In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.

The above quote is attributed to Margaret Atwood, a Canadian poet and novelist.  I love the quote. I'm ready for Spring and digging in the dirt. So enough of winter!  After reading my friend Kriti's latest blog about color, I decided to share some color of my own and cheer myself up. I hope it cheers you up too.  There's a link at the bottom of my post to her blog.  Be sure and read it.


We are in our grey, rainy season with periodic bouts of snow.  I'm dreaming of my garden and the brightly colored flowers that grow during Spring and Summer.  Since we moved into our home we've put 5 years of labor into our yard and what was sand, bare soil and weeds have become lush gardens with lots of perennials and native plants. Our hard work has paid off! 

Peony - "A Hint of Pink" digital art

Digital art done with Photo Shop Elements and Topaz Labs Filters

Peonies are my favorite flower. They were my Mom's favorite so I'm guessing that has a lot to do with my love of them. She had a wonderful green thumb and her peonies were magnificent!  I have 8 peony bushes in shades of pale pink to deep rose planted in what I call my "peony garden".  The colors are delicate to bright and vibrant. They start blooming in May and last until mid to late September. Nice! Future blogs will get into some of the specifics of digital art so stay tuned.

Rose of Sharon after the rain

This is a "straight out of the camera shot" (SOOC) 

I love the colors on my Rose of Sharon bush. The white petals are a pure, very bright white, and the center is a deep crimson red.  The crimson red really "pops" against the white petals.  Green and red are complimentary colors so the leaves also set off the red center of the flowers.  When I'm on a photo shoot I look for complimentary colors in the scene and include such elements in my photos.  The play of colors off each other can turn a snap shot into a stunning photo. Straight out of the Camera, SOOC, means the photo has not been edited in any way.  

Gerber Daisy digital art using pencil sketch and filters

Digital art done with Photo Shop Elements and Topaz Labs Filters

I have super size container gardens on my decks.  I fill them with Gerber Daisies and other annual flowers.  Gerber Daisies come in amazing colors like shocking pink, bright orange, goldenrod yellow and pale cream.  I like to plant bright pink and orange together for the shock value of the colors playing off each other.  The above photo manipulation was fun to create.  I took a photo of a pink Gerber Daisy covered with rain drops and manipulated it into a pencil sketch. After playing with the color and adding a slight cream glow to the bottom half of the flower I was satisfied with my creation.  

Photo manipulation is great fun, the problem is knowing when to stop tweaking but that comes with trial and error.  I save my work as I go, bring up a saved copy, tweak some more, save again.  I can always go back to either the original photo or any one of my saved edits in case I'm not happy with a particular version of the photo.  

This little guy is a Willow Goldfinch

Another "straight out of the camera" (SOOC) photo

The Willow Goldfinch is the Washington State Bird. Their golden colors are beautiful. They are abundant all year but especially in the Spring and Summer.  We love sitting on our deck watching them.  We attract them by putting suet and seeds in our bird feeders and keeping the birdbaths filled with clean water.  They're curious, friendly and love to pose.  


The sun was out today so there's hope that Spring is coming soon.  Here in the rainy Pacific Northwest we take all the sunny days we can get.  

My inspiration for this post came from my friend Kriti's blog about "colors that I am made of".   


Please leave your comments below, then take a look at Kriti's blog.  I know you'll be inspired too.