Garden Creep

I am assuming that the title to this particular post is confusing, as I could well be the "Garden Creep". Actually, I am referring to the fact that I keep making new garden beds and therefore the garden is creeping out further afield and eating up lawn. Less grass to mow! This also distinguishes me as a "Garden Creep" from the "Roadside Creep" that lives down our road. That individual is the sort that stands out in the road, smoking endless cigarettes and staring at anyone who drives by. A pugnacious Roadside Creep! I actually reported to Bob that I saw him driving car at the local shopping mall, as we thought maybe he didn't drive. A Mobile Roadside Creep: the worst kind! Thankfully, he lives up the other way and I don't have to pass him on my morning walk.)
But back to more pleasurable pass times. We were thwarted in our intentions to work on my studio floor as the lumber yard decided to be closed for the Labor Day Weekend. Maybe that's a good thing, as it compels us to spend time doing other artistic pursuits... like measure the horse for hoof boots. (It's what they're all wearing.) And dig garden beds.
And look:

With my stubby little fingers for scale, we have a lovely example of the Dahlia Kelvin's Floodlight. He and several other gigantic blooms exploded this week. I have apicture of those, too.

These guys are big, too, at least eight inches across. BIG! And tall.
But back to my efforts at a new garden bed. Something about the termination point of the bed that ran at a right angle (that you can see in the top photo) never sat right with me. It seemed like it need a cross bed. So Jules and I set to work removing sod and rocks and applying compost (the dark stuff in the top photo. Believe me, I already have plants to put in it, too. Several nice things languishing in the cut flower area need moving (Stokesia which is a lovely color, and a nice red phlox) and of course I found a few bargains at nursery centers (Limonium and Vernonia and a half dead coreopsis that the nursery woman GAVE to me because it did look half dead) and even a Stop and Shop markdown- a salvia with terrific dark purple foliage. And I forgot! I bought myself (on sale, natch) a really smashing Chamacyperus Obtusa "Cripsii" as a late birthday gift. So the new bed is full before it's dug. I guess I'll have to dig another bed...

Another Stage Complete

Bob and I got the sill installed on the block. That was a big accomplishment. We had to get the wood- in sixteen and twenty foot lengths, no less- and then cover the underneath of the pressure treated wood with this sort of cheesy yellow foam stuff that comes in rolls. It provides a barrier between the concrete block and the wood so that the wood won't rot. But it's one of those products that just doesn't seem like it would do anything, but what on earth could you use in place of it? It would take days to make some kind of barrier. It was cheap, so I guess I shouldn't question it's existence! (I have left over piece of it and will probably use it in an art project).
Anyway, Bob taught me a neat trick for marking where the bolt holes were to be drilled. We lined the board up on the sill, with the bolts sticking up from the concrete, and wham! Bob bashed the wood with a sledge hammer. It created a dent in the board and that's where you drill your hole. Clever.
Then we had to lift the board back on the block and bolt it down. We dodged rain all afternoon, but we finished and it looks nice: ready for the framing to appear.
I was tired last night, what with all the sill-iness (hahaha) of the day,but of course woke up after only an hour or so of sleep and couldn't fall back to sleep. I tossed and turned all night, finally falling asleep somewhere around five this morning. Just in time for the alarm to ring and send me off to work.
So my brain is fried and I am ready to crawl off to bed. Here's what Bob did this evening:

No, he wasn't grilling us some wonderful organic repast. He was burning squash vines that had been harboring these nasty worms. I think I blogged earlier about those awful worms that bored holes into the squash vines, causing the whole plant to wilt and die. You can't compost pestilence like that; you have to burn them. But that led to Bob and I musing on how we haven't cooked out doors even once this season. And the summer seems to be advancing too rapidly to fall...

The "Other" Life Forms: Molds, Mildews and the Like

This is sort of a "what is it?" I haven't done one of those in a while; in part because we threw away so many things left behind and maybe we're at the end of that era. Except that carpet rectangle above. Looks sort of like the underlying pavement, doesn't it? (Don't look at my awful old garden boots. Very comfortable, but pretty nasty!)
This carpet has some history. We discovered it here (and lord knows what it's story pre-BobnRita was), and until I made the bold decision to throw it away, it seemed inextricably linked to our lives. It "lived" at the base of our chimney for at least the last year; I say "lived" because as you can see, it's covered with it's own carpet of mold in attractive marbleized patterns. For some reason, neither Bob nor I saw fit to discard this disgusting artifact- until today. Unless someone else wishes to rehome it...
And then there is the powdery mildew explosion:

Looks a bit like poinsettia if you squint; the Christmas in August effect. The hot, dry weather has caused quite a bloom. I have a whole garden section of this stuff. It is getting to that time of the late summer when things start to implode and molds, mildews and fungus. Don't mention to me that some road side leaves are beginning to show signs of red and gold.
On a happier note, we have procured the wood for the pressure treated sill of my studio. I'll include an updated picture that features the installed sill, maybe tomorrow. I hate pressure treated wood but there really is a good argument for using it (wood resting on concrete). This the one place we will use it in the construction of my studio.

That was our pathetic little dessert last night. I felt sorry for it as it was reduced and it was the only one like it. Also, it was totally out of season (like fruit!) as I think those are Halloween colors. (Reminds me of the displaced Xmas mildew above). The careless teen-aged grocery bagger let him slide sideways, making his features adhere to the roof of the plastic protective package. By the time I got home, it was doubly pathetic. Tasted good, though.

There's Blue and Then There's Blue...

Just what I needed! Another idea has sprung, unbidden! into my brain! A new project! A smaller scale project than say, the studio... but a new thing to spend time and energy on none the less.
I have been remaking/remodeling the Blue Garden, what with munificent birthday giftees that enabled a real structural approach (as opposed to helter-skelter compositional style until recently applied). Incidentally, I have been a terrible gardener, indulging my lack of time in all manner of unorthodox plant tortures like digging grasses out and forcing them to live in damp wheelbarrows for days on end. Oh well; today, in between doing a million other things, I'll at least replant my blue friends.
But the new project is the above haphazard pathway that describes the left edge of the Blue Garden (or is that the "Booze Garden"? Between having rows upon rows of blue wine bottles and blue beer bottles and corks topping the bamboo stakes (so as not to poke out one's remaining eye), it's quite the celebration of other people's drinking patters. We really don't drink white wine (much) and infrequently indulge in cheap, domestic brands of beer). But we gladly accept other people's empties!
Anyway, we have been working a lot with cement and concrete. (Remember that ongoing project?) Bob and I have been rinsing the cement off the tools and containers on this path. My thinking was that it gave it a thin coat of cement and made a casual "sidewalk". But then I realized that we could do a mosaic of sorts, using cement as a grout/binder/base and embed broken BLUE glass and dish fragments. Brilliant!

It's begun already. The other day at work, I mentioned my new scheme and was promptly handed a box with some lovely, but badly damaged dishes. Gilt edges, no less. So any and all of my clumsy friends are invited to forward their broken blue dishes (or empties) to The BauHaus Chicken Coop. (And Wasil? Don't worry about sharp edges, okay?)

Sunday Sundries

I know everyone is just dying to see the foundation... done! Bob and I worked all week and pulled it off. Before my "vacation" ended, we had finished the block and mortar. Bob swept up so it looks all clean and new. I'm thrilled. It will cure for a week and then we'll get the sill.
In the meantime, what haven't we accomplished? I was without my car all last week as it needed a brake job. Our former next door neighbor Pete did a magnificent job of replacing the brakes with Bob's capable assistance. Probably not having the car to drive was another inducement to put noses to grind stones and finish that foundation!
Then we attended a wonderful garden party (for Roberta's birthday) at our friend John's house. What an amazing garden he has! Hidden behind his house on an unassuming street, you'd never guess at the incredible garden tucked away up the side of a hill. Every nook and cranny harbors a wonderful, intimate- and maximalist!- view. John is a super gardener.
And today we left bright and early for New York, where we had perfect weather to enjoy the High Line. That was also a garden treat. Some exceptional plants that caused Bob and I to play "stump the stars"; some really cool cultivars to hunt down. And such a great concept (for those who don't know what the High Line is). It's an abandoned elevated rail way line that was to be torn down, but was restored as a garden/park several stories up in the air. Wonderful views of the river, various buildings, the Chelsea art world. It was kind of surprising that we'd never been.
The real reason we went into NYC was for us to attend a meeting about a art fair- called Debt Fair that I may participate in. It was in a not easy to reach venue, but was peopled (thinly) with other earnest artists who are attempting to right some of the obvious inequities of our capitalist system. We would have been happier had there been a few hundred in attendance instead of the thirty or so (of which we were two). We left a little early...
So here's a photo of a butterfly that kept us busy on the concrete while we finished up. Don't know what the attraction that concrete holds for butterflies! Also, not sure what kind of butterfly this is.

Blockheads Everlasting

The second stage of my foundation wall is complete! This morning, I filled in the cinder block holes with a smaller batch of concrete that I mixed up (all by myself!) as Bob is gone to NorthWest CT to help out at an estate sale. I'm pleased that Bob trusted me to shake and bake and mix and match that concrete mix!
So you learn all kinds of useful stuff. F'rinstance: concrete is a 1-2-3 mix. That is, three units (a small bucket in this case) of gravel, two units of sand and one unit of Portland cement. You mix these dry ingredients together in a wheel barrow (or trough) add water, and hey presto! you've got concrete. (Bob also made a sticky mix of Portland cement and hydrated lime and sand. This he used to fill in around the bolts that will hold the sill in place. I guess there's a concrete/mortar mix for every application).
What's scary is that you do have to work somewhat quickly as it sets up and gets hard- mostly to clean off tools. Bob and I went in the house the other day, thinking that we were taking a brief break but then it rained and we ate lunch and the next thing we discovered was concrete enclosed trowel and hoe and wheel barrow... nice. I'm not as precise about clean up as I should be. It's one (of the many reasons) I don't paint with those blasted oil paints. Just plain hated the clean up. Don't get me started about print making...
I remarked to Bob that we're at the stage with the foundation that I think it's all we have ever done, or all we ever will do. I realize that two days from now, we'll be done and onto the sill and framing and whatever. But right now? Seems like my entire life has been concrete and blocks.
Anyway, in between a million things, the studio is progressing. I also took time to shoot the below beautiful and disgusting photo:

I was out cleaning up Maggie's pasture and there are three(!!) butterflies chewing and flapping and engaging in some sort of butterfly menage-a-trois on a fresh, steaming pile of horse manure. (I've seen this before. A fresh pile of our previous dog's shit with a truly marvelous huge swallowtail butterfly astride it.) While I crouched down to take my picture, there was suddenly a powerful, warm and mysterious breeze on my shoulder. Maggie had snuck up and me and was wondering about my sudden interest in her poop.
Enough fun and games!  I have to get back to the homemade version of labor camp.