Vaccinated I am!

 

Yay! I am fully vaccinated and I'm glad. Not that I feel like I/we can let our mutual guards down; there are variants, unknowns and stupid behaviors out there! But I do feel much better knowing that I will probably not get as sick or die and I can actually begin to see family and friends who are also on the vaccination train. And not a moment to soon.

And speaking of feeling better, thank you for asking. While my second dose experience wasn't as bad as some, I didn't feel like my typical chipper self. Many friends had reported semi-debilitating second shot side effects from Moderna including (but not limited to) 36 hours of general awfulness to lying in bed drooling for ten hours. I suffered a mild headache, some body aches and chills and spent the day in bed doing crossword puzzles and reading our most recent New Yorker from cover to cover. (*1) Not bad and certainly worth the end result: protection against a truly nasty virus!

And here's a bonus picture:

This is a detail shot of the Rhododendron lurking under that bedspread in my last blog posting. The central section is rewarding my vigilance with lovely pinky-purple flowers and the rest will probably come out today, as it's warm and sunny. On with the spring!
 

(*1) So at one point, when I had ventured outside to check on the horses and allow Robin the Good a brief respite from attending to me, I debated walking to the mailbox to retrieve the previous day's mail. We do have a very long driveway but I was game. I got to our peach tree and realized that if I were to proceed further, I would most likely not make it back. I saw me in a pathetic, crumpled, damp heap, awaiting discovery by a passing Good Samaritan. I retreated to bed!

Hooray for Spring (I think)

 

The Forsythia is blooming so it must be Spring! Yay! There are fabulous flowering events in all parts of our vast estate (hahahaha!) and after a pandemically gloomy winter, this brings happiness and relief. The beautiful Forsythia seen above was a gift from our friends Sheldon and Louise, years ago, I think during our first Spring here. Bob and I are so thrilled to see it explode and spread golden light. 

And look:

Another Spring charmer, erupting by the vegetable garden. This Prunus tomentosa was a gift from our friend Bob who is a horticultural dervish and can propagate almost anything from seed or cutting. You've gotta love the effusiveness of vernal blooms!

And here's another unexpected site in our Spring-time garden tour: Rhododendron prostratus "Bedspreadus".

Oh no! What happened to Spring?!?!? Bob comes in to tell me that it's (gasp!) hailing outside. (They even predicted snow overnight, but we dodged that occurrence, unlike some unlucky friends to the north. Ugh.) I gathered several sheets and covered our Rhododendron "PJM" as last year- just as it was starting to flower, we experienced a cold snap and all the blossoms died. I was so bummed! Having waited an entire year, I wasn't chancing snow/hail/sleet/frost or any other vile reminder of Winter past! I'm glad I covered this shrub as this morning an unveiling showed undamaged flowers... bring back that warm weather!

Loser's Club Revisited!

 

So much for "hunches"and feelings of certainty! I was so sure that that above masterpiece, "Quilt of Exhaustion", was going to get selected for inclusion in a "modern" quilt show, that I even had a box picked out to mail it in! And then I receive the dreaded "not invited" email. ("Not invited"??!??! It's like be excluded from some popular kid's birthday party! They used to reject us, then they not accepted us, then they declined us. Now we're "not invited". Hahhahaha!)

And what's not to love about that piece above? It has poop emoji/Phillip Guston inspired font, actual batting sandwiched between two snuggly flannel layers, millions of small thread tacks affixing front to back (and I have the pierced fingers to prove it!) and it has almost 200 hand-tied recycled plastic baling twine fringes!!! (Like almost 200 feet of baling twine, lovingly knotted into prickly fringe!!) Haven't we all just been so tired of "winning" these last four years that we wanted to crawl back under the covers? This is a quilt of truth for our times!

Detail of the fringe:

Ironic, no, that the text reads "so tired of winning" and I didn't win. Sad! Artists put up with this sort of nonsense constantly: a friend suggested I apply, I do and feel totally confident and then comes rejection. The stupidest part is that they never tell you WHY you were "not invited". The least they could do if offer a brief explanation of their decision... like "puke-y colors! or "really dumb idea" or "don't quit your day job", or "What were you thinking??!"

I have a sneaking suspicion that I was rejected because my piece is (as usual) political and the show was in Indiana (not known for being a hot bed of radical leftist art. I mean Mike Pence is from there!) This is despite one of the jurors claiming to construct "political" quilts. Who knows!!

Anyway, win some, lose some and I am in another show coming up, so all is not lost! But Bob and I have dusted off our Loser's club tee shirts and are lifting a glass to future invitations.

 

Two Big Ol' Holes

 

Here's Big Hole #1! Bob did a marvelous job of excavating a huge privet bush that was at the rear of my Blue Garden. He sledged and dredged and maddoxed and dug for several days... a little at a time. Out it came and now we have a giant hole. 

Here's Robin the Good exploring said hole. I think she was contemplating burying one of her many treasures (odd bits of stick, ends of rawhide chews etc) but we have other plans. The idea is to move this Abelia mosanensis into the hole:

(Sorry about the lousy picture but the shrub is just a bunch of twigs right about now! And no, that is not a skull in the lower right; it's an entirely desiccated remains of a squash.) We're endlessly having to move things initially planted in the wrong spot- the plight of the gardener! The privet did act as a screen and hid us from view of our neighbors, but it wasn't a lovely specimen and it sent up baby privets all through my Blue Garden. Good riddance! The Abelia is covered in lovely white flowers in spring and it smells nice too boot. Plus it will quickly become every bit as large as that privet was. It will move all fifteen feet into it's new home (hole) after the full moon wanes a little.
 

And here's a find! This is not a hole per se, but what was once inside one of our horse's mouths now be a big hole! Yes, that's an equine tooth and most probably from our senior citizen horse Maggie. She doesn't have many teeth left to begin with (we feed her almost entirely pre-soaked foods) but there it was lying on the ground, right next to her grain dish. I'm not sure exactly what to do with it but maybe I can fashion a lovely bolo tie clasp out of it!

Cookie Puss

 

Would ya look at that! This cookie greeted Bob and I after dinner one night. While it's totally funny to see a surprised cookie pop out of a package, it's a shame it didn't resemble Jesus... then we could be famous!

And speaking of cookies, here's another puzzle:

Whatever happened with all those monoliths that were popping up across the world? It had a brief run and poof! All gone. Well, I thought to keep the game going...

Seeds Started!

 

A sure sign that Spring is on it's way, despite very cold, windy days: Bob's been busy starting seeds. Above is a shot of the multiple varieties of peppers that are already well under way. Last year, Bob constructed several shelves in the upstairs corner window. He used a heating pad and had tremendous luck; this year he has two more heating pads. (*1) I think he's growing poblano, shishito, "Jimmy Nardello" and... maybe one more? Plenty for us and even plants to give away to lucky friends.

Look at how nicely that top row is growing! The peppers did so well last year. Bob pickled some and froze some more; we're still eating them mixed into sauces and soups. Soon, these seedlings will be followed by tomatoes, onions and all sorts of other vegetables. 

I particularly like this innovation: Bob placed a curtain around the seedlings to create even more light as it reflects off the white fabric. I also think it protects those shy little seedlings from our persistent curious gaze.

If it were a sunny day, you'd see delicate infant plant shadows. I'll try and take another picture when we finally get some sun...

Me? I have zinnia seeds to start when my seeds finally arrive. The particular kind I like to grow- Zinnia linearis "Starlite Mix"- is a bit trickier to start and I like to get a jump on in-ground planting. I know others will disagree and tell me to just throw the seeds directly into the ground. But I hate living with bare earth and have tulips planted in that area so it's more effective to start them indoors. This year, however, I'm going to watch them like a hawk and cover them with a sheet if it even threatens to frost. We had such a late frost last spring that I lost all my zinnia and heliotrope seedlings; I was heartbroken and furious. Such is gardening!

(*1) Bob had such good luck with the heating pad that I decided to get two more for his last year's birthday. As we were heavily quarantined, I thought to order them on line. Little did I dream that because they were manufactured in China, which we had recently embargoed, that it would take like 4 months for his birthday gifts to arrive- well after the need for heating pads!

New Work/ New-ish Year

 

 

I'm hard at work as usual! I did have a coupla slow weeks where I entered at sort of COVID torpor... but that seems to have departed and I've started several new pieces, as well as finishing up several that have been in process for a while. Above is the first section of a very wiiiiiiiiiiiiiide piece that says, "Reconcilition". It's one of those words that has more than one meaning. The one that most people will think of- patching things up or getting ideas (whatever) to agree- isn't the meaning I was considering though. I'm referencing the budgetary/governmental meaning involving a parliamentary procedure to pass budgetary legislation. Check it out: it's been in the news lately. And yes, I am hand sewing all those flower clusters on; they're "lifted" from another fabric.

Not for the faint of heart, here's a close up of my (poor) fingers after a hard day of sewing:

Look at those cracks! Bloody crevices! Who knew that sewing was a contact sport? And yes, I apply copious amounts of hand cream, Bag Balm, "Working Hands" and band-aids, but you can't work with any of that stuff actively on your hands as it stains the fabric. (I wait until bed time.) And it doesn't help that I jammed a needle into a couple of my fingers while sewing: Yow! Almost jumped out of my skin on that!!!

And I finally found a use for at least a bit of the three million miles of blue plastic hay bale twine. (Yes, feed two horses all winter long and you have a LOT of blue hay bale twine.) I am making natty pseudo-fringe for the edge of another piece, "So Tired Of Winning". This one was sitting unresolved in a corner for weeks. But fortunately, I found just the right backing material and the fringe idea just came to mind like magic. But I have like another two and half million miles left if anyone has a special macrame project in mind!