Our paint-out group gets treated like royalty at the Justis home in SW Olympia. The people are so sweet, the garden flourishing and the birdlife is in top form! Last year I spent half my time sketching the birds and following Bill around as he pointed out the special plants they’d nurtured. This time I worked in my accordian folded bloom book, starting with the riotous honeysuckle vine climbing the garden shed.
![](https://susancornelis.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/honeysuckle.jpg?w=887)
Next I was drawn to the Tree Peony! Yes, peonies on a tree!
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and the jester hats of the flower afterlife were almost upstaged the blooms!
The birdlife continued to entertain us as we went inside to warm up and eat lunch, watching them through the window. Joy shared with us that she put out 9 suet blocks for the birds one day and they were gone the next, so she put out another 9! We were pondering the truckloads of bird seed and suet it would take to feed those flocks year round! Mostly there were evening grosbeaks, so I took pictures and painted a page in my nature journal for them. I’ve never seen them elsewhere on my bird watching outings!
![](https://susancornelis.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/grosbeaks.jpg?w=834)