Elusive spring weather

Scylla in mid-April

 

It's been a very cool few days with rain predicted tonight. I'm ready for warmer weather, but remind myself that some of my former homes have already seen 90F. So patience. And sweaters.

For some reason I forget many of the early spring perennials that grace our land every year. Maybe it's a subconscious desire to be surprised each year? 

We have a carpet of these little blue scylla flowers in the shade garden under our Copper Beech. I love them.They're actually a little on the invasive side, and are currently moving into the lawn with amazing density. "Lawn" being the poly culture that covers what cultivated land isn't in beds or trees.

White Anemone

 

 

 

 

Some other favorites are a white anemone that appears every year. It is not quite open yet, but even the buoy-shaped buds offer interest. 

 

 

Chives, ready to eat

The chives are the earliest starting herbs, though the creeping thyme overwintered well enough that I can use some of it if I need it. 

French Tarragon peeping out

 

 

 

 

And! The French Tarragon is just getting started, but it's always a relief to see that it's made it through the winter.

Bunnera

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Siberian Bugloss (Brunnera) is just starting to show. Her leaves are so lovely, but later in the season she'll also give us little blue flowers reminiscent of Forget-Me-Nots.  I'm really pleased that this one is starting to spread after 2 years in the ground.

Daffodils threatening

Daffodils are well on their way to flowering, and the Hellobore is giving me wonderful flowers in spite of the fact that the turkeys have trampled most of her leaves. We've been having some discussions with the turkeys. I've talked about them before. I do love them, but will do everything I can to hurry them on when they approach this bed.

Lenten Rose (Hellobore)

 

 

 

 

I have a tale of woe regarding the planting of a pear tree. After a lot of research, I found one that is an older cultivar (found as a seedling in a Pennsylvania orchard) called Kieffer. It is attractive to me because I only have room for one tree, and most pears require pollinators.

Kieffer Pear (now potted)

I was excited to find this tree at Fast Growing Trees. I'm not familiar with this nursery, but the reviews were pretty good. What an idiot I can be sometimes. John and I had removed the old apple tree where we were planting this new one, dug a huge hole for it, amended it with half peat moss, and waited for the tree to arrive.

The top of the tree was a little worse for shipping, but I could manage it with a couple of pruning cuts. But the roots. Oh the roots. Bare root trees are just that, but they are supposed to have a root system with a lot of the fine fibrous roots that do all of the heavy lifting for water and nutrients.

When we opened the plastic bag that had mulch and roots in it, the image below is what we found. I told the customer rep at the nursery that it will be a miracle if this tree survives. I took it out of the ground and potted it so I can keep a close eye on it. 

Kieffer Pear "roots"

What are they thinking? 

They are sending me a new plant, but I told them not to if there are no fibrous roots on the plant. It will just be another one that I try to save, and is likely not save-able.

On the other hand, I received my raspberry plants from Nourse Farms. It's a yellow primocane fruiting cultivar called 'Anne'. A colleague of mine developed it at the University of Maryland.

They are beautiful plants, and I got them in the prepared soil a couple of hours after they arrived. Sorry I didn't take a picture. I am grateful that the between a knowledgeable nursery, and a knowledgeable me, these plants will likely survive. 

Studio ups and downs

Snack dish

 I'm sort of fascinated by these little snack dishes that are minimally formed, maximally textured, and glazed with terror in my heart. This one turned out pretty well. These narrow dishes (6" wide at it's widest, about 14" long) are great for displaying alternating slices of pizza. Also good for cheese etc.

Box o' glory and pain

So the above was a success. But the big piece that I took hours and hours to make failed on the last firing. Such a bummer. I missed a class on surface design due to illness, so I did some internet research, and made samples and this large vessel. . .6" wide, 12" tall. The surface pieces are cut and then water-etched over leather hard pieces that have been covered with a colored underglaze. It is such a cool surface. 

Water etching sounds more complicated than it is. The entire surface is painted with an underglaze or 2 or three. Then a stencil (plastic, or stencils you make out of newspaper) is place firmly on the surface of the clay, and the whole mess is wiped over repeatedly with a wet sponge. Rinse, repeat. The result is a raised and colored area where the stencil prevented the wiping away of the color, and the surrounding areas that are washed clean of the color.

So cool. So I dried this piece very slowly and very well. All was good after bisque firing. But the final firing to full vitrification proved to be my/its downfall.

Scene of the crime

 

You can see where the seams cracked, making the lid not fit, and of course compromising the whole of the piece. It is now in the trash, but I needed to emphasize my foolishness (to myself and you, gentle readers), but also to let all gaze upon the glorious-ness of the surface design. The next piece will be smaller and made of stoneware, not porcelain. Yet another lesson in this lesson-filled life.

Test tiles with water etching

 Test tiles illustrate some interesting results using stencils and water etching. I especially like the 2 below. The right tile is just porcelain water etched deeply over a tree branch stencil. No glaze. The left tile gets the "most surprising" award. The raised areas are pieces of newsprint that I randomly cut out (unsurprising that I made leaves and branches), but that thin newsprint made a pretty impressive impression, didn't it!

Left, newsprint stencil, right commercial stencil

Finally, a couple of more pedestrian pieces. Two bowls glazed with Bark and rimmed with Emeraude, and a mug (still trying to make the perfect mug for me) that I used a True Celadon glaze on. Note that the Emeraude rim does run much over the celadon. Yet another lesson.

 

 

Two brown bowls

Another almost perfect mug

 

April Showers

Snowdrops

Snowdrops. I have two blossoms. In Boise, I had an area that was blanketed with them, and they started blooming in February. I do miss that part of Idaho. I planted this guy three years ago, and every spring it gives me one-two blooms. It's in a similar ecological niche as it was in Idaho (partial shade under a dogwood), and both areas have sandy loam soils. It could could be a temperature thing.

 

Pink Hellebore

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of other early emergers are still dipping their toes into the air. Wow. Terrible metaphor. The pink hellebore is stretching a little further out, and the daffodils are going all out with leaves. The plant equivalent of all hat, no cow? It looks like I'll only have a couple of blooms this year, which is fair. They're planted under our amazing Copper Beech, so except for this time of year, they don't get much sun.

One of my favorites, the Bleeding Hearts, are just starting to taste the air. [much better metaphor]

 

Bleeding Hearts

These are glorious every year, even though they're heavily shaded by the previously mentioned Copper Beech. So I look for them early.

I find myself looking forward to any shred of hope these days. The director of the EPA just declared victory for ending the Climate Hoax. Anyone who's paying any attention in the world knows that this is no hoax. I shudder for our children's future. 

Finally, the reason for the title of this entry. I'm posting the snowfall we had 2 days ago. It was about an inch. It was so beautiful, and would have been much enjoyed in November. Still. The snow was beautiful enough to share, and will be a good reminder of cooler weather when the heat is oppressing us in July. . .

 

April Showers 

 

 

 

Good Friday

It is a gray and rainy and cold day today. Indoors, though, we can still enjoy beauty. And there is also beauty outside. It's just not so apparent when one is hoping for warmer weather, and a real opportunity to get back outside.

I'm not a believer in the religion of my youth, but I do believe in renewal, second chances (and third and fourth) and the fresh hope that spring brings. . . and all of that lush explosive Green that is coming soon.