gardening – Page 3

In Full Swing

June 12, 2013 | Leave a Comment

Everything seems in full swing now…. I am making progress on projects I missed all fall and winter, and at last (!!) I’ve connected with the interest groups in my new area: weavers, knitters, dyers, and lace makers! It’s all very exciting and inspiring to me.

Earlier this week I met my oldest friend at the Lyme Art Association while she was dropping of her sculpture “Daughter” that will be on display as part of the upcoming exhibit by the Hudson Valley Art Association. Right nearby was a bronze bust of Robert Frost done by Jose Bascaglia. Exciting works! My friend also has a piece in the National Sculpture Society’s exhibit that is traveling this summer (Lea Ann’s piece is “Virga,” the first image on the page).

It was a soft green drizzly day , and LeaAnn and I decided to walk through the grounds of the Florence Griswold Museum where the gardens were in soft focus.

On my daily walks I pass a certain fence that is about 100 feet long and bedecked in this lovely candy striped rose.

Later in the summer this same fence will serve as support for about a million sunflowers. The sunflower seedlings are already up! And to add to the ambience there is a huge lawn just beyond this fence border that is home to a beautiful yellow barn and two Weimaraners who are often out frolicking on the lawn. There is always something beautiful to see at this spot along my walk!

And in my own garden this summer I have a passion flower vine growing in a pot. The first flower opened this morning!

Surrounded by so many flowers, it’s no wonder I’m thinking about them for my next tapestry. I am halfway through the final pear in my ‘Trail of Pears,’ so I’ve been designing the next tapestry. I’m intrigued by a still life based on a woodcut of nasturtiums in a bowl.

I am enjoying taking this pot of nasturtiums and putting it into an environment….perhaps with a window behind and some curtains, the edge of a table…. we’ll see.

Mid-Spring

May 31, 2013 | 1 Comment

Is there anything with as much promise as mid-spring? My gardens, my projects, my whole world is all hope and possibility.

I’ve completed pear #4 in my ‘Trail of Pears.’ Each pear has brought harder color decisions, and #4 caused me to call on the advice of both my husband and younger son. I had every shade of gold in my yarn palette out and none of them worked. Chris helped me let go of my preconceived notion that the pear had to be in the yellow family. That pear is a tan that I would never have considered if not for Chris. Now it’s finished and soon the background around pear #5 (the final pear) will be finished as well, which will mean making the final pear color choice. I plan to be at my Wednesday Group class next week so I can get some input from all the weavers there. Whew!

When I’m not weaving the pears I’ve been spinning some silk. Does anyone remember Carol Weymar who called herself the silk worker. I can’t find her anymore! I used to buy her handpainted silk roving, so I have a little collection of them. I always wanted a bit more than 2 ounces from her, but she never had more than that of any given painted way. I took this as a challenge to me to learn to spin finer, hoping to get 1,000 yards out of that 2 oz. Well, I still can’t do it!

So, to the latest colorway which I will call ‘mid-spring’ (all the colors of a spring garden, except blue) I am adding a strand of luscious 50/50 merino/silk. The merino is a warm natural color, something I might call ‘almond,’ and the silk is a shimmering white. Spun together I’m getting a lovely shade of cream and I hope it will be stunning plied with the 100% painted silk from Carol. I’d like to start plying right now, but I will force myself to let the newly finished merino/silk set overnight. Boy, I can’t wait for tomorrow!

It’s 90 degrees outside today, one of those abnormally hot spring days we sometimes have. My basement studio is a cool respite on a day like this, and the view cool and green.

Have I mentioned that I live on the edge of a large nature preserve? May offers up so many beautiful sights there…. lady slippers are in bloom and we found a robin’s egg on the ground! There are dragon flies everywhere, and the hummingbirds arrived. I’ve seen eagles soaring above our house.

Yes, it’s all hope and promise around here.

There’s No Place Like Home…

May 15, 2013 | Leave a Comment

There really isn’t. And to top it off it’s May in New England.

My sister had offered to meet me at the airport. It would just be the two of us; we’d have dinner afterward so she could catch me up on her family and her long solo stint of taking care of our aging and difficult mother.

Instead, she and my sons planned a larger family gathering to greet me. Seven family members were waiting for me when I arrived, and because my flight was late all the other people waiting for loved ones had gotten in on the act. So, I arrived to a crowd of clapping bystanders, who were shouting, “Welcome home, Mom!” I was completely confused, which is a very good thing, because otherwise I would have cried…

Mother’s Day weekend was about as perfect as possible. The kids and I went to the annual Garden Club sale at the little park in the center of town, and we worked in the garden cleaning up the debris from winter and planting my purchases from the sale. It was a wonderful homecoming!

Today I plied the brilliant saffron mohair that I spun in the Bahamas. Here it is with the mohair skeins from Persimmon Tree that I plan to use with it. I’m envisioning a fall jacket….

Migration

September 21, 2012 | Leave a Comment

The lovely sights in Chesapeake City….

Do you think they bought that red car to match their front door?

We are starting to see lots of migrating birds, and it seems to me that this year we are migrating with them. Each day that we haul anchor in the morning we are accompanied by the honking song of Canada geese in their V-formations, and as we travel south we find monarch butterflies alighting on Pandora for short breaks before fluttering away.

The bird life here is extensive! In the Sassafras River we were exploring the coast line, and we startled two blue herons off their nest! What a beautiful sight to see them take flight right in front of us! We had not noticed the nest because it was well hidden in a ‘bog’ of lotus! We have never seen lotus growing in such a temperate climate before. It looks like it has become rather invasive in the Sassafras River, and we wondered if the lotus will soon take over… I guess only time will tell.

We have been sailing along with three other boats since Cape May….not on purpose….but each day that we travel we see them sailing too. For several nights we’ve ended up in the same harbor, so naturally we’ve gotten together to re-hash the day and talk about where we’re heading. I know this is quite a common occurrence for boats heading south. Perhaps we are becoming a different kind of migrating flock! We saw Banyan, a 40 ft Juneau, from Halifax, Nova Scotia, in Cape May with David and Alex (short for Alexandra) onboard. In Chesapeake City we first saw Peregrine, a 42 ft. Catalina, with Dave and Libby on board with their dog Brody. And also in Chesapeake City we stumbled on Rick and Julie Palm, who live aboard Altair, a larger version of Pandora, and whom we met briefly a few summer ago in Maine. We have formed our own very loose flock and have decided to explore the Chester River together over the next few days. We will see both Banyan and Peregrine at the SSCA seminars that will take place in Camp Letts at the end of next week.

So I am settling into life aboard…. coffee and knitting in the mornings. I have finished the shawl and should have posted photos days ago. I have now started a little baby sweater for the brand new granddaughter who arrived last week to join the family of my oldest childhood friend. And earlier this week I made ‘poolish’ which will become my ongoing sourdough starter for bread while the weather remains cool enough to bake. I made the first loaf yesterday, and it was a success! I will make another loaf today since there is more poolish ready to use now.

2012-09-18 09.48.43 — Swatch for "Shadow Baby" sweater

I am feeling the pangs of homesickness, but it is balanced by the joys of living is this soft southern landscape. We’ve seen a number of bald eagles since arriving in the Chesapeake, and yesterday we saw one shag a fish right out of the water and rise into the blue sky with his/her catch! It was dramatic!

Day 8, September 18: Lay Day in Chesapeake City (#29)

Day 9, Sept. 19: Chesapeake City to the Sassafras River (#29 – 31)

Day 10, Sept. 20: Sassafras River to Rock Hall (#31 -34)

Day 11, Sept. 21…..we’re not entirely sure yet! We will walk into Rock Hall today for some provisions, and then we’ll think about sailing up the Chester River to Chestertown….

Alchemy

April 7, 2012 | Leave a Comment

Natural dyeing is still gathering steam throughout the US.
When we leave here I hope to take some weld and madder with me to start a new dye garden in Essex.

NY Times NATURALFIBERDYE-slide-ILMJ-thumbWide — Photo from NYTimes of Sasha Duerr's dye liquors

At the end of summer, I hope to find some local plums to make Damson gin! (Can you guess I’ve been watching Masterpiece Theatre’s “Marple” while knitting?…the one with Geraldine McEwan!)

And a visit to the NY Botanical Gardens in the Bronx yielded a day of intense color and a rise in my own creative sap by seeing the glories of spring!

I have an armillary sphere in my garden, and now I want to display it like this, on a pedestal, and grow a vine through it! This was my ‘take away’ gem of the day!