sprig to twig

When friends bought a new couch for their TV room, they found it comfy but boring. Laurie had certain colors and sizes in mind, but didn’t want to wait. I loaned them some pillows to use while I worked on the custom order.

Working with a color palette chosen by someone else can be fun and challenging. I gave Laurie swatches of all my fabrics, from which she chose rust, taupe, steel gray and a touch of bright yellow.

I call this one ‘Bubbles’. I made two of these, so one is now available in my Etsy shop.

‘Waveburst’ is the other one she chose, after deciding that the loaner pillows would have to stay as well.

The mixture of colors, sizes and designs works surprisingly well. Indoor shots are never very true to the colors, but you get the idea. I love the isolation of my studio, but this project put me in touch with the kind of new thinking that collaboration can bring to bear.

There are a couple of things about this photo that I want to share with you. The first is that winter sun above the treetops, which needs no pointing out from this guide. The second thing, you will just have to take on faith. See the black specks in the treetop front and center? When I looked out this morning, they were moving. At first, I thought they were leaves, but they were floating from branch to branch, rather than falling to the ground. Quick…the binoc’s…they were hummingbirds…lots of hummingbirds! This is definitely the sort of thing that can make one’s day!

Our super-charming cousins, Noami and Ian, have been in town, and introduced a new use for what I have always called “Pot Flags”. Noami describes it better than I do (in the post linked above), but basically the concept is to put out a flag whenever the bar is open, or you are just in the mood to entertain. That way, friends or neighbors will feel free to pop in when the time is right.

As it turns out, buying through my website was less than self-explanatory, so I will be working on correcting that. In the meantime, I have begun to add flags to my Etsy shop, where more will be added on a regular basis.

Etsy is proving to be a dangerous place to hang out. I just came across this cocktail ring at BigHelmetHead. Is it not just the niftiest?

I have, in fact, been sticking with my commitment to take my camera along on walks. It somehow prompts more attention to details like this tree, whose catkins have tassled up delightfully.

Then there was this holly growing up through a tall cedar and loaded with bright red berries.

Here’s where the warning part comes in. In order to get these shots, and some of a gnarly old apple tree still hanging on to aging, bronzed apples (that didn’t turn out), I found myself scrambling up brushy embankments. A day later, my face began to itch something fierce. Before long, I looked like a victim of something between jungle rot and teen acne. Now, I know what poison oak looks like. My cousin Billy was my partner in crime in the early years. We found some fabulously shiny and colorful leaves in the woods one fall day, and thought that armloads of boughs would please our mothers no end. Quite the contrary, as soon as they spotted us they snatched us up, branches flying, stripped us down and scrubbed us raw with lye soap. We got out of it scot-free, but Aunt Florine swelled up until her eyes were mere slits. Lesson learned. Poison Oak sports oak-shaped leaves with a surface that gets its shine from the sap that causes all the trouble. I didn’t spot any on this expedition, but it must have been lurking there somewhere. My advice is to stick to trails at least until things leaf out and you can tell what you are getting yourself into. Regular applications of tea tree oil have calmed down the itch enough that I can resist the scratching that spreads it around.

One of my favorite little shops is in NW Portland on 24th, just off Thurman. Its name is Oxalis and it is in part of a little house, with garden art out front, all kinds of fun gifts in the house and plants out back. Like so many places that sell plants, once the season passes and the offerings lose their summer luster, great deals are to be had. I picked up Euphorbia amygdaloides ‘Helena’s Blush’, Hebe ‘Silver Dollar’ and Sedum rupestre ‘Angelina’ for a song. (actually, they probably would have paid me to spare them any singing)

They went into this petrified wood planter, where they are too crowded to stay for long. ‘Helena’ blushes deeper as temperatures drop, so she has provided a nice alternative to flowers in the dark months.

So this is what wishful thinking got me. I will cut all the dead stuff off and hope for the best, but I fear my vision of a massive Phormium tenax anchoring this bed will never be realized. Had I wrapped it snugly against the deep freeze, would the diagnosis be any better, I wonder? The new Yucca ‘Bright Edge’ came through unscathed, so I will be moving in that direction with replacement purchases.

This well-established tree has lost its military bearing. Unlike the dry, lightweight snow that fell in great quantities and lasted over a week in ‘08, doing little damage, our recent snowfall was wet and heavy. I’m hoping this guy will recover with time.

Here is another victim. I must pass both of these sufferers any time I leave the house. It is like having disapproving uncles “tsk tsk”ing at me. How much effort can it be to take broom in hand to relieve them of their burden? I promise to try to become a better caretaker in future.

Yesterday brought light spilling across the breakfast table. A walk was called for.

The path down through the back of our property gets pretty overgrown by mid summer, but right now the extreme weather has beaten back the blackberries (see…some good did come of it) to reveal great swathes of sword ferns.

A big old hemlock has moss-covered stumps of limbs that look almost like spokes interspersed with the living branches. The close-up view is a nice reward for tramping through brambles.

The way the moss captures the light turns everything sculptural.

I love the way ferns grow out of the mossy trees. Those Oregon grape look so much happier than the ones I planted.

Color, texture…the forest floor has it all.

Now that’s texture!

The people before us sold off many of the large cedars on the property. It was a scarred landscape, but even the stumps are being reclaimed by nature and draped in beauty. She does a better job than I could dream of, so whenever I become frustrated by lack of progress in the cultivated garden all I need do is take a stroll back here. Hope you enjoyed coming with me this time.

I have killed a number of Phormiums, even some kept in pots and moved about to avoid freezes. This one was in the ground for a few years before the winters of ‘08 and ‘09 swept in with unheard-of deep freezes.

It looks pretty good here, but if last year is any indication (and I think this year’s conditions were even worse) these leaves will shrivel and need cutting back as time goes by. It was half again as big before last spring’s haircut. I rejoiced that it came back at all, especially since it is in the care of a slipshod gardener, who failed to wrap or otherwise protect it. Do you think we are in for a long term shift in weather patterns, or was the recent double whammy an aberration?

Here it is! The one thing blooming outside right now.

Once all the Christmas razzle dazzle gets put away, the racks in front of our one-stop shopping center fill up with cheery primroses. I can never resist picking up a few to brighten the entryway deck. Once other things displace them, they go into the ground in the woodland. The white ones are most satisfying. The blues and pinks kind of disappear against the dark background of the forest duff, but the white sparkles and seems more vigorous as well. These began blooming as soon as the snow melted.