home
about the artist
gallery
blog
links
contact

Archive for the ‘The Farm’ Category

Gerrie, Gerrie, Quite Contrary

Monday, July 1st, 2013

kitchengarden

 

How does your garden grow?

This is my kitchen garden. Before this photo, it was a jungle of overgrown and bitter leaf lettuce. I pulled it out, weeded and planted new leaf lettuce.

These lettuces got to stay:

redlettuce

Romaine

 

 

My tomatoes are a jungle of activity. I should have cut back some suckers earlier, but was too busy.

tomatojungle

 

I have lots of green cherry tomatoes – with our hot weather, they should be red, soon.

babytomatoes

We are starting to harvest yellow and zucchini squash.

babyyellowsquash

babyzukes

 

I had to be out of the house most of the morning because Mr C was spraying some dry wall texture in the basement bathroom. The new plumbing comes through there and so a quite large chunk of the wall had to be replaced. The stuff he sprays on it has a vile odor that lasts a long time.

drywallwork

 

Hopefully, I can get back down to the studio tomorrow.

 

Making Hay While the Sun Shines

Thursday, May 2nd, 2013

cruciforms

 

The sun is certainly shining, and I am attempting to keep moving through my daily to do list. I had two great days with friends. Something I have not been able to do in a while. It was wonderful! I felt rejuvenated.

Yesterday, I had lunch with Del Thomas and Terry and her daughter. Terry made a delicious salad and had rice crackers for me and tangerines for dessert. It was perfect. Del brought some small pieces of work from her collection and I really loved seeing the beautiful textile art. I had to rush off because I was scheduled for an SDA Conference Staff conference call. I didn’t get home in time so I had to pull off into a parking lot and call in from my cell.

Today, I started a new piece. I am starting with those little cruciform blocks. I have some dye-painted silk that I made in a workshop two or three years ago. I decided to Mistyfuse it and play around with some fused segments. I like what is happening.

dyepaintedsilk

 

We are have such luscious weather. It is like July in May. Scooter is too hot so he is going in for a haircut tomorrow. I took an hour this afternoon to run to the nursery to get some more plants — veggies, herbs and some flowers. Tomorrow, before it gets too hot, I will get out and do my planting.

moregardenplants

 

I will leave you with this pretty photo I took at the Rhodie Garden this morning.

sunnyrhodieday

Better Results?

Saturday, April 27th, 2013

montañas y lunasbackground

 

Here is the second discharged piece after getting thrown in the washer and dryer. I did simpler stitching – just horizontal. I think I could have stitched the lines a little closer, but it has nice texture. It shrunk more in one directions than the other. It started out square. Here is a detail shot.

mtsandmoonscloseup

 

I am going to crop out a twelve inch square for my SAQA auction piece. I am titling it Montanas y Lunas (mountains and moons). I plan to do some hand stitching on both  pieces. The other piece will be larger and titled Undulations. Here are some perle cotton auditions.

threadaudition1

 

This is a gorgeous variegated hand-dyed thread by Laura Wasilowski of Artfabrik fame.

threadaudition2

 

I am not sure where I got this thread. I think it will add some nice color to the Undulations piece.

I got the results of my gall bladder ultrasound, and I have a remarkably healthy gall bladder and all the other organs and abdominal parts that showed in the scan were in great shape. So, I am going to stop worrying about that. I think I have found the reason for the hives on my legs. I realized that we changed soap in the shower at about the time the itchiness started. I have stopped using it and so far so good. I will now stop being a hypochondriac — at least until the next symptom arises. I am an old lady, after all.

We have had a run of gorgeous weather. I planted by veggie garden yesterday and replenished the herb planters.

herbplanters

 

There is room for a few more herbs. Mr C came after me and cleaned up the deck.

Here is the garden bed with a few weeds and looking a little disheveled.

gardenbedblankslate

 

I went at it with the hoe and turned up the earth. Love it!

gardenbedsprepared

 

I planted lots of lettuce for now.

lettuceplants

 

This year, I planted the squash and cucumber in the ground next to the planter box so that they have room to spread out.

squashandcukes

 

I am going to wait to plant tomatoes, and I still have room for some other plants like eggplant and peppers.

I really enjoyed getting outside to enjoy the sunshine and fresh air.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Friday, August 10th, 2012

 

I made a visit to my neglected raised bed on the side of the garage. The warm weather has done its work.

This is what the yellow scallop squash looks like at first glance.

On closer inspection, I found these:

We had squash fritters for dinner.

My red and yellow cherry tomatoes are getting ripe. The yellows are so sweet. We had a cherry tomato and basil salad with goat cheese for dinner, also.

There are lots of future tomatoes including these Roma – there are a multitude of Romas.

We have harvested one green pepper, and I have one tiny eggplant – so cute!

Mr C doesn’t understand why I must have a vegetable garden. It is in my genes!

 

Easy Being Green

Sunday, May 27th, 2012

I have spent the week-end working outside, doing laundry, shopping for staples and being a bit lazy. I am having a bad arthritis flare-up and so I am not pushing myself. The new planters came. Mr C lined them with plastic and filled them with soil. Yesterday morning we went to the Portland nursery and I bought herbs and veggie and tomato starts. I really like how these look. I put some nasturtiums in the  for some color and adding to salads. For now, I have some lettuce starts in with the herbs. When they are larger, I will not need to fill in the space.

Here is the new veggie garden sans the overgrown herbs.

It is a nice sunny spot on the side of the garage. Last night we had a mighty thunder storm and it gully washed up several of my plants. We got them back in the soil and I hope they will get some strong roots before we get a rain like that again. I have room to plant a few more things.

Here is a recent photo of Paige. She is now 2 months old!! What a special little baby she is!

Here are the recent green 3 x 3s.

This one is in honor of Pentecost Sunday. I guess tomorrow is a holiday. The family is coming over for dinner. I am going to make a rhubarb and berry crisp, but I don’t know what else.