Dreaming in the Garden

When my daughter was around 8 or 9 one of our favorite books to read was the Lost Flower Children by Janet Taylor Lisle. It is a wonderful story about how we deal with the pain of loss and the redemptive power of the garden. When I look at my mid summer garden I dream of fairy children playing under the canopy of leaves,

coloring the blossoms

swinging from the tendrils and whispering in the ears of each plant words of encouragement.

How does the earth know what to do with the seed?

How does the flower know when to release itself so that the fruit may spring forth?

How does such wonder come about? Only the fairy children know for sure.

Rebecca Ringquist Sampler

One of my favorite bloggers is Pam Garrison. She does a lot of creative stitching using old fabrics. On a recent post she talked about a sampler that she got through a friend. It really caught my eye as I love embroidery. As a young child, embroidery was my first creative outlet. Both my mother and grandmother embroidered ( see my previous post) so I consider it part of my heritage. Anyway I was dying to get a hold of one of the samplers which was created by Rebecca Ringquist, an artist in Chicago. Lo and behold on Pam's next post, she reported that Rebecca had started an etsy shop and was selling her samplers. She also has a flickr group for people to post their rendition of the sampler. So here is what I have done so far. I'm using bits and pieces of threads left over from previous projects so I not really going with any particular color scheme. I think it will add to the sampler feel. And here is the whole sampler. Isn't it lovely?

I'll be posting my progress on the flickr group. Maybe you would like to join too. Here is all the info: www.rebeccaringquist.com (website) http://www.drop-cloth.blogspot.com (blog with a link to her etsy shop) http://www.flickr.com/group/sampler/ . And for some fun and beautiful reading http://pamgarrison.typepad.com/pamgarrison/

Sunprint retreat

My husband and I took a long holiday weekend and went up to our mountain cabin. We hiked, biked, sat by the creek, read, ate, painted, fished and made sunprints. I should say I made the sunprints while he fished. I love doing this. I think I enjoy leaves more than the flowers in my garden. There just seems to be so many different kinds and shapes. I never get enough of their beauty.
So our cabin has a huge picture window that faces the afternoon sun. In the afternoon when the sun was shining through I put a big piece of plastic down on the floor, laid out some squares of fabric and painted away using Setacolor paints. I had pressed all the leaves the day before so they would be nice and flat and make good contact with the fabric. And the best part of doing it through the window was that I didn't need to worry about the wind kicking up and blowing the leaves or fabric away.
Enjoy looking at these beautiful gifts of nature.

Time in the Garden

All of my time seems to be consumed by my garden these days. So much to do. Weeding is a top priority. As crazy as it may sound, I love to weed. I find it very therapeutic. Weeds choke off life from the plants I love. And so as I weed I think about the things in my life I want to get rid of so that I have more time and energy to enjoy what I truly value and want more of in my life. Some weeds are so deeply rooted. I hack away at them but never seem to get to the base. This makes me realize how deeply rooted old hurts and wounds are that I can't seem to let go of. Will I ever be able to put these pests to rest? Will the root die off so that one day I can make one last yank and be done with it? Some plants have died. Did I not water them enough? Was the sun exposure wrong? Did a pest come in and take away it's life. Will another plant be more fruitful in the same spot? All good questions I ask myself about my life as I make my way through my foothills garden. I wrestle with the time I spend in the garden. What is the best use of my time. When I'm outside, I think I should be inside creating some art. When I'm working on my art, I'm consumed of thoughts of the weeds taking over, or something dying because I didn't take care of it. Then I remember how fleeting this time in the garden truly is. Here in these mountains I love the growing season is very short, so I let go and remember that in a few short months, the beauty that I longed for all winter long will be gone and I will have missed it. So I relax and try and stay in the moment and enjoy the beauty of each and every plant that has thrived.

My austrian copper rose has a shoot of this lovely yellow rose growing with it. Voodoo planted to acknowledge my New Orleans roots.

Snowballs. When I look out my daughter's bedroom window I see these beauties and realize what a lovely view she has had to look at every June.

The majesty of an iris and the simplicity of a daisy. Love the combination.

The vegetable garden just beginning to yield it's luscious fruits. We are now enjoying rhubarb, lettuce, spinach and radishes.

And a little art on the side created when the sun went down and the garden went to bed. Listed in my etsy shop this past week. http://pdlugos.etsy.com/

NOW BLOOMING--BLEEDING HEART

My favorite plant and my favorite words from Mary Oliver. The Bleeding-Heart
by Mary Oliver

I know a bleeding-heart plant that has thrived

for sixty years if not more, and has never

missed a spring without rising and spreading

itself into a glossy bush, with many small red

hearts dangling. Don't you think that deserves

a little thought? The woman who planted it

has been gone for a long time, and everyone

who saw it in that time has also died or moved

away and so, like so many stories, this one can't

get finished properly. Most things that are

important, have you noticed, lack a certain

neatness. More delicious, anyway, is to

remember my grandmother's pleasure when

the dissolve of winter was over and the green

knobs appeared and began to rise, and to create

their many hearts. One would say she was a

simple woman, made happy by simple things.

I think this was true. And more than once,

in my long life, I have wished to be her.

The World Turns Green

Someone flipped the switch on the seasons and it is suddenly late Spring in the Rocky Mountains. The trees have advanced dramatically over the last few days. Daily walks in my garden have been highlighted by picking new leaf specimens for pressing. Here are the ones that I collected today. I love the visual texture provided by the rich veining in the next two leaves.

Wanting to find another way to document my finds I decided to do some sunprints using Setacolor paints. My first attempt didn't yield crisp images, but I love the color and the way the paint migrated across the fabric.

These images are much clearer. Check out the beautiful paint migration on the closeup shot.

Can't wait for more warm summer days to make more sunprints.

"I am the leaf born in Spring

when life explodes in living things."

F.D.Howerton

The Path

I've had my mother on my mind so much over the last few days. It started when I was digging through a drawer looking for some fabric. I came across some embroidered pieces that I wasn't sure if they were done by her or her mother. So I called her and we got into a long discussion on sewing and how we learned to sew. Her memories were a lot clearer then my own. She remembers taking lessons from Sr. Jovita on Saturday mornings at Sacred Heart Academy. She was twelve years old. Her mother didn't sew until much later in her life but she encouraged my mom to learn and learn she did. My mother was quite the seamstress and very much a perfectionist. Details were important.

I don't remember taking any lessons until I was in high school. But I know I was sewing before then. I think I must have just picked it up from my mom and also from my oldest sister, Beth, who also sewed. Those high school lessons were wonderful. I loved being able to create something that I could wear and that was one of a kind. I remember my second year of home ec (going to a Catholic school, we call it CFL--Christian Family Living) and taking tailoring. I bit off way more than I could chew, and made a camel colored knee length wool coat. My mother must have spent a fortune on the fabric and supplies. It didn't come out great. The fabric was very heavy and difficult to sew on. But mother and Beth both encouraged me and I did finish it. I cried many a tear over that coat, mostly because I had to model it in the annual fashion show. Still makes me cringe thinking of that. Anyway, it was my mother's and sister's encouragement and help that I am so thankful for. If I hadn't had that, I know I wouldn't have continued to sew.

These are my mother's hands. The hands that started me on my creative path.

Here is her delicate embroidery made when she was a young girl.

I told you she was a perfectionist.

Here are my humble beginnings; an embroidered pillowcase made on a summer's day. I am so happy that I still have this piece--a relic of my early creative life.
I never could have imagined that I would be doing what I am doing today. And all I can say is thank you to my mom and to Beth for starting me on my way.