Fiber Artist
Earlier this week I spent a lovely afternoon with my botanical-dye-and-printing-friend Katherine, catching up, enjoying being in the yard and doing some printing. I’ve been using Fabriano Medioevalis paper since I began my botanical printing adventures and I have always been happy with the results. The papers measure 3.5″ x 5.5″ and are a nice […]
I’ve made several trips to Sauvie Island and shared some of what I found here. On Sunday I made a visit with two friends who know the island well and where the best places for picking wild blackberries are. The berry patches were huge and heavy with plump, ripe fruit. I haven’t picked wild blackberries […]
I have just submitted an entry for an exhibit with my new community of fiber artists. New communities have new ideas about how to do things. The rules can be long and detailed. It can seem overwhelming at first. Is this just a reaction to change? Perhaps. But darn! This is the kind of thing […]
We have been missing the incredible boxes of farm-fresh vegetables and fruits that once came to our door from Shooting Star CSA. After all, it’s spring — so where are the strawberries and asparagus? I have found a local source. Organics to You works with many local organic farms and other sources for organic foods […]
I went to the farmer’s market this past weekend. Not just any farmer’s market, but the one that Portlanders refer to as the Mother of all farmer’s markets — the Saturday market at Portland State University. And it is well named, let me tell you. The produce at the market is top quality. Check. Click […]
My trillium is coming up as though it were spring.
Click on an image for a larger view.
This is the time of year when it is difficult to be indoors. The garden is bursting with new energy and rewards will just keep coming over the next few months. And speaking of rewards from the garden — here is our first box from Shooting Star CSA. Spring is here!
This fascinating fruit always draws comment when newcomers visit my back yard. ‘What is it?’ and ‘How do you use it?’ are always asked. The short answers are that it is a citron and I primarily use it to candy, though I have plans to use it in jam. For more details, check out the […]
Shooting Star CSA delivered their final box of farm-fresh vegetables for the season this week. The Romanesco cauliflower looks too beautiful to eat! The rest of the box looks just as tasty and has me looking forward to the 2014 season.
We all need them at one time or another. And aren’t we thrilled when we get a second chance to do the right thing? Well, I’ve gotten one! Last June I shared an embarrassing moment in the garden when I mistook a soon-to-be Western Swallowtail butterfly for a tomato worm and killed it. I was […]
Where to begin. There are many things in progress here. After all, it’s July — the height of summer. Our side yard with the succulent plantings is filling in nicely. Here’s a close up of one panel The male oriole and his entire family — 2 chicks this year! — visit our feeder regularly. He […]
We celebrated the first day of summer this week and this morning I picked our first ripe Early Girl tomatoes along with some basil. Can we say Caprese Salad? The rhubarb is about to take over! It is growing in a 4-foot square raised box. Too bad those enormous leaves aren’t edible! The magnolia I […]
Here’s a quick update on progress with the door and side yard project. The door and post have been painted. Here the door is open so you see only the edge of it and the post. Paint colors were inspired by an orange succulent and some of the blooms (for the post) and a new […]
If I want to harvest any rhubarb this year from this front-yard plant, I’ll have to remove the blooming stalk. It has reached 58″ tall and competes with the Eddie’s White Wonder Dogwood. Once the stalk was removed I could get a nice shot of the fully opened flowers. The stalk is a full inch […]
There can be no hiding my joy in seeing all the vibrant signs of Spring — I’ve got the fever bad! I popped tomato plants in the vegetable bed along with seeds for lettuces, radishes, cilantro, parsley, basil and more. While those are busy sprouting, the classic dogwood is in prime bloom. Next to our […]
When I attended the 2011 SF Garden and Flower Show I fell in love with the dovecote that Succulent Gardens had on display. I was inspired to plant a few panels of succulents for myself. You can read about that trip and the subsequent planting here. I attended the annual event yesterday and was in […]
Spring officially arrives on the 21st of the month but my Buddha Hand tree doesn’t keep a calendar. It is loaded with blossoms and nearly every cluster has a fruit well on its way. See the small one developing just NE of the open blossom? This fruit is already about 5 inches long. A few […]
Inspiration is everywhere. When I traded a trellis for a used door last year, it fired up inspiration for finishing off a neglected side yard. The first thing was to install the door. Once installed I couldn’t wait to see some terracing done. The 4 mini rock walls will ensure that the soil doesn’t move […]
Last year a pair of Titmice found the nesting box and raised a clutch right under our kitchen window. It seemed that we had barely cleaned out the Bewick’s Wren nest from the year before, when the Titmouse spied the box and started building. We removed the nest this past weekend. The difference between the […]
During the summer I swapped a trellis that wasn’t being used for a door my friend Peter no longer needed. We’re both happy. Today the door was installed in our back yard. Here you can see the rather uninteresting side of the house: the hill is being terraced to create long flat spots so the […]
Last year when I planted the succulent wall with Barb there were a few cuttings left over. I knew immediately that I would plant them in the three completely charming pots that my friend Dale gifted me with several years earlier. Here they are today. I’ve searched my blog for the posting about the succulent […]
This time of year the hummingbirds become thick at the feeders. We have one at our kitchen window, one in the back yard and one in the front yard. All three are the hummingbird/oriole feeder because we have regular visits by the orioles as well. We’ve had enough traffic at the kitchen window that a […]
