Lessons From The Garden

This impossibly perfect and beautiful rose (Mt. Hood), blooming away, with hardly any attention, or water, or pruning. And indignities of indignities, growing in a trash can! What a trooper, eh?! We dug this rose bush up last year, when we thought the new patio/deck supports were going to get done, with cement pouring and all the mess and destruction that entails. The rose bush would have been decimated, so we dug and dug and got it all out and plopped it in the trash can to move to another part of the garden.And there it sits, next to the holes dug for deck post supports, surrounded by the dry weedy patch that is dug out to become the patio under said deck. Eventually. As we have postponed cement has gotten even more expensive (along with the fuel to transport it, duh). Hmmmm. Maybe I should put the rose back in the ground? It seems pretty happy in the trash can. I guess I could probably learn something from this couldn't I? Bloom where you're planted and all that. Thriving in adversity. Producing beauty no matter what your circumstances.

Then there are the smug daylilies that didn't have to get moved or messed with. They are unfortunately quite crispy today after several 100F+ days in a row. I need to plant some different colors, all of mine are this very agressive red/orange which I like, but I'd like to see some variety out there in the border. A garden lesson here too I'm sure, how about: "Don't always do the same thing, you'll bore your audience."

These roses are always a surprise every year. I never know what exact color to expect, or how much they'll be scented. This year, much more orange-ish and very heavily perfumed. I've got three on the table near my computer and it smells so heavenly. Another lesson to learn: always keep 'em guessing!
The Rose Of Sharon tree/bush is struggling mightily in its battle with the onslaught of Jasmine. The Jasmine is trampling this lovely plant in its effort to get up into the oak tree that is nearby. Whatta garden thug, good thing it has such great flowers and scent! I can learn from both of these plants: Never Give up! It is always worth trying! Side note: I'm so glad I looked this up to stick a link in, turns out the flowers are edible, as it is a form of hibiscus, I'm so making some hibiscus tea, more on that later...
The fence is aswarm with the wild sweet pea that grows in spring and summer. It has no scent unfortunately, but it is a great looking flower that will grow in places that I'm not attending to. The cypress/junipers marching along do pretty well for never getting watered. I like how they define that edge of the garden.

Up behind the sweet pea is the enormous cherry tree which actually produced some tasty cherries (the ones I was able to snag before the birds). I guess it is a self pollinating variety as it is a lonely only. This is the last fruit tree in the line, so it has been skipped for pruning several times, thus the rampant growth. It has taken advantage of us, jumping ahead of all the contained/restrained apples. But I love the quality of the leaves, so different than all the other fruit tree leaves, and it makes a great rustling sound which I can hear in the evening as I drift off to sleep.

A final lesson: Sometimes it is a good thing to be neglected.

More Bee Action

We have a lot of bees this year, which I'm very happy and relieved to see.

I recently took this series of photos of a bee enjoying the Dusty Miller blossoms. We severely cut this plant back this past spring and the result is about three times as many flowers.
I thought that the worrying events surrounding the Colony Collapse Disorder were solved, but it turns out that only part of the story is understood. There is a virus, first discovered in Israel that affects the colonies drastically. But unfortunately that isn't the only cause, there may be a lot of other factors, such as pesticide use (surprise surprise right?!).
Here is a cool video about Better Bees.
I hope that the scientists working on this issue figure it out a.s.a.p.! I sure would miss bees.
Wouldn't you?

Pies Make People Happy

Hey, I actually made a pie!

The crust and everything.

My son, Alex who just turned 13 requested an apple pie for his birthday party. And so using my new kitchen tools the Kitchenaid mixer (mixed up that heavy dough no problemo) and food processor (sliced up those apples asap) I whipped up a really good apple pie.

There was a great trick suggested in the mixer cookbook for rolling out the pie dough between two sheets of waxed paper. Shazaaam, it worked! That was always my biggest beef about making pie dough that it always stuck all over the board I rolled the dough out of. And then you'd have holes all over and it would just be a mess and good luck cleaning the board off, etc... So perhaps with my biggest bugaboo taken care of I will be making more pies in the future??

It was however hard to get the fat birthday candles into the crust. We made do with just a few instead of all 13. The pie was gone so fast I wished I'd made two.

I don't usually make pie as I don't really like it that much, but for a special request, I make a special exception.

Looking Up

I've been looking up at the sky through the trees a lot lately. And occasionally snapping a picture or two, like through these oaks. Looking at a tree in this way makes it into such a graphic image, so much of the detail is lost in the shadowy contrast between bright sky and shaded tree. Much easier to see the shape of the branches versus the leaves.
These pictures were taken on the strange day last month when it rained for about 10 minutes, along with thunder and lightning. It was just starting to cloud up when I took these pictures. It had been about 95F and very still.
A big breeze came up, it got cooler very suddenly, the sky got really dark all of a sudden. Then these huge raindrops fell, like three or four times the size of a normal raindrop. We ran around and enjoyed it as it was such a treat, and oh my goodness it smelled so heavenly.
You probably have to be a Californian from my area to realize how extraordinary this was. It almost never rains in the summer here, and if it does, it doesn't usually rain in them iddle of a super hot day. And we certainly don't get thunder and lightning, even during the rainy months it is very unusual. I just looked up the average precipitation and it is .2 inches for the month of June.
Unfortunately the lightning started a whole lot of fires, and there wasn't enough accompanying rain to put out those fires. Many of those fires are still going (like the huge one in Big Sur) and I hope the firefighters can get them out soon.

Dyeing and Produce

Camp Joy Basket Week #2 - A cup of Loganberries, garlic, red potatoes, oak leaf lettuce, some kind of speckled red-leaf lettuce, carrots, rosemary, parsley, peas.

• The berries were instantly gone. Poof! Magick berries. We could eat pounds of berries a week if we could afford them! Is it the concentrated flavor? The beautiful intense colour? Or do we just instinctively know that they're terribly precious and oh so good for us?
• The garlic gets used as we go through the year as it keeps for quite a while. I use garlic in a lot of things (some critics say most things!) but Camp Joy gave us a recipe which I'll be trying for Skordozoumi (Greek Garlic Soup), which calls for a whole head of garlic! More on the success or failure of said recipe after I actually make it.
• The carrots were steamed and served with olive oil and cinnamon sugar. No one ever complains about those.
• The peas mostly were eaten raw but the few remainders were served up in stir fry form.
• The lettuce has been consumed in several salads.
• Still thinking of what to do with the red potatoes, maybe some type of potato salad without mayonaise. Now that I have two weeks' worth, there are enough to make a dish for four.
  

"I'll be dyeing in the laundry room, don't come in there for a while" I said to my son. His friend's mouth gaped open and his eyes were astonished. "no, no, no dyeing not dying!" Oops, those who aren't already trained don't know about this fine distinction!

Finally finally finally I cleaned up my dyeing space enough to get some things going. Mostly I worked on what has been soaking in the soda ash bucket. I keep a covered bucket of soda ash water going at all times, that way it is ready to soak the fabric or "items" to be dyed. For non-dyers the soda ash is what makes the dye decide to stick around on the fabric.

The things dyed here are just white square washcloths, you know the really cheapie ones that are 15 for a $1? Kind of loosely woven and very nubbly textured. I was curious to see what they would look like dyed. They were placed on top of the fabrics that I was dyed, so they soaked up the top part of the dye available. I like how they look, not sure what I'll use them for, maybe just as colorful washcloths?!
From left to right are the one yard fabric pieces that I also dyed, mostly with dye from DharmaTrading.

• I used some really old dye in Ecru to try to get some flesh tones for a self-portrait piece I'm working on. On one of the pieces I threw in some of the Chinese Red to get it a little pinker than brown. Those two are on the left.
• Next is Chinese Red which looks rather orange in this photo. It turned out nice and dark which was what I was going for.
• Chartreuse is next, I like how the mottled pattern shows the yellowy undertones.
• New Emerald Green looks kind of boring compared to the Chartreuse to my eyes, but it will be useful in the landscape-ish quilts I like to make.
• Cobalt Blue turned out super dark, but I think I may need to wash it out once more, this dye is getting weird on me, it isn't a superfine powder like it is supposed to be.
• Another old old container of Ice Blue, it still has enough punch to make a nice sky color.
• Finally, what is a dye session without some purple, in this case Grape?
  

I'm finally out of the bolt of white fabric I've been working with for more than a couple of years now, guess I better find some more so I'm ready to dye the next time the stars align and the mood strikes.

Sunday Cornucopia

It is the end of a week, and there are always leftovers. Before I go off to niece's 3rd birthday party, I'll leave you with these goodies:

Kale Chips, an amazingly good snack. I made one bunch of kale into these chips and they were gone in two seconds, I barely got a picture of the remains of one as Alex was about to eat the last bit. Super easy and really really good for you. I'm destemming the leaves next time though, a little bitter for me on that part. But honestly, usually the kale ends up in my green smoothie as no one around here likes it cooked or stir fried. So chips it is!
Recipe from Camp Joy was as follows:


Kale Chips

• 1 Bunch Kale



• 1/4 C Olive Oil (I used spray olive oil)



• Salt & Pepper to taste
  

1. wash & pat dry kale



2. spray or paint on a thin layer of oil covering both sides of kale



3. lay kale on cookie sheet and sprinkle with salt & pepper



4. place under broiler for 2-3 minutes



5. flip kale over & broil 2-3 minutes or until crispy, yum!

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I don't know if I missed the window for signups or not, time will tell. Anyways, even if I'm not an official participant in the Wardrobe Refashion blog, I'm still playing along at home. Have a few projects I've done recently that I need to take pictures of to share with you. Just overdyeing, but they turned out really cool.


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I'm attempting NaBloPoMo this month, where the subject is Food, so be ready for lots of food content in addition to the usual High Fiber Content. If you've posted every day already this month, then you can probably still sign up.
Visit NaBloPoMo

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And I didn't tell you yet about getting my very first ever pedicure while in Sedona. My sister-in-law Carolyn suggested it for the girls (Mom, Carolyn and I) and got these spa finder gift certificates at Costco, so it wasn't too spendy. It was really fun, and not all icky and horrible to have someone working on my feet. I don't why I was so worked up about it, but it was relaxing and my feet stil feel good a couple of weeks later. Plus I learned a few tricks to keep my toes looking better for the summer, we shall see if that works, right?!Believe me you don't want to see the "before" picture!

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Lastly, and truly most importantly, have you been paying attention to the FISA/Warrant-less Wiretapping/Telecom Company Pardoning/Law-breaking excusing debacle in the Congress? I've been writing letters and emails and calling my senators on the issue.
Go read up and decide what (pdf link) you think. We're about to become a monarchy....and even the future President Obama has completely reversed on his promises, yes flip-flopped even, and is voting on the side of getting himself some kingly powers.

A Meme in Mosaic Form

I thought this would be a fun way to communicate the answers to a meme, plus I hadn't used the Mosaic Maker yet and wanted to try it out. Thanks Sacred Suzie for the meme-i-licious instructions!


MOSAIC MEME: INSTRUCTIONS

1. Type your answer to each question below, into Flickr Search

2. Using only the first page of results, pick one image.

3. Copy & paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Lab’s Mosaic Maker to create a mosaic of the picture answers.

THE QUESTIONS:
1. What is your real christian/first name? Julie

2. What is your favourite food - right now? Bruschetta

3. What school did you go to? Cal, (University of California, Berkeley)

4. What is your favourite colour? Purple

5. Who is your latest celebrity crush? Viggo Mortensen

6. What is your favourite drink? Gin & Tonic with Lime

7. What is your dream vacation destination? Ireland

8. What is your favourite dessert? Chocolate Mousse

9. What do you want to be when you grow up? Artist

10. What do you love most in life? Family

11. What is one word that describes you now? Hurting

12. What is your Flickr/Blog name? High Fiber Content


1. Julie in the Park, 2. Bruschetta closeup, 3. Clock Tower at the University of California at Berkeley, 4. Purple fingers, 5. Viggo Mortensen holding our Dropping Food....CD, 6. Gin & Tonic, 7. REAL... "REAL ESTATE" (IRELAND), 8. Chocolate Mousse Decadence!, 9. Artist Under Bridge, 10. "Norouz" is coming!..., 11. Hey your new lenses are driving me up the wall, 12. Mixed Vegetables

Again With the Acanthus

I know I've posted about this before (probably every summer but I'm too lazy to go back and check). But I love acanthus. Thanks mom! She gave me a small bit of it when we first moved into this house fourteen years ago and I planted it out in the "back 40."

That small clump turned into an evergrowing and expanding acanthus patch, it is now taking over a large portion of the fenceline. There are at least four separate large clumps, and I know I need to take some out and move it some where. But summertime is not the best for transplanting stuff, way too stressful and hot for the plants (oh and me too). Apparently it is deerproof because it has grown under the fence and is flourishing quite nicely with no bite marks from either Prongs or Dear Leader (the deer pair we have around this year have been officially named). Not sure why, the leaves are soft, but the flower stalks are sharp and prickly. Maybe I'll try moving it out into the deer-zone garden in the fall and see what happens.

The acanthus mollis, or Bear's Breeches, apparently one of the most common leaf motifs used in architectural decorations, think, tops of Corinthian columns. The flower not so much, it is kind of complicated. I find the structure of it really fascinating though, all stacked up like it is.

I really am inspired by the transition from green to purple on the leaves, that would be a fun challenge to try and dye something that would approximate that colorway.

I've always been drawn to the William Morris designs of acanthus such as this one, a design for wallpaper. Oh can you imagine how luscious that would be? A whole room covered in this stuff? Yowza.
Print of this image can be bought at ArtsyCraftsy.

Considering Liberty on the Fourth

These pictures are from Jerome, a mining town perched on the side of a mountain near Sedona where we were just on vacation. I was so happy to note that there were two flags in these photos. And then when I turned around I spotted this neat old building with one of my favorite words on it (but missing a probably lovely ornate eagle of some kind).

So, hey, Happy 4th of July!

Liberty. Freedom.

Since we'll be hearing these words a lot over this weekend in all the political speechifying and network talking head blathering, I thought I'd share a quote that I think is applicable right now for all of us in the USA today.

Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said: "Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding."

Final Exquisite Corpse of Round One

This is the final blank square available on Susan's "Flower Power" exquisite corpse, the final Corpse I got to work on for Round One. I had the edge of Nellie's and Carolyn's work peeking out to give me clues, as well as the corner of the adjacent square (forgot who the artist was). The colors and patterns showing gave a little clue about where to take my work on this piece.
Also, Carolyn wisely included a small amount of dark red seed beads that she had used on her piece, I went ahead and incorporated them into my bead work and they really help to pull our two sections together.
Under the needle. Applying some tulle net to cover up the Angelina fibers.
Free motion quilting around the flowers.
The flat work done, now it was time to add some beading, which I took a lot of pictures of!
Do you recognize the fabric from my recently created skirt?
I happened to have the exact same fabric as Carolyn used, so I made sure to put some in the design, right up against the edge that adjoined her square. Out of all the fabrics in the world, it was a nice coincidence, eh?


You can see the dark red seed beads here, on the left is Carolyn's bead work that was showing, and then mine towards the right.
I also re-used some of the fabric I had turned into fusible fabric for leaves for Vero's Exquisite Corpse, there was lots available in my fusible box.
This is how the whole piece looked after I was done with it. My square is uncovered since it was getting sent right back to the originating artist, Susan.
A good shot of my piece overall, showing the edges of the other squares and how I overlapped/abutted.
I tried to tuck the fabric I was using under the edge of Nellie's work to have it leave no trace of the background, almost successful!

I felt I was fairly successful in integrating my final square into the existing work.

Showing the four corners where four artists' work meets.
And then finally, major fun bonus!! Susan sent a lovely thank-you box of goodies, papers, fibers, beads, all appreciated greatly, and which will be guaranteed to be put to good use. Maybe on Round Two of Exquisite Corpse.

Fooling Around on the Forest Floor

Here is another one of the True Colors books that has passed through my hands, we're almost done with this round robin exchange. The theme of this book originated by Misty Frederick is Forest Floor .
We got to do one page, which was nice thick cardboard/fiberboard (no buckling problems!), mine had an existing rectangular cutout to the following page. Visible here is part of a green fiber labyrinth page which was very cool. I made a kind of foldy-door that covered part of the window.

Finally I got to use those coppery leaves I've had for ages, along with some watercolor crayoned paper, brown tissue paper, magazine pictures, words from the phone book "forest floor", a foresty kind of playing card in greenish photocorners.

Skillz, Yes I've Got Some

This month, of July (eep! July already!) for Self Portrait Challenge the assignment is SKILL. Showing in self portrait format what we are skilled at.

For the first week I decided to go with showing off my clothesline skill. Yes my friends (I got that from hearing too many speeches on NPR from John McSame), I'm a champion clothes pinning out champ. Nothing falls off into the dirt weeds grass flowers below.

This year I'm trying harder not to use my dryer to save energy (and not heat up the house during the summer). We do however run each line-dried load through the dryer just on air for a little bit, otherwise we'd have too much Zelda hair on everything. Plus everyone complains about the crunchy towels otherwise, geez, buncha wimps!

According to Project Laundry List, if everyone used a clothesline we could save 6-10% of our energy usage in the US. That's huge! Sure it takes a few extra minutes, but not that much really, and I will confess it feels like a connection across the years to my immediate and further into the past ancestors.
I'm out here every day almost, once or twice in the morning, once in the afternoon. A lot of times I pause to check out the butterflies or hummingbirds.
And I also look over the fence to see what is rustling in the underbrush. Which is usually one of our cats or occasionally Zelda, sometimes it is a wild rabbit or quail though.

I don't have many others to compare myself against as far as this clothes pinning thing though. My husband will do it occasionally but he just throws everything over the line, no pins, hoping for the best. At least he's helping, right! I surely do appreciate that. Guess I better teach my two boys how to do it, since they're so interested in all things environmentally friendly that will be my in, not the oh boy it is fun to do chores, that one never seems to work.