They Brought Flowers

Friends from Bay View are here today for a studio visit. They brought a pot of Gerbera Daisies that were so perfect I had to touch them to make sure they were live. Thank you Mary, Nancy and Katie.

There's nothing like a handpicked bouquet from the garden to melt my heart. Katie brought me this beautiful selection from her garden. We sat on the deck and caught up on happenings since last time we met after a brief tour of my garden.

Now we're going into the studio where they get to pick a watercolor painting for the upcoming auction to benefit the Padilla Bay Foundation. See my next post for more about the auction and to find out which one they picked!

Pipefish, snake pricklebacks and eelgrass

A Snake Pipefish peeks around the eelgrass. 

I was drawn to the elegance of the Giant White Plumed Anemone, of course. And the flamboyant purple sea star and the delicate pink flowerlike sea urchin. They are all so dramatically beautiful. However, one of the most memorable moments of my visit to the aquariums inside the Breazeale Interpretive Center at Padilla Bay was when I discovered the elongated head of a seahorse on what looked like a strand of eelgrass. I learned that the pipefish isn't a type of seahorse but rather a sub family of small fish. They do belong to the same family though and the males carry their young much the same as seahorses do.  Can you see mine emerging at the left center of eelgrass, with his snout highlighted against the white anemone?

An enchanting little prickleback did his army crawl with his fins to investigate my mini palette.
I was with the Anacortes Sketchers on a sunny, 68 degree midwinter's day at Padilla Bay.