April Showers

April weather can be quite a mixture, and this year we have just about everything from rain, hail, wind, snow (on the mountains) and then some glorious sunshine too. After a recent heavy rain the sun came out and I captured the raindrops.

I was reminded of a childhood rhyme:

Itsy Bitsy Spider

The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the water spout

Down came the rain and washed the spider out

Out came the sun and dried up all the rain

Nnow the itsy bitsy spider climbed up the spout again!

The amazing flower below is a Fritillaria:

"Fritillaria meleagris is a species of flowering plant in the family Liliaceae. Its common names include snake's head fritillary, snake's head (the original English name), chess flower, frog-cup, guinea-hen flower, leper lily (because its shape resembled the bell once carried by lepers), Lazarus bell, checkered lily or, in northern Europe, simply fritillary.
The name Fritillarea comes from the latin fritillus meaning dice-box, and (possibly) referring to the chequered pattern on the flowers, though this derivation has been disputed. The name meleagris means ‘spotted like a guinea fowl’." (Wikipedia)

April Showers (Al Jolson lyrics)

Though April showers 

May come your way, 

They bring the flowers 

That bloom in May; 

And if it's raining, 

Have no regrets; 

Because, it isn't raining rain, you know, 

It's raining violets. 

And when you see clouds 

Upon the hill, 

You soon will see crowds 

Of daffodils; 

So keep on looking for the bluebird, 

And listening for his song, 

Whenever April showers come along. 

So judging by the amount of rain we have had here lately, there should be a wonderful array of flowers coming our way in May.

Quite an assortment of birds in the garden this week too

I did not manage to get the goldfinches, crows smashing peanuts, or hummingbird with something caught on its beak with my camera, but I'll leave those to your imagination.

A new watercolour ("Japonica"), inspired by a picture I showed on the blog a couple of weeks ago.

For more information on this and other works follow this link: GillianOlsonArt.blogspot.ca

That's it for this week, happy whimsy Wednesday, thank you for stopping by, until next time ..................

Raindrops on ..............

...well, just about everything lately.

I'm sure you remember the song "My Favorite Things" from "The Sound of Music"; here's the first verse:

"Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things."

There has been a lot of rain recently, rain drops clinging roses above to leaves below,

and cradled like tiny jewels.

The local pond. pictured below about 8 weeks ago, when the water was murky and water levels very low. There is a turtle, high and dry in the picture below (right hand side bottom corner).

After the recent rains the pond had filled up again, and after last weeks rain it is now over flowing in a few places.

The rains and high tides at this time of year also mean that Spanish Creek is full of water and the Coho salmon have returned to spawn.

Here is a link to a post that I did on the creek last year: Spanish Creek, a fish story . Sorry I don't have any new pictures of the creek.

But to get back to the theme raindrops on .... and whiskers ... sorry no kittens so how about rabbits...

Jericho beach park has a large colony of feral rabbits. It is a pity that people released their pet rabbits into the wild, but they now seem to be thriving, and have a faithful following of people who come and watch and/or feed them. 

 

...and squirrels ..........

This one near one of my back yard gargoyles,

and this one chewing on a horse chestnut.

Well that's about it for this week. Although I do have a painting to share. It is a poured painting that I did in a painting course recently. It is a scene from Spain showing the dramatic light.

This is scene from Italy, I don't think it's finished yet, but I'm calling it "Your table is Waiting". It is of a restaurant in a small square in a town in Umbria, Italy.

Thank you for dropping by, I apologize for not spending much time in blogland recently; sadly I haven't had much energy lately, not sure why.

Happy Whimsy Wednesday, until next week ......................