waterfalls and hollow trees

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I couldn’t leave out the statues and interesting features that the garden provided me with. This is the cooling waterfall that the garden provided.This was in the tropics.

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This lovely girl greeted everyone at the door.

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A babbling brook in the foyer as I walked into the building.

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I love the face on this tree. He was hollow so that kids could learn about the inside of a tree.

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Just a pretty fountain surrounded by lovely flowers.

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A garden statuary that resembles an egg with leaves.

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A bamboo water feature in the garden.

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The koi pond.

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A bamboo staircase.

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As I stepped out, this group was outside.

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This lady was hiding upon the flowers. I love the lime green!! That’s it for the tour, hope your day pretty too.

is pretty

A

Always Something to take a picture of

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My husband and I have been on vacation this week. If you are friends with me on facebook you know this very well because I post pictures often of things I see or places we go. I like everyone to share in my fun. We were making a trip to New York City and this was our first stop because we didn’t want to drive straight through. This is Grove City PA…a nice little city that had a great outlet mall. For dinner this night we went to Elephant and Castle Inn, it had British food that was very good! I snapped a picture of this informative arm, thought that was pretty clever.

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Since it was sunday the mall had closed at 6 p.m. but we still walked around since we had been sitting a lot that day while driving. Also our dinner needed to be walked off. There was this CUTE building and from it was coming the wonderful scent of baking donuts! We will be staying at the same place on the way home and you can bet I will be paying this place a visit!

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I love little buildings! It is stone with a tin roof and look at those daylilies growing. It was adorable.

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The lush hostas and ornamental grass are just lovely!

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Look on the back….a waterwheel. I am looking forward to tasting these donuts.

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This pot of flowers was gorgeous. The different types of flowers were perfect and the colors just made me go…Ahhhh!

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I am going to use the colors in a painting, it is just beautiful.

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The green, red and orange of these daylilies was perfect against this white fence.

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In the middle of this mall is a wetlands. I was very impressed by that.

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That’s a willow tree back there and then I wonder if in the spring this area blooms with color. I don’t know but can just imagine.

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How handy this is…..a free, freestanding charger for your electronic devices. I just thought that was very generous. It just goes to show there is anything out there to take a picture of, even a mundane plug in. Keep checking back for the next installment of “The Hawkins go to New York”.

Left to your own interpretation

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I was helping my sister Linda with her baked goods business at the Auburn Indiana Farmers Market today. It is on the square in front of the courthouse. They have added some sculptural art. I have heard many people say that they don’t like the modern sculptural art and I agree that it is hard to interpret.  I see it that there has to be some kind of physics involved when designing it because it takes much vision and thinking to keep this from falling apart, how is it being held to the ground with only three pieces touching?  This one also at the top where the red dot is, will move with the wind. I think it looks like a person walking and as the piece moves at the top they are observing the world around them.

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 A beautiful arrangement of flowers planted in big pots.

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Such intricate carving around the clock.

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Pretty purple flowers, not sure if they are a form of phlox.

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I don’t know her name but she is one of the vendors. Her father in law has a greenhouse in Michigan and she has been selling the plants every week. They look so healthy and she said she would bring her card next week so I can let you know.

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A little walk to the Cupbearer Cafe, and I come across this interesting light fixture.

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I thought this wall sign was very neat.

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Signs pointing the way. We understand as the weather gets warmer the vendors become more abundant.

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This family was using the sculpture as a photo opportunity.

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Many dogs were taking their walks. My sister is going to make dog treats for them next time.

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Love the look of determination in her face. She picked up some pretty plants.

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These colors are really, really, nice!

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This gentleman stopped by to talk about baked goods.

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Two more dogs are taking their owners for a walk.

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I believe he has spotted something!!

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This little guy and his brother were so busy.

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Let’s go Mom!!

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I kept missing his flip flops.

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He is deciding on his next move.

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Auburn Indiana, the classic car capitol of the Midwest.

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Such a beautiful display of tomatoes from Georgia.

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This little squirrel was busy hiding his nuts.

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Fabulous hanging baskets.

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Serenity

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This is the largest canvas that I have worked on and I am thoroughly enjoying it. This painting makes my heart sing. I just love color so much. It will be a challenge to get it all scanned in and put together but I will be offering prints of it in my Etsy store.

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Sophie is looking out on my inspiration, through a dirty window. I am going to get out there today and clean it. The last rain a few days ago really did the dirty number on it. Sophie really doesn’t seem to mind though.

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A sneak peek of my next painting. I guarantee it will have much more color on it. That tabletop easel was a great investment of $10.00. It was half off one day at Michaels Crafts and works perfect for the smaller canvases. My 13 year old niece was with me that day. She is an aspiring artist and thought that was a pretty neat buy and she picked one up also. She bought some canvas and some wonderfully bright paints. I am looking forward to seeing what she made with them. The 3 neighbor kids stopped by yesterday to bring over garden goods. Nice red potatoes this time. I love it when they stop because they look for all the cats, see what is in process in my studio, we talk about what has been going on in their lives. One approved of this piece….that is really artistic, you are using all kinds of things like the newspaper and words, thats really good. You cannot get any better approval than that!

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I have a tendency to start using using ALL the colors I like, but I decided to use a little co-ordination on this painting. I think it was working for me. Glad I pulled it out. Hey, thanks for stopping by!

 

around the little town

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I took a 40 minute walk to and from the dentist this morning with my camera to catch a few pictures of the little town I live in. This airplane is at the entrance to the community park. I know nothing about it but think it is pretty neat.

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Across from the airplane is the fire-station. The flags were flying proudly today with a gusty wind.

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The colors in this flower box are beautiful! The downtown area is tiny with a bank, pizza place, an insurance company, a hair salon and a flower shop.

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Pretty landscaping one of the side streets.

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A white puffy peony.

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I thought this fairy tree mushroom house was funny. See the elf head?

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This house is neat. I had never noticed the stone fireplace, just the stone porch. It has a foundation made from stone also.

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Then back a my house I am showing the teal and aqua arraignment that I put together. I am changing some of my colors in my house to that scheme. That little round vase I just picked up at a recent gift shop. Put my little bleeding heart stem in it, too cute. I haven’t put anything in my teal frame yet, I like the paper that came with it. Hope you went on a nice walk and as always….Thanks for stopping!

to market-to market

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It was such a beautiful day I decided to take in The Barr Street Market in Fort Wayne. It was attended well and quite a few booths. Of course I am drawn to the flowers and these were just gorgeous! I should have taken a picture of the cute little guy I bought HUGE marigolds from, but that’s an after thought.

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I liked this colorful sign. I thought about buying some potted herbs from them but decided I should plant what I have first. Maybe next time.

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These ladies had great looking homemade bread and fried pies.

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I love homemade soap. I did buy 6 different bars. They made my car smell so good! The colors are pretty.

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The creams, browns and blacks. So nice! By the way…This is Old Fort Soap Company.

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There were some musicians, which was nice.

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Lush potted plants.

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Kettle Corn, being made right there. See the man stirring the pot? I asked if I could take his picture so he was feigning boredom.

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Many dogs came to the market. Golden retriever puppies are so sweet!

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My Huge Marigold purchase.

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The younger girl had happened to be in my ceramics class in the fall semester 2014. It was nice to see her and the person who owned the booth was her mentor.

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Here is her lovely pottery. This is Parrot Pottery. She uses doilies for the texture.

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A large dog waiting patiently for their owner to make a decision.

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Another one getting a scratch on the head.

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He sat down, deciding that it was going to take awhile.

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I asked if I could take her picture even though I didn’t need any vegetables at the moment. I told her the green was a perfect match for her wares. Was it planned?

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I loved the purple flowers, they were quite stunning.

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One more snap of a pooch walking off happily, tail up and a jaunty step. He must have had as much fun as I did. I will go back another time. There should be more fruits and vegetables. Thanks for stopping!