Daffodils ~ Happy Earth Day!

My studio sale is over for another year, and my attention turns to my garden.

My daffodils are blooming like crazy, just in time for Earth Day – Spring is my favorite time of year!

I feel revitalized, energized and I fly out of bed each morning to see what’s new.

Right now a new daffodil opens each morning!  Beautiful colorful sunny daffodils.

I love variety – color, size, plain and fancy; and a variety of bloom times.

Daffodils emerge from a bulb, and are also called narcissus and jonquils.

As you can see I have a lovely collection.  These are just my early varieties.

Other spring bulbs are also blooming – fritillarias, hyacinths, and more.  A few of my early tulips are showing color but not open yet.

Today I’ll just show you daffodils.  When my daffodil clumps are large enough I divide them and plant them in empty spaces throughout my garden.

I don’t always wait until they die off.  I’ve moved them while blooming so I know what variety I’m planting and can see where they belong!

Large and small, tall and short.  Multi-stemmed and regal tall singles.

I love them all and when I see them smiling like this, I smile back!

Happy Earth Day everyone!!

 

Unofficial Spring

Officially we have about a week before Spring and my garden is budding with color.  Most of my garden is still underground but the sun has been out the last few days inviting my spring plants to wake up.  And inviting me outside to play.  I’m calling it unofficially spring!!

I’ve been buried in my studio in spite of the gorgeous weather lately because my annual studio sale is just around the corner and I still have much to prepare for it.  I’ve opened my studio for the last 15 years or so, and joined the Gorge Artists Open Studios 4 years ago.  Now I’m down to the wire with only a month left to finish all the work I’d planned and clean up my garden because people like to walk through it while they’re here.

After a long studio day I managed to get a couple hours of clean up done outside late this afternoon.   I could no longer walk by the debris of fallen limbs and branches from winter snow and ice.  I managed to get quite a bit raked up in a short amount of time.  Of course it’s not picked up, just raked into piles along my paths.

I decided to trim and weed as I raked each section so that I could slowly acclimate to all those tasks that my back hasn’t done all winter.  It felt wonderful sitting in the warm sun, listening to the birds sing as I cleaned up each bed and pulled dead leaves away from tender shoots sprouting up.

I’m grateful to have been outside.  In the sun.  I’m grateful to have only had a couple of hours because my back was not ready to work that hard.  My plan for tomorrow is to repeat today.  Maybe not as long.  Or maybe I’ll just sit and enjoy the sun and birds a little longer.

If you’re in the Northwest, I’d love to have you stop by my studio sale to see what I do.  In my studio and in my garden.  April 11, 12 & 13.  You can send me a message here or via email if you’d like directions.

Our resident deer are also happy to see the sun, and my plants popping out of the ground.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Earth Day

I spent the day in my garden.

Watching the birds and bees.

It was fascinating.  A day of R & R in the midst of weekend art shows.

Birds.  Bees.  Flowers.  Lizards.  

There’s more, but I have yet another art show to prepare for.  Thanks for stopping by!

Mid May Musings

Taking a moment to breathe between weekend art shows.  I am amazed at what’s blooming in my garden.  I love these colorful Parrot tulips.

Pink fringed tulips are also favorites ….

…as are yellow, orange, and red tulips!  Blooming under my Magnolia tree.  With a glass garden fairy that I made swinging from a branch.

Little Chickadee oh so sweet.

Evening grosbeaks taking refreshment.

Epimediums are starting to bloom. I LOVE purple…..

…and pink!!  There are more, but these are my favorites.

Love catching these little hummingbirds at our feeders.

I must take 300 photos for every one that turns out.

Is there a secret to photographing hummingbirds in flight?

My Soloman’s Seal is finally multiplying.  I’ve waited several years for this to happen so I can spread it throughout my woodland gardens.

Back out in the sun my miniature iris are starting to bloom.  I love these little guys.

And these little guys.  The Goldfinches like to sip directly from the dripper at this birdbath.

That looks like a chair calling my name.  Try not to notice all the weeds, ok?  Until next time…thanks for stopping by.

Hello Spring, I Love You

I’m breathing a sigh of relief after our cold, long and dreary Northwest winter.

Spring has finally arrived in my top of the world, higher elevation garden.

Work still has me scrambling, which is a good thing for an artist.  More people are realizing that owning original art is more fulfilling, fun and rewarding than having the same thing all your neighbors have that was purchased at a big box store.

If you’re in the Portland Oregon area, please come to the Glass Gallery at the Portland Convention Center April 29 – May 1st to see what I do!

Yesterday when the sun came out I was compelled to take a break….

….to make sure my garden was still growing.  And to see what the deer left me.

Yes, they’ve been grazing through my garden all winter and spring.

I haven’t had time to spray Liquid Fence, which has worked beautifully for me.

I’ll be showing glass garden art at the Master Gardener’s Plant Sale at the Extension Office in Hood River on May 7th in the morning.  Their sale closes at 1pm, so come early!

May 14 and 15 you can come tour my studio along with 40 other artists in the Gorge Artists Open Studio Tour.

June 3 – 26 you’ll find my work at Columbia Arts gallery show ‘Get Centered’.

As you can see, I will only have limited forays into my garden as time allows.

Hopefully I can work fast in the mornings, then spend a few hours in my garden.

I have so many plans for this year.  Plants that need to be moved, a terraced slope that needs to be redone.  Not to mention expansion.  I still have several areas that can be converted to garden space on my little two acres.

Thanks for stopping by.  Until next time…..

On the Eve of Spring…

….I can breathe a deep sigh, knowing I made it through another long dark winter.

Tomorrow, March 20, at 7:21 P.M. EDT is the official first day of Spring, also called the Vernal Equinox.  It makes me happy.

The world is in uproar with catastrophic disaster and another looming war, yet my garden is bursting forth with a new season of growth.

It makes me happy.  This little patch of paradise that I’ve built for myself sustains my soul.

As the colors emerge my energy returns.  Another season of caring for my plants, rearranging them into more beautiful combinations.  You remember don’t you?  I rearrange my garden the way others rearrange their furniture.

There’s a lot of work to be done.  I should put my camera down and get to it.

And get back to deterring squirrels from the bird seed!  Any suggestions?

Thanks for stopping by….

 

Spring Blooms, May Flowers

This has been my busiest spring ever, work-wise!  It’s been wonderful with fantastic projects and great classes.  You can see what I’ve been up to over at my Studio blog if you’d like.

I’ve managed to document the spring growth of my garden, just haven’t had the time to process and post photos.  Looks like my summer might be busier than normal also.

Spring clean up (most gardeners manage to get these tasks done in the fall) has been sporadic at best, so please forgive any unsightly messes you may witness here!

Two weeks ago my bleeding hearts were barely budded out.

They’ve now completely unfurled.

Same with this Clematis…

The little goldfinches started showing up before all the other migratory birds!

I noticed buds on a couple peonies and two weeks later they’re still buds!

One of my tree peonies has her first bud!  Paeonia suffruticosa ‘Kamata-Nishiki’ has resided here for three…four….maybe even five years now.  I can hardly wait to see the purplish pink flower.

If I blink, I might miss my species tulips, they bloom and fade so fast….

…but the Leopard’s bane (Doronicum) blooms on and on and on…

Invaded by Evening Grosbeaks, it’s a struggle to keep the feeders filled once they show up.

But I love their bright color and raucous attitudes.  The daffodils are still blooming…

This is the last of my new pinks to bloom…some of them are very similar with maybe a little more ‘ruffle’ being the only difference.

I have lots of ‘little treasures’ that quickly burst out and shine for only a moment….

…and some that arrive to spend the entire season with me.

My collection of treasured miniature iris are just beginning their bloom season.

Adverse to most groundcover, I’ve found Aubrieta fairly tame, not overly aggressive and easy to pull out should they overrun their bounds.

Drought tolerant Veronica, I’m waiting for her to spread out more.

Artemisia…

The Black-headed Grosbeaks are also non-aggressive and can’t get a word in or a sunflower seed out, next to the Evening Grosbeaks!  This little guy waited ten minutes for his chance at the feeders.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hopefully my ‘next time’ post won’t be so far away…..

Is it Spring Yet?

“It’s Sspprrrrriiiiiiinnnnnnggggggg” she screamed as she ran out the door into the blindingly bright Sunday morning.  Iris reticulata have opened, snowdrops are nodding their pretty faces, crocus glow in the sunlight.

Primrose smile their pretty colors, a few violets are nodding in agreement and half a dozen daffodils are very close to popping open, so it MUST be spring.

She was almost caught up with a larger than normal amount of work in her tiny glass studio and decided she MUST GET OUTDOORS before she could possibly move on to the next project.  It was too glorious a day to miss.

The warmth of the sun on her back, the mesmerizing color of those first spring flowers, and the birds chirping their background music … exactly what she needed.

The garden’s fall cleanup had been left behind because she never had time for it in autumn.  It now awaited her on this perfect, almost-spring day.

The gardener went through her large garden one section at a time, snipping off dried lily stems, cutting back dead stalks and leaves of perennials, mowing off stands of grass with her newly sharpened clippers.

Gazing up at the blue sky often for reassurance this was not a dream, but a deliciously warm March day even though the first day of spring had not yet officially arrived.  It was oh so magical to be in her garden, cleaning, raking, and tidying each of the many beds.

A truckload of chipped bark had been delivered by the county road department, but that would have to wait.  Today, she wanted to… no…. needed to touch her plants, the soil they were emerging from, and the warm rocks surrounding them.

Realigning the borders, thinning out overrun perennials, deciding where the new dahlias would be planted while carefully watching for new buds that she might have missed kept her moving from bed to bed all afternoon.

Yes, ever mindful to not strain her back, to not over-do this first day of gardening, she purposefully inspected each plant for signs of new growth and new offspring.

Camera in hand, of course!

Like many of you, I’ve begun taking my camera with me everywhere because I don’t want to miss any potentially great shots for my newest blog, 365 One Day at a Time.  A very old friend…(she’s not old, I’ve known her a long time!)…convinced me to partake in the Shutter Sisters 365, taking and posting a photo a day.

Without words, it’s fairly easy for me to post daily on that blog.  Because my daily photos are not always about gardening, this wasn’t the right place for them, nor was my work blog, so obviously I had to start a third blog, just for my photos.  A lot of nature, landscapes and wildlife; a reminder of what I enjoy each day.

I’ve fallen in with a group of photographers who lead me, push me, advise me and hold my hand down this new road of learning to be a better photographer.  In that vein, I found a site that I want to share with you, my fellow gardeners.  It’s a contest I know you’ll want to enter.  Epiphanie camera bags are gorgeous and sophisticated while protecting your camera in a not so obvious “I’m a black camera bag” sort of way!  Work is going so well that soon I hope to have one of my own!!

Oh…and what happened to the gardener in my story?  After a good day in her warm and almost cleaned up garden it snowed overnight.  Not necessarily a bad thing, because she had so much more work waiting for her in the studio.  Another day in the garden would’ve put her behind, but she relished that lone day and looks forward to the next warm sunny day when she can escape to her garden.

For now her garden sleeps again, a little more tidy, awaiting the first day of spring, and the end of too many projects that she said ‘yes’ to……

As always, thanks for stopping by, especially when there’s not much happening in the garden!  Until next time…..

Get Ready Spring, Here I Come!

Sugar Lips

Ordered my dahlias….

Fascination

And my cannas….  Lots more to do!!!!