässlich, es war einfach gemütlicher Zuhause! Es fühlt sich echt nicht wie Ende Mai an, wie wahr. Dir eine gute Woche, bleib gesund!
DeleteHi Val, good morning! Hope you are fit and well after your lazy days! We had a great weekend, played lots of games with the kids. Love your butterfly page, so beautiful. Wonderful photos, too. Hugs, Sarah
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah, glad you all had fun over the weekend! Have a great week, stay fit and healthy! Hugs to all!
DeleteI couldn't agree more, it's pure indulgent therapy to just sit and read or watch some telly! Such beautiful wisteria, and the magpies too. I wish they didn't have such a bad rap for they are so beautiful. Hugs, Deb
ReplyDeleteThanks Deb. The magpies are really beautiful, and clever. And they are adept at picking off the whole fat ball net and flying off with it!
DeleteVery nice photos ��
ReplyDeleteThanks Martyna! Have a great day!
DeleteGorgeous art journal spread Valerie! LOVE those butterflies! And of course, your amazing photos!!! Have a fantastic week! ((HUGS)) Helen
ReplyDeleteThanks Helen! Have a wonderful day!
DeleteYou are surrounded by, and manage to catch on your camera, so much beauty.
ReplyDeleteLOVE your piece.
Take special care.
Thanks Sandra. This is a wonderful place to live!
DeleteWe need some rainy days here. It is so dry, already. And I could use some of therapeutic relaxing days too. Smile. Your page is a beauty today. Emily with her big wings really pops off the page. I love all the texture and details. And nice photos too. We don't have magpies here and they are very handsome, aren't they? Hope your weather improves now that you are all recharged. Take care. Hugs-Erika
ReplyDeleteLast year we got almost no rain, and this year it's not stopping! I need a lot more rest now than I did before my clinic stay and operations, I hope it will get better in time. Magpies are indeed beautiful birds. Take care!
DeleteWe too had a long weekend, Valerie, and although we didn't spend it indoors relaxing, we had a wonderful time outdoors, saw lots of birds, some of which I will blog about shortly, and for a while I did an excellent job of supervising Miriam working in the garden, bending her back, digging and rooting, weeding, trimming, chopping, pruning, replanting, transplanting, primping the soil, getting her hands dirty, sweating, being bitten by an insect......and on and on. It was hard work supervising but I bravely rose to the challenge. I love all these butterflies in your art this week, and in fact we discovered two species new for the year during our perambulations in nature. Perhaps I will permit them to fly onto my blog too. Thank you for feeding the birds and taking such good care of them. So many have young to feed in addition to taking care of themselves, so a helping human hand is very welcome. Take care, stay well, walk lightly, drink coffee. Hugs and kisses. David
ReplyDeleteOh David, you are such a hero! It must be very difficult watching Miriam do the garden work, but congratulations on your attitude, someone always needs to carry the heavy burden of the responsibility! Butterflies are lovely, I haven't seen any yet this year. I love watching the birds. One if the magpies made off with a whole fat ball, perhaps he was planning a family party! It's raining and storming again here, and much too cold for May, but we have to take the weather as it is! Have a great day, be kind to Miriam! Hugs to you both!
DeleteEine sehr schöne und sommerliche Artjournal-Seite, Valerie.
ReplyDeleteDeine Fotos sind - wie immer - ein Augenschmaus
Thanks Rosie, nice to see you around again!
DeleteA lovely page and Emily looks beautiful as a butterfly. I enjoyed the close-ups of all your visitors. So many! And the rainbow photos are stunning.
ReplyDeleteThanks CJ. The birds need plenty of food just now for their young, so I have plenty of 'customers'. Have a great day!
DeleteSuch a beautiful butterfly page and I love the wording too! Your photos are gorgeous, that rainbow is amazing and your bird visitors look very happy with their treats 😀. Thanks for the inspiration and wishing you a lovely week! Hugs, Jo x
ReplyDeleteThanks Jo. The words were in an article I read recently. Have a good and safe week!
DeleteThe birds come close! What fun they must be to watch. I don't think I've ever seen wisteria so big in person. Gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteYes, it's good to watch them feeding. Lots of houses Here have wisteria eines, I love them!
DeleteLovely art as always and you know how much I love your photos. Sooo happy to see photo #4 with the Pork n Bean succulents. I have some growing in my yard too. They are the prettiest plant when they bloom. Have a great day.
ReplyDeleteThanks Nicole that's a fun name for those plants!
DeleteBeautiful blog
ReplyDeleteThanks so much!
DeletePlease read my post
ReplyDeleteI will come by later.
DeleteOh you can't beat a couple of lazy days. We swim Monday to Friday and I LOVE my weekends off even though I enjoy swimming. Your butterfly lady is wonderful, and that poor little Jay definitely needed some food. The wisteria is such an elegant plant - we used to have one - oops! Take care and have a gret week, Sue xx
ReplyDeleteThanks Sue. What happened to your wisteria? Weekend off are always good!
DeleteWhat a beautiful post! I love your art piece. The photos are so beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThanks Debra! Have a great week!
DeleteLovely butterfly art. The photos are stunning, love the rainbow ones.
ReplyDeleteThanks Christine, have a great day!
DeleteWe don't see many walls here. Or wisteria. I love them both and the lichen!
ReplyDeleteWe have lots of ancient brick and stone walls here, I love them!
DeleteI try to indulge myself every single day since retiring. What a joy! Your butterflies page is like being inside an aviary and feeling as carefree as all the fluttering around you. Your hungry visitors are fun to see. It is Spring and the world is turning colorful and beautiful.
ReplyDeleteIt's a good Idea, and I will keep it up!
DeleteA stunning page Valerie! How lucky you are to have so many wonderful photos of your relatives!
ReplyDeleteI love your photos too, especially the soggy Jay!
Alison xx
Thanks Alison, that jay looked so miserable!
DeleteHi Valerie, brilliant inspiration for the butterfly theme, it was spectacular.
ReplyDeleteWonderful selection of photos, all of them are beautiful, but my favorite was the last one.
Have a nice week
Thanks Maria. Glad you like the photos!
ReplyDeletethis rainbow gives us hope that good days are coming:)
ReplyDeleteIndeed it does, Kathy!
Deletehave a great artistic day:)
DeleteThanks so much!
DeleteI love the rainbow and butterflies are always beautiful...for real or in art! I always enjoy visiting you and reading your posts...they are chock full of beauty!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, have a wonderful day!
DeleteBeautiful page Valerie, the butterflies are gorgeous! Great photos today, cute balcony birds and I love the rainbows.
ReplyDeleteHugs, Tammy
Thanks Tammy. Rainbows always make me happy
DeleteHave a great day?
There's a lovely dreamlike quality to your page Valerie. I absolutely love it. It's great to see the birds on your balcony. Our balcony is enclosed but even if it wasn't feeding birds is banned here since someone saw a rat!!! The real treat was the rainbow - none here, just rain, with an occasional glimpse of something called the Sun!! Hugs, Chrisx
ReplyDeleteThanks Chris. I love the birds on my balcony. We're not allowed to feed them in the garden anymore, but on the balconies it's okay. This is really a strange spring we're all having!
DeleteLovely photographs.
ReplyDeleteGood to see the birds, you get a nice selection.
The rainbow too was lovely.
All the best Jan
Thanks Jan, rainbows are always so special! Have a great week!
DeleteAlways love your creations. You actually captured a double rainbow. Did you know rainbows are always double? Love the birds.
ReplyDeleteHugs and Blessings,
Jim
Yes, the rainbows are always double, and always so beautiful!
DeleteYour butterfly entry is fabulous. I love the vintage feel to it. Thanks for also sharing it with Art Journal Journey using Elle's theme. Those birds are amazing, but that rainbow is fabulous.
ReplyDeleteThanks Elizabeth. Rainbows are always a joy to see!
DeleteLovely post Valerie, love your butterflies.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sue, have a great week!
DeleteAn awesome page Valerie, the butterfly wings on your relative photo look beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI loved seeing the bird photos you shared, the visitors to your balcony seem very happy to be there .
Stay safe.
Yvonne xx
Thanks Yvonne! I love seeing all the birds feeding! Have a great day, stay safe!
DeleteBeautiful and amazing artwork, here, love your post...busy days with Miss Bella, sure is is tiring for this old girl. xxx
ReplyDeleteThanks Annie, pups have more energy than we do!
DeleteLove your butterflies and also your photos. The apricot crumb cake looks delicious. The wisteria and close up of hydrangea are beautiful. You always seem to capture a rainbow, love it! Nice to.have the birds visit your balcony. Love the punctuation line last week. Yes, I am also giving up. Eating chocolate for a month.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot. The cake was delicious, I need to bake more! The bad weather lately has also given us lots of rainbows, 5 in the past 2 weeks alone, and always in the evenings. Glad you are joining me in the month of chocolate!
DeleteBeautiful butterflies and gorgeous rainbow.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much!
DeleteBeautiful butterfly pages Valerie. I love the blue wings on the woman, she looks so elegant. I also really enjoyed the photos of the lichens on the rocks. I have often collected it to make dyes to use with fabrics. It's a fun and interesting thing to do and can result in really nice colours. Thanks for joining me for the Language theme at Art Journal Journey this month Elle xx
ReplyDeleteThanks Elle, Sounds like fun to use the lichens as natural dye. Have a great week!
DeleteA lovely floral and butterfly journal page Valerie and your lady looks so beautiful in her lace dress, shame you don't know more about her.
ReplyDeleteLovely photos - that poor Jay in the last photo - I hope you took pity on him and gave him a good meal!
Hope you have a lovely weekend this weekend coming and can do some more relaxing.
Avril xx
Thanks Avril! I made sure the Jay got good food!
DeleteSo pretty 😍
ReplyDeleteThanks Regine! Have a great day!
DeleteLovely page Valerie, I love that you used a photo of a relative. Your bird photo are fabulous, the poor Jay looks very miserable!
ReplyDeleteJoan
Thanks Joan. That bird really looked sad, we had such heavy rain that day!
DeleteThat wisteria is beautiful, sadly it sets off an allergic reaction to me or I would have it growing at home. So pretty.
ReplyDeleteMuch like the relation to you, what a pretty face she has and what a very elegant dress, I bet that was expensive in its day - it looks like it has lots of lace on it. You have brightened the picture up with all those pretty flowers and the butterfly wings - gorgeous colours.
I had to smile at the poor jay, he looks absolutely wet through. I don't think I have ever seen a bird looking so ruffled as he does - hope he soon dried off - they are beautiful birds.
We have a long weekend coming up - and the promise of sunshine.
Hugs, Neet xx
Thanks Neet. Sorry about the allergies! That jay was such a picture of misery, poor thing!
DeleteI love Emily! Great art piece! Your bird friends are so cute! Love the rainbow! Big Hugs!
ReplyDelete