Two Green Thumb's Up!

These are pictures of David and I's plot in Bayou Oaks Community Garden. Since we live in a townhouse and have been wanting to start gardening, we decided to buy a plot in Sarasota to garden on. And it helps improve our community! The garden is owned locally and is in its beginning stages of development. We're so excited to get the whole thing running! We have just tilled up our plot and are waiting to churn up some peat moss in it, to help retain moisture. We're thinking of planting broccoli, cabbage, carrots and celery. Anyways, here are some pictures of the beginning stages of us tilling up the soil, cleaning the garden, clearing the plot. Any advice, please share! Oh and the last picture is our feet after tilling the soil, they were nearly black!

Powerful art- John William Waterhouse

So I've been getting into viewing art lately and one particular favorite of mine has been John William Waterhouse. His paintings bring me back to a time when my sister and I were playing dolls when we were younger. We would create these fantastic senarious, complete with full costumes (supplied by my mother's rag collection) hero's and heroines, horses, villians, and even music! We would spend hours, even days setting up the drama of these plays. Taking them to different destinations in our imaginations, to foreign lands, to beneath the sea. Nothing could draw us away from this fantasy world we created. We reinacted scenes from history, both being lovers of history and literature. His painting evoke a sense this sense of adventure and mystery my sister and I had. I also seem to be drawn to art portraying women. I think, what are they feeling? what emotion is he trying to convey? Are they so alike to me? Beautiful.

Ray's game

A couple of weeks ago Kimley-Horn (David's work) decided to treat its employees and spouses to free tickets to the Tampa Bay Ray's baseball game. Next to world travel and my dad's pancakes- Baseball games are one of my favorite things! Especially the Ray's because I can finally support a local team and they are doing really well this season. Unfortunately, they were playing the Yankees (boo)who, I'm sorry, have the WORST fans- ie- very drunk and very rude. But, turned out to be a really fun time. My friend Emily came with her boyfriend CJ, who also works at KHA. She has also just moved here this year and has become a good friend of mine. Anyways, thought I'd share some pictures of the game.
Extra perk- petting live devil rays AT the Ray's stadium.
Side note- they are extremely slimey and somewhat gross...

What is landscape architecture you say??

So people seem to ask me and David a lot "what exactly do ya do here?" (homage to Office Space) David has created a web album through gmail that shows the type of work landscape architects do. Take a gander if you have time:

http://picasaweb.google.com/larcitect/WhatIsLandscapeArchitecture#

But basically, David works at an engineering firm. He is responsible for the sustainability part- ie- saving trees, conserving the environment, calculating rainfall, and just making it beautiful, (cause lets face it engineers have no idea what that is). Pretty interesting stuff I think!! :)

klimt paintings

My recent obsession

Gustav Klimt paintings have been on my mind (and on my wall). I recently added a feature to my blogger site thinking the pictures as beautiful, knowing little about Gustav, only his most recognizable peice "The Kiss" featuring a man bestowing a rather passionate (and as some critics note-rather forceful) kiss upon his beloved. I choose to think of the kiss as a moment of sheer exstascy. The woman overwhelmed, drops to her knees, to be met by an eager kiss.
If you know any of his history he was a rather dark, distant, and somewhat morbid individual. He has few commentaries on his work, why he paints the way he does, pointing his fans only to his works of art to understand his soul. A lot of his paintings reflect mythology and feature women and men reflecting Byzantine and Greek dress. I myself, have been a fan of mythological paintings and stories, so I feel his pictures capture the beauty and sadness of mythology.
The majority of his paintings are women, which I think some are thoughtful (and be careful when researching his work- some are rather graphic!). Not all are thoughtful. He seems to capture a woman's face in different emotions, gathering light in the right angle, juxtaposing the colors just right. Personally, I like his "Golden Period" (The Kiss is from this period). The use of gold is magnificent, giving it a heavenly appeal.
David and I purchased and hung "The Tree of Life". Both of us being obessed with trees. So I keep thinking of his work, and view it regularly online.
I think paintings can reflect so much beauty and agnst at the same time its really mind bending to think of such opposite features as a whole. Though his person is downright creepy I think Gustav's paintings are mesmerising.