A Truly Peculiar World- Road Trip Edition

I remembered to bring my camera along to document... Gas Station TV?? Who thinks these (post)modern things up? And where have I been? The gas station on the way to the highway entrance I use when traveling to my mother's house is conveniently located, but features the above inanity. It's as if we can't stand quietly or entertain ourselves for the five minutes it takes to fill up. No, we have to be assaulted with ads for Snickers and Chevy and inane "Gas Station TV jocks" who blather at us. And obviously. we're a captive audience. At least if there were something good on. (Strangely, I caught possibly the one useful moment; they were offering a weather map. The light was terrible- reflecting off the screen and several of my shots of other Gas Station TV offerings didn't show up.) Additionally annoying is that the TV screen takes up all the space and the input buttons for payment options are positively hidden. Very, very annoying!

And here's another annoying thing: people who drive Audis. I swear, and I know I've mentioned this before, if a person is tail-gaiting you and swerving all over the road while on their cell phones, they're driving an Audi. Or if they speed up to hit you and your dog (hi Jules!) on your morning rambles, guess what they're driving? Yup. An Audi. They are positively the worst drivers going and they must feel that superior German engineering makes up for atrocious driving habits.
In any event, the above Juniper is soooooooooooooo cool and Bob and I passed it on our way to Mommy's house. We decided to snap a photo of it on the way back by. So I slow down and Bob hands me the camera- all ready to go and I start to photograph that lovely "sky needle" and the douche bag behind me starts honking and riding up our rear end. I'll give you one guess as to what he's driving. Somehow I did get a pretty good shot, through a dirty windshield and all. The pink house in the back ground is pretty fun, too.
Hey! Guess what I want for my next birthday? (And no, it's not an Audi!)

Leprosy and Sundries

Well, I may not have Ebola but I have developed a lovely collection of poison ivy buboes. (Technically not buboes; turns out that refers specifically to lymph inflammation in the armpit or groin... as in bubonic plague. But you get the idea.) Therefore I have disgusting poison ivy blisters, the above cluster is on my left knee. So with that as a reference point, I submit the following:

• Aside from the above bumbles, we seem to be pretty healthy.
• Mommy's still "with us"; meaning she hasn't departed yet. You get the point.
• Bob and I have been alternately very busy socially and wishing to be hermetic. We both have shows that are a lot closer (time-wise) than it would seem. Bob's show is in September 2015 in New Bedford at the ColoColo Gallery. His work looks terrific. Maybe I'll have him do a "guest post".
• I have the show at Artspace in conjunction with Yale this coming November. The book I'm working on- Better Guns and Gardens- is coming along nicely. A steady stream of images and puns and silliness. Who knew guns could cause such weird art ideas?
• I have a show in (YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYY!!) Brooklyn in January, tentatively entitled, "Pay to Play". It will be at Odetta Gallery and Ellen Hackl Fagan, artist, friend and now gallerist- is doing things right. I think she's onto something. Lots of research about what works and how to approach showing art in an effective way. Wish me luck! (I'll be showing with two other artists).
• The Dog and Pony are fine. Still fussy, but that just comes with being spoiled. 
• I really wanted to use bulleted lists, probably from working on Better Guns and Gardens. (Get it? "Bulleted Lists"?)
• That pesky Tilda Swinton keeps popping up at our house!
  

I don't actually remember why Tilda Swinton became such an issue at our house, Possibly simply because she's a bit weird. I mean, look at her. And does she look like she's ever eaten a cup cake in her life? So she wound up in the cupcake box, admiring (gasp!) all that FROSTING! And it's blue!! I really like that particular strain of frosting, as my sister's and family in general well know. I was denied frosting for my birthday so I vowed to score a cake or cupcakes resplendent in decadent mounds of sugary bliss. Boy are they good!!
Okay, not the smartest posting but I'm tired. I took almost 700 photos of weird porcelain monkeys (some with light fixtures in their heads), endless dish services (and it was all I could do to stop from smashing the plates so as to add them to our walkway), and endless stiff little Staffordshire people and their dogs and sheep. All in a days work!
Signing off...

Tuesday

I visited my mother (aka Mommy) on Saturday. She falls asleep a lot and is generally not all there because she's so very tired, old and frail. Mommy is still "with it" in terms of knowing who you are and asking "appropriate" questions, like how Bob and Jules are etc. She was also genuinely pleased when I told her that I have a couple of shows coming up late this year.
But out of the blue, Mommy turns to me after a quiet time in our visit and she says (apropos of nothing), "Tuesday."
"Tuesday?", I respond, thinking maybe she's going to say she had a visit form a friend or a nurse on Tuesday- whatever. Instead, she blows me away by saying, "I'm going to die on Tuesday."
I had to ask, "This Tuesday?" to which she responded, "I'm not sure, but a Tuesday." We then had a brief, but straight forward discussion about death and the length of ones life versus when your time is up.
I mean, we all know, Mommy's ready to go and that's not a bad thing. Sad, as we'll miss her and she's a really nice person and presence on this planet, but she's so unable to do things... it's just TIME.
Of course, Monday night, I had trouble sleeping and kept thinking, "Gee, that was probably the last time I'll see Mommy alive"... cheerful middle of the night thoughts like that.
But Tuesday rolled around and I went to work and expected a phone call. Which never came. Mommy is still with us- probably much to her consternation as well as ours! I don't want to hustle her off to Heaven or anything (and don't get me started: I have no idea what I think happens or where we go. Fuck if I know!) So so much for premonitions; maybe it was merely wishful thinking.

Happy Birthday to ME!!

It all began with my generous sister Beatrice and her partner John giving me this lovely spiky specimen of Yucca filamentosa... just what I'd planned when I organized this new bed last year. And they gave me this plant a good two weeks earlier than my birthday so we'd have it in place for the garden tour! That was extra thoughtful. (The small coleus to the right look really great with that yucca.)
Not to be outdone, however, Bob took me on a wonderful plant buying spree for my actual birthday. He did this for me last year and it was such a hit that he offered a repeat excursion this July 20th.
Here's what I selected:

Cryptomeria japonica "Black Dragon" as an evergreen choice. And, of course, I have just the spot for it. I've been complaining that come winter, it doesn't look like we have any garden as most of our plants were deciduous. I'm working on changing that! A detail, please:

Look at that cool bark! It really is reddish orange and very prickly. Nice!
And how about a Vitex agnus-castus "Abbeville Blue"? Isn't that a mouthful

This one gave me a problem when I tried to photograph it; it washed out and the flowers looked dull. In reality, the flowers are a lovely blu-ish violet and very stiff. Handsome! I saw this shrub last year and thought about it for twelve months... that's how obsessive I am!

And look at this! On the "reduced" cart! I had actually liked this last year, too, so getting it for less than half price is a treat. This is Abies pinsapo "Glauca" or Spanish Fir. He's got these splendid little checkered looking needles. Cool!
And not to be outdone, my sister Cathy gave me tow Carexes.

Such crazy texture. They look like Zsa Zsa Gabor wigs. Very different! And appreciated.
And then, as a sort of over the top gesture, Beatrice and John brought MORE plants. Remember those Home Depot rhododendrons that had me fretting about how I could make a forest? Well, look at this:

They got me five, and I had five so now I have... TEN! That's fabulous! I am so happy. I think that Beatrice thinks I'm nuts because she thought there was some mistake and we got our signals crossed. Make no mistake: I am well on my way to making that rhododendron forest!
And we also enjoyed a lovely Spanish wine and all kinds of food stuff. It was a wonderful birthday! Thank you to all!

A Very Rude Plant

Oh my! I was walking through one of my favorite nurseries and trying to be good (ie; not buy everything I see). I had found the specific plant I was seeking- a Salvia Argentea (looks like giant fuzzy lamb's ears) and was happy and fully prepared to buy it and leave. When I passed a whole table of sedums.
In the middle of that rather flat display of rossettes was this very rude erect individual.
Talk about big pink stiffies! This plant was practically leering and winking and I found it so very funny that I bought him, too. The people at the check out were as entertained by the plant's rude presimption as I was and we all had a good laugh. I decided that maybe I'd decide to plant a Rude Border full of plants that give you the finger or flaunt their readiness for play and meaningful cross pollination.
Our friend now lives on the deck (well, loosely called a "deck". Remember that there are salad fixin's growing in the boards...) and confronting all visitors. Here's another shot of him:

Bob picked out the container that our new plant is happily ensconced in and I think it sets him off to perfection. And flowers are coming soon!

As Promised... The Walk Way!

Ooooohhhhhhh! Nice going! Isn't that just spectacular? That's the "Blue Plate Special" Walkway. I really think that Bob and I outdid ourselves (and we had fun, too!) It came out far better than I ever anticipated...
This is a shot looking back at the house from (of all things) the compost pile. That's where the walk way terminates- or begins- depending on where you're going. To the left is the Blue Garden, full of blue spiky foliage and it looks positively Californian when you have the trunks of those sketchy pines and our BauHaus Chicken Coop in sight. Definitely not expected in a New England Garden, and that's part of its charm. (Did I use that same photo in the last posting? I must be getting forgetful!)
Here are a few details:

Bob and I, as previously remarked, broke up a million plates. But some of the busted plates were re-assembled, almost intact, as seen in that detail above. There were some particularly special plates that were nice to include.

Like this one, above; just a really pretty plate with flowers and blue and gold. Or this fragment:

This is a Yale commemorative plate. I think I'm referencing my grandfather (Grampa) who taught at Yale and the fact that I'm in Yale's Special Collection (four times!) Yale definitely deserved a nod.
And here's a section for Jules:

See the little dog near the top? It also says "Mut" underneath (a sample form a mother's day plate, but it's in Danish). And here's a bit for Maggie:

I didn't have actual horses represented, so I used Sea Horses. I don't think she minded.
And here's a shot of one of the ends:

All three plates I used towards the house end have flowers represented, including Blue Roses on the right. A big influence was my trip (yea, these many years ago) to Antonia Gaudi's Park Guell in Barcelona. It is an amazing mosaic extravaganza, with stairways and walkways and miles of benches all covered in broken plates and bits of colored glass. Astonishing! Our walkway may only be 12 or 15 feet long, but it is pretty wonderful to me. I got all carried away and said to Bob, "Why stop here? Let's make all our walkways in mosaic!" Bob pointed out that winter snow cleanup would be a night mare; do we have to start thinking about snow now?!??!?!?!
One last detail:

I obtained tow Hudson City Savings coffee mugs at a local second hand store. That's the bank that holds the mortgage on our BauHaus Chicken Coop. Each end of the walkway contains smashed mug fragments to remind Bob and I of our luck in finally landing the financing to get us the house. I liked being able to include bits of our personal history.

Garden Tour

Where any tour begins: with one's feet! it would be nice if I were capable of taking good garden (overview) pictures, but alas! I have a hard time with that. But Bob and I worked very hard and weeded and edged and planted and mowed and cemented and generally worked all twenty available digits to the bones (avoiding heat stroke, unlike some unlucky gardeners I know!).
We were lucky, too, that the rain which threatened all day held off. We ran out early to another garden on tour just up the road. Totally different from ours! But really nice: lots of well maintained out buildings, stone walls, nice transitions underfoot (like gravel to pavement to bricks to moss). And the people from the two other gardens on tour came to ours, so that was nice to meet new neighbors.

All of our hard work paid off as there were comments that the garden looked very healthy and even friends who had seen our garden a few weeks ago commented on how everything had filled and and looked great. Thank you for being nice and not mentioning Japanese beetle damage and seriously chewed mallows... Three plants in particular caused comment: Plume Poppy (Macleaya Cordata), Stokes Aster (Stokesia "Blue Danube") and the native Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa). Fortunately, everyone who visited was well behaved. (Don't even go there: when we were on a garden tour back at our former garden, we received several very odd comments and even a woman who plucked flowers from our beds! Horrors!)
The vegetable garden received raves as Bob does such a great job with planting edibles, including less frequently grown things like parsnips and okra and the like. It is a beautiful as well as productive vegetable garden.

See? Not a great picture... Let's try another one:

Well, I was hoping for a nicely contrast-y photo of the very tall Thalictrum which is all fluffy and creamy and the droopy Nicotiana Sylvestris. Not easy photographing the garden! Bob's sculpture and metal work were causing jaws to drop and many appreciative oohs and ahhhs. We're lucky that our garden is not "typical", whatever that would be anyway. I suppose pastel flowers and potted geraniums? Poolside plantings? Well, we have a horse and a manure pile. (No takers on the generous offer of free buckets of manure!)

Here's that famous "Blue Plate Special Walkway". Done on time- and under budget!- for the tour. My next post will be devoted to it alone. Doesn't it make our place look down right Californian? What with the house looking modern and the pine trees looking so skeletal? Visitors were wowed...