Studiology

Birdie

There's a dog in the house, despite the fact that I said no more pets. She found us in a very circuitous route, a lost dog at my daughter's door, or so it would seem. With many attempts to find her owner, she was not chipped, had no collar, and sadly it seems, no one that was looking for her. She is an English setter of sorts and we can only conclude that she was a breeding dog that was dumped. My daughter reluctantly took her to a "no kill" shelter and called everyday to check on her. She suffered from kennel cough during her stay and has now been spayed and chipped, a requirement for adoption. 

They named her Birdie, which works. She is no youngster, the guess is 8 years old. I don't think she has ever lived in a house, she doesn't know commands, struggled initially with where to sleep. At first she just curled up by the cold front door like she is supposed to be outside. House training will be a challenge, but I'm up for it. This sweet girl loves all people, despite her past. Most of the day she sleeps and once she realized the new bed was hers, she barely leaves it. 

Food is largely ignored, and she is a thin 34 pounds. In many ways she is a good choice for "older" people that live in the country. Or so I hope. Her leash skills are good, we will wait to find out how well she is off leash. Not my first pound dog, the choices have been puppies, but I hate to see such a sweet and loving girl who has served her purpose spend her senior years in a kennel. 

I introduce you to Birdie.

photograph by Felicity

 

Paint it Green for 2021

New paint experiments are a good way to start the year. I've had red years, blue years, this is my green year, further bolstered by new inventory. Three new pieces have been finished and I continue to work with shaping forms from bare wire to faces and bodies. This allows for more conceptual creations, letting the mind run free. The first two are leprechauns holding little four leaf clover bouquets. 

Also finished is another circus stage with clown and seal, both held in place with a magnet, so they can be switched.

More to come. 

 

 

 

 

Spring Catalogs

As the seed catalogs arrive the gardener highlights or folds over pages of interest. While the garden is in its brown phase, colorful pages take us into the future and the past with memories of failures and success's. I always hesitate at flowering sweet peas and wonder if anyone moves to a climate that would suit them. Sweet pea land would have long, cold springs and I confess that I don't like cold. Places like Vancouver, BC or upstate New York make more sense. If only sweet peas weren't so photogenic. Of course professional photographers take the pictures, they make dusty miller and liriope look sexy.

Sometimes the season is just right, like the year our spring was ridiculously long and cool. The sweet peas were beautiful and it was 1995, so rare that the gardener remembers.

Dahlias are another that fill a page well and send the highlighter to block out selections. As one of the last flowers we cut from the garden, the knee jerk reaction is to buy more, forgetting how they hated the heat and sulked every day. Finding just the right place in the garden is the trick.

Spring catalogs are also an indicator of garden trends. White Flower Farm is listing dried flower wreaths, something that hasn't been popular since the eighties. Houseplants fill four full pages, equal to the space occupied by roses or dahlias. A mistake on their part might be the lack of notations on native perennial or shrub. Although "wildflower" and "pollinator" are sprinkled around.

Select Seeds catalog lists a new dwarf nasturtium named 'Baby Rose' and I see this mixing well in a bed of dwarf lettuce. Pages are dedicated to native species and cultivars, a smart move on their part where monarch butterflies and hummingbirds function as models.

My lettuce trial of last spring was a huge success with the help of Johnny's Select Seeds catalog. Their true mini heads were my favorites. The last thirty pages of their catalog covers supplies, a place where I can relate to how things have changed but stayed the same in the growing field. An entire page is dedicated to long-handled tools or weeders; more highlighting or page folding - I could use at least one of these.

If this spring is anything like last year, it's not too early to stock-up. My tomato and lettuce seed have been ordered and there were a few work arounds as some were sold out already. If I can share some more advice, highlight to your hearts content but then reconsider, sleep on it before you commit, or wear sunglasses to diminish the brilliance of it all.

The January Christmas

Taking 2 weeks to quarantine after the holiday job, it was time to visit the grandchildren. With presents and food packed into the truck, it was a second Christmas for them. We visited Lewis Ginter Gardens for their light festival, took turns on the zipline in the backyard, and had a great time. 

For the light show we wore those funky glasses that make lights look like snowflakes, or reindeer, or Christmas elves. 

And the zipline was a new installation (from Santa) and a big hit. I even took a ride.

And no trees were harmed in the installation of the zipline, my first question to my daughter..... of course.  Little Miss Juniper helped with food prep. she wears her apron and occasionally her chef hat.

Presents were distributed and the house was a raucous and busy place. It was fun but I'm also happy to be home and spending time as a hermit. January and February are good for that.