This much sour grass

The dark days of winter are the best for being in my equally dark studio, making paintings. I like hunkering down and going inward. It's harder to paint when everything is growing and blooming outside.

The sour grass pictured has taken over my yard, despite all my efforts for it to go away 
(Dictator Proclamation -Take 132!) It's inspired me to hunt for some weed enlightenment...  
I've found it in a book called "Weeds: In Defense of Nature's Most Unloved Plants". 

It's a fascinating survey of the perception of the unwanted plants through British history with a nod to American soil as weeds migrated west with colonization. It appears that the dilemma of wanted/unwanted plants arose with farming. Nice loose, cultivated soil attracts certain tenacious plants. So this differentiation of wanted/unwanted plants has been going on for decades and guess what? They're here to stay.

 On the flip side the author talks about the idea of a weed being a nostalgic and perhaps useful constant. Weeds have been growing in areas for decades. Some of these seeds simply lie dormant waiting for the right conditions to grow again. They are survivors and adapters.

So, to try to get friendly with the idea of thinking about weeds in a different way, I took some shots of sour grass though the color unnerves me, I have to say. It should glow in the dark. And speaking of dark, here's Buddy.

Winter White Wonderland

 

Around the holidays there are a lot of white flowers for sale. The choice generally runs between ho!ho!ho! red or white. Not an ivory white, not a creamy white, but the brightest, coolest of whites. A white that's bracing and clean, like snow. Or a bright punctuation in the short days of winter, a floral equivalent of twinkle lights.

The camellias and little red tomatoes came in from my garden. Camellias usually last one day before their edges turn brown. If you strip all the leaves they last longer without browning, but they are so very delicate. And tomatoes ripe for Christmas is a first. The shape of Christmas future?

Goodbye leaves

  
    In the world of fashion, there was a rule that was followed very faithfully by the girls in my family when I was growing up; do not wear white- shoesjackethandbag- etc. past Labor Day. 

Similarly, in the world of floral imagery you are not supposed to see fall leaves past Thanksgiving. So this is my last chance to share these photos from a commemorative celebration without offending any subconscious sense of what feels right in the world. This rule makes more sense to me than the white shoes tradition since it acknowledges the seasons. Though in our neck of the woods the fall leaves are still around until spring starts it's regrowth. It took this east coaster a long time before I could wrap my mind around that one.

A beautiful chaos

   This arrangement feels a little like the inside of my head and heart today; mixed up, but trying to find the mark.  There is so much at stake these days. I ponder the hopscotching of big storms from Katrina to Sandy and worry about our fate here on the west coast. 

Contrast that with a bucolic warm weekend surrounded by music, good food, and good fellowship at a friends ranch in the Sierra foothills this weekend. 

These days I take some comfort in Buddhist philosophy that teaches that the nature of this is world has always been chaotic. That chaos is the nature of life here from birth to death. We have to find the island within ourselves and to work outwardly, sharing what we have to offer. I'm searching very hard today. 

The grapevines  and pine needles came from Tom and Gayle's ranch. Thanks you two!
                    VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE

Ghost of fall past, fall present

Color, abscence of color

   



























         


 If there's any color that feels natural to be so vivid it's the color orange because it's right there in the big old, everyday sky.

 A visual contrast to all this color saturation took place on a camping trip Jon and I recently took up the Northern California coast. The sun was hidden and It misted heavily the whole entire time. The coast here has a very austere color palette on even on a sunny day. When it's foggy or misty, the predominant color is grey. It's very beautiful, but for some reason I need mental preparation to drop down into it and find that beauty and not want to run inland. Just a few miles further east, the sun was out and the bright fall colors were doing their thing. But knowing it was out there somewhere sort of made me feel better and want to stay and get into the gray.

I guess I'm not one of those people who revel in fog, though I can see that it would be like being wrapped in a big down blanket.

Don't be stealing my pig

We were at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in Golden Gate Park this weekend and I lost my hat. I have a lot of hats, but never wear any of them except the one that is quirkily Spanish looking and belonged to Maggie, my mother-in law. How I loved it.

 I don't think anybody stole it. I think I just left it behind in the dust. But I still have my pig.

South San Francisco Spring Garden Fundraiser

 The City of South San Francisco invited me to do a floral demonstration at their Spring Fundraiser along with 5 other  speakers. After the initial terror and getting used to the headset microphone, it was great fun!

I'm taking my former Montessori teaching experience and  mixing it up with my years of floral design in the Home Staging and free- lance floral design to encourage people to put together flowers for their homes.

Now to work directly with groups doing hands on design.

Sigh.... that  antique pitcher was so cool. It went to a good home though- don't you have ENOUGH vases, m.a.? Never, never...

Obnoxiously orange vase take 2

Land of VASE

Consider the vase. In my mind it's at it's most lowly form in the kind of cheap and ubiquitous vases that come with FTD type floral deliveries. Where do they end up? I see a lot at thrift stores. They make me sad. The inexpensive, mass produced ones take away from the flowers. Because a beautiful or earthy or quirky container paired together with  interesting flowers becomes something more than the individual parts

Here's my most recent thrift store purchase.The vase is almost obnoxious, it's so vivid. It's brighter than anything in my house. But it turns out it looks interesting with browned out colors and I think there's more interesting combos to explore. It reminds me that fall is around the corner, but I'm preferring to see it as a height of the summer color, rather than that of a Halloween pumpkin. We'll be seeing those soon enough.