Chives

I miss our chive plants that have gone dormant for the winter and have been buried in snow for the past week.  The name of the species derives from the Greek σχοίνος, skhoínos (sedge) and πράσον, práson (leek). Its  English name, chives, derives from the French word cive, from cepa, the Latin word for onion. Chives are a commonly used herb and can be found in grocery stores or grown in home gardens. In culinary use, the scapes and the unopened, immature flower buds are diced and used as an ingredient for seasoning dishes. Chives have insect-repelling properties that can be used in gardens to control pests. The flowers area pale purple and star-shaped with six petals 1/2″ – 3/4″ wide, and produced in a dense inflorescence  of 10 – 30 together. Before opening, the inflorescence is surrounded by a papery bract. Holbein watercolors on 140# Fluid 100 cold press watercolor paper.

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Stage Harbor Light

Built in 1880, Stage Harbor Lighthouse is Cape Cod’s youngest lighthouses. It was built at the entrance to Stage Harbor to help the Chatham Light since Chatham is one of the foggiest points on the East Coast. An automated light on a separate tower was built in 1933 and the Stage Harbor Lighthouse was decommissioned. The light at the top of the tower, the glass enclosure and the roof over it (called the lantern room) was removed and the keeper’s house and remaining tower was sold. The lighthouse is best viewed from Harding’s Beach. Holbein and Daniel Smith watercolors on Fabriano 300# cold press watercolor pater. 10 1/2″ x 13 1/2″.

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Foxglove

The Foxglove Flower is native to western and southwestern Europe, western and central Asia and northwestern Africa. The scientific name means “finger-like” and refers to the ease with which a flower of Digitalis purpurea can be fitted over a human fingertip. The flowers are produced on a tall spike, are tubular, and vary in colour with species, from purple to pink, white, and yellow.  This biennial plant is often grown as an ornamental plant due to its vivid flowers which range in colour from various purple tints through various shades of light gray, and to purely white. The flowers can also possess various marks and spottings. Holbein watercolors on Fluid 100, 140# cold press watercolor paper.

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Poppies

California Dreaming – 2016-12-27-poppiesThe California Poppy is a species of flowering ornamental plant that is native  to the United States and Mexico. It is used medicinally and in cooking, and it became the official state flower of California in 1903. It is a perennial growing to 5–60 inches  tall with alternately branching glaucous blue-green foliage. The leaves are alternately divided into round, lobed segments. The flowers are solitary on long stems, silky-textured, with four petals, each petal 2 to 6 cm ) long and broad; flower color ranges through yellow, orange and red, with flowering from February to September in the northern hemisphere (spring, summer, autumn). Holbein watercolors on Fluid 100, 140# cold press watercolor paper.