Plein Air in the Garden

I love having a garden. 
I almost said I love gardening, but that isn't honest. I don't do any of it, my husband Jackie does it all. It's all his and he is devoted to it and also seems to enjoys it. But that is his true nature about everything and I'm so blessed to have him! I'm nothing like that. I just love looking at the garden -oh yeah -and eating the veggies like all of Chicken Little's lazy friends. No honest-to-goodness southerner can deny that the garden's bounty is secondary to anything- even art -with the  aroma of savory veggies cooking  in summer! 

Several years ago, when I talked him into starting a garden- yes I did- and he denies it but it's true- I had two requests : 

1. Plant apple trees
2. Grow Better Boy Tomatoes along with the Celebrity variety that he loves.

It's all about the nostalgia as much as it is the harvest for me: I remember as a child climbing apple trees and eating green apples and wanted some for my grand kids to climb. And I LOVE Better Boy tomatoes better than anything. Jackie thinks Celebrity is just as good and that they don't have the large stem-like cores in them that "wastes" part of the tomato. I don't mind tomato slices with holes in them; as a matter of fact, that's part of the enjoyment and nostalgia of them! They seem more real somehow and less genetically engineered into perfectness. 

Jackie is doing a lot of critter management with out garden. First, he put in a solar-powered low-voltage fence to keep out deer and raccoons that have been enjoying the two rows of sweet corn he planted this year. He'd said the coon apparently got under the "electric" fence the other night so he put in a "live trap".  He has caught live coons before and released them near the local state park. I sometimes wonder if it's the same coons coming back for the cat food, peanut butter and  jelly sandwiches and the marshmallows he bates the traps with.. 

The trap is under the apple trees in the shade. He wired it to the apple tree trunk to keep the little guy form mobilizing the trap with his little paws and getting away trap and all! 

Yesterday I set up my easel to paint by the garden. Her are photos of the progression. Cane (our dog) was my little painting companion. Much of the time he was begging me to go inside or trying to get me to just stop painting and play:

 

 "No honest to goodness southerner can deny that the garden's bounty is secondary to anything- even art."

"He'd said the coon apparently got under the "electric" fence the other night so he put in a 'live trap'."

"...a live trap in the shade...tied to the apple tree. I sometimes wonder if it's the same coons coming back for the cat food, peanut butter and  jelly sandwiches and the marshmallows..."

"Solar powered fence..." 

[It's only on at night-Jackie tells me after I avoided it all day. They scare me: as a child I once got flogged by a rooster while crossing a fence trying to avoid the electric fence. After the flogging I was so upset I touched the hot wire and got shocked!] 

 " I had two requests when it came to starting a garden area: #one was to plant Better Boy Tomatoes along with the Celebrity variety that he loves."

(Cane is restless- trying to get me to leave the garden.)

"...it's all about the nostalgia as much as it is the harvest for me..."

"...Cane.....trying to get me to just stop painting and play..."

If you look for me today I will be outside... trying to finish this around 5-7 PM!

Thanks for reading. It's time to go paint!

Love,

 Dot