Lollygagging

There is a distinct change in the air. I feel it. Don't you? Crisp morning air. The sun a little lower in the afternoon sky.  And grasshoppers popping up from the dry grasses as I pass by.  Nature's signal that summer is on the wane.

 Internally, my heart quickens as I know we have much to do yet to have our home remodel project weather ready, gardening chores attended to, and time, precious time to find for late summer lollygagging. Yes, lollygagging! Glorious mindless wandering, dilly dallying, or shilly shallying about in the late summer sun.  If I am not forth coming with a lollygagging report soon, well, I hope someone will hold me accountable. :D

Repurposing

It's really satisfying when we can repurpose old materials into our home building projects.  So much, the old stuff is far superior to what one will find in today's lumber yards. Not to mention the visual appeal of vintage. Several years ago we stock piled several square footage of tongue and groove boards removed from a friends home remodel project  in Astoria, Oregon.  The cost? One 10" home made apple pie. Booyah!

We planed the old boards, sanded up the rough spots and they are now the underside treatment of our roof overhang.  Ditto on the Booyah.

And in the garden.....

Connectivity.  My maternal great grandmother was a sharecroppers wife who grew fabulous hydrangea in the Arkansas hard pan.  I can only imagine possible by the soil amending courtesy of the family cow.  I don't remember my great grandmother, she passed in my infanthood, but I know her.  I know her everytime I look at my Nikko Blue hydrangea.

The other day, my grand daughter presented me with this mini bouquet picked from my garden.  There is the hydrangea.  And the connectivity. One day, perhaps by instinct, a hydrangea will grace this young ladies garden too.

I hope your end of summer to dos are creative and meaningful with ample time set aside for aimless lollgagging too.  

 I find lollygagging so much nicer with tea.  How bout' you?

The Art in Architecture

Falling Water/ Frank Lloyd Wright 

The Gordon House/ Frank Lloyd Wright

Panther Creek Cottage

The legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright made this famous observation about art & architecture, "that art is the discovery and development of elementary principles of nature into beautiful forms suitable for human use".

Wiki notes that Frank Lloyd Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and it's environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture and is best exemplified in Falling Water.

Lately, I'm  not so sure I'm seeing the cohesive beauty as much as the practicality in our home addition adventure.  But I have hope that if Frank Lloyd Wright could unconventionally combine natural stone with the modernity and starkness of cantilevered roof lines in an uninhabited rustic setting, well, we must not have colored too far outside the lines of propriety and aesthetics of our home remodel with what I've dubbed Country Cottage meets Ponderosa.  What do you think Pa?

Recently we laid a good portion of the deck and we're enjoying the wonderful fresh woodsy scent of cedar. And for lighting we've placed receptacles for sconces on either side of the entry.  But now that I've seen the loveliness in the downcast glow of the can lights in the Gordon House I might just change my mind. ;)

And  here's some awesome + timely news. The Gordon House is located at The Oregon Garden in Silverton Oregon, just an hour or so drive from home. I've arranged plans for a tour there in August.  I think it will be a nice diversion from all this building ruckus we have going on and because frankly, I'm feeling the proverbial dog days of summer coming on strong.  And because the beach, the sun, lazing around and other activities requiring as little effort as possible are beckoning.

I hope your summer season is full adventure and restful moments too.  

Underneath

In 1981Mel Bartholomew wrote a book called Square Foot Gardening, and also had a PBS program too on bio-intensive organic gardening. He showed us that if planted properly even the smallest of gardens could have maximum yield, and every precious inch of garden soil be used to it's greatest potential. 


I can't help but ascribe to that kind of efficiency, and it works beautifully for any size garden. That the atmosphere a few feet above the earth in a garden be comprised of a sea of texture, shapes and shades of green with little or no bare earth in view. The canopy of  dense foliage acts like a living mulch protecting plant roots from moisture loss while squelching out the life of bothersome weeds. 


But silently, the underneath, the carefully concealed, the fertile ground, never escapes my mind. This marvelous underneath world of the soil food web.


Are you enjoying an abundance of fruit for your labors this summer season?  If you're reveling in the satisfaction that comes from picking a juicy heirloom tomato or succulent leafy green that you grew all by yourself, take a few moments to reflect on ways to give back, to nourish the soil that produced all that garden goodness  Here are a few suggestions you might consider to"uppen" your garden's soil food web.

• Plant cover crops (green manure)in areas not occupied with vegetable plants. The cover crop will draw nitrogen deep into the soil. Cut and allow to decay in place or use to feed your compost system.
• Mulch with compost. Create a sustainable circle of compost to garden, garden to compost system.  Here's a look at my composting system and other garden soil love from an earlier post: 
• "Leaving Me Lonely".
• Consider using a broad fork instead of tilling.  It's gentler to your garden's soil food web. Well nurtured garden soil is by far healthier for plants and much less work for the gardener. 
• Red Pig Tools makes a dandy hand forged broad fork.
• Mychorrhizae is the secret old time farmers always knew. That a shovelful of forest soil added to the garden soil helped to grow larger healthier plants. learn more about the benefits of Mychorrhizae. 

"I do some of my best thinking while pulling weeds."

A Necessary Detour

It's been an incredibly busy first few weeks of summer  on the farm. We're building a small addition onto our cottage and that has consumed most of our free time. Lot's of racket from power tools, debris, and hustle going on around here.  And it's been raining much of the time.  Let your imagination go with that one. 

I know this may seem odd, but when things get a little hectic, I find that one of the ways I cope is to bust out some purely fun creative time.  If I'm painting or making hypertufa pots, worries about whether or not we  made the right decision on the roof pitch or window placement are assuaged. I easily get hung up on stuff like that, enough so that I often impede progress. A little creative detour and I'm ready to scale the bigger stuff. But right now....

This is what came of my quest for balance.

Do you have a stash of rugged materials waiting to be transformed into something wonderful? Stuff to make, well, stuff with? A shingle, rusty plumbers tape, an old hinge and a little paint. I've been wanting to do this for a while, I guess a little stress pays off from time to time.

And I've always dreamed of owning a kiln and a potter's wheel since the first day I sunk my hands into a slab of cool damp clay in highschool pottery class. Unfortunately a pottery studio hasn't materialized in my life. But hypetufa is a great substitution for the frugally minded ceramic artist wanna be. You might remember my casting leaves with hypertufa in an earlier post. Here, I used a thrifted platter as a mold for this piece.  I used hot glue to draw a face on the bottom of the platter before casting. 


Soon, we'll be deciding flooring, lighting, etc in the next few weeks. And as I much as I love the process, there will be for certain, a few necessary detours along the way.


Oh, but detours are often where one finds inspiration. Here's a bit of what inspired me along the way:

• Cozy Homemaking- Part scientist, part artist, full awesome! I would love, LOVE to have indigo dyed arms up to my elbows with Sonia, in France!! I can dream can't I?
• The Garden Betty- The self professing diary of a Dirty Girl. Linda mountain climbs, surfs and grows super whamma jamma tomatoes! Naturally.
• Orangette- Molly is  a writer and owner with her husband of a restaurant called Delancey, but its her words, and sincere love of home cooking that keeps me coming back for more. 

*~Whatever you are doing, or wherever you are going, may it be a summertime to remember.~*

3 Herbs + 2 Feathers

Sometimes I am fresh out of ideas, things to talk about.  I know, amazing :D  So I took my camera out this morning for a little walk about the herb garden for some inspiration + for something to share with you today. 

And it was these few small things that I found that inspired me most.  The delicate and sensory delight of  3 Herbs + 2 Feathers. 

Here, see here!  Apple mint is a nice little herb, lightly scented and not as vigorous as the peppermint behind it.  I enjoy it's milky white and green contrast in the herb bed too. A sprig tucked into a glass of ice tea is lovely.

I so prefer the beauty of ordinary Garden Sage. What it lacks in foliage it compensates generously in blooms. And the best flavor of all sage varieties in my opinion. I love when little honey bee bottoms poke out as if clothed with the tiny tubular blooms. So cute!

Calamint has it's own special airy appeal.  It's ample and perfect when in juxtaposition to an object or structure. Planted here next to a log cabin birdhouse on an old tree stump, Calamint evokes a prairie or meadow like feel. And Calamint is a nice "stay put" herb for the garden.

About the 2 feathers? Two old crows come calling each Spring.  They waddle up the old drive and set up camp until fall when, they leave, and not until I notice the absence of their calling out to one another do I realize they have up and left and I wonder, where do they go? Their throaty caws remind me we live in rustic surroundings. The twosome have deposited two calling cards this year to remind us of their comings and goings. Sweet!

I hope your comings and goings are adding up to a fantastic summer so far.  

Have a good one!

Hypertufa Cast Leaves

I've said it before and I'll say it again. NASTURTIUMS!

I so love them. They are prolific, sunny, edible, a living mulch. And I couldn't live one summer without them!

So I immortalized my love for them by casting a few of their lovely leaves in hypertufa. Scroll through my step by step photos below for a jump on the how to.

Gather your leaves and cover your work area with plastic. I would avoid working in direct sunlight so your cast leaves don't cure too quickly and possibly crack. mound damp sand in to the general size of your leaves and placed a leaf on each mound, bottom side up.

With a brush paint your leaves with oil. I used recycled machine oil but vegetable oil or even spray cooking oil works fine. The oil behaves like a resist so your casting medium releases.

Mix up equal amounts of fine milled peat moss, perlite, and Portland cement. I used a plastic 2lb. coffee container for measuring. You know, I completely forgot the perlite in my recipe but was satisfied how they turned out anyway. Love it when that happens!

I added enough water to make it the consistency of thick oatmeal. I added a little more to the batch as I was molding the leaves as the mixture tended to dry out a little as I worked on the leaves.

If you want to hang your finished creations you'll need to insert a sturdy wire into the mixture while soft placing it near the stem. Small paper cups will keep them upright while curing.

2 to 3 days later un-mold your leaf and etch the imprinted veins a little more for definition if you feel it needs it. The edge of a putty knife works but I had a small pointed scribe handy and thought it worked great.

You can leave them natural or paint them like I did for weather durability. I chose a teal colored semi gloss exterior latex for the bottom coat. I thinned the paint with water so it wouldn't hide the details. It dried fairly quickly and sealed the leaf.

Next I added touches of gold. I used an acrylic craft paint.

To give my leaves a weathered look I finished with a top coat of black semi gloss exterior latex thinned with water. I brushed it on and then came back with a wet soft cloth and wiped them until I revealed enough of the teal and gold to my liking.

There you have it! Love immortalized.

Tiny Timber

I'm not talking about sticks. But I could. Sticks are interesting. But thats a story for another day. After our ramble through the town of Vernonia, the place I wanted to live forever and ever, I found a speck on the map not far off that I just had to see. A speck called Timber. And we would have missed Timber entirely when after climbing a few switchbacks we breezed past the towns only business, the U.S. Post office.

We turned around and soon found ourselves peering through the windows at probably not more than 50 or so brass boxes that represented the little over 100 inhabitants of the town of Timber. I admired the utility of the hand picked narrow tree that was the flag pole, painted white, the worn red benches and blue trim of the solid wood framed building.

And that was ALL of Timber that we could see, except for this humble abode in the woods.

There's a myriad of paint colors one can choose from, but none can compare with the variegated shades of natural weathered shingles.

And one chilly autumn morning coming soon, the view from the narrow window of this humble home will be spectacular.

But now we're home and I'm ruminating on happenings in my own neck of the woods. And hopefully I'll share about things a little more interesting than sticks. Maybe.

Just Suck It Up!

Welcome to Vernonia!

Home of loggers, mountaineers, and young rugged visionaries with enough gumption to revitalize and polish this historical gem of a town along the Nehalem River. A town that's alive and kickin' despite a devastating flood in 2006. A tragic event that tested the durability of a little over 2000 individuals and was the catalyst in reinvigorating it's founding pioneer spirit. The community pride and friendliness of this old logging town is palpable. I fell in love.

I think I want to live here forever and ever.

When we rolled into Vernonia last Sunday, folks were hustling about the tiny town and not a soul we knew. So I ventured into a little shop called Black Bear Coffee Company to grab some joe and inquire on the happenings going on when I noticed under their name the slogan, Just Suck It Up! I no longer felt like a stranger but family. With an understandable and wearied expression my server informed me that Vernonia's 55th Friendship Jamboree and Logging Show was just ending. She more happier than I. Dadgum it, we missed it!

We wandered around some than sat a while alone on the bleachers imagining hard hat clad competitors working saws, choker setting, throwing axes and pole walking.

Just a few axe handles away smack dab in the middle of town, a public swimming hole.

I want to live here forever and ever!

So we browsed up and down the tiny main street of Vernonia determined not to miss next years Jamboree. Then I took this photo of a charming little cafe begging for a new lease in life. I even imagined myself perched in the upper floor window of my make believe living quarters, sipping a hot 16oz. cup of Black Bear Coffee watching Vernonia's Jamboree Parade. Or maybe their 4th of July parade, cheering and waving my flag.

I want to live here forever and ever!!

Native Habitat Nursery

Recently the head hillbilly and I took advantage of an open garden tour in our area. We freshened up after an afternoon of working around the place, grabbed our favorite coffee on the way and prepared to be inspired.

I have to face it. The fact that I have happy danced over the proverbial hill and find myself a bit more fatigued after a day in the garden has made me realize that those exuberant blossomed filled gardens, the staple of my younger years desire, have become a bit much. And I hate to admit it dadgum it!

At Native Habitat Nursery located in the rural outskirts of Dayton, Oregon, we meandered among hardy Northwest native specimens. Those wonderful shrubs, trees and ground covers that flourish in our rainy Pacific Northwest and are changing the way I see my garden in the coming years. A prelude to our tour was passing through this delightful entry. A garden gate made of a hodge podge of recycled garden tools and farm cast offs. Even the latch. Sweet.

We strolled, coffees and camera in hand, along pebbled pathways that wandered around the nursery through groupings of plants, and past some of my favorites like paper birch and mock orange.

Here and there interesting features abounded like this vintage grinding stone, and arched welded arbor of old iron fencing with free flowing bends and rusty chain.

The proprietors specialize not only in Northwest natives but also Bonsai, Niwaki, and original water features.

This fellow brought his own colorful contribution to the garden. His intermittent proud calls permeated the softer sounds of life in the garden.

I loved the wooden light fixtures that fit so naturally in the landscape.

The profuse and defining line of purple creeping thyme adds a bit of color to the gray stones, pavers and wood accents of a terrace. Love it.

~ Summer Blessings ~

Outdoor Sink

Let me say how ecstatic I am about my washing station. Some may remember when I got the grand scheme to build myself an outdoor sink. Well here it is in full service. I found a little drain rack that is oh so handy for my freshly washed veggies. No more bending over the water spigot for me. No siree ma'am! Can't recommend enough that you build one for yourself.

And don't you find it true enough too that even the smallest garden yields a bounty sufficient for a family, or two?

I've made one humdinger of a salad today. And I've packed up a few salads to go. I think I'll go up the road a piece to Ruby and Gib's place and then I'll mosey on over to Vern and Mary's too. They'll be having salad tonight.

A view from the window above my indoor sink.

~Summer Blessings~

Summer Blessings

If I could be like those brilliant swallowtail butterflies that embrace the blooms of our scarlet runner beans then I would drift upon the breeze to your neck of the woods, to your lovely garden, and drink it in.

~ summer blessings friend~

Community Garden

We have a son! Yippee! Bear with me please as I say stuff like that. When ever I see my boy, I am instantly transported back to the day he was born. I won't go into it but just know that 31 years later I still feel a need to announce his arrival. Sheesh, doesn't everybody do that?

Now that boy of ours manages an apartment building in a town not too far from ours. The small complex isn't located in the most desirable area I might add, and lacks the amenities of the higher end units on the other side of the tracks if you know what I mean. But ever on the beat to improve the environment of Ford Street Court Apartments and bring a little sun and life into the lives of it's residents, the guy comes up with projects, some of which the head hillbilly and I have helped on. The latest, A Community Garden.

I'll give you a run down of the process from start to finish in pictures, and thereby reducing the chit chat to the bare minimum. I'm talking like thats possible for me when I know dadgum well your not fooled. But lets go ahead shall we?

Ford Street Court Apartments and a little nondescript patch of green.

Hard and weedy but too weak to withstand our assault.

Our potential new occupants are waiting!

I weeded out the big stuff and HH hit it hard with the tiller.

Our grandson quickly seized the new territory for his monster truck.

Next our boy unloaded a yard of compost.

And the whole gang jumped in to spread and mix the compost into the old dirt.

We added two large stepping stones in the center.

And then before you knew it, more folks joined in on the fun.

Everyone who wanted to help was invited to participate and it was fun to chat with the tenants and others who enjoyed observing the process.

Gardens just tend to bring folks together don't they?

We created paths with grass clippings

And then a tenant from the neighboring apartment complex donated some broccoli and got into the planting too.

As we finished up and packed up our tools, I glanced over at my boy and instantly recognized the familiar look of contemplation that comes over him. Moms just know this kinda stuff, am I right? Sure enough he was planning his next project. He somehow felt the garden wouldn't be complete without a fence and that a nice enclosure of some sort would offer the garden some protection and respectability.

And so it goes.

Welcome to Ford Street Court Apartments

Community Garden.

P.S. Hey other side of the tracks, check it out!