Simple Gifts

I listened to the most amazing song this morning. Brenda Dayne gifted it to me.
It reminded me of earlier this week when I took a walk around the yard with my camera.

Have a wonderful weekend!

JMB

Let it rain...

Not from today, but some time last week. There was a lot of rain. A good friend once told me that "sometimes you have to behave your way out of a funk." This day I remembered. I grabbed my camera and got to work. The rain was not so oppressive once you walked out the door. Thank Goodness!

JMB

P.S.

The lettuce is a speckled romaine variety from Territorial seeds. When you plant edibles, they might as well be beautiful. These little lettuces are and are quite good to eat.

Day TWENTY-TWO: Spring is HERE??!

Day TWO-dy-two:  It was so nice here today.  The sun was shining and it was over 50F!!  That is a recipe for love in my book.  Here we are barely in to February and I am so in love!  This happens almost every year, we will have a warm week in February and then all the gardener in you will get a excited and breathing heavy...like fresh peas are just around the bend, the trees will all flower, then we will get the mother of all Frosts and then people all over town will be weepy about their peach blossoms.  SO sad, but for today LOVE.   
The first thing that I spotted were these 2 crocuses...croci??  I was so surprised and delighted that the funkiness of the picture hardly bothers me at all...really.
Then to prove to you all that there is sun in Oregon, here are our boots... in the glorious sun.  We had them on and we were working to clear away some of the scary out there in the yard and garden.  I did find some wonderfully slimy chard from the last frosty night... I guess this year I will just have to plant new, instead of having the chard plants that just keep growing and growing despite my neglect and the bounty of snails and slugs that I grow every year.
Finally, my eldest son wanted to take a picture of this forlorn garden glove that has been laying frozen on the porch.... I took a closer look and it looks like it is giving the OK signal.  Don't you think?

I think that it is actually saying "OK, Spring, bring it ON!"

Peace,

JMB

It keeps going...and going...

This fall has been so balmy. The garden keeps going and going. It is getting kind of gross...but sort of pretty in a crazy-going-to-take-over-the-world sort of way. My cosmos finally bloomed in October. I have plants that are 8 ft tall....what is up with that?? I think that I might have preferred their delicate blossoms in the summer time, but crazy gardeners can't be too choosy.

Here is another angle...all of our hoses still akimbo and the pot I drag around for weeds all out and proud... I do love this tree. I love watching it leaf out in the spring. I love the sunlight shining through the leaves and its shade in the morning during the summer. Now, we are enjoying its golden yellow color. I am sure that I will be enjoying raking up all those leaves when I return from my trip next week....

Trip??

Yes, I am taking another trip...this fall has been busy-busy...lots of leisure for mommy, for sure. I am leaving on Wednesday for Jersey City and the Big Apple!!! I am visiting my new niece and her adoring parents (I will take pictures and ask if I can post them...she is so cute!) I am going to try and go into the city Thursday and Friday ALONE! (The last time I was there, I was kind of silly and thought that I was going to get mugged the whole time...I think that I will be ok.) I am hoping to see some fun things like this and this, maybe this? We will see... If you have any suggestions???

I enjoyed everyone's comments on my previous post. VOTE. I am glad when Americans can be civil, informed, and involved in their country. VOTE. It is so important. VOTE. (and love your neighbor!)

JMB

Catch up time...

My guild meeting in September hosted a FANTASTIC quilter...Janet Fogg. I have seen her work in magazines and thought "oh, that is beautiful" but then seeing her pieces up close is enough to make you pass right out. I am not sure if she can make a small quilt each of the portions of quilts that you can see are draped over a table with a 6 foot diameter, some of them dragged on the floor all around.
She uses a wide color range, the technical difficulty of the piecing, not to mention the PHENOMENAL quilting...it was all so awe-inspiring.
While she spoke and shared her pieces I was drawn in by her desire to inspire people to create their own masterpieces. She said that she has not yet made her best quilt and that while she has a plan when she starts the quilt, where she ends up is where it needs to be, but that is not necessarily where she thought she would end.
What I found most resonated with me as a quilter, I think that it is something that we all need to accept when designing our own quilts, she said, "Develop a belief in yourself that each decision will be a good one, not the perfect one, but a good one." She went on to say that, each choice you make along the way will open up the next choice. I have always believed this, but maybe not so succinctly. What a nice affirmation to my inability to follow a pattern...right?
I really enjoyed hearing her speak, very down to earth. She just started doing some workshops in her studio in Portland...I don't know when, but I think that I will be attending one in the futureI also made my first e-fabric shopping trip this September. I really like to touch the fabric as I shop so I have been holding off on web purchases....WELL, I think that getting a package that is so cute and filled with BEAUTIFUL things compensates me for the tactile shopping experience. I didn't read the return address when I first got the mail, so I thought that one of my swap partners had sent me a doll quilt with lead weights...but it was all of my beauties...hooray!
I am such a sucker for Halloween prints and this grouping also had the always needed dots!
I haven't been able to find anyone in town that stocks these mermaids (Heather Ross)I had to get them, they had orange, aqua, and the mustard yellow?? To be honest, I worked really hard to not buy more fabric. It is an illness, but I started to dream about the chasing mermaids (I think that they are kind of spooky) and after that I had to buy them. I am so glad that I did. I want to give a shout out to Fabricworm, whose etsy shop I perused...she got me with the packs of 1/2 yards, priced to sell...toot, toot (they also shipped really fast!)
Farewell to the well-tended garden...Late September and early October bring all kinds of crazy, yet I tend to forget (or forget to tend) EVERY YEAR! I am happy to report that, as of this week, our Chickadees have returned as well as some of our Oregon Juncos. I spied the Chickadees flitting from the destroyed sunflower heads (our squirrels, Nutty and Wacky have been working hard on their acrobatics). The Juncos surprised me this morning and are out hopping around in all the lush garden greenness. By surprised, I mean that I was surprised how happy I was to see them again. I guess it is almost time to find places for the feeders, now that the death-trap arbor has been torn down...
Look for birds and make something!
JMB

How does your garden grow?

I think enough with the words today. I like these just as they are. I will describe them later, perhaps tomorrow...

good night friends,

JMB

Projects not related to internet swaps...

I realized on Friday that I had a deadline for another show and so I got to cutting my fabric, and cutting, and cutting....and then all I wanted to do was cut more of it and more. There was crafting euphoria happening in my studio last night, what a great ride!
This is the latest, a wonky log cabin. I am not sure if you can guess the theme...maybe making it larger and then looking at the fabrics....OK, I just tell you, it is the four seasons! It is pretty obvious, but I like it. I LOVE sewing up my stash. I had this epiphany the other day, I think after listening to CRAFTCAST. Here it is folks... THERE WILL ALWAYS BE MORE FABRIC!!! Again, pretty obvious, but to a fabric hoarding, yardage miser...Pretty enlightening! In the CRAFTCAST episode, the decoupage artist Durwin Rice, was talking about how he had to just get rid of some of the TONS of his stuff in order to free himself up to do new art. Oh yea...get me on that train, cutting in to the stash and not worrying if I used up was somewhat EXHILARATING! I just kept thinking that I never had to see that piece of fabric languishing on the shelf again...with its thready selvages and awkward wrinkles. Now I can just admire it in a finished piece, where I think it looks far superior.

Did I mention that my sister didn't kill any plants while I was gone and we were having 90 degree days?? She rocks! I moved her in to her first apartment on Wednesday and I am so excited for her to continue to grow up and reach new adult milestones.

My garden is looking so luscious...I will put an update up later this week. I was sitting out on the patio (concrete slab) the other afternoon and maybe 6 feet away a tiny humming bird was sipping out of my Montebretia. It was so magical and I just felt so lucky that my sister took such good care of my flowers. Thanks sister!

JMB

Hive mentality...

Have you heard? There is a decline in pollinators in our fair world. For those of us not familiar with Plant biology here is the down and dirty... Many plants need pollen from other plants to produce "fruit" (things that we like to eat from nuts to apples to squash...think about it, when you break it down everything we eat is a "fruit" from something---EVEN the meat-eaters out there are eating corn through the food chain) Pollen can be spread by the wind, water, animals, and insects.
It is these little workers that have been weighing on my mind lately. I am an avid reader of our little daily paper (It is pretty bad in terms of writing, but it is what I've got.) and in the last year I have read at least 3 large articles talking about the decline of bee populations. This makes me think that the problem is getting serious if a town daily has reported on something formerly of only "scientific" importance...I guess, like the whole "myth" of global warming, the decline of pollinating species is becoming mainstream.
I like to eat. I like gardening. I like a world full of living green things.
So, I am proposing something rather radical--let's stop spraying chemicals on our land (see previous neighbor rant post) AND let's plant some pollinator friendly plants. My theory is just this...if you plant it they will come (wasn't that from a movie??)

I have noticed over the past 8 years, in my garden, that the (friendly) insect levels have increased year after year. Due in part to some of the bushes and plants here and there in the yard that they can use as habitat and a food source. I believe that they in turn stay around to pollinate my food plants and eat some of the pests. I choose to think of my yard as a micro-ecosystem, if you please. Some of my easiest keepers (that are pollinator friendly) are:

Ceanothus (California Lilac)-- I love this bush. It grows fast, but is amendable to shaping and the "blue" flowers are so pretty. ALSO this lovely plant is drought tolerant after it is established.(I have tested this)

Rosemary-- I love this too. The bushes grow the most beautiful sculptural branches. You can cook with it, and it smells good too.

Raspberries-- LOVE THIS BERRY. I have planted a few different varieties so that I can have berries all summer. (the early summer berries are always the tastiest, but I would never turn down those last berries in September.)

Butterfly bushes-- In my state I believe that this plant is going to go on an invasive plant list in the near future, if it isn't already there....BUT I think for town dwellers this is a great plant for bees and other insects. It is hard to kill, and it drought tolerant after it is established. I did manage to kill my white one, but it was only after I pulled it out by it's roots and moved it. I think that I didn't leave it enough root...but so it goes.

Artichokes-- Great to eat...but even better, the purple flower that appears if you let one of the "chokes" go is a bee magnet. The color is so beatiful, it almost glows. I like the textural aspect of this plant also, but the leaves are prickly and you have to handle them with care.

These are only a few of the plants in my yard, but they are a collection that the pollinators seem to like, almost year round, in the temperate climate of the pacific northwest.

While I could dwell on the disgusting things that we do to the earth and it's creatures, I am choosing to do a small bit of something positive and I hope that is some encouragement to all of you to do a bit of the same.
JMB

Peas...oops, I go on a rant.

Yum, let's do it again...
I think that summer (whisper) may have arrived here... and not a moment too soon.

I have been trying to untangle all of my garlic from the bind weed that I DESPISE...but the only way to be rid of it is to let the ground lie fallow with black plastic for 2+ years....I just can't do it. I don't have enough land. So, I am left with manually fighting them every year, but I do love my garden!

After seeing my nutty neighbor spraying (I am pretty sure with some variety of Round-up) a 2 inch weed in his vast expanse of bark today...I think that I am going to lose it. He could have just bent down and plucked it out. He doesn't need to add more pollutants to his OVER-FERTILIZED, OVER-HERBICIDED compound.

(Rant start) HELLO---We need to stop using all of these disgusting chemicals all around our bodies and then wondering why people are getting weird auto-immune diseases, cancers, and allergies. It is probably not as simple as that, but it really sickens me to watch MULTITUDES of people out "doing" their yard with the 2 gallon spray bottle of napalm, when all they need to do is get down and PULL THE WEEDY BUGGERS OUT BY THEIR ROOTS!!!

I will leave for another post how this same neighbor gets up on his roof EVERY OTHER DAY to blow off whatever detritus might have fallen in 48 hours....since he cut down 80% of his trees I don't even know what detritus there is left to fall on his roof...

Yes, that is for another post... Maybe if I get really passive-aggressive I can blow dandelion seeds over the fence to spoil his bark and grass patch... but that really isn't the kind of gal I am, but sometimes I wish it was.
JMB

Keeping it real...

I have been sad this week because my elbow and lower arm hurt...MY MOUSE ARM. I have been trying to be good--resting it, by not blogging, sewing, web surfing, picking up my kids, all the things that I really love to do. It feels marginally better... I might have to bite the bullet and visit a doctor....HORROR! I just feel like they will tell me to take some drugs and get on with it...I like a solution, being proactive etc., I guess we will see. (I put a picture in, because although it isn't my fav...you should be on your own blog and look at the greyness and the fleece...it is cold here in June??!!!)
Do you like how I angled the shot, so that it looked like I got more out of the garden than I really did?? It was all so tasty, but really meager. I ate the artichoke today for a snack...Yum, yum, YUM! I also am totally sold on homegrown broccoli, it is so sweet and tender. I am only disappointed that the weather has been so awful, I think that a bit more sun would have increased my yield....there is always the fall.
Just to show everyone that we are doing our best to be organic and the like...Here is a wee spittle bug house. It came in with the artichoke, but a nice and drug-free way that I normally deal with them is just hose them off. I just thought...we get a lot of these on our rosemary bushes (I call them this because they are just HUGE!) and I could give the boys little spray bottles and have them go at it with the stream spray. I think that I will try that next time we go out back and it is above 60 degrees (It has been cold here folks.)
I hope to be up and sewing soon...I have 2 swap quilts (here and here) to do AND that chicken quilt is not going to make itself.
JMB