I love tomatoes. Specifically, I love the tomatoes I grow from seed each year and nurture along till they produce beautiful fruit. I have over a dozen varieties growing this summer. Each year I like to sketch the various types — partly as a record, but also just to enjoy really looking at them. This sketch includes (from L to R) Jaune Flammé, Montreal Tasty, Banana Legs, Old German and Green Zebra.

I have lots of lovely day lilies in my garden. They deliver a lot of beauty and colour. Their blooms last only a day, but each stem usually has several buds. A particularly stunning one, which bloomed for the first time this year, is “Chili Spice.” I quickly sketched the last of her 6 blooms (produced on one stem, every few days or so) before saying goodbye for this year. My sketch doesn’t really do her justice, but it was a joy to spend time really looking at this beauty. I will see her again next year.

Another wonderful day lily is one I bought at a former grower in Val-des-Monts many, many years ago. It produces stunning colour for most of August. The name is unknown — I’ll have to come up with a suitable one.

Our massive, old, unusual Manitoba Maple – with so much character, and rot at the fork of it’s two big branches – finally collapsed to the ground last week. One side with a great thump, then the other eased itself down with only a sigh.

We had been monitoring the crack in it’s fork, so we knew the end was nigh.

The first sketch was done a day before the thump, standing close to this massive trunk (that measures over 100 inches in circumference) . The second sketch was done yesterday as I sat and mourned the loss of this distinct feature in our garden.

The arborist will leave a good chunk of trunk, then, with the tree removed (cut for firewood and chipped for mulch) we can plan what to plant in this spot.

Both sketches done with emotion, ink and wash.

The garden is offering forth a variety of goodies this week. I had to do a quick sketch of this nice assortment before we gobbled it up.