First thing:
This little postcard-size oil painting arrived from Scotland today.
The artist is a Canadian landscape painter, Roberta Murray.
My snap does not do it justice - it is a gem!
It was one of the donated postcards in the Twitter Art Exhibit 2019, which each year moves to a different location around the world, holds a gallery show followed by online sales, and each year donates the proceeds to a different charity. The postcards are all priced at 30 pounds, or 4 for 100 pounds, and this year I decided to treat myself to one by skimming the requisite $48.01 from the grocery budget.
Bonus: a week of innovative eating! I cleaned out the bottom shelf in the cupboard where many interesting things had been hiding, and also indulged a serious fondness for jello, which I had sort of forgotten about. So it was a big win, all the way around.
And I am giddy with delight at this painting!
Second thing:
If you've been following this blog for a while, you may remember one of the (supposedly) perennial plants I bought a few years ago - a rudbeckia with velvety almost-brown petals.
The plant did not survive the winter, unfortunately. I loved it so much I've tried to replace it each year since but have never seen it. Until today! One of the many nurseries that kindly emails hard-to-resist offers on what seems to be an hourly basis alerted me to a major sale on perennial plants today. For some reason, I decided to scroll through all the plants, pages and pages of them, even though many of them were already marked "Sold Out." And there, at the bottom of the last page, the very last plant in the perennial sale, was a plant that looks exactly like that marvelous brown velvet rudbeckia. It had originally been priced at $20, and the sale price was $6, so...I ordered four. I will plant them in different locations to see what conditions they will enjoy most, and I will try to keep at least one alive as a potted plant through the winter. I am so excited about this!
Funny note:
after placing the order I thought sternly,
"I've got to get a hold of myself.
These self-indulgent weekends could become addictive!"
Then I realized it's Wednesday.
Third thing:
By some kind of miracle, I was able to buy another 30 bales of hay and put them in the roundtop today. It's first cut grass from 2018, and should see me through until first cut 2019 is available.
$245.
Makes the rudbeckia and the painting seem like quite a bargain, doesn't it?
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