home
about the artist
gallery
blog
links
contact

Archive for the ‘Landscaping’ Category

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

Sunday, October 28th, 2012

First of all – Yay Giants – World Series Champions, 2012!

What am I afraid of? Cutting into some beautiful hand-dyed fabric that I bought from my friend Bonnie, of Handwerks. Tomorrow, I am going to just do it. I have been dragging my feet for too long. It looks like a good week to stay in out of the rain and be in the studio.

It has been pouring rain today. We went out to get gas in the car and pick up some groceries at Trader Joe’s with Scooter along for the ride. Mr C dropped me off at TJ’s and drove off. Scooter started crying. I guess he thought I had been dumped!

I took this photo of my little Japanese maple on my studio patio. It has suddenly gotten fall color.

 

 

Purging, Folding, Sorting, Etc.

Tuesday, June 5th, 2012

I am making progress in my studio reorganization. I feel that it is really helping me to go through all the stuff and rid myself of things that I accumulated and will never use. Some of it is fabric that people have given me because I am a fiber artist — but said fabric is not ever going to be used by me!! It is all going into a pile to go to SCRAP,the creative reuse center.

I have emptied enough wire rack bins to move my backing fabric and pfd fabric to those bins where they are more accessible. Tonight, I went through my batting bin and sorted and folded by sizes.

As is the case when you do something like this, the mess gets bigger before it goes away, but I am excited to get this done and get back to some creativity!

On another note, I am so excited that the ugly tree in our front yard is going bye bye. I have hated it since we moved in. The problem is that it sits right on the property line and our neighbors have never removed or cut back a plant  ever in their overgrown yard. She comes out once a spring and plants a ring of annuals around the tree and then we don’t see her again for another year. (exaggerating a bit, he he) Here is the tree and a very cute dog.

Another view:

And don’t leave me a comment that you don’t think it is an ugly tree!!

Our new landscape guy says the tree is ruining our lawn as the root system is sucking all the moisture from the soil.

If we pay for it, (ahem) they are willing to let us take out the tree and put in a new one. They get to approve or disapprove of what we choose. She wants a magnolia — of course she does — they drop nasty leaves and flower petals everywhere. It will not be a magnolia. Our arborist was here today and gave us some suggestions which we have run by our family landscape guru, Mark. I will keep you posted.

And to finish, I want to say how very proud I am of my daughter Lisa. She and her partner,Clay, are doing the 7 day Aids ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. They have completed 3 days and are doing really well. Lisa was sick with bronchitis for 2 weeks before the ride, but she has recovered and feels really well.

The Metolius River

Saturday, May 19th, 2012

My daughter, Stephanie, has often told me of the beauty of this area of Oregon. She and her family camp there every year. I knew it was near Sisters.

Then, at the art show last week, one of the artists sold a painting titled, Metolius Light. I had not connected it to the place Steph loves until, I had a conversation with the artist about the painting. She told me it was a river near Sisters that she loves. I said I am going up there next week and I hope to go see it.

The magical thing about this river is how it starts as a spring bubbling up out of the moss. You can see it up there. And then, you look to the right and very soon, it has become a river.

You walk through the Ponderosa Pines and fir trees to find this magical spot.

It is quiet and peaceful except for the musical sound of the bubbling spring and the river flowing into the distance. I was entrance by it and could have stayed there for a long time.

We finally walked back to the cars and drove into Camp Sherman, which is located on the Metolius. It is lined by cabins that you can rent.

I came home and told Mr C that we are going to rent one of those cabins so that I can spend some more time on the Metolius.

Today, I planned to do some gardening. I only got as far as planning how to move my herb garden to planters on the deck. This required some internet searching and a trip to a couple of stores with Mr C. We ordered two of the larger ones from Restoration Hardware. They are made from galvanized sheet metal. I think the will look great on the deck.

Tonight, Jack and M and M came over for dinner. Steph is getting back from a week of work  for 3191 with Maria in Maine late tonight. I haven’t posted a photo of M & M for awhile. They are really growing up so fast.

They are engrossed with the Alchemy app on my iPad.

Progress

Friday, July 16th, 2010

I am progressing nicely with the quilting for the silk aspen piece. I found the perfect sulky 12 wt. thread in my stash. Here is a detail.

We are having just about perfect weather right now. This morning, I took Scooter for a walk to another park in our area with a duck pond. Some child with a sense of humor, drew this.

Tonight, I went out to cut lettuce for dinner and found these in bloom in the midst of my herbs and lettuce. They are a holdover from before we put in the raised bed and the durned things found a way to come up and bloom for us.

Our hydrangeas are looking wonderful. These blue ones are an old plant and in a nice shady place.

The new ones that we planted by the garage for their red color, are looking a little less vibrant now that it is warm and sunny.

My favorite plants in our landscaping are the grasses. I love their colors and graceful forms and they way they move with the slightest breeze.

This weather is so agreeable. Have a good week-end.

Garden Update

Saturday, May 29th, 2010

We have had nothing but rain with very occasional sun breaks for the month of May. The grasses in our front yard love it.

As do the lettuce and kale:

The green beans, peppers and tomatoes are almost dormant as they, like me, are craving sun.

There are lots of wannabe raspberries from the starts we planted last year.

I have 3 peonies. They need way more sun than they are getting on my studio patio. I think I need to move them.

Late today, the sun came out. I am really hoping it stays around for a few days.

I have been diligently quilting the Old Growth Forest piece. I have the background don, after running out of thread and making a trip to the quilt shop. I have 3 trees stitched down. I hope to finish them tomorrow and get it ready to be photographed. I need to get my entry overnighted on Tuesday. I think I can make that.