Work in progress, is what’s up! Go all out, and make it colourful, that’s right. This piece is jumping off the wall.
I just remembered all those beautiful and lively artisan weavings and carvings from Mexico, and got started… I am ready to start quilting this top.
Now that it’s pieced, time to get to the texturing phase…
I took this picture without thinking much about the result. It just happened.
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the KingdomBetween the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very longBetween the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the KingdomFor Thine is
Life is
For Thine is theThis is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
Excerpt from The Hollow Men, T.S. Eliot, 1925
When you live on a small island, you have to commute every week or two, to run errands, keep appointments and generally “get off the rock” (a local expression). For me, it often means getting on a ferry very early in the morning, then transferring to a second ferry, to get to “town” (another local expression for Victoria, on Vancouver Island).
Above: Saturna Island, from the back of the ferry. On my way to town…
When you start doing this almost every week, you settle into a routine, and it becomes very easy to be blasé about that commute. Once the ferry departs, it’s tempting to just snooze, read a book or the paper you have just purchased on the ferry… To kill time.
Even while reading the paper or a book, it’s a good idea to remember to look up and take in the magic moments, all around, during that commute…
Above: in the late afternoon, after transferring to the second ferry, I get to watch the Cumberland Queen, first leg of my trip home, from which I have just disembarked, go off to its next round of destinations, to pick up people and vehicles on other islands… BC Ferries, the “floating highway” that links the Gulf Islands to the Lower Mainland of BC and to Vancouver Island.
Bonus! Another magic moment, an orca sighting from the ferry deck…
Another Wednesday, another garden.
On our island, there are countless deer and goats that roam freely. They devastate gardens where innocent former city dweller naively plant glorious perennials and other such, dreaming of the future Eden they are creating… only to find their new plantings defoliated or razed to the ground in the morning.
Even so-called “deer proof” plants are fair game in these parts… Our deer are hard-core. And the goats, well, they are four-legged Hell’s Angels. They will tear, shred and ravage anything.
For several years, we relied on the safe standbys in the front garden: thyme, rosemary, Spanish lavender and juniper.
But a few weeks ago, the goats helped me convince my husband that a deer fence was in our best interest. You see, the goats invaded early one morning and savaged a young evergreen tree my husband had grown from seed. An Australian something or other. Looked like an upright juniper to me. It was seven feet tall, doing well. No more. It’s been debarked, and telltale teeth marks left on its trunk…
So, a deer fence is being installed right now. I walk the perimeter of our new deer “exclosure” (love that term!) and my mind reels! All kinds of possibilities are opening.
So I started a plant list and next, I will draft a planting scheme. Yesterday afternoon, I did some research. I invited myself to a friend’s garden, to check out some of the plants she suggested… and others. She took the time to walk me around her (very large and impressive) garden, and generously shared her knowledge. What follows is a visual report. Enjoy.
Without further ado, here is a group of pics that tell the tale of blossoming, on my kitchen window sill.
And not only on the kitchen sill, but also in the woods around my house, and in my garden…
Spring has arrived. Finally!
Calendula (calendula officinalis), or “pot marigold”
Bay laurel in bloom (laurus nobilis)
