So naturally when I spend 17 days in the hill country, I have to stay somewhere. I park my rv in a very relaxing park.  I share this park with some very colorful people.  Check it out.

So then there is me.  See how colorful I am.....

It really is a nice rv park.  It is owned by the Dillard family.  Here is a couple of pics of this relaxing park.

All in all, it was a very nice stay and a very nice show.  Thank goodness it is only two times a year.  

So today I decided to put down my gardening tools, put aside my ebay business, stop researching old documents and books, and snap a few shots of Grayson Gardens. I still have lots of color and a very interesting cactus that is about to bloom.  I'm posting the cactus progression separately. Please enjoy and feel free to comment.

In Memory of Johnnie Marie Toller (mama)

My Corinthian Chimes
tuned to the key of C
At least six feet tall and very melodious. Like having a small set of church bells in the back yard.  And you know I love my church bells!

It's a small ghost in Grayson Gardens

Now just how did this picture get in here?

Time for Your Closeup

     The Altered Muse posts only when there is something I am very proud to display or post about.  My posts are about my artwork, garden, or events that I attend.  This day it is about my garden (Grayson Gardens).  I took these pictures last week.  They are a representation of hard work, planning, and pleasure on my part.  I have always appreciated the beauty of nature, but never so much as now that I am cultivating it.  It is a trial and error discovery that I am happy to post about.

Passion Vine.

A single flower from my one bulb I planted last fall.

Little mushroom caps that came up from my planting of spikey aloe vera.

My dill bloomed as it was waiting to be a butterfly host plant.

An elephant ear that grows straight up and has this one bloom in spring.

A very prolific ground cover that spreads like wildfire.

Blooms of an evergreen perennial that stays green all season and then blooms spring/summer.!

Plain ole geraniums

Red yarrow...butterfly attraction

Yellow Yarrow...butterfly attraction

Totally the reason I plant these perennials...fresh cut flowers

The Altered Muse is at it again.  The ideas are swirling in my head and going down on paper faster than a speeding bullet.  I am taking a little different direction with my creativity.  Let's just say it might involve mosses, sages, lavender, old rusty wire, feathers, crystals, seeds, and any other (here's a clue) earthy thing I can get my hands on and that is only the beginning.  This is going to take months but I am up for the challenge.  Should be presentable by early fall. Meanwhile, I am off to the store to purchase some things nature doesn't provide.

  

                VINTAGE GRAVEYARD BEAUTY

The Altered Muse blog has always been about my art, sentiments, and my garden.  Sometimes I have blogged about my travels and antique shows that I do.  I like to share whatever blesses me, impresses me, or the unusual.  That said, I am going to blog an interest from my latest trip to the hill country of Texas.  To some, graveyards evoke spooky, ghostly, eery thoughts.  To me, graveyards and headstones are peaceful memorials to the passed on.  I am fascinated by the older headstones.  Take a look and I hope enjoy. I hope you see the resting beauty.

This picture and the next two were side by side and had concrete formed like trees and logs.  I think they must have had a real relationship with the trees.  Both headstones are log related.  

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There is no telling how long this image has been under this glass.  It is milky with age.