Late Summer Color

There's still some color happening in the garden, despite the sudden onset of that slightly sad end of summer feel. Lots of things are simply falling over and imploding; lots of smells of vegetative rot. But there are still some good moments to be had, like the above border nearest the horse barn.
The small zinnias, specifically Zinnia linearis in a nice mix of orange, white yellow and golden are just great this year. In fact, all of the Zinnas were terrific. I was waxing super enthusiastic over Zinnia "Benary's Giant" that I planted for cut flowers. The plants are big and clean (like no mildew) and just keep producing nicely formed flowers in good clear colors. Spectacular in a vase in the house! And I can't help but love how the big stripey grass (some variegated Miscanthus) is a foil for the chunky canna foliage. You can't really see but there was a nice Veronicastrum to the left that had another type of white spire-like bloom. I've been very happy with this bed.
A couple of close-ups:

Yup, there's those nice small Zinnias. You don't even need to dead head them. This hot dry season has suited them perfectly; they'll sulk during cool, wet summers. And here's a shot of the arbor that is in behind the grasses and cannas.

It's funny because these were supposed to be the variety "Blue Star", and yes, there are a few. But most of these seem to be "Tie Dye"; that would be the darker blue, striped ones. You never can tell what you'll get. I think there must be the occasional mix up at the seed companies! I'm not complaining as they look pretty good and are blooming like crazy.

All Kinds of Progress...

Not a great picture but very exciting sneak peek of how well the upstairs closet is coming along! Bob and I are halfway done on this particular phase. Bob finished the shoji screens, which slide along tracks and work nicely- like not taking up space at the top of the stairs but managing to look amazingly professional and modern. I couldn't be happier.
Today, I finished spackling and priming the walls, shelves and framework. We were careful and followed my sister's advice and got a really good primer that has a mold/mildew inhibitor/killer because I think we all remember the posting to the effect that we had (ahem) mold of some kind growing behind a cabinet that the previous owner of this house had zip-screwed to the wall to hide water damage. Oh, we knew it was there...
So after I demolished and Bob repaired the wall, studs went up and cross members appeared and Bob cut trim boards and stretched fabric and the pieces all came together. We needed a preview of what the completed project would look like, so Bob hung the doors. Robin posed in front of them; she's very intrigued with the changes materializing at the top of the stairs. (That is, when she's not practicing random evilness like thoughtfully chewing the electric cord off of the vacuum cleaner. It was a good thing I had unplugged it; it's not like the little monster doesn't have plenty of toys and chewables at the ready. I guess the consolation was I didn't have to vacuum the floor before our friends came to dinner last night!)
Anyway, today I sanded and primed. About half way through the job, I was humming tunelessly along with a pleasant late Mozart symphony (the Haffner) and remarking to myself how enjoyable painting can be when I managed to gently touch the edge of the paint pad to the paint pan which caused said pan to part company with the ladder where it was supposed to be secured with two hangers. A dramatic tidal wave of paint arced through air and landed not only on the wall but on the ladder and the floor. Yes, I had a drop cloth in place but a good quantity of paint resisted the urge to land on that surface... you get the picture. It took tons of warm water and rigorous sponging to lift the paint. It was a mess but I can only thank my lucky stars that the paint came (mostly) to rest on the carpet inside the closet (where the damage will not be easily seen) and only a bit ended up on the carpet near the bathroom. The afternoons painting session proceeded with less drama and I will apply the final coat of paint on Wednesday. Then I can begin the arduous task of moving all my clothes from my studio annex into the new closet!

How About Some Pretty Flowers?

Lovely, isn't it? A different variety of morning glory than we usually grow. This one is a picotee... I think some sort of Japanese hybrid. The weird thing is that only one vine looks like this and is blooming. The other two vines in the same container- ostensibly the same plant- have significantly different leaves and no flowers yet. Sometimes they get mixed up at the seed factory! Here's a shot of the whole container:

This vine is particularly floriferous, too! Everyday sends up a bunch of new blooms.

(Not a flower arrangement but a pretty pink drink. Bob put a couple of drops of Campari in our gin and tonic and a sprig of mint. It tasted delicious and was a perfect accompaniment to an end of day garden perusal)
So despite an erratic (read non appreciable) rain fall and consistently high temperatures (thank you, Climate Change!) some things have done super well in the garden. Most of the vines are sky high (except the honeysuckle: that is a mess): Cardinal Climber (Ipomoea x multifida),

Hyacinth Bean (Dolicos Lab Lab) and several varieties of Morning Glory- including that old trooper "Grand Pa Ott, (thanks to our good friend Roberta!). Also, Thunbergia (Black Eyed Susan Vine) is going great guns this summer.

But look at this amazing succulent. I bought it for the foliage but it started to bloom and it's spectacular!

A stunner! I never dreamed we'd get flowers that look like something from another planet or some undersea world. Let's face it: after all the insanity and evilness afloat in the world, isn't it nice to see pretty flowers?

(Gratuitous shot of the same succulent on the mosaic walkway just because.)

Over Heated/ Stay-cation/Expanded Birthday Version

Not sure what kind of insect this is- other than very large!- but it was adhered to our picnic table. This is how big it was: at first I thought it was a baby bat! I think the extreme weather has encouraged some strange Southern bugs to infiltrate.
Well, the hot weather has caused my brain to go on a stay-cation. It's so muggy and the air is so vile that thinking is nie-on impossible. Lots of vague empty spaces...
What was I saying? Oh yes, something banal about the weather. And it does seem that it's always like this for my birthday, whether it's celebrated on the right day or delayed for a month due to unforeseen medical episodes involving family member's faces...

But my birthday celebration was delightful! Good food and a splendid concord grape wine, lovely gifts including several choice hostas (Empress Wu! and Curly Fries), nuts, flip flops adorned with jewels, clothing, more wine; the list could go on and on and my family was most generous. Thanks to them all! Lil' Robin the Good was on her best behavior and soon took a real shine to my family, rolling around and exposing her underbelly like a trollop. But even she is crashed out on the floor now, trying to escape the heat as best as she can.

Bob's sculpture looks ready to be beamed up to another planet- hopefully one with nicer weather. We couldn't even see the (supposedly) spectacular meteor show last night as it was decidedly overcast last night and rained every so often. I actually woke up at 5:00 am and went outside my studio to see if there were meteor shower remnants to catch but no such luck!

And what else? I should have gotten this blasted, wasted attempt of a blog post up two day ago but the office (ie; the room in which the computer lives) is so hot that I haven't been up to a long enough stint to actually finish the post... you get the picture.

 So it feels like 104 degrees (according to the Weather Channel) and my studio is an oven and I'm retreating back to that air-conditioned bedroom. Sayonora!

Fortuitous Coincidence

Maybe you remember our shower curtain. Maybe you don't (you're forgiven). That's it above. It has lovely summery stripes. (The picture is a tad dark but I'm having trouble locating the "brighten" command in Paint Shop Pro and our Photoshop program doesn't work with Windows 10...the accursed Windows 10 again!) Anyway a couple of weeks ago, Bob and I were at a second hand store and I remarked that I wanted to get Lil' Robin a new water dish to put in the bathroom upstairs. (We had a couple of supremely ugly ones that neither one of us liked. Poor Robin was kind enough to with hold her opinion.) We both liked a particular bowl but it wasn't until we got it home that we understood why:

It matched the shower curtain exactly! (Those odd spots are water drops from my having washed it, not glazing imperfections). Robin seemed to like the cheerful bowl and we enjoyed the colorful serendipity. But then friends (thank you Sheldon and Louise!) gave me several pairs of socks for my latest birthday and as I selected a particular pair to put on, it occurred to me that the stripes looked eerily familiar:

Must be cosmic! Maybe we'll repaint the exterior of the house...

(Verbatim) Good Press!

Hey! This a really great article written by Susan Dunne. It's in the "CT now" part of the Hartford Courant. I like seeing my name in print. (And who doesn't?) I excerpted the parts about me...

Rita Valley is many things: a wage slave, a bottom feeder, a loser. She admits this.
"I don't make my living off my art. People ask me if I sell everything in my show. I say no, that's not why I do it," Valley says. "I see that look on their face, 'What a loser.' So I say fine, I'm a beautiful loser."
Valley, of Southbury, puts these phrases at the center of off-kilter tapestries. Several of her pieces are on show now at Real Art Ways in Hartford.
Her mix of materials is odd: silk with pleather, plaid with pictoral, accented by fringe, chains, streamers and other doodads.
"I like materials that are alternately beautiful and repulsive. It's beautiful but also kind of pushing you away," she says. "If they were just pretty, they wouldn't be interesting."
Her bleak phrases are not melancholy but humorously ironic. "I've never done a piece saying, 'Have a nice day.' I'm really repulsed by overly positive, knee-jerk modern philosophies," she says. "When someone says, 'Everything's just great, be happy,' I think, 'Really, come on.'"

"Loser" is one of Rita Valley's tapestries on show at Real Art Ways. (Rita Valley)

WAGE SLAVE, DISTRACTED DRIVING and SURFACE WORK are at Real Art Ways, 56 Arbor St. in Hartford, until Sept. 11. realartways.org

Bob's List

Bob never ceases to amaze me! He told me the other day that he had concocted a list... a list of some of the things that he'd been planning to do to the house. This was a marvel as we've made so many lists and done so many things, but so many more remain to be done. And as was discussed in an earlier blog posting, so many projects revolve around so many other things being done first. You know the complications; it's a home owners version of that old song about "the knee bones connected to the thigh bone, the thigh bones connected to the hip bone" and on and on. In this case, the starting point has to be my closet at the top of the stairs...
So this is what occurred on Sunday in really hot weather. We went to Home Depot and purchased lumber and plywood and metal tracks for closet doors. This will start the construction ball rolling as once the closet is complete, I can move my clothing from downstairs in my studio annex. That will enable a move of art supplies and a cabinet out of the living room and into the studio annex. The moving of the cabinet will free up the actual front door. Yes, we have one of those! So...
We came home and I volunteered to be the demolition crew. Bob gets to do all the building but I love a good mess. So I donned protective gloves, face mask, safety goggle and full body armor and went to work tearing out that nasty old sheet rock and decaying insulation and wood from where it was hiding behind a plastic sheet and a large painting of mine. The wonders and many uses of modern art!
What lie beneath was really pretty bad. I think I featured a horrid picture several years back when I attacked this area with bleach and attempted to stabilize a disaster created by the previous owners failing to deal with a big leak in the corner of the upstairs dormer. I carted away several contractor's bags of moldy sheet rock and pieces of stud that dissolved as I touched them. No kidding: we barely had a wall at all and there was day light showing through and yellow jackets coming in. Such fun when it's 90 degrees and stunningly humid!

But Bob got to have all the fun the next day when he suited up and repaired and replaced all that punky wood with fresh new 2 x 4's and pieces of plywood to shore up the wall. This corner had needed attention since we moved in so it was  good to just dive in and do it. Poor Bob worked all day reinforcing the wall. But it looks sound now.
The next step is to install new insulation and replacement sheet rock. Then Bob can frame out for the actual closet. There will be a shelf space up above to store blankets and bedding.

Here's his list. Lousy shot, but good things will come of it. Progress is being made.