Sunrise in South Dakota...awsome!!!

We were at our place on the lake this past weekend and up early, of course, so my husband could get out there and hide in the pre-dawn...waiting on the ducks to wake up. He didn't shoot any ducks but I got some nice shots of our beautiful sunrise. Love the sunsets, too, but the morning sun comes up over the lake and colors up the sky and the water. These will be my inspiration shots for some pressed flower pictures I hope to create this winter. Enjoy!

Leaves are starting to fall...let's remember summer!

We have had a very cool September here on the Great Northern Plains! Leaves are turning lovely shades of yellow...little bits of red and orange...mostly in the sumac. This year we even got to wear our shorts for a week or two. And got to jump in the lake! The gardens did well. Just wish the tomatoes had a bit longer to ripen. I still have some cosmos and marigolds blooming...most everything else has finished up. Now time to put the garden 'to bed'. I will pull out the Queen Ann's Lace and the Ammi Majus that would self-seed the world if left to their own devices! But the perennials I pretty much leave as they are till spring. The top growth catches the snow (don't even want to think about this stuff too much just yet!) and helps protect the plants from our occasional temps of 30 below (and really don't want to think of this at all!). Here are some pictures of my summer garden on Nine Mile Lake and my garden here in Wallace. Enjoy! Think of winter another day.

SD Public Broadcasting show about my gardens and art!

Just like magic...I'm right there on TV!! What an exciting evening for us! And it turned out pretty well, I think, considering I was a nervous wreck throughout the 4 hours of taping and interview. Rina and Joel were very professional and did an outstanding job, first of all trying to calm me down. Rina's dialogue was perfectly accurate and Joel did a great job of filming and editing the piece. Thanks to both of these wonderful young people! Here's the link:
http://www.sdpb.org/tv/shows.aspx?MediaID=58521&Parmtype=TV&ParmAccessLevel=sdpb-all

SD Public Broadcasting will air my interview on September 2 at 8pm!!

What a wonderful job these young folks did to make me feel comfortable during my interview! I was very impressed with their professionalism. Rina did the interview and Joel did the taping. Four hours and four tapes later I enjoyed their company for lunch.
I think it all went pretty well. I only had to stop them once, in the beginning, so I could catch my breath and get some water to help with extreme dry mouth...stress responses are noooooooo fun! The weather cooperated. No rain and no wind...a miracle in itself these days here on the Great Plains!
Now to wait for the airing of the segment on 'Dakota Life'. It is scheduled for Sept. 2 at 8pm and will run at other times during the entire month. And Rina will send me a copy of the segment on DVD...maybe they will let me post it here!

More news!!! Gonna be on TV!

Well, I was just thrilled to have an article in our own South Dakota Magazine...and now I just found out that South Dakota Public TV wants to do a segment on my gardens and art for their 'Dakota Life' show!! Blew me away!
This is what happened: about 5 years ago my husband, Loren (I call him my biggest 'cheerleader'!), emailed the show to tell them about my art. Well, we never heard anything and soon forgot about it. Then the other day I got an email from them saying they want to do an interview and taping. Thank goodness I just finished my spring cleaning! Now to hope that we don't get any bad storms to tear up my gardens. They will be coming out next Wednesday, Aug. 4th. Already losing sleep over this! But should be lots of fun, too!

Gardens are a-bloomin'!

In spite of the wind (recently had 4 days and nights of 30-40 mph winds!) my gardens are full of blooms. Sorry to say that I did lose my entire first flush of bee balm. But I cut off all the ruined blooms and many crispy leaves and now a new flush has started...so should get some nice ones to press soon.
The blue butterfly delphinium is an beautiful electric blue this year...these petals are essential for pressing and using for skies. And I add some of the white delphinium petals for clouds. I was a bit disappointed that the larkspur I let reseed (instead of using the fresh seed I bought!) has all turned out to be a single type flower. I can use these, but I really prefer the double larkspur for pressing. And I am once more having problems with powdery mildew on these plants. So far the delphinium is not affected...but just a matter of time now, I'm afraid.
I have gardens at two places, as you can see from the photos. My garden at the lake house is still in progress...but don't tell Loren, my husband!

My 'bud', Terica

One of my best 'buds' at the World Wide Pressed Flower Guild is Terica. She is an excellent gardener, presser and artistist! And in her spare time (right!) she keeps up a really good blog:
http://flowersbyter ica.blogspot. com
She has a contest going on right now that, should you decide to enter, might win you 50 of her pressed flowers! And if you have a nagging notion that you might like to get into this wonderful art, Terica has loads of information on pressing and designing with flowers. Check her out!