Catching up

Weeping Crab Apple

Spring has seemed so slow to come, and then suddenly. Two days in the 80's and everyone is singing. The forest went from light-green haze to the dense leaves of privacy. This weeping crab apple was in bud for at least a week, and yesterday she just gave up and let loose. Other things are happening, or being done, as well. 

Weeping Crab blossoms

All of my transplants are now in the ground, though we are threatened with 39F tomorrow night. I'm a little worried, but I think they'll do fine as long as it doesn't frost. They may be insulted, but better that than dead. A healthy life philosophy when you think about it.

Also of note, I finally finished the base for the vase in the previous post. It's ok. Not my favorite, but I'll keep it as an example of the water-etching process. And it's huge, for when the time of the long stems comes on us. . . iris, day lilies. . .there are more.

Also. A big lesson learned. I've had trouble producing decent transplants indoors since we moved here. I finally had a head slap moment when I realized that germination was fine, they were just too leggy. Light! We need more and longer light! After telling John that I needed to get a plant light, HE did a head slap and remembered that we have one. We moved it with us from Rockridge, where the light was particularly stingy in the house. Voila. Just to be sure, I also bought some tomato transplants from our local Agway. To the left is a comparison of my plants on the left, and Agway's plants on the right. I need to start growing more of my own plants, clearly. They are all in the ground now, and we'll see if the smaller, commercially produced, plants catch up. I hope they do. Last year we had too little basil and too few tomatoes. Not acceptable. I'll forgo the potatoes and pumpkins to have an abundance of tomatoes and basil.

Also of note. My friend (Hi, Mary!) sent me this image of a tree. It looks like it must be two trees, but there is only a single trunk. I had no clue, being a pomologist by education, so of course I tried to find information online. I searched extension websites. I know the top was a spruce, but the bottom? Then. I somehow managed to upload the image into an AI platform (no idea how I did this. . .I usually just punch random buttons and see where it takes me), and Darned if AI didn't have the exact right answer. It was a Dwarf Alberta Spruce that had reverted to the original phenotype. Most of me is appalled that AI figured it out before this human with 15 years of education and that much experience didn't, but the other part of me sees the power in it for the first time. To be fair, I had to know enough about how reversion works to know that it was the correct answer, but still. Amazing.

I'll post some images of the garden now. I've blathered on enough!

 

Brunnera (Siberian Bugloss)

Bleeding hears

Herb garden with lovage and enough basil

Blueberries in bloom

Dawn redwood begins

Apple blossoms beginning

Plum blossoms

Peach in full bloom

Rhubarb. Time for cake!

 

Eggplant, Kale, Zuchinni

New Raspberry planting: 'Anne'

Tomatoes begin

Spring work

I made this vase using underglaze (graduated greens) and water etching over commercial stencils to see if I could make the technique work. It's pretty ok, though the base is small, so I'm making a separate base that I'll somehow attach to this fully vitrified piece. Or maybe I won't. We'll see.

This technique is dicey, and works a lot better on this white stoneware than it did on the Very Sad porcelain box featured in an earlier post. The issue is that the clay needs to be cut and prepped and then dried to just-the-right leather hard stage before the surface can be underglazed and etched. THEN, the pieces need to be scored and slipped to put them together while stiff enough to hold their shape, but moist enough to make a good bond. It's a tedious journey of waiting then working quickly. I once heard someone say that war was long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of terror. It's like that.

 

I do love the look of the water etching. The branches are slightly raised, though the final glaze makes the surface smooth, even though it still has a dimensional look.

 

I also made a mug using the same technique, but of a new brown speckled stoneware. I like the look of it, though the stoneware fires to be darker than I had expected. 

 

This mug is a smaller size that John prefers. I made the handle larger than usual so that all of the fingers fit under it, rather than floating the pinkie on the outside of the handle. I'm not sure why I don't absolutely love it. It's ok, though.

 Finally, I had some clay left over from all of the slab building, so I made labels for some new plants in the garden. I used under glaze to color the dark clay, then stamped or scrafito'd (scratched) through the under glaze. The contrast between the color of the clay and the under glaze wasn't as sharp as I would have liked, but these labels will work. And it's a great way to use up bits and pieces of clay.

The red won't get lost in the garden, but the green is harder than I'd like to read.

It remains cool this morning, after weather that was cold-ish and rainy for the past couple of days. I'm ok with all of that, though I would love to get my transplants into soil. We're supposed to reach 60 today, so garden work is imminent. Spring still merely threatens, though. I'm looking forward to seeing her for real.