Here we are concentrating mightily on capturing two different views of this serene garden that
The restful green of the vining Virginia
At one end of the garden is a thriving olive tree….a memory placeholder from Kambria’s childhood of time spent happily playing in the olive trees surrounding her parents’ vineyard. I was drawn to the view of this olive tree, the garden water feature, and particularly the glow of the morning light on the corner wall of the garden.
Linda, painting diagonally and across my view, focused on the opposite corner of the garden and the view through the old door and decorative gate to the busy and colorful neighborhood beyond the serenity of this garden.
I could go on….but there is a charming story waiting to be told that connects two gardens. About a year after the Antons moved to San Miguel de Allende and had planted the olive tree, a hummingbird chose their tree for a nesting site. All was going well. The birds hatched and mother hummingbird was busy feeding them. Then a violent storm hit San Miguel.
Hummingbird family K. Anton 
Shelter from the rain K. Anton
Kambria placed a hat above the nest to shield the babies from the torrential rains and for a day or so the mother continued to feed the babies. Then Don noticed that the mother was not feeding the babies and they waited for one day and night for her possible return, but she did not come back. They had the passing thought of letting nature take its course, but Kambria decided to try to save the babies and cut the branch complete with nest and babies and brought it inside. What followed was a crash course in the feeding of baby hummingbirds with most information gathered from the
Kambria became adept at smashing spiders and other insects then mixing the body parts with sugar water and feeding the babies using an eyedropper. She discovered that she had to blow on them to get them to raise their heads up out of the nest for feeding and feeding was a time-consuming task as baby hummingbirds want to be feed about every thirty minutes or so during the day.
What happened to these tiny babies? There is another chapter in “A Tale of Two Gardens.” Next week……
GREENS—Oxide of Chromium is an opaque willow green pigment. Artists have been using it since 1862. Today, the pigment is commonly used in camouflage paint. I use Oxide of Chromium when I want a more chalky green such as in the walls in my painting in this post or when painting nopal cactus.