So what is it about blogging?

Belle, a little lamb girl, having a morning snack

I've been trying to figure out why I love the idea of having a blog, but I don't make many posts. After some reflection, it seems that the point of a blog is to share your life, or a specific part of your life with others. I have friends who blog only about their art, or their gardens. I visit blogs that are devoted solely to cooking or photography. I am not an expert on any of those topics, or any others for that matter. At least, that seems to be what is holding me back. It is dawning on me that I don't have to be an expert, I can just be who I am. So that is what I am going to do. I am going to post about my gardens (yes, I have more than one), pets, my family, my art, and any other thing that strikes me, maybe even politics. Get back!

I cain't dance and it's too wet to plow

Italian flat leaf parsley

Actually I can dance and I am not plowing, but it is wet. So wet that installation of raised beds has been put off for over a week. I do have one 4 x 10' bed, so I've planted some herbs, lettuce and onion sets. 

Dixondale Intermediary Onion Sampler

As I've worked in the garden these recent mild days, I am filled with wonder. The smell of the earth, the feel of the soil, birds singing, sun warming my face as I look at each small plant and imagine how it will grow. These small and delicate living things are filled with mystery. While I am sleeping in my warm bed, they will be outside in the cold, sending their roots out for nourishment in the dark soil. While I am looking at garden photos on pinterest, their leaves and stems soak in sunshine and moisture, and they grow. It's magic. 

Baby steps, baby steps. Persevere.  

Garden Fever

1/19 tiny baby lettuces

Okay, folks, I've been away for a while. I want to catch you up on what I am up to these days. I am garden-obsessed. I am putting in more raised beds, upping compost production, introducing chickens into the cycle, raising plants from seed, keeping a big garden journal complete with photos, and poring over garden related websites. I want to raise a ton of vegetables, eat them to be healthy, give them to friends, and freeze, dehydrate, or can what's left. This is all with the cooperation of Oklahoma weather conditions for the next several months, so it could go south in 5 minutes of hail (last year) or a few weeks of 100F+ days (last year). I want to put in a tornado shelter/root cellar and expand our small greenhouse into a larger aquaponics operation.

(I feel a sense of urgency about this, no doubt due to my recent birthday. It's so strange to be at a point in life where year to year plans seem so tentative.)

I've been inspired by Ruth Stout, a 20th century gardener who sometimes shocked people by gardening naked. I don't intend to do that (although it does sound nice) but she had a method of growing that makes more sense than the traditional tilling and weeding. Here's a two-part youtube video of an interview with her.

I am reading City Chicks: Raising Micro-Flocks of Chickens and laughing my head off while learning about integrating chickens into my garden. Here's the basic plan: Put some straw down on the ground in a pen. Turn the chickens loose in the pen. Feed the chickens kitchen waste and let them peck around on the ground. When the straw gets nice and poopy, move the chickens and their pen to a new site. Put the poopy straw on the garden or in the compost bin. When the plants in the garden get big enough that the chickens can't eat them, turn the chickens loose in the garden and they eat pesky bugs and poop right on the garden. Of course the garden is well mulched so the chicken poop doesn't burn the plants. Do I have the stomach for all this poop? It remains to be seen. Can I connect with chickens spiritually? I doubt it. Oh, one more thing of course, eat the eggs!

I have ordered plans for a chicken coop and I have hired someone to build it. I haven't decided what kind of chickens to get. Any chicken raisers out there want to advise me?

People are growing potatoes in containers, which takes up less space, and results in potatoes that can be harvested by simply dumping the container over. I have salvaged some big plastic trash cans and plan to use those for growing potatoes. Trip to the nursery for seed potatoes today! Shopping on the Champs Elysee? Getting my nails done on Rodeo Drive? Attending runway shows in Paris? Booooooring! Get me to the seed potatoes at the local nursery!

This is Darrell, my garden assistant. Actually, it might be Darnell, they are hard to tell apart. Either way, I don't expect much of them and they oblige by not doing much.

Allison Aller's Blue Ribbon Quilt

Allie has done it again -- a blue ribbon at the IQF! After 9 hours of looking at quilts and shopping, I am so tired that I can't remember the details; sorry, Allie -- would you mind leaving a comment with the information? I spotted the quilt from several yards away, and the first thing I noticed was that it appeared to glow! This photo does not do it justice.

International Quilt Festival

Fabulous art in every direction. These are not your grandmother's quilts, for the most part, although grandma's quilts are here, too. Abstracts and representational quilts which have been painted, stitched, stamped, composed of the traditional 3 layers of batting sandwiched between 2 layers of fabric all the way to multiple layers, even 3-dimensional attachments ... a feast for the eyes in every direction in the enormous George R. Brown Convention Center.

The shopping is incredible and I'll post photos of my best "finds" after I get home.

I am poised between inspiration and a sense of complete failure as an artist. These are the best of the best and I know I'll never be that good. But I can be inspired and persevere so I am planning on going with that.

To be cont'd

Quilt Festival!

Slightly unfinished ATC

Tomorrow morning I'll set off for my first trip to the International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX. I hate crowds, jostling, and loud talking and from what I've heard from others who have attended the Festival it is made up of crowds, jostling, and loud talkers. My friend Colleen persuaded me to go by offering a chartered bus, uh, motorcoach trip. Someone else drives, handles luggage, lets us out at the door of the hotel, and takes us to and from the Festival each day. And, we'll only be at the Festival for one evening and two days. I think I can handle that arrangement in exchange for fabulous shopping. Yes, I know it's a quilt festival, but I am interested only in the crazy quilts and art quilts -- a small part of the exhibition. Shopping is the big draw. Over 1,000 purveyors of all things textile selling their fabrics, laces, ribbons, and more. Buttons galore. Things I've probably never even heard of but desperately need. Colleen and I have even made Artist Trading Cards for the big swap over by the Quilting Arts magazine exhibit. I hope that I run into old friends in the aisles, wouldn't that be a great surprise?

Think of me in that crowd, jostling and being jostled, screaming to be heard above the din as I smack another woman's hand to get that last package of gorgeous lace. I'll let you in on my acquisitions (that word sounds so greedy, doesn't it?) when I return.

Time to finish those ATC's.

Lavender Sage Art Retreat

Four days with 10 wonderfully creative women, making art in a beautiful studio in the Texas hill country with two amazing teachers. Wow! We learned about monoprinting, collage, sketching, watercolor painting, blind contour drawing, continuous line contour drawing, image transfer, journaling, making a box, and best of all we learned about ourselves as artists. We visited art galleries, ate some great barbecue and Mexican food, and our chef Tess fed us very well at the Studio. We spent time sketching at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. I am truly grateful for the connections that we made with each other, and for the opportunity to observe such talented artists. Oh, and I had all kinds of fun, too!

Next Lavender Sage Art Retreat is in April, 2012.

Thanks to Sona for lunch and a visit to her beautiful home and studio on Monday. What a treat! From Sona's Colleen and I went to S. Congress to visit Uncommon Objects and Tesoros where we managed to acquire even more "stuff" than we did in Salado. By then we needed a snack and hit Guero's down the street before we left for Oklahoma, where we arrived home about 1:30am. Tired but happy.

I have posted my photos to MobileMe and I'll upload to the flickr group soon. Here's one of my favorites from the Wildflower Center. I believe this is Texas sage; it was blooming everywhere.