Flower Bed Pages!

I've been setting aside time for myself, time to reflect and plan has been a huge anxiety reliever for me this month.  I have also found that I have increased my sketching/drawing time 100% over the last 30 days.

When I say I don't know the last time I sat down with a sketchbook, it is the truth.  Unless I have a design or deadline to fill I find I don't draw for fun anymore.  Drawing has begun to feel like a task, instead of something I truly enjoy.  I have this want to make all drawings perfect, instead of remembering a sketch is just that ( a quick reference and rarely perfect).  Remembering, drawing can never be perfect without practice.

It has been wonderful to be able to be outside again!  I forget how much we use the yard, and how wonderful it is to spend the whole day in the sun!  Come the end of the fall we close up the yard in preparations for winter.  However, the black yard is really another room at our house.  By the time spring comes and we start using the backyard, the more at home I want to stay.  It's nice to make home the place we want to be.  I love projects, surprise!

Most weekends, the husband and I have at least one Home Depot trip for some outside materials; most recently, some garden equipment and flowers for the front steps.  We got home and while Husband was clearing the gutters and mowing the lawn(I am happy to pass this chore off from time to time) I was able to weed and maintain the gardens.  Easter weekend I usually take time and clear the flower beds and put in some new bulbs.  Then clear the veggie garden and start the planning of what to grow each year to eat.  I've been fairly organized about the Veggie Garden each year.  I actually created a Victory Garden Layout Page, where I can put notes, and sketches of the progress in the back yard.  However, the side yard flower bed has been more of an "organic" process.... any by "organic" I mean not planned in anyway and very sporadic.

A few weeks ago, my father-in-law gave me some Birds of Paradise tubers, ready to plant.  However, these tubers should be dug up and stored inside for the winter.  So, I needed to find a way to track where I plant them in my "organic" Flower Bed.  So, after I cleared a few spots and put them in the ground, I did some sketching and began to layout my Flower Bed Pages.   It's been wonderful to give myself time on Sunday afternoons to layout the week, add any additional pages, and get my brain set for all the tasks I have for the week.

For this layout I decided to track everything together.  I have flowers planted to bloom in rotation, the goal is to have something in bloom at all times from April through August.  I back tracked a few dates(gave a general monthly timeline as I play catch up) but it is a great placeholder and reminder to track everything in really time next year.  The plan is to draw each flower as it blooms in location, next year maybe I will delineate from season to season, who knows.  As I sat sketching out the layout and filling in the squares my iris flowers (planted new last Easter) were beginning to bloom.  I would look back to the garden and notice the slightest shade of blue forming at the tops of each bud.  This morning... they opened!  Unfortunately it's been raining, but as it's Saturday.... Husband is coming back with some Mulch in a bit, then I plan to add sketches if the iris bloom to my journal.

 Remembering: I like doing all of the things I do. To do these things, like draw, I actually have to take the time to notice.

Here are some pages and observations.  I'll be back with updates as the summer progresses!  Enjoy the day and Happy Journaling!