bee creative

to be so many things (going big)

I used to worry (and every once and awhile still do) that I loved to do too many things.

The worry is/was driven, I think, by being part of a culture that values specialization. Success is often defined as becoming very good at one thing. 

That's just not who some of us are.

It's not who I am.

A few months ago (I know I should have paid more attention to where but I can't remember or find where) I discovered an artist that I wanted to know more about, Meryl McMaster.

So, I ordered her book. It arrived at the end of last week and it is full of wonder.

Buffy Sainte-Marie, in the foreword, writes about how it wasn't always that people were specialists.

We knew how to do many things. 

After some of the other reading/listening I've been doing recently (Nick Offerman/Wendell Berry in particular), it really clicked into place that we lose something really important when we specialize too much.  It's not just about not knowing where food comes from or how something is made, but how we might be and interact with the world around us.

There is a loss of faith in our ability to be something more than a consumer. It shows up every day in the news.

And as I go out into the garden every day right now and collect or harvest for projects or food, I am watch all the changes that are happening so quickly in this season. I am thinking about how much I learn from being curious about growth, about nurturing a garden. Thinking about how a garden is always a process. 

About how it influences me as someone who makes things; how I make them and why I make them.  A garden is abundant with possibilities. 

This is partly a response to Grace's and Jude's posts regarding making, but also something that I am almost always thinking about...

"Tell me what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"  Mary Oliver

 

always something

When all three cats are in the same place something interesting is happening.

This morning it was an opossum.

And Chester, one of the neighborhood cats, who wasn't budging from the path.

The opossum worked its way slowly towards the fence with all of us watching until it went out of sight.

And then it was back to watching the birds.

*

Heading for a hot weekend, over 80 degrees which is 20 degrees over normal.

 

greener

I woke up this morning and thought, "everything is even more green..."

While there are still blossoms on the cherry, it's as much leaf as flower now.

I was home for the day and it mostly rained so it was a house cleaning, puttering around kind of day.

A thinking about possibilities kind of day.

There was also a bit of mending on peace and plenty...

flowers again

A few beautiful days.

I've planted out tomatoes and tomatillos.  This weekend it will be beans and squash.

I direct seeded a bed full of dye plants: sunflowers, marigolds, scabiosa, bachelor buttons, madder, safflower and coreopsis.  

And making space for indigo.

There are also flowers of a different sort...

they just keep making me happy.

making things, growing things

Salve making:

Olive oil (about 1 cup) that  calendula petals have been steeping in + beeswax (about 1 tablespoon).

I usually dry any plant matter before adding to the olive oil.  This keeps it from molding.

I have a dedicated jar that I use for melting the beeswax in and use a frying pan as a double boiler to heat the oil and the wax.  Once the wax is melted, it is poured into the heated oil and stirred (I usually use a wood skewer).  If you try this, be careful with this step and don't walk away. 

The salve will solidify as it cools. 

The proportion of wax to oil will impact how hard the salve is.  My proportion makes a fairly soft salve that can almost become a liquid on a really hot day. 

Sewing:  This was dress length.  I never really wore it much and it's been sitting in a "re-do" pile.  Today I cut it to just above knee length and am now hemming it.  I will probably make a bag with the fabric I cut off.

Growing: 

The ginger has sprouted! I will put it in a planter and give it a good dose of fish fertilizer (recommended by a local farmer who grew it to sell at the farmer's market for many years).

The cherry, plums, pears and one of the apple trees are blooming.  This cherry has never set fruit.  It's supposed to be self-pollinating but I don't think it is!

Eating:

Pasta + homemade ricotta + sorrel (garden) + oregano (garden) + asparagus (garden) + hazelnuts and hazelnut oil (local, farmer's market) + parmigiano reggiano (from far away Italy because I am not perfect and I love it so).

Listening to:  Where the Deer and the Antelope Play by Nick Offerman.  Interesting, sometimes funny, political, and seriously concerned about the state of our world. He sometimes seems to go off on a tangent, which might drive some crazy, and he has what I would call a "potty mouth."

I am not quite done yet, but am pretty sure one of my favorite things he discusses is about how disconnected we become from our  environment and what it means to be a community, when we are only consumers... 

growing season

From my journal today:

April 23, 7:03 AM

I was up at 4 AM but then back to sleep…now just waking up to a world that seems to have tipped green overnight. All the leaves just beginning to bud on the deciduous trees. Maybe that little bit of warmth yesterday afternoon, almost 60 degrees? It’s rained and there are little droplets suspended from the branches adding to the beauty of the morning.

I love how this blurred. 

I started reading Enchantment, Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age by Katherine May.   Hazel mentioned it and I thought I'd just read a bit of it last night...Katherine May is such a beautiful writer.

She writes, "Not all that we know is verbal."  

I am thinking about that.

 

Paper that caught the drips of dye while undoing fabric bundles... I don't remember what with though + lake pigment made with onion skin.

I will still be sharing my experiments with pigments and mark making regularly.  I am doing something daily and suspect that it is a habit now.

#98 add color

Moving forward I predict some experiments with layers of color.

Yesterday's doodles with layers of color added this morning.

And guess who loves the blanket?

Still cold here, there was frost on Tuesday morning and the day's have a nip to them.

#89 spring fever

There are signs of spring everywhere!

The dandelions are very welcome in the garden, the bindweed is not...but wait, it can be used for twining!

Hmm...this is how I get into trouble.

One more day of good gardening weather and then it's supposed to rain again.

April showers!

It's time to watch Enchanted April again.

The camellia is about to bloom. 

It doesn't do very well if the flowers get wet.  Not really the best choice for this area but they are so beautiful and they can be brought in as a cut flower.

I need to get organized with my plan to put a shelf up for flowers high enough so that the cats can't reach them. 

I was trying to make an umbrella but things got out of control...

#87 today

Spent most of the day organizing...

With lots of assistance.

Garden task, watering:  I have baby tomatoes! Also the tomatillos sprouted.

Some of today's mark making. 

One of the coffee rings made a suggestion...

From this weeks Teacher Tom's Newsletter:

“The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.” Kurt Vonnegut

#86 fool

Fooling around...another way of saying play.

 

First harvest...even thought it's so cold that snow is still in the forecast.

Rhubarb Fool...