WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT

An unlikely subject for my post today....the good old stand-by Duct Tape, the standard original sliver stuff! It's multiple and varied uses touted by high school students who use it to make wallets and prom dresses, among other things.

When I was having the basement put under my workshop, I had decided to use the excavated soil to put a Kitchen Garden outside our back door. I used the cement blocks that had held up the workshop to frame this little garden, and this spring got it planted. It is coming along, though I know it will take a season or two for me to get it the way I'd like it. I have herbs planted in it, along with a few flowers and two tomato plants...so I can step out the door at dinner time, and bring a really fresh one to the salad.

The Kitchen Garden.

I planted the just about visible two tomato plants about three weeks ago.

Now this Kitchen Garden is directly in the 'road' between the deck and the dog house, the two places Sapala, our dog, spends her time. So it is not surprising that she dashes through it, top speed, several times per day, no matter the reprimands.

Two weeks ago, the plant you see below.....

...was found languidly lying on the dirt, severed at its base, except for a thread of plant fiber connecting it to the stem...and I mean the barest of fibers.

Still, I did not want to loose this plant, and although I thought it was a goner, I got the Duct Tape out, taped it back together at the base, and buried it just a bit deeper.

and much to my surprise, it took. Here is the tomato plant, none the worse for wear. To say I was surprised is to put it mildly...but grateful, as I am sure the plant is, too. Perhaps I found it at precisely the right moment, just having been severed and eager for repair, or perhaps there really are 'magic' uses for Duct Tape beyond the ordinary.



On another note or two....

two 14" x 47" table runners just completed...



and dinner last night. A spinach salad fresh from the garden, along with an omelet of asparagus also freshly picked. (My asparagus is quite prolific, and I pick nearly 2# per day, needless to say, we eat a lot of it and I give much away.)

Garden Images

There is something about a spring garden that I love, perhaps most of all the gardening season. I love the tidiness of it all; the stretch of growth you can almost see; the verdant leafs of radishes, spinach, lettuce; and the potential that is almost palpable.

...radishes, like school children, neatly rowed up...

...the ruffle-like bouquet of lettuce...

...broccoli, at the head of the class, already heading up...

...peas, so far this year, untouched by rabbits, will soon begin their climb...

...and the beans, like umbrella-ed soldiers marching not quite so straight...

...unfurling quietly, but in big ways...

...onions shooting up so straight they seem like spears...

...and just a few of the 30 tomato plants along tomato fences...

...and this one I just could not resist. I saw it at an Amish greenhouse, and left it their that day, though it was only $2.50 and already had flowers aplenty and 4 tomatoes on it. But it just would not leave my mind, nagging at me constantly, so that the next day, back I went, and here it sits, at the head of the 'class' far and away advanced...

...and the potatoes which seemed to have sprouted and pushed themselves up all in a day...

I can sit in my garden chair for a long time just being. The relationship between the plant, the soil, the sun, the rain, it is almost visible, there at the edge of sight. It seems a holy place, my garden, where nourishment of body and soul abounds.

...and last, but clearly not least, the plethora of zinnias vying for their space, I can almost see their fall presence, exploding with a profusion of colors, shapes and sizes....

I am grateful for this garden. I feel privileged to be the one tending it. I am thankful for what these plants will give to me, and pray what I give back is worthy.

Back to the Looms

Yesterday while working in the living room, front door open for air, I heard the tell tale, unmistakable call of the Sand-hill Crane. It seemed to go on and on and on. Finally I went to the front door to see what was going on. There, just across the road, wandering back and forth, back and forth, plaintively crying was what I supposed to be 'the mother' crane. It surely seemed to me that she had lost track of her family, was visibly upset and kept up that distraught call. I don't know if they reunited that morning, as it went on for a couple of hours and I had other things to do, but as I have not heard the same lonesome mother 'song' yet today, I assume they found one another.

On another note, I am back to weaving, rug loom strung up and ready for the boat shuttle to zing between the open shed, and the beater to bang its weight on those rags.

I am also ready to resume work on this lampshade

which I 'warped' a while back, but am determined to complete now. It is a very time consuming warp, as it is fine wool yarn, many ends per inch, and as I use my fingers to open the 'shed' in order to weave in the weft material,this does not go fast. Still, it results in more of a tapestry type weave than is achieved with the rags.


More like this one I wove and gave to my daughter.

...a detail of the lampshade in progress. Some fine silk yarn, silk fabric, and some tie-died cotton as well. I have no 'plan' for this design, and allow it to progress as it will.

This is another lampshade on the ready, 'warped' with rag and to be woven with rags as well. I kind of have an idea of what I'd like to do with this, and of course it entails highlighting the individual rags, we'll see how that turns out.

RAG BALLS...AGAIN

My fascination with the rag sections of my dwindling supply of old rag balls does not dwindle. I recently started another lampshade,

and became so entranced with the individual six to ten inch sections...envisioning little girls' Sunday dresses, grandmothers' everyday house-dress, grandfathers' work shirts, I very much wanted to showcase the fabrics....

...and so I incorporated Rya Knots as I wove along...

...ensuring they would get attention...

At the same time, using up still more of my meager supply, I was weaving another rag rug. Again the dilemma of showcasing the strips...

...and although the rug was pretty in its own right, I decided to

...applique a field of flowers. I think the little girls, the grandmothers, and even perhaps those hard-working grandfathers might approve.

I bought these balls so long ago at various auctions and rummage sales, I cannot recollect where or when. It is interesting to me, however, that so many of the balls contain some of the same fabric pieces. I selected the balls at random for these two projects, and deliberately choose the fabric pieces to highlight, from the ball I was weaving with at the time. In the end, much to my surprise, I see that some of the Rya Knots and the applique flowers are in fact made up of the same fabric.

I will be so sad when the end of these rag balls finally arrives!

Great Celebrations...Birthdays and Gardens

Elsa turned two last Sunday on Mother's Day. Now that was a celebration! We went to the park for cake and ice cream after a lovely brunch with Elsa's parents, her grandparents from the Twin Cities and me. I had made a carrot cake in the shape of a 'peep' (chick) and that was a hit,
however, it was the ice cream that truly made her drool.

....mmmmm, I just can't eat this fast enough...

One of my favorite children books is Baby Owls, a sweet, tender story with really beautiful pictures. As Elsa, above all other else, loves things that are tiny I thought that this little book would be something she'd like. As soon as I picked up the book at the bookstore, I knew I would make the three baby owls, and the mama owl and give those to her as well.

...and here they are....

When she opened the box containing them, without hesitation she...

picked up the babiest owl and clutched it to her face. It was really sweet.

It was a happy, happy birthday party and we were lucky, in this spring of unpredictable weather, that the day was quite nice despite what the weather man said.

And it has been a tough spring in which to get the garden started. First of all, I put my very large garden to rye last fall wanting to plow it under for green manure. It has been slow growing and never reached the height I would have liked. On top of that, it has been wet and there has been little access to the garden. Finally Freddie was able to plow the not-long-enough rye under, and just yesterday finally got it tilled.

This is one of the plots, and just beyond the green strip is another, perhaps half this size.

For several years I have been raking the newly tilled soil into 'raised' beds. I do not enclose them with boards but simply pull them up into beds that measure about 8" high all around.

It is quite a task raking the soil into beds of varying sizes, (as my shoulders right now can attest to) but I so much like having a path around each bed, being able to walk on all sides and to reach its middle easily.

Above a bed of Swiss Chard, a bed of lettuce and not quite visible a bed of radishes.

Two very long beds, one of leeks and one of onions.

With a gloved hand, I poked a finger into the loose dirt, set an onion in each hole, and gently packed earth around it. I must have planted over a hundred leeks, and perhaps nearly as many onions.

I haven't yet hauled the straw bales down from the top of the barn, but raked this straw off my asparagus patch and repositioned it around the beds. When the sun shines on this straw, I am afraid that 'the miller's daughter' will come snatch it and spin it into gold, it is so beautiful.

There's is a lot of garden yet to be planted, but it feels oh so good to have gotten started!!

And I even started another rug today.............

and that was a pleasure, as weaving tends to have to 'wait' until the planting is complete.
I've raked...I've planted...I've woven today....I'm happy.

MOTHER'S DAY

My mother and Peggy, me and Corky.

My mother, seemingly long gone now, is never far from me. The days of my youth are surrounded, permeated with her and now in the days of my age, it is not less so. She is deep in me, the best in me, and her gifts are everlasting. Yet this Mother's Day it is not only her I honor, but the life she gave me and the life that was born of me, as well.

Just home from the hospital with Jonel.

She filled my arms and my heart.

For You Who Gave Me Motherhood

There was a time
I thought it crazy...
irresponsible
to bring a child
into a world-
over crowded
war-torn
confused
environmentally slipping...
I thought this with conviction.

But I clearly remember
the moment this changed,
though I cannot recall
what caused that change.

Sitting in a psychology class
I was swept
head to toe
(cliche though it is)
with the desire
to have a child,
a girl child specifically.

I never questioned, nor pondered this,
never weighed it against
my former convictions,
I just became
the truth of it.

I clearly remember
the night you were conceived
the sudden knowledge,
a silent quickening
when that tiny fish
tailed its way
to exactly
the right mate.

That was long ago...
and we've come through years together...
bursting in joys both big and small
-sentences at nine months
-tears for the smashed, bloated ticks
you claimed were your pets
-the kittens, the kittens, the cats, the cats
-your utter love for trees and stones and grass and sky

harrowing through the bumps of life...
ragged and sharp
-a mother sometimes quick to anger
-the teenage years
-the divorce
-and those days of mother/daughter strife
one reads about and wishes it were true
of someone else.

Here we are, down all these years
I honoring you for what you are
-for what you have become
-for how you live your convictions
for a cleaner, safer, sounder world
-for your considered self,
who weighs and sees all sides to issues
-for your utter love of trees and stones and grass and sky

and for your daughters
big-eyed Iris
and her utter love of trees and stones and grass and sky
and brown-eyed Elsa
who seems to have been born
loving,
a born-loving child.

There was a time I thought it crazy
to bring a child into this world

and now I know
the world needed you
and so did I.

How great is a mother's love!

BEYOND WORDS

It was about 6:00 or so, just after supper, last Saturday evening when I happened to look out the window to the most incredible sight I have been treated to, perhaps in the realm of sunsets, ever. Our granddaughter Morgan was staying with us, and I quickly brought it to her attention. She was, honestly, jumping for joy, and proclaimed that the miracles of this weekend, (seeing a wood duck, a large beaver dam with beaver's head poking out, and this) were brought about by her stay with us. Who knows?

Anyway, outside we rushed to 'be in' such beauty. I, with my camera, knowing I could never truly capture the intensity of such a show, am not altogether displeased with the results.

Morgan and grandpa....

The dark was just alongside the light as though nudging it along.

And then to out delight, right before our eyes, a rainbow appeared...

...and seemed to span the very place we stood, it was truly magical...

I doubt any rainbow I've ever seen, even the double ones, surpassed this one's beauty.

A slight downpour of about 3 minutes is all that occurred, and we stayed outdoors until the darkness took over. This weekend's stay at Grandpa' and Nonna's was full of natural wonders.