I recently visited two art galleries/shops in the city center, where some of my works are sold. Both of them are suffering from the usual summer construction works. The streets are heavily excavated, there is dust everywhere and the passers-by find it difficult to get through the fences. Summer is always hard for the art shop owners, because most of their potential customers are on vacation, and the endless street reconstructions make it even harder. But these brave ladies, their owners, always find a way to make it somehow. Respect!
Here are their pages:
Nona In The Forest –
https://www.facebook.com/Gorichkata
Zelena Gallery –
https://www.facebook.com/zelenagallery
I rarely go to the city center, so I was curious to walk around. To be honest, it felt a bit hostile this time. I usually like the peace and quiet when most people are on holiday, but now it looked like a dystopian movie décor. The prolonged construction works and the ongoing Covid situation make people nervous, and it shows everywhere in all kind of ways: graffiti, posters, fences in the subway, and practically all people interactions. I can’t help but think how lucky we are to live in this calm green space, so far from it all.
Our neighbor gave us a bottle of pink gin, as a token of gratitude that we took care of his dog Topo for a few days while he was on vacation. We never mentioned that it was our drink of choice lately, so I wondered how he knew. He just said – “well, that’s what everyone drinks these days.” I so rarely follow fashion that if it accidentally turns out so, I am always surprised and amused.
Last summer, our dipladenia bloomed in two colors: pink and white. I thought it was an amazing thing to happen, with just one plant.
Now it is white only, so far.
I managed to grow big celosias from seeds for the first time.
Another plant I grew from seeds for the first time, gazania. (Actually, it self-seeded, but still I am proud.)
I find it hard to take good pictures of gazanias. They only fully open in full sun, and this is hardly the best light for photography, especially amateur. So, the choice is – either better pictures of partially opened blooms, or “burnt” (too contrasting) images of fully blooming ones. My only chance to make nice pictures is when it is sunny, and then a cloud suddenly hides the sun. If I rush fast enough, I could catch the moment while the light is milder and the blooms have not closed yet. (The other option is in a “colorful shade”, as we call it – variegated spotty shade, like the one under a tree.) This is how I took these photos last summer.
This is the first bloom of the pale purple hibiscus, one of the unusual frilly varieties.
A flowering stem of the orange Indian canna (“Cleopatra”) broke, so I tied it to a branch of the neighbouring plant – another hibiscus. It worked, now the canna keeps flowering.
Our floral denim jacket with artistic cat embroidery is travelling to a nice lady in California. I hope it brings a lot of fun and joy!
