Ambassador Cart or My Lesson in Flower Painting

. . . . . . . . It all started with a great idea

by Lisa Duckworth and Chris Roddy. . . . . . . 

Kingwood should have a Saturday Ambassador to direct guests so they don't miss out on the full experience of a visit to Kingwood Center.  From that idea came the next great idea that a cart should be provided for the volunteer Ambassador.  Cart was created and painted an interesting shade of green.

Lisa has her third idea.  The cart should be painted with flowers and Kingwood Center in an arch. 

Of course from there is where silly me gets involved in the following manner:

I suggest that Ellen paints the cart. 

Ellen tells Lisa she doesn't have time.

During Herb Garden I show the cart to Ellen.

I talk up how much fun this would be to paint.

I tell her I can put it in the back up the pickup and take it to her house.

I tell her we can do this together!

And so it begins . . . . . . . . . . . .

The cart was too heavy to put into the back of the pickup truck.  I suggested we take out the umbrella.  I really wish I had a picture of the umbrella to show what a silly suggestion that was.  A new plan was made to paint the cart at Kingwood Center.

Ellen and I started early on Thursday morning.  I was scheduled to plant annuals, but I didn't end up planting a single annual all day.  Ellen knowing what drives me showed up with a thermos of coffee!

And then we got to work!

Ellen drew out sketches of the flowers.  Our plan was for cone flowers, tulips, roses, peonies, snapdragons and iris.

I tried my had at painting leaves.  I got better on the second side.  Ellen went over them with other colors to flush them out and make them look more leafy.  I created this yellow Dr. Suesse like flower that is supposed to be a snap dragon.  If you look closely enough you can see a purple one on the side as well.  Ellen did a marvelous job with the stencilling of WELCOME.

Here is where the project got fun for me!  I painted these pink flowers which I called peony.  But then I painted these white flowers.  So the white flowers became peony and the pink flowers became poppies!  Ellen did an outline for the white flowers, but I was getting an understanding of how to paint things so I took a few liberties outside the lines.  GO ME!

We found that adding white paint to everything really made the flowers look nice.  So Ellen added white to the tulips and I added white to the pho snap dragons, which turned out to look more like marigolds on a weird stalk.  He He.  Ellen painted these awesome bees.  I need a close up for those.

The cart is done, but I was exhausted and Ellen finished it up.  I will post a final picture soon!

The Day I SAVED a Duck and the day I almost didn't

Volunteering at Kingwood getting ready for the Spring Flower Festival, Lisa Duckworth and I were back in the service building area putting sand in baggies. (to hold papers on the tables the next day).  A guy brought in two white peeking ducks in a tub to donating to Kingwood.  Later that afternoon, I was watching them in the pond thinking they didn't look so well.  They were thrashing and splashing in the water.  But I wasn't sure and thought it was a possibility they were getting use to a new pond.  The next day I found out that the poor ducks didn't know how to get out of the pond and were found that morning exhausted, trying to keep afloat.  There is a secrete duck exit, but I guess they failed to figure it out.  I felt terrible that I didn't say something the day before.

So flash forward to the day I saw this peeking duck and I knew to act.  He wasn't thrashing the in the same way as last time, but the strange way its back tail feathers were up was my clue.  He seemed to just go around the side of the pond keeping its webbed feet against the slight concrete ledge.  Well, I went to the greenhouse and asked for one of the security guards to check on him.  I don't have a picture of the security guard pulling him out with a net, or the blood on his tiny webbed feet.  But the rescue mission was a success.  And I am happy to report that since his recovery he has been living happily on the pond with a wooden walking plank to safely get him in and out of the pond!   

THIRD ANNUAL Kingwood 5K

Tee Shirts from 1st & 2nd 5K

This year's Third Annual 5K is scheduled for June 9th.  Well, I have paid fees for two tee shirts and still have not walked or ran in the Kingwood 5K.  2012 is the year!  My good friend Kathy M and I will be at least starting out together.   She has already signed up, so I'd better get my registration form in.  I'm not even sure how far 5K is.  I missed the Capitol 10,000 (I know how far 10K is) (6.2 miles) this year by one week so I'm really looking forward to the Kingwood Race.  I know I said this year I would dress up, but I think I will save that endevor for 2013!  I do have four more weeks to come up with appropriate attire, maybe I can get creative by then.  The 2011 tee shirt was moderned after a tatoo that someone has on his back.  Note:  I don't plan on getting that creative!

Richland Area Beekeepers Field Day

My guy and I made it out to the Richland Area Beekeepers Field Day at Kingwood today.  Here is a picture of some unsuspecting bees not realizing that they are soon to be relocated.  What fun!  I posted a few video clips that we made on youtube below.

Video clip:  I cannot belive they did that!

Video clip:  Dave Duncan instructional demo.

This year the area was roped off and people were not sticking their fingers in the swarms, but I got to say howdy to Sonny Barker, my favorite beekeeper and won a raffel basket of bee goodies!  My guy refused to let me try for the bee box raffel.  Maybe next year!

A few more pics from the activities I posted on Kingwood Center facebook and one more video I didn't.

Flower Arranging in Kingwood Hall

Today was my first attempt for Flower Arranging in Kingwood Hall.  We had an instructional lesson and everyone picked an area to arrange.  I picked the woman's restroom so I wouldn't feel too much pressure.  Another new flower arranger Darla and I worked together with some overseeing by my good friend Elin D.  We used peony and tried to match the dark wood of the table along with the redishness of the picture fames.  It was daunting and I'm not sure I am cut out for this, but I will stick with it for now and give it my best effort.  I would say not bad for the first time.

Here are two lilac arrangments I found to be stunning.

Red Sholdered Hawk

Today was a rain day for the Rose Garden volunteers.  It was still drizzling as I made a visit to work on a spreadsheet up at the house.  On my walk from the parking lot I sighted this Red Shouldered Hawk hanging out on a lamp post.  I would have stood there all day, but I ran out of camera battery.  Took about 350 pictures.  It was an exciting time.  I will only share two that I really loved.

This one is the one I have chose to put on Facebook. 

The hawk was a little wet and preening its feathers. 

I was so pleased to get this picture.

If I had used this one as a Caption This....

.....My caption would be.....

Simon Says stand on one foot!

Spread Your Wings..

Simon didn't say Spread Your Wings!

Spring Flower Festival

This years Spring Flower Festival was a lot of fun. I wish I would have taken more pictures. For sure one of Bill Collins in his animal bandana! I started off in the Trimble Road parking lot with Jane J.  We had a great time welcoming people to Kingwood and chatting.    I did a two hour shift there and then got a call from Kathy M to go over and meet her at the Linden Road gate.  She was hanging out there by herself so I hung out with her for a while maning the gate.  When her time was up there, Kathy grabbed a snack from Cafe on Main and we sat down in front of the greenhouse for a spell.  So many familiar faces.  It may have taken a few years, but I have really met quite a few people around Kingwood.  Kathy had to run off to another volunteer obligation, so I went on over to where Lisa Duckworth's daughter Becca was showing her goats.  This is my new friend Toby and he made his premere at the festival this year.  We had met the week before and became fast friends.  The kids loved him as well.  After that, I moved to the plant sales area where I finished up my day of volunteering helping out Becky and Juli.  I was worn out with all the hellos and it was a long day, but I enjoyed it so much more that last year.  I do hope Kingwood will continue it next year in some form or another.

Toad Eggs

Well, once again I started on my quest this year to get some awesome pictures of the toad eggs in the lily pond.  I have been trying to do a series in which they transform from eggs into toads.  This has turned into much more of a difficult quest than I could have imagined.  I thought I had a good start this year.  Not great pictures but something to work with as a start.  Unfortunately, the eggs were cleaned out of the lily pond (probably in anticipation of the Spring Flower Festival).  So I will post what I have and maybe someday in future years I will have attained enough stages to put everything together.