No Pill Bug Left Behind!

Things are stirring in the studio and I have some pictures to prove it. But first here is a story from the garden:

On Saturday we put in all the summer stuff: twelve varieties of tomatoes, yellow straight neck squash, zucchini, hot Thai peppers, jalapenos, sugar snap peas, cucumbers, radishes and assorted herbs. It was so beautiful all lined up perfectly in rows, dark composted soil neatly raked, mounds of fragrant cedar mulch in little donuts around each plant. On Monday it rained a lovely, long, soft rain and I thought to myself: "How perfect!"

Unbeknownst to me a silent but deadly attack was taking place all day Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. When I marched out to the garden to check things out yesterday afternoon I was dismayed to see two tomato plants completely chopped in half (or should I say chomped in half), a fan of slowly decomposing radish leaves on the ground and half of a squash plant gone. I bent down to take a look and discovered the soil moving. It was, I am sad to report, a veritable army of Rollie Pollies, Pill bugs in mass, Sow bugs on a mission, Woodlice at war. These little critters where attacking all my new plants by gathering in a group, surrounding the stem and munching it until it timbered to the ground. Upon closer examination I saw they were eating the roots as well. Argh!! What to do?

All afternoon I battled the critters. I dumped diatomateous earth over everything, poured coffee at the base of the plants, scattered coffee grounds, set orange slices out to trap them, picked off the bugs one by one and even squished them with my bare hands! Did you know that these ugly bugs are edible? It turns out they are related to shrimp in some bizarre way. I read online about one man who dared to scoop up a spoonful and try it out. I am not that brave or that desperate.

Today there are less around, but I lost a pepper plant and another piece of the squash in the night. By tomorrow all the plants I have been mothering for weeks on the porch may be reduced to stumps. That would certainly make me weep. I might even tear my hair out a bit. For now the Great Rollie Pollie War of 2009 roars on. I am preparing yeast traps as we speak!

Other parts of the garden are thriving so it is not all going bust. I have 4 new plants volunteering from my purple passion vine. The bees are out in full force, drawn by the amazing fragrance of the blossoms on the lemon tree. Yellow daisies are bursting out of a bush by the front door. The old fashioned rose is covered in beautiful little white buds that smell divine. I have a vase full on my desk right now.


Here are a few pictures of some new work. I am calling these things "experiments". It helps me to play a little if I don't have the burden of having to make ART hanging over me. Three pieces made with watercolor and gold pen.

These next two pieces I did for Lent and Easter. The Lenten piece was used for the cover of a Lenten Devotional that David and I put together.

Lent

Easter

Finally, and just for fun, a whale:

Assiduous Hours and an Inventive Polyglot

“I wish life was not so short, he thought. Languages take such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about.”
J.R.R Tolkien

Drat! Despite my fervent hopes I have turned out to be a negligent blogger.

Sigh, weep, gnash teeth.

Life just seems to be full every day! My to-do lists dance in my head like sugar plum faeries gone to the dark side. Sadly, I always think I will get more accomplished in one day than I actually do. As an update here are a few before and after shots of projects that I have been working on. Sometimes it is impossible for me to make new art when things like this are lurking nearby.

A before version languishes in the garage

After, cheery in its new kitchen home.
(It's light blue.)

Before, a dreary old dear.

After, with burlap seat covers and a happy blue paint, darling!

When I think of people like J. R. R. Tolkien, who created entire languages in his spare time, I sometimes get very depressed and think I must be the laziest person on the planet. He not only created but also wrote poems in these new languages. He even wrote his personal journals in his favorite made up language. I think that particular one was based on Finnish which, as we all know, is a remarkable easy language to learn in the first place. My only consolation lies in the fact that it took him 12 years to write the Lord of the Rings.

Nonetheless, I will write again after I: get all my mending finished, sew some stuffed critters, finished the planting, pull the rest of the wild onions from the lawn and make a cape for my nephew. Oh yes! I almost forgot there is art to make as well. I am, after all, supposed to be an artist. I think somehow my days are full of shorter hours than everyone else. Sort of like my own personal wormhole. You see, I had planned to do all this while David is out of town for the next few days. I now see this is highly unlikely.

If by some small chance I do manage to accomplish this herculean feat, I will feel like this:
Until then, many happy Orange Julius to you, little cabbage.

“There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.”
J.R.R. Tolkien

Paraprosdokian Perhaps

Warning:
This has turned into quite a lengthy blog due to the fact that I have been a bit behind on the blogging. Let's forgo the part where I make excuses and tuck right in.

But first a disclaimer:
I have been asked to share my recipe for gluten-free bread. And I will! That recipe, among others, will arrive in the next blog on happenings in the kitchen. In honor of my brother's request to write more stuff about food, I will be covering such topics as a) how Cauliflower looks like brains and b) my attempts at making bitter leafy greens taste good.

And now an interlude:
Let me introduce you to a new friend of mine: Simon Ferdinand Merely. Below is a photo of him. He would be positively aghast if he new it had been taken at such an uncomely angle. For shame! Fortunately this is not a cameo appearance; he returns toward the end in a slightly more flattering pose.






I declare! On to more serious matters:
Two weeks ago David and I celebrated our anniversary. We went to stay on a friend's houseboat for a few days. The funny part is that we had no idea it was a house boat until we saw it. We thought it was a house by the lake! It turned out to be wonderfully perfect. We cooked in the little kitchen, enjoyed hours of reading, watched movies, gave each other gifts of more books, and rested.

Eating Indian food (cooked by David) on the houseboat. Quirky rabbit rug for atmosphere!

My card to David. A tiny packet of images from a medieval manuscript and hymns; a small handmade book titled "50 Things I Love About David"; an accordion-style card full of quotes and thoughts on our first year.

After a few days on the boat we drove out to Laity Lodge and enjoyed an inspiring weekend in the company of some of our favorite writers. The Chrysostom Society was having their annual meeting and we just happened to be out there at the same time. We enjoyed meals with them where they fired limericks back and forth and talked about publishing and books and a common love of good words. It was amazing to have conversation with authors whose books have so shaped me.

I spent most of the day working in the well-stocked art studios making things out of sheet of copper--a new material and technique to love! We left feeling so refreshed and inspired. Truly a great way to start our second year of marriage. On the way back to Austin we stopped and ate in Fredericksburg. Spicy sausage was the perfect completion of a great week.

Working in the art studio at Laity Lodge.

My little copper plaque.

Eating German in Fredericksburg. (German food, that is, not an actual German.)

Hungry animals loose in FredricksBurg!

I have been reading Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales again. I am overwhelmed by how unusual they are. It's really a great exercise for my imagination. People are always getting turned into birds or flowers, Witches appear everywhere, and someone is almost always either being captured by the wicked or banished to a tower. It's great and sometimes pretty strange! The best thing is, they all end happily and the good folks always survive. Ahhhh that's the world I want to inhabit.

Creatively, things have been busy for me. David went out of town for a few days and I took the opportunity to make a huge mess on the dinning room table. Snips of thread, scraps of fabric and pins everywhere. I covered some floor pillows for my sister-in-law in a fun red corduroy, altered and repaired tons of clothes that had been in the mending basket for months, and made some fun and weird little stuffed animals for a friend's baby shower. It was great not to have to clean it all up at the end of the day!

Meet Simon and Symore Merely. The first friends from the family of Merely's. Samples currently being made in the test studio, soon available for sale on etsy. (Cat pattern came from the awesome book: "Amy Butler's little stitches for little ones")

Two weekends ago our nephews, Cormac and Brendan, came over. We had a grand old time playing in the art studio. They helped me dig out some beeswax from old sculptures and watched me burn wax out of shoes with my propane torch. I love my propane torch.

We also made some awesome monoprints. One printed with me in the garage while the other practiced doing very important things, like balancing a wooden pole on your nose, with Uncle David in the front yard. It was glorious.


Lots of new creative projects are on my to-do list including making more little creatures. Can't wait to introduce you to Chalmers Tavish Merely!

Simmers and Sputters

I love the winter light. This afternoon I was sitting by the window in our front room catching up on some email correspondence enjoying the grey light and white winter sky criss-crossed by all those bare Pecan branches. The sun was setting and I loved watching the light turn dark grey and then grey blue and then deep smokey charcoal; it was enough to make me go right out into the studio and start on a new drawing. But I didn't. Instead I went right into the kitchen and made some Butternut Squash Soup.

Homemade Granola in our Giant Jar

This kind of experience has been recurring the last two weeks. Most of my desire to be creative in the studio has been re-routed into the kitchen and so my hours are full of quiet domesticity instead. This is not really a bad thing. I just need to figure out how to fit the art making between the keeping of a house and garden.

David getting domestic with the Nieces

Speaking of gardens, David and I enjoyed a truly giant head of cabbage from my parent's garden. Cooked up with bacon, onion and garlic I was surprised to find it was rather spicy tasting, far more interesting than your grocery store variety cabbage. The head was so big we only used half of it, so yesterday I cooked another large pan full with some Apple Cider Vinegar and Mustard Greens from the garden. Now that's some healthy food.

Giant Cabbage Head

We have also had Kale in our smoothies this week, Chard with our eggs, Hummus made with Flax Seeds, Rutabega with a Roasted Chicken, and Apple, Pecan, Rasin Whole Wheat Muffins to which, after tasting, David said: "These are healthy muffins!"

Healthy Muffins, Gluten-Free Bread and Tomato Basil Soup

Healthy eggs and marginally healthy sausage

I think our bodies are enjoying some top rate nutrition.

Pomegranate with Yogurt and Honey

Besides cooking we have been tweaking our ever morphing house with some new shelves for our piles of books, Spackle and wall touch-ups, new red paint on some outdoor metal chairs and a small shelf transformed with robins egg blue paint and light green and cream paper lining. Add in some general garden tidying and pruning and really we have been quite busy.

Next week is our 1 Year anniversary of being married and so I doubt much creative work will be taking place as we are going out of town to celebrate. But things are rumbling... I have dreams of imaginary rabbits and magic birds to deal with soon. There are also girls in red dresses and Cranes on spindly legs to make worlds for. And then I still have all the Octopus and Squid adventures to chronicle! Soon, soon.