Tuesday, December 6, 2011

The view from my tub!- Desiree

I have a jacuzzi bathtub that sits in a corner in my bathroom under two huge corner windows. I knew it would be a wonderful area to look out onto as I soaked in my long luxurious bathes at the end of the day so I planned the landscaping carefully! The area on the eastside is the rose garden and a japanese maple which fills those windows with foliage and colorful blooms. On the southern side I planted the lawn and a Pistache tree (pistacia chinensis or chinese pistache) that I dreamed would grow and shade the window and provide a canape of color in the Fall.  Flash forward into reality! Who has time to soak in a bath these days and the water waste is more than I can justify unless it is a special treat or I have to just stop and relax once in awhile. The pistache tree I bought (not during color) turned out to be such a disappointment. Known for their amazing colored leaves in the fall I has often dreamt about looking out onto shades of scarlet, crimson and orange during the fall. After 5 years of waiting and watching the tree never colored up in the fall. It would tease us by starting to look like it is going too and then drops all its leaves just about the time we were starting to get excited. I have written about this tree many times in my journals. This year my husband decided we were going to cut it down and plant another one which we will buy while they are in fall color. I think the tree overheard him because shortly afterwards there was a blast of color, not the color I expected but wonderful shades of gold, and orange and pink. I now found myself sitting on the edge of my bathtub painting in my sketchbooks and for my International postcard exchange. I had our Christmas pictures taken under it and photographed everyone sitting amongst the leaves, standing next to the branches etc. The day after I painted this we had very high powered winds and the tree that finally colored up had dropped almost every leaf onto the lawn below, the yard was a sea of gold! I did document this special occasion, through photos, paintings and journaling,its so exciting I had to share with you!


8 comments:

  1. Beautiful painting and photo with the kids laying on the golden leaves. Your hubby is going to have to threaten it every year from now on to keep it turning these beautiful colors...:))

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  2. this painting is beautiful .If this is your journqal it will be a real treasure for the future. Just amazing.That tub sounds like heaven to me!

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  3. What a beautiful view you had this year!! It was fun to read your musings about the jacuzzi and the view. What fun!

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  4. Fun to read about your tree. Wasn't it in Lord of the Rings that trees were sentient beings? Maybe Tolkien was on to something... It works with my car, too--just threaten to trade it in and it begins to work perfectly. Beautiful images and I'm envious of your tub!

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  5. there is an italian tradition to menace a tree that doesn't yeld fruits, on the 21 of june, that it will be cut down if it doesn't behave. We tried it but our tree must have sensed that our heart wasn't in it...plants have their own time and it often doesn't match our impatience.

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  6. I like your story, Desiree, and the painting and photo illustrate it marvelously! We, too, had some wind and the pistache trees in my neighborhood are mostly bare, now, except for clusters of red berries that the birds are going crazy for.

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  7. Concetta,I would love to learn more about that custom,maybe we did that unknowingly and it happened! Does it have to be a yearly threat? LOL
    Debbie, the berries are wonderfully colored,some trees seem to have tons while others are sparse. One tree close to us lost it's leaves very early but it was so full of berries no one noticed!

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  8. What a beautiful view! Lets hope you tree has leaned its lesson and turns golden every fall. Gold is good.

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