Spring keeps springing. . .

Pink Lady Slipper on Mt. Phillip

My attentive consort took this picture of a new addition to our forest chorus. . .a pink lady slipper. Now that we know what to look for, I'm hoping to see and thank as many of these fellow travelers as possible.

I got a thumbs up on my first post-op review today, so my first task was to bend over and give Jasper the greeting and pets he deserves (we've both been missing that); and then took my phone out to record what's happening in the yard.

I was intent on getting some images of the candles on our hemlocks, but honestly we're a little past candle stage. Still, the new growth is obvious, and I can't think of a more graceful tree than a hemlock.

Hemlock Candles/new growth

There are so many different greens this time of year. I got up feeling sad from lack of sleep and not a lack of pain this morning, but as soon as I "stumbled out of my rack", got coffee and stepped outside it was easy to forget that malaise. Greens upon greens upon greens. All of that energy. All of that power. All of that beauty. All of that hope.

The ostrich ferns are on full throttle display  now. These forest ferns and others like them are one of the many things I love about living in Maine. They are as tough as they are beautiful. And that not-quite-lime green.  Like seeing good dark soil, it makes my mouth water.

Ostrich Ferns

The cultivated columbine, as well as the woodland natives, are also blooming now. These purples were planted by previous house owners. What luck to inherit them.

Purple Columbine

 

 

 

 

 

Purple Columbine almost there

Best ever Bread

 

 

 

 

 

 And to finish up, I'll document two more beautiful things in  our lives. The first is Attentive Consort's fabulous bread. He just keeps getting better and better at making this. What better symbol of the civilization we hope to save?

The last is our newly painted house from the driveway side. Our poly-culture lawn is doing well, the Copper Beech in the front is just getting coppery (it will be green by mid July), the Pink Rhododendrons are halfway through their warm-up to full bloom and the remaining perennials are just tuning up. The house is getting another chance. A rebirth of sorts. I'm hoping that in a month or so I'll see that as a metaphor for me as well. Good growing.

Home

 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch. . .

see me if you can. . .

My alert consort found this when he took out the compost today. Can you see it? I couldn't at first. He was attracted by the trilaterally symmetrical leaves, thinking we had missed a Trillium. But no. Two Jack-in-the-Pulpit flowers are living by our compost and brush pile, just off the edge of the cultivated property. Can you believe it?!? Right in front of our noses. What else might we be missing? Welcome, small beautiful things. Now I'm wondering if Trillium and Jack-in-the-Pulpit are related. . .

There is a lot of other excitement in the yard, of course. Blueberries are in full bloom, as are the Lilys of the Valley, the Weeping Crab apple is just finishing up her reproductive display, as are the real apples (Malus domestica), and the Peach (Prunus persica). Sorry about the Latin names. It's nice to know they're still in my brain.

sorrel and kale from the garden

 

 

 

As I am still limited in movement, I asked J to bring in some kale and sorrel for tonight's salad as well as a bunch of rhubarb for a pie. I can hardly bear to look at that wonderful rhubarb without using some if it. I love how rhubarb looks like some kind of exotic African plant with those huge leaves and their wonky flowers. 

Rhubarb

I guess I should take a picture of the pie. Not my prettiest by any means, and I had to go lay down after I made the crust. What a weenie.

Apples post bloom

It's hard to tell how much fruit set I have on the apples just yet. I'm hopeful. The bumble bees have been major players every day I've been out, though as usual, we see few honey bees.

Fledgling peach

But I'm pretty sure I see a peach on the residue of the peach flower. . .

Lily of the Valley flowers are hard to see, but their smell whops one upside the head as one walks past. 

 

 

Blueberry flowers with developing fruit

 

 

The blueberries deserve documentation. Such delicate flowers. And the bees love them. There is also visible fruit developing in that last image, so we'll have blueberries this year, if we can beat the chipmunks to them.

Two beauties to finish up with. First are the Double File Viburnums, which I oddly want to call "Rank Viburnums". Not a great subsitution. . .makes them sound like they're stinky, which they most definitely are not! In the foreground, the Siberian Iris are threatening to upstage them, but they are conveniently next-in-line-to-bloom, and don't offer any real competition. This makes me so grateful for the planters of this garden. We've added a lot to the house, but the fundamental structure of the gardens and the perennials are all due to the first owners of this place.

Mary's Yellow Iris

To the right is my first Siberian Iris of the Year. This is one that my friend, M, gave me. Pretty sure, since it's Yellow. And earlier than the purples by the Viburnum.

Rhubarb. Nicely delineates the edge of the yard

Ok. I can't resist one last image. Rhubarb. Food for the eyes and the belly.

 

This Explains a Lot. . .

 

There is a surprising common artistic mindset [among all artists]. . .  The end product is not the point. Why they did what they did is because they were consumed by the work. They all have a compulsion, an obsession to make something. It gets into their system and they can’t let go of it. 

Adam Moss, author The Work of Art.

Another slow walk

Very small dish (about 4 x 4 inches)

Things are still moving slowly enough in my healing process that I'm looking to catch up on writing. Note that I finally got the video on the last post to work. It seems I have to YouTube-ify it before I can get blogger to show it to you. That's ok. I just need to remember.

Found items and impressed slab

I thought I'd catch up on a pottery project that was conceived when we were in Kitty Hawk, NC this past March. I tend to pocket things on our many walks. Nuts, shells, skeletons. . .anything with interesting texture. In the back of my mind is that I'll make a bisque stamp from these collected items, and then use them to make a clay series that remembers the place. That's an odd way of putting it, I know, but clay is said to have a memory. If we extend that concept, maybe we can think of the final object as one that remembers an event. A piece of experience and time. That may be the pain killers at work. But bear with me. I started this project a couple of months ago, and between kiln problems, and the onset of spring, I'm just pulling it together now.

Roller stamp, still wet

 

Above are some of the objects I found in my pockets, along with the raw clay that I've pressed them into to make a stamp. These can be simple shells, pine needles (the needles are from the Loblolly Pine, a favorite tree of mine. . .the needles are long and arranged in 3-needle fascicles. The trees are Very Tall and Very Straight). That little skull was really interesting, but I couldn't get it to yield a very interesting texture. 

3 roller stamps to remember Kitty Hawk

One can make small stamps with little handles on them, or roll the length of clay up like the one pictured above and to the right to make a "roller" bisque stamp. They are then fired only to the bisque stage (not fired higher to full vitrification), and can then be used as tools to roll onto objects as they're being made.  The bisque-only firing means that they won't stick to the fresh clay.

Same stamps, fired to bisque

The bisque rolls are used to decorate hand-built objects, including the tumbler, mug and vase below. 

Kitty Hawk budvase

Note that the tumbler is still unfired. The texture from the bisque stamps is really clear on it, but as firing first to bisque, and then glazing, and refiring, the texture gets much subtler.

 

Kitty Hawk tumbler, green

The lesson learned on this is that the next piece I make with these textures, I'll use a much lighter colored glaze, such as that on the featured piece above. I think that may bring more focus to the textures, which after all, were the inspiration for the work. 

And for the record, the mug, below, is a wonderful piece through the camera's eye. In Real Life, though, the colors are much more muted, even muddy. Sorry Guy. My screw up.

Kitty Hawk mug

Literal slow walking

A medical situation has put me inside for a while, so I thought I'd share some spring images. Spring has come on full force. It seems like one day we have that light green haze over the woods, and the next, we're in full jungle mode. So amazing.

Images of late. . .  

The fiddle-heads move quickly from this to full blown Ostrich Plumes. They are breath-taking, particularly given their sheer numbers, but also for their hardiness and toughness. When we visited a friend in Massachusetts a few years ago, she was ripping them out by the roots from her garden. They had become a formidable weed.

Fancy Trillium

 

 

 

And then there are the trillium. In what can only be described as way too short a season, they were here in full force this past week. We call the frilly white and maroon type "fancy", but I don't really know which common name is well recognized. These take a little looking for, and knowing what one is looking for, but once you see them in one place, you start to see them everywhere. It's as though your eyes need to get calibrated to them.

Red Trillium

The more common red trillium graces our yard, and most woodland paths that I've been on in Maine. Again, a short season, and calibrated eyes at the right time. They tend to hang out in gangs. Smile.

They are also often seen in the same areas as that radical to the left. . .the strappy leaves only give them away if you know who they are. But in a month or so, these plants will be offering up the most beautiful Pink Lady Slippers imaginable. I hope I can be back.

And that's it for the post today. I'll close with a video of our creek at Sanders Hill if it cooperates. This was from Mother's Day (only a week ago!), and is one of the things that keeps drawing us back into the forest.

 

 

Video link

https://youtu.be/lCECh5UdtY8