Life Under Construction

I took this photo a few minutes ago of a beautiful yellow Hibiscus blooming outside. We have had such difficulty with our little "farm" on our deck this season, because of what I think is mealy bugs. First they attacked a nice red hibiscus we had to throw out. Next we threw out a tomato plant, followed by a basil plant. Now the little nasties have attacked my prize yellow hibiscus plant. A couple of weeks ago I started hand to hand combat with them by treating it leaf by leaf with an alchohol rub of each leaf and sticking a swabbed q-tip into the new growth areas. I took a risk, not knowing if I would be killing it, but by the next day I could see it had recovered a bit. Each time I would see the white cottony crud, I would hit it with more alcohol, until finally we got this whole blossom. Up until now, they had a portion of the bloom which had been stunted. But, alas, I see more yuk I will have to go and attack. If anyone has a suggestion how to eliminate these little critters I would love to hear about it.

I spent the morning sitting in the gallery in Anna Maria Island this morning. It was very quiet there. When it was time to leave, it was about to storm outside. We decided to find a place to wait it out before coming back across the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. It rained a boat-load while we were having our lunch.

Thought I would show you what has happened to this painting since I took it down off my Etsy site. I first described the technique I used to create my painting surface here on the blog on March 27th, in an article named "Fun With String and Glue." However, I never liked the painting, and I eventually painted over it. I am putting it aside so I can look at it for awhile and decide how I can finish it. Which do you like better, before or after the start-over?

Oh Hey, there's some toes!