creating for fun and the appearance of green

I’m at that point again, that in-between place. Done with the crystal mobiles, my little obsession with an idea that perked around in my head for a few months until I finally made them, except for pricing. I did these for fun, not for income, but I don’t mind selling them. So I need to come up with some sort of formula and then tweak the results. And that will be it. I have no plans to make more having worked through the idea. The times I tried to force another expression of an idea after I had explored it the result was always a little ‘faded’, less satisfying. The most recent lesson was with the boxes. I had been working on this form for years creating each box as the idea unfolded. They sort of built on each other getting more complex until the Heron box, the most difficult and elaborate, and I knew, this is it, there is no more after this one. But then I had promised my one remaining gallery the Heron box when it was finished and as it turned out I finished it the night before the last day of our last annual December open house with our other glass artist friends in 2019 and I took it just to show it to the small crowd before sending it to the gallery when a woman who had bought smaller pieces from me before walked in and bought it. The gallery owner was understandably disappointed and asked if I would make a box for their anniversary show the next year and I agreed. But there was no blooming idea for one, I had to decide on something I thought would fit into the Ode or Reliquary theme and eventually chose the decline of coral reefs and because of the piece coming through a search instead of inside me I didn’t have the emotional attachment to it. It was still a lot of work but it’s probably the I like the least and all these years later it still hasn’t sold. Of course one of my cast glass boxes and bending wire to hang crystals aren’t remotely the same except when they both become ‘work’.

And now thinking what to do next, what little act of making will I focus on next. I have an idea but it’s still forming and I need to get ’stuff’ together. While I ponder that maybe I’ll do some quick little bookmarks.

Now it’s the next day (see? days to write a post), cool and overcast. A good day to work on the rest of the winter debris. I can get out there and work without melting into a puddle of sweat. Or not. Ventured out after hearing a long thunder rumble and it’s not just cool, it’s chilly and damp and starting to sprinkle. But I noticed this on my brief foray which seems to have happened overnight. 

I was out a lot yesterday and didn't notice the tallow was leafing out. The other two are still bare. The ash trees in the neighborhood burst out with a pale green haze last week. But now that I look around the ginkgos and little purple crepe myrtle (picture at top) are also sporting new little leaves. Looking up, the red oak is blooming.

I saw the wren today after not seeing her, well, since right after I started keeping the back door shut. I have checked on her progress on the new nest in the maidenhair fern, a nice cozy little tunnel of a nest and no eggs yet that I can see. I try to water the fern gently so as not to soak the nest but I didn’t know if she was still active, until today. I saw her perch on a small plant in a pot on the outdoor étagère beside the pot stand the fern is in, look around carefully and then drop out of sight. I can’t see through the bottom pane in my window because it has textured glass in it so I assume ms wren dropped down to her nest.

 

spring!, spring garden, boxing mobiles

Those of you who post every day, I don’t see how you can do it. It takes me days to write a post and some days going through my email inbox and reading blogs is all I can manage. Just don’t have the time, not if I want to get anything else accomplished.

And speaking of other things, I got everything planted I intend to plant except for more green beans in a couple of weeks. My six tomatoes are in, the first round of green beans, carrots, the basil I bought at the grocery store, and four of what ever is sprouting in my compost bin but I’m not sure they are going to survive (three of them look like they are going to make it today). Moving them from the compost bin to the ground in the middle of a sunny day was probably not the best time. I was going to try potatoes again but the feed store didn’t have any more loose seed potatoes and the tractor supply only had big bags. Maybe next year.

The azaleas are blooming, I’m starting to see some evening primrose and red bud trees around, my peach tree is putting on flowers, and the bluebonnets in the front have started blooming. We had more return this year than I thought since it’s been so dry. 

When we bought this place the entire easement in front of the house was solid bluebonnets that returned every year until the year that the county mowed the easement before seed had been set and dropped. I had stopped them the previous year but they came when I wasn’t here. Since, we get maybe a tenth of what we had. These drought years aren’t helping either.

I’ve been dividing my time between outdoor work and packaging the mobiles. Besides planting the spring garden, I still have a lot of winter’s dead to cut back like the banana trees which once again froze to the ground and now are laying on the ground from the strong wind we had. That and the rest of the wild Mexican petunias are all that’s left to deal with at the house but have bananas, the white orchid tree/shrub, the thick branches of the morning glory bush and the yellow bells I need the little chain saw for over at the shop yard.

So boxing the mobiles:  I worked out a packing system. First I converted this

to this. 

Then I laid out the mobile on 2” thick foam and drew around the shapes,

used a hobby knife to cut out the shapes in the foam which the crystals will nestle in,

glued the foam in the box (oops, mis-measured the width but it’ll do) and taped several layers of bubble wrap to the top. 

All I need do is place the mobile back into the foam

and close the box.

And that's your 'how to' for the week. Still have to price them and number them and their corresponding boxes or maybe print out and tape a photo on the top. 

Today is the benefit for my friend who is fighting cancer so I’m off to buy our two dinner plates.

weekend activities, good and bad

We had our second tai chi class this past week and I’ve put together a routine of about 7 movements we’ve learned in class. The movements have long fancy names, like Two Hands Hold Up The Heavens. I generally think of the ones I’m doing as standing, stretching, floating, bending, pushing, pulling, and walking. I also looked up a series of movements called ‘8 pieces of brocade’ which our instructor talks about. It’s eight movements, each one affecting, clearing, or strengthening specific parts of the body, organs, and chi (life force energy). I’ve watched videos of the eight brocades by three different practitioners and while the flows all have the same name, the movements vary a bit by practitioner. I’m doing the tai chi every morning, well, except Thursday, and sometimes some yoga as well but I’m still going to the three evening yoga classes so I’m not too concerned about doing a full yoga routine every morning. I’ll reserve judgement of whatever difference or benefit I’m feeling from the tai chi until I’ve been doing it consistently for about a month. 

The last two mobiles are done, 9 in all, and now I need to figure out how to price them. Right now they’re all hanging in the west and north facing windows in the corner in my workroom. They look pretty good hanging there, they make me happy to look at them. I guess I’m going to have to keep one but deciding which is going to be hard. I also need to figure out packaging, some sort of box for people to transport it easily without it getting all twisted up. It won’t do to just stick it in a bag. Anyway, here’s the last two. One is not crystals but strips of colored glass from a previous project.

I knew I was done with them because that last one, being the last and mainly doing it just to use up the last of the crystals, was days in making, I was all but over bending wire, but I finished it last night then scooped up all the bits of wire and other trash, put away the spools of various wire, and put away the tools so now my table is clear and ready for the next whatever. I think I’ll start with the art journal while I consider my options.That clever and artistic Linda Sue is thinking of making shrines with the 8 cigar boxes she has and I thought that was a cool idea. I don’t have any boxes suitable for that kind of thing but it got me thinking about shadow boxes, 3 dimensional dioramas, painting and cutting out the elements and layering them with space between. 

There are now 6 tomato plants sitting on the end of my desk that need to go in the ground. 

Plus I still want to transplant some of the healthy looking I don’t know what’s, maybe cucumber or possibly a squash out of the compost bin. 

I did get out there earlier today and finished weeding and turning the big garden area, weeded and turned the small plot where I had zinnias last year. Yesterday I went to the feed store and got potting soil, composted peat, composted manure, and some landscapers mix. The mix is to work into a flowerbed in the little backyard where I want to put a coral porterweed in the ground, get it out of the pot. It’s a volunteer I dug up two years ago in case I’m unsuccessful in protecting and keeping it alive but I’ve had the one in the ground for 4 or 5 years so I think I don’t need to keep it in a pot.

Wren report, denied access to the house, she has started to build a new nest in the pot of maidenhair fern by the backdoor. At least I think it’s the same one. I’ve seen her going in there four or five times with dead plant material in her beak.

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Once again our illustrious leader Trumplethinskin, the so called Peace President, the man who claims he has ended 8 wars in his first year, who feels slighted by the Nobel Committee because they have not awarded him the Peace Prize he thinks he so richly deserves, the self appointed supreme leader for life of his new Board Of Peace, has illegally, without the consent of Congress, and unprovoked bombed the shit out of another sovereign nation. This time Iran, a nation that imposed no immediate threat and during ongoing negotiations, without warning and in conjunction with Israel starting Saturday morning and continuing through the weekend killing 150 Iranian little girls. I’m sure we all feel much safer now that those heinous elementary school girls are dead. They did succeed in killing Iran’s supreme leader and many in the upper echelon of the government but Iran is not Iraq or Venezuela. Iran is a big country with a strong military and some powerful allies and the whole region is going up with Iran retaliating against not only Israel but every Arab country that deals with the US and allows US army bases in country. Trumplethinskin is an idiot and a dangerous one. He has no concept of history or the delicate balance in the Middle East and how easily it goes up in flames. Not only is he Putin’s puppet in Putin’s attempt to dismantle NATO and destroy American influence, now he is Netanyahu’s puppet, goaded into this aggression by Saudi Arabia’s lap dog Jared Kushner whispering in T.r.u.m.p’s ear how this will be great for future real estate opportunities in the region. So the man who has been sidelined by the nations of Europe and Canada creating new defense networks and trade agreements excluding the US, whose ego demands he be the biggest bully and the most feared, who equates threats with statecraft has given the hornets nest a big whomping. And he doesn’t give a fuck who dies, how many Americans and other innocents he has put at risk in the Middle East. It won’t be him and that’s all he cares about. 

This is a link to an essay by an Australian. Worth the read I think.

To end with something more pleasant, Cat sleeping on the lap blankets on the back of the couch that we no longer need but haven’t been put away yet. 

springy, warm, and an unexpected gift

Today is as still as Wednesday was windy, not even a tiny breeze nor tinkle from a wind chime.

I am overwhelmed. Thursdays are my fullest busiest day of the week and I have no time for online shenanigans. This morning it seems every blog I read posted yesterday and my inbox has about 30 new emails. 

The little wren is pissed. She has added a lot to her nest in the light fixture over the past four days. When I got home from SHARE yesterday she was in the house, in the fixture, and flew out the open back door when I came in the garage door. This morning, she is perched just outside the open back door scolding me sitting at my desk and Cat laying on the big table. When I went in the kitchen to fix breakfast she flew in and perched on the desk lamp 

and when I was sitting at the dining room table where I have a line of sight to the fixture, she was in there rustling around rearranging the leaves of her nest. When she flew out I got up and closed the door. It won’t do for her to actually lay eggs so I’m going to have to keep the door closed from now on. Or else get a screen door.

So Thursdays…SHARE and we were busy but not overwhelmed, probably just over 30 food orders, mostly bigger ones. I forgot to ask but that’s about how many when it’s steady and I can keep up with refilling the baskets (A, B, C, D, E according to the size of the family) so that all the guys have to do is pull the appropriate basket(s) off the shelf when a food order comes in to which they add all kinds of other stuff from their section and from whatever produce donations came in that morning. 

Yesterday after SHARE I took the accumulated cardboard from the day to the recycling container, on the way home stopped by to see my friend who is battling cancer and bring her whatever produce or milk that is left over (she and her husband have custody of three of their grandchildren), fixed lunch, after lunch took about a 30 minute nap, walked the dog, fed the cats, hung out with Paisleigh for another half hour, and then hightailed it to yoga. When class ended, Susan came over and said don’t rush off, Bruce has something for you. As we were leaving I walked to the truck with Bruce, he reached in and handed me this

with this lovely inscription. 

I show off pictures of whatever art thing I’m working on with them and Stephanie and I guess Bruce really liked the birds I did on the notecards and so he gifted me this book. So now, I need, want, to do a little painting of one of the birds in the book for him as a thank you. 

Walking the yard after breakfast I was met with two surprises, the first amaryllis and the first iris.

All plans to work in the yard today have evaporated because I have a primary care office visit this afternoon which I have to leave for soon. And now I’m back and all is well and I learned I have aged out of mammograms and poop tests/colonoscopies unless I’m having actual problems or if I just want to get my boobs squished and poop in a jar for old times sake.

I doubt I’ll be able to catch up on all the posts I have missed yesterday and today because tomorrow y’all will have posted again so I'll just sally forth into the future.

 

windy day, crappy night, little frogs

It’s very windy outside today. Not only are all the wind chimes going off madly but the wind is adding a roar of its own. I had thought I would work on the garden some today but not if this wind keeps up, sustained 22 mph with gusts up to 45 mph. I had a crappy night last night and don’t feel like being battered by the wind. I need to go get potting soil and compost from the feed store and I have something coming up in the compost bin, cucumbers maybe? Could be acorn squash, definitely some tomatoes. The plan is to remove the biggest best looking ones and get them planted in the ground and see what they become. Then I want to add last year’s compost to the garden space. I’m only planning on planting tomatoes and green beans, maybe some squash which never do well. I get one or two and then the plants succumb to vine borers.

So my crappy night. The dog would not settle down. Wanted out multiple times. The cat kept wanting to lay on me and she’s heavy and between the two of them they kept pinning me down so I could barely move to shift positions. During one of the times I got up to let the dog out I collected the nail file, nail scissors, and clippers to work on my ingrown toenail that had started to be painful (I mean, why not, I was awake). All I managed to do was make it hurt more. Then, we have a rat in the house/walls. goddammit. The first time it woke me chewing inside the wall of my bedroom I got up and kicked the wall enough times it left. Several nights later, last night, it was back. Again, kicking the wall with my other foot and then banging on the wall higher up as it scampered up to the attic but it didn’t come back. And finally, just before dawn the dog wanted out again and this time I let her out, left the door open enough for her to get back in whenever and went back to bed. So I am not in the mood for any foolishness today. The only thing I can say is I’m glad it’s not Thursday.

I have seven mobiles (you've already seen two of these) and enough crystals to make one more and some colored glass strips from a previous glass doo dad thing I had made years ago and that hung outside and finally fell apart that I could make another mobile with (I’ve already used some on two). I guess I’ll work on those today. They'll be the last though because my fingertips are getting sore from bending all that wire.

This is a talavera pedestal to a bird bath. I woke up one morning to find the dish that sat on top on the ground in pieces so I’ve been using a plastic pot tray with a rock to hold it down as a basin until I can find a ceramic glazed pot tray to use. I had picked it up to rinse it out and when I did I saw this…

four little tree frogs.

Here’s a fun little test/game about how well we remember color. I’m not going to tell you how poorly well I did but in my defense, I did it this morning and there was a lot of glare and reflection on my monitor.

a nest in an unlikely place and other doings

Believe it or not I do proofread my posts before I publish and still they escape me. Last post, it should have been ‘garden’ soil not ‘green’ and spring grasses and ‘weeds’ not ‘winds’. Besides the spring grasses and weeds these warmer days have also brought the fire ants back up to the surface. Oh joy.

The other day I walked into my studio room/office and startled a wren in the house and out it flew through the open door to the little backyard. This is not an unusual occurrence in the spring when I have the door open and no screen as they are curious little birds and they like to build nests in places like the garage and barn. The last day or two I’ve noticed some dried plant material on my desk and the floor, not a whole lot and I thought maybe it had come in on Cat. Yesterday morning I happened to look up at the light fixture above me to see this…

I climbed up on the desktop to get a better look. 

Wouldn’t it be cool if she did lay eggs and hatch some babies except, you know, it’s indoors and access to the outside is limited and then there’s a resident cat who would be happy to pounce on the little fledglings. 

I finally got out there Friday and started working on two of the garden plots. Didn’t get the all the weeds out of the bigger one but got three fourths done. I saw that one of my clumps of narcissus finally decided to bloom. 

I was going to spend the rest of the day doing what I really want to do which is work on the current mobile but that didn’t happen, only spent about a half hour and then it was more outside work; fertilize and water all the pots, use an organic poison on the fire ant mounds and water that in, walk the dog, feed the outside cats, and fix dinner which was a sort of cheaters cabbage roll casserole. I already had ground beef, onion, celery, garlic in the freezer left over from stuffed bell peppers so I chopped some cabbage and sautéed it, added in the meat mixture and some of my tomato sauce from last year, put it all in a baking dish, covered it with leftover mozzarella and baked it for about 20 minutes.

Yesterday morning after breakfast I went across the street and worked on cutting back stuff for about an hour and so another big pile to be moved to the burn pile. Spent the rest of the day finishing the armature for the bigger mobile and trying to arrange the crystals to get a balance in weight and shape. Harder than it seems as I spent hours moving them around from spot to spot and finally had to make two adjustments to the armature, replacing one of the arms completely and adding an extension to one end. 

Still not completely happy with it so I imagine I’ll be futzing around with it again today and since it turned cold again last night, currently in the 40s, I won’t be distracted by the outdoors. Maybe. It’s a pretty day, cloudless blue sky and it will warm up. At the very least I should gather up some of the piles and if not get them to the burn pile at least get them in the back of the truck.