Now that Summer is almost officially over, I thought that I should take the time to show you around my garden a bit before it’s too late and everything fades away.

I planted flowers this Summer for the first time in many years. Since I left high school, I’ve moved from place to place about every 2 years. Which is fine…I don’t mind moving. I always felt that it gave me an opportunity to do a little forced Spring cleaning. However, it also didn’t give me a sense of permanence. At least not where I was going to spend a lot of money on Perenial plants only to leave them behind in a year or two.

So now I’m trying to make the garden space around my home a bit more interesting and vibrant! I think it will be a source of inspiration for my paintings as well.

Here is a small peek at some of my outdoor surroundings:

I planted these cute little plants that have pink speckled leaves. My mom always called them “Pink Polka-Dot Plants” when I was a kid but I know they have another name. In the past, I’ve kept them as houseplants so I was delighted to find them at my local nursery for outdoor planting.

We also have a nice fuschia plant which was already in the garden before I moved to this house last summer.

This is one of my favorite Flowers in the garden! This is a red spikey Cock’s Comb flower.

The Cyclamen are finally popping out of the ground. I always think these look like a swarm of butterflies taking flight!

A young fern plant … and …

This gorgeous beast is a Blood-Leaf plant. I had no idea when I bought it (at a mere 3″) that it would soon be over 3 feet tall with these gigantic black-and-pink leaves. If it gets any bigger, I might worry about a certain giant sliding down it onto my back patio!

Oh yeah… I have many new items in my shop. Many paintings have sold before I could finish this post. I get so busy with baby Oscar that often I’m thrilled when I’m able to actually spend time painting in the studio!

I have 3 new Halloween ACEOs in my shop!