Every day I tell you that we work in the garden from 7:30 to 11:30 (Monday through Friday, that is), and lately I’ve been telling you that my job has been clearing out the leaves, and lately, pine needles, and all sorts of other debris from a very large garden bed. The bed is on a hill, later photos will show you, so it has been quite a balancing act. I haven’t taken any photos of our gardening efforts, so today I decided to do just that. This photo shows the one area left that I had to do this morning and you can see the amount of pine needles, etc, that I was dealing with.

Here’s another photo of the area that I finished this morning, Thursday, Sept. 19.

Here’s one of the banks I cleared, looking down from the top.

I cleared this area yesterday and had a nasty run-in with some plant that has tiny, hair-like thorns that embedded themselves everyplace – my arms, my hands, in my gloves, in my sweatshirt, in my pants. They are so tiny they must be removed with tweezers. They sting and cause a chill. I’m still finding them today. This area was knee-deep in pine needles and cones – you couldn’t even see the cacti till I cleared it out.

Here’s the opposite end of the large garden bed.

Another view – this one of the middle section looking up from the driveway. Looks clean now, but it wasn’t like that last week!

I reached an adequate finish on that large garden bed and was assigned another task – and now I’ve forgotten the correct term – but I was instructed to dig ditches between rows of potato plants and use the extra soil from digging to build up mounds around the plants themselves. This task also involved moving the irrigation hose when necessary and pulling out any and all weeds. Too bad I don’t have a ‘before’ photos so you could see the change. What a job this was! Made me long for pine needles! Here I am hard at work.

And lest you think I was the only one working hard, I took a minute to uncreak my back and stand upright for awhile and wandered over to take photos of my fellow gardeners. Here is Cathy, pruning an orange tree.

And here are S and T using the chipper. Since I’ve been here (almost 2 weeks) numerous car trips have hauled maybe 50 huge bags (see the orange bags in the foreground) of garden clippings, rakings, sweepings, and choppings off to the garden waste dump (wherever that is) and there are still many days worth of clippings and choppings to be fed into the chipper and used as mulch or composted. This is truly a huge garden and the tasks are endless.

While I was putting my iPad camera away, I noticed several things on and near the garden table that suggested possible ART! So I took a few still life photos. Let me know what you think.

Or perhaps this angle?

Orange and Green on Black Pattern.

Green with Black Pattern. Check out the composition. How about the choice of point of view?

How about this choice of point of view? This composition? By the way, I didn’t move anything for any of these photos – the items stayed where I found them – only I and my camera moved. These shots took maybe 10 minutes all together – including people and still life. They were all very impromptu.

Indulge me: three more. Let me know if you like one better than the others. Same subject each time, but changing compositions and changing points of view.

Another version of “Green and Orange Shapes with Circle and Triangles plus Blue Accent.” And you thought this was “Squash and Pumpkins on Round Stone with Flagstones and Gravel and a Spill of Blue Plant Food.” It’s all a matter of how you look at it!

And here is a third (I actually took 8 versions of this, and could probably have done quite a few more. I found it to be a very rich subject.). Which of the three do you think works best? Why? Is it ART?

Cathy working at Studio #1, Thursday afternoon, Sept. 19.

Debi working at Studio #1.

The view from our bench at Studio #1.

Cathy’s Caran d’Ache sketch from Studio #1.

Debi’s pencil sketch from Studio #1.

Cathy working at Studio #2.

Debi working at Studio #2.

Cathy’s work, done in charcoal, from Studio #2.

Debi’s Caran d’Ache sketch done at Studio #2.

Debi working at Studio #3.

Cathy working at Studio #3.

Cathy’s Caran d’Ache sketch from Studio #3.

Debi’s first collage from Studio #3.

Debi’s second collage from Studio #3.

A perfect ending to a fabulous day! Our friends, T and S, invited us to apertif – which turned into supper – which turned into a late night gab fest. Fantastic food! Interesting and generous friends – who could ask for more…oh, yes, did I mention the excellent wine they served us?!?!

I was hoping, with this blog, to inspire people to create art. The feedback (appropriate word) is that I am inspiring people to eat and drink wine. Cathy says I should put the blog on a diet. Nah, diets can wait till we get back to the States. Hmmm….maybe after Christmas…New Year’s Resolution, perhaps?