Happy Birthday to Me

Here's a picture of my delicious birthday pie! Blueberry... my favorite (well maybe tied with peach!) and made with fresh blueberries plucked from our own berry bushes early yesterday morning. Maybe it turned out a bit on the tart side (Bob maintaining that it needed a pinch more sugar) but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
And I received lovely gifts from Bob and a million and ten birthday greetings on Facebook (everybody's favorite!)  and a number of thoughtful actual physical birthday cards- I'm very happy. Except that the weather sucked and we spent the day huddled in the air conditioned bed room, emerging only for refills of cold drinks and the occasional ill-advised trip outside to experience what life on Mars or Venus is like.
My birthday is typically hot 'n' humid but this heatwave is exceptional. We actually cancelled my family's celebration at our house because it was either sit in the driveway in Beatrice and John's new car with the air conditioning blasting (worrying about getting frosting on the immaculate interior) or hunkering together in the bed room (the only air conditioned room in the house) which would be awkward. Outside really was not a possibility and we had originally considered grilling: unimaginable!
So at last the hideous weather has broken and it's expected to rain late today into tomorrow. That's a good thing as plants and grasses were stressing in the garden and we were stressing in the house. I felt badly for poor Maggie the Mexican Pony (yes, she's still with us) who stood stamping flies in her stall. She was downright giddy the cool of this morning, breaking into a wonky trot when I fed her her breakfast grain.
Let's trust teh improved weather will last!

Upcoming Oklahoman Birthday

Doesn't that look like somewhere else... as in, "not Connecticut"? As previously reported, we had the dead and dying trees cut off at around 10 feet as we have a PLAN. (Oh just you wait...) Anyway, I have taken to calling our backyard "Oklahoma" (as in: "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOk-lahoma where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain...") because the ground is flat and parched and there are no trees on the left hand side. I expect to see oil derricks sprouting. It's pretty bleak, especially as  it's been so god-awful hot and dry.
Here's a really hard to decipher close up of the (above) blue walkway:

Those are all ants, swarming on the mosaic. It was kind of gross, but really interesting. I don't know exactly what they were up to, but there is still a good deal of saw dust on the walkway from the tree removal episode so maybe they were eating sawdust. It's hard to describe how many there were.
But returning to the subject of flat, parched, barren landscapes, I am interested to see what happens with all the available space I now have in the backyard. While I was at work on Friday, industrious Bob picked up/rolled off and carted away the remaining giant logs that littered our lawn. There is a clear path through to the horse fence (and large heaps of attendant brush). As mentioned, the upside is more room for planting things! I am contemplating a sort of mini-conifer border. Sort of like this, but on a more modest scale:

A screen shot from the Iseli Nursery website. They're in Oregon and grow some pretty spectacular things. It's the stuff of my dreams...

I should probably make a field trip there some day, like visiting Mecca if you're a believer. Well, I'm a believer in Nature and plants!
So I have been starting my coniferous adventures recently. Here's a "De Groots' Spire" that Bob and I purchased at (of all places) Home Depot. You know how I like those tall pointy things!

This puppy grows only a foot wide but eight feet tall. Ooooooooooooooooh! I like that! We also bought a half-price juniper plumosa aurea in Vermont when we were there last weekend. (I hijacked Bob and made him go to the Home Depot in Bennington. They had a great selection- all 1/2 price! I wish we'd had a trailer!) And a word to all family members who may be getting me "living things" for my rapidly approaching birthday: I did NOT purchase anything on the lists of plants I provided. Rest assured, any and all birthday offerings are welcome!!

Off to the Wilds of New York

It's hard to leave the beauty and innocence of nature and our country (well, suburban) abode to venture into Manhattan, but tomorrow we must do just that. Never mind that it's going to be over 90 degrees, and humid to boot... the "art world" beckons.
I am showing in a gallery on the Lower East Side. Get this: there are 110 other artists in the show besides me.  This is going to be some opening as even if only two-thirds of the artists showing come and bring one friend, the galley will be packed. Actually, anyone wandering by that considers coming into the gallery will probably think better, turn tail and run as that many people squeezed into even a moderately sized space on an overheated day is crazy.  Forget the air conditioning, Mercury is probably retrograde and the machinery will collapse under the strain and the space will be filled hundreds of red-faced, perspiring artists and their supporters. Pleasant!
But would I miss this experience? It's another line on the resume and a chance to make nice with whatever art world powers that be! Bring on the moist towelettes!

(Seems to be showing in Gallerie Kenmore, no?)
Where was I? Ah yes, musing on the vagaries of the art world. My small corner of the art world is an interesting place. Everyone is jockeying for perceived position and there is much feinting (probably fainting, too!) and circling and sizing things up. There are many, many, many artists. And have I mentioned? Not nearly so many galleries, or alternative spaces or prospects for all those many artists. This is (partially) what keeps artists circling each other, appraising each others relative standing. And the system of galleries and critics and curators and power brokers know this. Only a limited number of all the many artists will be anointed the next Big Thing and will have their work coveted and collected. The rest of us endlessly circle around, sniffing and snapping and hoping to be found out to be geniuses we know we all are. Sometimes this is mildly entertaining; sometimes it's mighty annoying. But this is the world we operate in an there's little hope of changing it.
So it's off to NYC for me and Bob... let's just hope they provide moist towelettes at the opening!

Little Trees and Happy Birthday to Me!

These days, I am so happy to be welcoming trees into my life. Trees! They're great! And this tree is really special as I looked everywhere and no one had one and boy have I craved one since that chance sighting last year. You will remember:

I became so obsessed with this roadside charmer... a Dr. Suess tree to be sure! (Ours will grow to be as tall and narrow and spectacular as this one.) But they're not easy to come by, especially if you don't have six or seven hundred dollars to spend on trees. Not to mention, how on earth do you get it home? So at every nursery and garden center I visited this year (and they are legion!) I inquired. No one had one and I was starting to think my birthday present was going to be delayed until next spring. (Next spring? Really? What?! What kind of patience do I have??!) But the other day at work, I emailed Bob and told him to call a nursery that I pass on my way to work. Lo and behold, they had one- and in our price (and size!) range. Happy birthday to me and a big wet sloppy thank you to Bob, who understands a woman who loves trees!
Here's another wonderful tree that our good friend Bob (a different Bob) found for me. We have been traveling to nurseries together (enablers) and I kept pointing out the pointy trees. So Bob calls me form a flea market and says, "They've got a nice tree like those ones you're always looking at- and reasonably priced!" So home that specimen came, a weeping Norway Spruce or Picea abies.

See? I'm smiling in this picture, too! Different variety, different contrapposto and totally cool. This one looks like the broom that Mickey Mouse used in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice".
And another good friend, John (who is- need I say?- another incredible gardener) gave us a white pine that he started from seed. Very fluffy and a different character all together but we have the space for an individual like this that will grow quite large.

(Gotta love the weeds growing up through our deck, huh?) So I prepared Bob for next year by telling him that next year I want an entire apple orchard. Hahahaha. At least everyone knows what to get me.