Pink Sky at Morning

Sailors take warning. It’s gonna rain again, for the next four days. O boy.

Luckily the last three days of our weather were perfect  for my visitor Roseangela, who returned to Chicago yesterday. We had a wonderful time and it was way too short. One of the things I like best about having guests is the cooking. I get to make food we both love and it was a three day feast. And a great excuse for desserts!

The garden was ready to show off, and we relaxed by the pond and watched frogs float, which is more fun than it sounds. Dave built a bonfire which had embers that lasted overnight, so Rose and I stoked it for a second day of fire.

We took a short tour of Chattanooga right after Rose landed to ease the transition from Big City to tiny country town. There was a whole lot of non-stop chatting, laughing and noshing. And Dave was very entertaining with his excitement over getting back into baseball. He has joined a Men’s Senior team in Atlanta, and while this is a three hour drive from home, he gets to carpool with another guy from Chattanooga. Still after his first game he got home at 2 am. No injuries so far… oy!

 

Rose and I went sightseeing/shopping to Signal Mountain where the scenery is spectacular and the homes are likewise and we got to visit the little birdbath gardens again.

and a place where we will return in the new old truck for free mulch. Woo woo!

It was a great but short visit and now life returns to normal…laundry.

Our Eden

After an exhausting but satisfying day building the Suez Canal (Dave’s name for our log/hill project) we were treated to a fabulous sky show. The trees on the far hill have just a line of lingering light, turning red as the sun descends.

The three tiers are finished and are awaiting mulch, of which we have bags and bags to scatter. I planted three varieties of ornamental grasses, Stella D’Oro daylilies, liriope muscari (guaranteed to be invasive) and English Ivy (also guaranteed to invade).

While it looks OK so far, we are not finished…more soil to add and more plants to purchase. But that will all have to wait as this week will be way busy. I have my sister-friend Rose coming for three days MTW and then I must prepare for my dyeing workshop this coming weekend May 2-3. I’m happy I got everything planted that was waiting in pots and seed packets.

The Hosta bed is full to overflowing, which is fine for this year, but I am asking for trouble when everything in here doubles next year. Eek. Well, I had to get them away from the voles. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it. There are also phlox, coneflowers, black eyed Susans and bee balm in this bed, not to mention peonies and calendulas or coreopsis, I can’t remember what I planted. In fact I am sure I am nurturing several lovely weeds in hopes that they are flowers…duh.

The heuchera collection also has a few leftover hosta. I’m trying to make it colorful without the aid of actual flowers. Altho there is some empty space and we can’t have that for long.

My daily watering ritual has begun, since the rains have ceased and the temps are in the 80’s already. Veggie Bed #2 is seeded with green beans (way too many), beets, carrots and bush cucumbers, also way too many, but I will be ruthless in pinching them off once they sprout.

This gorgeous plant is from my shade garden in IL and is a European Ginger, asarum europaeum. I just love it and have divided it and the hosta it is attached to and have it in my shade garden, where the voles ignore it. It looks so much better here in Tennessee than it did in IL. I plan to divide it every year until I have a bunch of these glossy beauties.

And last but not least, the dogwood is in full bloom and better than ever. See what a good rain year will do?

#1 Veggie Garden Bed

I love this part. The sun has warmed up the beds and I can finally plant the tomatoes and peppers. When you have a raised bed like this one, the soil is so loose and lovely that it’s like crumbly chocolate cake. Dee-licious feeling! I wear rubber gloves and use a trowel but really I would rather go barehanded and just scoop the dirt with my fingers.

The edge of the bed is kinda narrow so I have that little white step stool to sit on, as well as a really great kneeler, which I can’t use ‘cause of my knee. Nevermind, everything is so easy to plant this way that I don’t need to kneel.

I am planting only three tomatoes this year, so far anyway. Two Bush Goliaths which are determinate and stays small and one heirloom, Brandywine which will have to be staked. Dave doesn’t eat tomatoes so there really is no point in overdoing them.

But wow, do I have a lot of peppers. Eek. Two Poblanos, two Gypsies which are so prolific that I will have peppers to give away, and a nine pack of green bell peppers. Two many? I think so. But who knows what critters will be attacking them, so better to have too many than not enough.

I also bought a pot of chives. I have chives from seed that I planted last year, but compared to these, not worth a mention. I cut off the peat pot they were in and divided them into four parts with a serrated knife. I like chives for their blossoms more than anything and put them in the four corners of the pepper bed.

 

Here’s bed #1 all planted. I also planted two zucchinis and a couple of yellow straight necks. Hmm, this bed is mostly stuff I eat. O well. The other veggie bed will have carrots and green beans and Dave likes those.

Here’s what’s happening in the Lasagna bed.

 

It’s more of a rescue and recuperate bed at the moment. Vole eaten hosta and ferns, a few calla lily bulbs and a sedum, all trying to come back from trauma. This bed is made from just layered wet newspapers, straw, leaves and last year’s tomato potting soil piled up against the retaining wall. It is protected from too much weather and it really does help the weak plants recover.

This is my latest big idea. Of course poor Dave has to make it happen, but even he likes how it looks so far. The two parts of the hill came together here in a crevasse that was starting to erode badly. Nothing would grow there and at the top of the hill was an ugly bush which attracts a zillion bees when Dave has to mow the grass. Out came the bush and Dave built terraces with some freshly cut logs, filling in between them with the clayey soil. We will then top off each level with beautiful black humus and plant liriope, hosta and perennial oregano which will cascade nicely over the edge of the logs. At the top level goes my ornamental grasses which are still awaiting a home.

One more row of logs to go, but Dave had to take a break to go play baseball at the local high school. He has been scouting out someone to catch his pitches for a while and got the idea to go over and talk to the baseball coach where he was welcomed with open mitts! He is back to his old self thanks to these new meds. Ain’t life grand? We are both finding fun people of like minds here.

An Exciting New Artist

Well at least she’s new to me. Geninne over at Geninne’s Art Blog is the creator of this lovely image, Edmund, king of the blooming magnolia tree.

I went nuts (OK, more nuts) when I saw it. And then I had to investigate. It turns out that she is very open about her tools and when I saw that white line detail I really had to know what she used to get it. FW White Acrylic Ink. Who knew?

Is this gorgeous or what? OK I am tingling with excitement and have to get my hands on some of that white acrylic ink. So while I was in town a few days ago I went to Hobby Lobby and pooh, none was available. They carry the brand and everything but the white ink was not in stock. Then yesterday I had to be in town again (knee doc…arthroscopic surgery for me on May 6) and checked out the other Hobby Lobby and no white ink again. Darn. But I bought the dip pen and some white paint thinking I could maybe make that work. Not. At. All.

Frustrated, my memory suddenly came up with a vision of the drawer full of inks I bought like several (who’s counting) years ago, and never ever used. Duh.

Whaddya know. White ink! Waterproof too, which means it must be acrylic like the other brand.

I had to try it out right away. It works!

So why is this so exciting to me? When I paint graphically like the piece below, I wanted to add details and patterning, and used paint pens and gel pens, but they are either too fat or too faint, or just not visible enough. It never occurred to me to use dip pens and inks. Duh again. (There is a lot of duh-ing going on in my mind today.) Dipping pens and the new inks are so much better than they were last century when I was a school girl. All of that scribbling above was done with one single dip…it lasts longer than I thought. And no blobbing or skipping either. Amazing.

So next time I have a rain delay and can’t be working in the garden I am getting out my paints, pen and inks and I am going to draw like the wonderful Geninne!

Full Up

To all who commented on my mother’s passing, I am filled up with love from you.

Thank you so much.

An Itty Bitty Bit of Fusing

Last night I had so much fun watching my guild, the Choo Choo Quilters, play with my fused scraps. Our team brought in batting cut to 8 inches square, and I gave the shortest demo of my career before I had them dig into the big Rubbermaid full of fused fabrics.

Some blocks were a more generous 8” than others…!

This was so much easier than teaching a class, since no one had to fuse yardage. I love how the precut dots and dot-waste made itself into these compositions. Time was limited and as soon as people got their fabrics the room turned spookily quiet. It was amazing how quickly everyone got a square filled with color. I think I may have ‘convinced’ a few that fusing is the way to go.

I love them all!

Things my mother taught me

Beverley Taylor Budach Link 1927-2009

This is the nicest picture I have of my mom, and I don’t know who took it or when. It is so rare to see her smiling. She was a bitter, resentful, unhappy woman for as long as I knew her. I rarely mention her in this blog because if you can’t say something nice, better not to say anything at all.

But she did teach me many things, namely sewing, knitting, cooking and the trombone. Yes, the trombone. We had a few weeks of playing marching band when my cousins stayed with us one summer. Trumpet, baritone, and cornet were attempted by the boys and I got the trombone. We were just awful. But we laughed and laughed until tears ran down our cheeks.

Mom also taught me by example and this is where the saying something nice will be trickier. I was the oldest child and got her ‘undivideds’ for many years. I was taught not to trust anyone but her, and that everyone I liked had something undesirable about them. It was my job from the time I was about 4 to support her emotionally, and cheer her up constantly. She was unfaithful and I had to keep her secrets. She lied to me about everything, for no good reason, and I had to believe her, since I was a totally dependant child. Whatever I was good at, she had to be better at, and that competition was constant through my adulthood. There was a point at which I surpassed her abilities and she withdrew her approval immediately. But I still had to maintain my role as her champion, protector and cheerleader. It was exhausting but I had no choice.

In her eyes boys had all the advantages and she did her best to undermine my two brothers’ childhoods. They broke away emotionally early and yet carry their damaged psyches to this day. I was not allowed to love them as that would have been disloyal. (of course I did, but hid it for years).

My little sister got the worst of it, being the baby, and having to live through her divorce and miserable second marriage. But that is Brooke’s story to tell, and I’ll leave that to her.

When I was about 35 I realized that I could never become whole until I disengaged myself from her vice like grip. It was a difficult guilt inducing thing to do but with help from all sorts of professionals and my darling husband I did. I put some emotional distance between us and ended my role as enabler. It was then I began to notice how other mothers behaved and what a contrast they were to our mom.

Mothers are involved in their kids lives, attend their school plays, sports events, recitals, graduations, etc. They cheer them on and support their teams, encourage their attempts at relating to others, and bind their wounds or heartbreaks. Mothers want the best for their kids.

I wanted that and missed getting it. Still, it’s never to late to have a happy childhood, so I let it all go and moved forward and lived a very happy adulthood. The distance increased between us because I refused to participate in my old behaviors and I was replaced by my sister. I became the enemy, just like that. I couldn’t prevent the same thing from happening to Brooke, which I regret. But we are both free of it now and we are trying to understand her mental illness.

Mom had a heart attack about the time we moved to Tennessee and she went into a nursing home in Missouri. Brooke came back from Singapore last September and we made the trip to see her together. It was strange. No hugs, no handholding, no “I’m so happy to see you”. I made a video for my brother at his request and couldn’t show it to him because she still had to say mean and nasty things about him. Even though she hadn’t spoken to me in 15 years she had a plan that I would build her a house on my property and she would leave her husband and come live with me.

Mom died in her sleep yesterday afternoon. Last month we had decided to donate her body to science and I found a place online, submitted the paperwork, and they took care of everything. There will be no funeral. Brooke and I wish Mom had been religious, but unfortunately she didn’t really trust God either and couldn’t get her mind around the idea that He could love her.

We siblings are just left with an empty space where there should be emotions. Not exactly sad in the conventional way. Sad that we have no feelings.

So if you are a mom, or have a mom that is a goodie, then be grateful…which I am sure you already are.