Garden Talk, Because I’m Such A, uh, Real Gardener And All.

Just because I know nothing, absolutely nothing about actual gardening, that doesn’t mean I don’t “garden”.

This is me, in my backyard near the tomato plants, picking choice bits from last year’s crop of cats:

And here’s me, TODAY, discovering a baby Japanese maple tree growing about six feet from the big old Japanese maple in my front yard (bottle of Saint-Emilion for scale):

And here’s me showing the Japanese maple tree that we found last year when it was a baby growing in Top Cat’s tomato patch in the back yard, which he re-planted and is now a sapling way back in the woods (yeah, that’s the same bottle of Saint-Emilio there, for scale, because it was still TODAY when I took this pic and it’s more scientific when you use a consistent measuring took before you drink it all away):

Oh, I “garden”, alright. I just don’t do all that much of it “in” what you’d call “a garden“. I am bringing this up because later this week, on Wednesday April 27 I am going to appear LIVE on the internet with marvelous  Bren on GardenChat (chat is French for cat, so you see — I knew that, at least) and you all can tune in and type me questions in real time and we will “garden” together. Youse and me. Is technology awesome or what?!

LIVE on the internet means that I will be on camera, in my house, so I will have to clean up my “gardening” space . . .

BEFORE

. . . so I can appear all professional and kind of cool, and I will do this all for you, my Dear Readers, even though it’s not even close to Thanksgiving, when I usually do my housekeeping.

AFTER

Lights, Camera: OK now! Let’s do some “gardening”!

And when I say “gardening”, I mean: Let’s paint!

Monet’s garden in Giverny, by me

Yes, we’re heading back to Claude Monet’s garden in Giverny, this time we’re leaving the flower garden part (above) and we’re heading to the famous lily pond (below):

This, of course, is my photo of Monet’s famous Japanese bridge . . .

. . . and what attracted my attention, in this photo, was something in the background there, on the right hand side . . .

I saw these boats, and the reflections of the bamboo on the water, and the back-lit stuff, and I thought:

Triscuit!

So I take out my “gardening” tools. . .

. . . and I get down to the dirty work:

This is the only time I use a flat brush (below), when I dip it into clear water and swipe over a painted surface to pick up pigment, and leave these streaks of white lines that imitate the ripple of water. Cool, huh?

Now I’m going to use white acrylic paint to paint over those dark bamboo plants in the background. . .

. . . so I can put a light, bright, lime green paint on top of the white acrylic bits:

And DONE:

And that, my wonder Ones, is how we “garden”. AND In honor of my LIVE internet debut later this week — Wednesday, April 27 — I am giving away this Monet’s Boats Triscuit! This contest is open to everyone, whether or not you have Commented recently, even if this is your first visit here to VivianWorld!

Just leave a Comment to this blog post, and pick a number between 1 and 100. Top Cat will do his usual random picking of number and I will announce the winner next Friday, when we meet here again and discuss our GardenChat, and whether or not I still do that weird thing that I do with my mouth when I speak, which always looks 1000% worse on video than it does in real life. I also tend to make faces, which I will really try very hard not to do in front of the camera.

Before I go, I must tell you the latest in  GoAaF news:

Dear Sweet Reader Anne alerted me last Wednesday that the generous and kind Elizabeth Gilbert posted this on her Twitter and Facebook:

GARDENS OF AWE AND FOLLY, by Vivian Swift. I love the work of watercolorist/explorer Vivian Swift (her first book WHEN WANDERERS CEASE TO ROAM is on my personal Top 10 Books of All Time list), so I was delighted to see this new volume of hers, which is a study of public gardens all over the world. As a wanna-be botanical historian, this one is right up my alley. It’s beautiful, thoughtful, whimsical, and smart (and would make a perfect mother’s day gift, by the way).

I got all teary-eyed, and then the GoAaF shot up to No. 1 in Garden Design on Amazon:

Thank you, Maryanne S., for the screen grab. Being #1 in Garden Design, I think, means that 100,000 copies of the GoAaF flew off the shelves thanks to the wondrous Liz Gilbert. On days like this, I think I might just stick around and write another whole ‘mother book.

Have a great weekend, and go forth in awe and folly, my Wonder Ones.

P.S. to Nancy S.: Sorry, but I bumped your tea cups to next week, but trust me: I made it really special for you and all us tea cup fans out there.

P.S. to Lynn from NOLA: I loved your question, and I will dedicate an upcoming blog post to you in answer.