Eggs and greens for K’s 20th birthday celebration! They made a delicious frittata. S collected the eggs from chickens she’s taking care of over spring break; the greens and herbs are from our garden.
Easter books this year for B and A:
For K:
For S:
And for A:
The camellias on the table are courtesy of this great beauty:
This is the majority of my costume this year: a diction fairy crown. 🙂
The afternoon of this Halloween was quieter around our house than any year before. It’s sunny and dry for the first time in a decade of Halloweens here, and in the garden, we’re still picking cherry tomatoes; I went out this afternoon and found some extra little jewels: late-ripening raspberries from our newly-transplanted canes!
This Saturday Bainbridge Island Art Museum opened their gorgeous Dia de los Muertos celebration.
The Bainbridge in Bloom garden tour is an annual event on the island, hosted by private garden owners, and produced by the Bainbridge Arts & Humanities Council. They hire musicians to play throughout the gardens, and yesterday I got to experience two gorgeous places as I sang with my women’s chamber group, Byway.
I figured out what these are: Allium Nectaroscordum, or Mediterranean bells. The bees love them.
Also, Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network (BARN) had their open house on Saturday afternoon. The concept is progressive and brilliantly executed; it’s a community gathering point for physical resources and materials as well as knowledgable, talented individuals who teach and guide. There are 11 studios: Book Arts, Fiber Arts, Glass Arts, Kitchen Arts, Metal Arts, Electronic and Technical Arts, Jewelry and Fine Metals, Media Arts, Printmaking, Woodworking and Small Boat Building, and Writers.
I want to do it all!
It’s like it can’t contain its joy!
The pea shoots are very happy in their garden box. So are the weeds this warm, wet spring. I’m being selective about where I point the camera just now.
Wide exuberance shortly before the end.
Today’s glorious sunshine brought Christina Rossetti’s first verse of “In the Bleak Mid-Winter” to mind:
In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.
Here’s a re-worked verse for today:
In the mild mid-winter
Camellias all abloom,
Earth inhaled the sunshine,
Water like a loom;
Weaving roots and blossoms,
Bloom on bloom,
In the mild mid-winter
Come so soon.
A and I started preparing the garden beds and discovered some of my purple carrots happily wintering over! They’re going in the coconut curry tonight.
Tasha got a new rawhide bone and the houseplants all got a little direct sunlight on the outskirts of our badminton game. I had my teeth cleaned this morning (do I dare admit it had been since 2008?), still no cavities, no problems–this sort of history is why I can be so blasĂ©–and I feel like I’ve been to a spa. Now to curl up again with one of the 7 books I’m trying to get through before the break is over!
A and I have been looking in on a friend’s dogs while she’s in England. Larking about in the sunshine today with doggy treats in hand, A was full of the uncomplicated joy that is so rewarding to observe.
J’s been doing a sustainable living course and implementing ideas for transforming their section into a permaculture haven. These newly-dug swales capture the rain and runoff and slowly feed roots of the trees that will be planted along the berms.
The wind chimes tucked into S and J’s trees are long enough to be deeply sonorous bells.
Hamilton is a beautiful city built on the fertile plain of the Waikato River. We spent an afternoon strolling, lunching, and strolling some more at the Hamilton Gardens. Several times I sighed, “I don’t need a house, just a garden.” The great thing about Hamilton Gardens is that they’re free and open to the public to enjoy nearly all the time, one of those third places that enrich us all.
We’re standing on a sundial court with mosaic tiles laid out to show the solar transit for different times in the year as well as the time of day.
These are kiwifruit vines. Did you know they grew like grapes?
