Our crape myrtle is finally blooming!

It's a nice hot magenta. We might have guessed from the magenta azaleas, the magenta rhododendrons...some previous owner really liked a nice hot magenta! I'm hoping to tone it down with cooler blues and lavenders come next spring. I was going to go on, but as I was googling for pictures to describe what I'm thinking of, this site came up: Garden Picture Library.

from ww3.gardenpicture.com

See, now that's a cool garden! But the warmer schemes get me too, hot magenta or no.(Especially when it's done in crisp, cottagey flowers! Or an awesome red window frame. Love those blocky trellises.) The fluffy sunset-colored cloud (bottom) I would seriously love to recreate. Penstemon, rudabekia and solidago, the tags say. Hey - that's goldenrod! And I spy purple coneflower...

from ww3.gardenpicture.com

Okay - that's it. I'm spending the rest of the day drooling over roses. Why haven't I googled "garden pictures" before now?

Oh yeah, but back to the myrtle. As soon as the blooms...bloomed, its silky bark started to peel off!

Is this normal?? Weird looking, isn't it? Adds a nice exotic texture to the yard!

It's a Small World

Miniature fruit, exhibit one. (Quarter for scale.)

a) Champagne grapes from the market
b) Bell pepper. Mine. Don't laugh.
c) Crabapple found on the sidewalk.

The cosmos (normally proportioned - whew!) just bloomed and want in on the action.
Strike a pose!

Mr. Sandman

I adore this scene from Fred & Ginger's Top Hat (1938). Of all the times Laura watched that movie when we were little - this one scene got me every time, where, to make up, Fred sprinkles sand all over the floor of his room (right above Ginger's) and taps a slow, soft Sandman lullaby. It's so sweet! He doesn't mind the mess or the ashtray sand (eewww!). And Ginger is sooo happy in her silky, fluffy nest of a bed (and nightie)! Now that's the way to go to sleep... Now how'd she get her hair to stay like that? On YouTube here.

Thrift Store Finds

1) Fashion Plates game for $1.50! Hehe! I have always wanted one of these - with the different hairdos, blouses, patterns... All the pieces were there. (yes!) This one's a little outdated - Mama's guess is late 70's, early 80's, before my time. The ruffled tie-blouses and tiered skirts are right up my alley. And if you don't give the girls green eyeshadow (like the example on the box) they could pass! The picture on the cover cracks me up a little (you can barely see her feet poking out under the paper) : she's wearing polka-dotted tights that look like 12-year-old me in the middle of mosquito summer! How many things can go with a too-big sweatshirt? Let's see! I'm going to have to sharpen the pencils soon. They're almost down to the nubs.


2) Vintage sheets for $3 each: one twin flat, one double flat. They were intended for a future as pajamas, but the print is cute, matches my rug, the fabric's soft and my bed is a double! What to do? I could make pjs from the twin, and use the other on my bed...and then no one will be able to find me, I'll blend right in!

And since it's playing on TV, I should mention how much I like the Daisy sour cream commercial. "Do, do, do - do a dollop of Daiseee!

Now - write, knit!

Word Count Wednesday

10,026 / 25,000 (40.1%)

In the 10 thousands! Yoohoo!

It is getting harder to pick an excerpt for two reasons:
a. 2nd week tends toward writing, just for the sake of wordcount, which deteriorates the quality. :(
and
b. The plot thickens. Paragraphs get lost and out of place on their own. Poor wittle paragraphs...

A flashback:

All the trees
had bark too thick,
the soft barn wood
was just the trick.
I giggled and scratched
my imaginary beau's
initial alongside
mine (with a backwards
L, that always gave me trouble
- the ballet teacher abandoned
the old "L is for left"
routine with me
and just slathered
both rights in red paint.)

If David had seen it,
he would have been mad.
Not only that -
but he would have told
Mrs. Pritcherd so,
standing barefoot on those
smooth wood floors,
akimbo and a hand
in either pocket.
(he took on a Huckleberry
Finn guise in those days,
though I wouldn't let him
wear the ragged hat)

M L
loves
D

Just D.

Maddie refused
to do hers too
- it looked so deep,
so big, so bad.
Well fine.
- That proved her love
was not as deep or true
as mine and David's
and to make it up,
she would have to
serve the tea.

(Maddie and I
always had tea
in the hemlocks
at two o clock
on Wednesday
afternoons
served from an old
tin pitcher with sides
of scarlet bean blossoms
for our hors d'oeuvres.
The dogs would
never partake
and this irritated us
to no end.
The dogs replied
that David and Steve
didn't have to drink their tea.
They had the excuse
of being invisible,
we said, adjusting
our cinnamon fern
feathers. Dogs, however
were entirely real
and must not be rude
to their hostesses.
If they were
we would give them a bath.
And we did
eventually.
In tea.)

Getting decidedly prosy here. :)

A Lady of 1839

I had SO much fun piecing together this paperdoll from Edith Flack Ackley's Paper Dolls, Their History, And How To Make Them. My sweet mama gave me a copy a few weeks ago and I've been drooling over the old illustrations.

It is wildly different than the paperdolls my sister and I drew every summer. For one thing, the dress is made of tissue paper and gathered with needle and thread.

Playing milliner was especially fun. :) No, no, it wasn't. Those tiny flowers can be ridiculiously sticky, and it took several tries to figure out what Mrs. Ackley meant with the rear fold. But "milliner" sounds so nice. :)

I really like the way she looks in front of this watercolor by my aunt Mishelle. Like a Southern Belle wandering around under pink weeping cherries. What a lovely way to spend an afternoon before lounging on the front porch with sweet tea and divinity.

She needs a name: a good, sweet, sorter elergant name. Like Sophie or Susanna or Clementine.

Any suggestions? :)

"I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun."

Dress up games are a weakness of mine. Like a shopping addiction...without sore feet or buyer's regret. This one tops them all! 

What better accessory than Mr. Darcy??

I mean seriously!

The most wonderful poetry of all!

"Flower Window" by Carl Larsen

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,
but have not love,
I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.

And if I have the gift of prophecy,
and know all mysteries and all knowledge;
and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains,
but have not love,
I am nothing.

And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor,
and if I give my body to be burned,
but have not love,
it profiteth me nothing.

I Corinthians 13:1-3

Augverno 2008

My friend Mary Beth (from WritingAnotherStory) and I are taking our love for Nanowrimo and our life-goals of writing a verse novel and putting them into action this month!

Word count five days in:

4,118 / 25,000 (16.5%)

This is the first night I've been done before eleven! Yay!

Plot: something along the lines of The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty.

I had intended to post full excerpts here, but with/without edits and all, it's a merrible tess. This is one of the better parts so far though:

On just such a rainy day,

thick with mist

soft in air,

turning my valley

shades of blue

and of green

that go beyond any

words in my head.

Cerulean, maybe

Bottle green but

warmer, thicker,

softer in the infant

shades of cinnamon fern

and the first tiny palms

of tulip poplar.

But, no, older than that

Old like the Indian mounds

aching with grass

that we pass on the

main road to town.

Old like campfires

and strong mountain women

gathering nuts to

feed their children.

Like dinosaurs even.

Like music, it is --

hundreds and hundreds

years worth of music,

rising together,

called by the rain

from the depths of these red hills.

I stand at their feet,

the tall wet grass

soaking my skirt

clinging to my bare legs

until I have to tug

to make it let go.

But for now,

I let it cling.

Looking down

my sandals are gritty

with soil, looking

as much a part

of the burr-weed

and star-eyed asters

as two feet of clay.

Looking up

beyond the soaring

incline of glowing

rain-drenched greenery

up to where the cotton

clouds rend and sky

comes through, though

you can scarcely tell

it for the sun, ribboning

down in lemonade rays,

looking as much a part

of heaven as Daniel

and his sea of glass.

There is a verse --

you've heard me

quote it before --

in the Psalms of David

(the ruddy shepherd-poet)

that talks of God

reaching down

and at His touch,

the mountains smoke.

I know this

I live it.

Standing here, with

the blue mist around

my ankles, I pray.

If You would touch

these mountains,

Lord, if you know

the stars by name,

If I mean more to you

than the sparrows

that sing so sweet

You would not

forget me here,

beneath the pines?

[mine - no copying]

Back with more later. For now? Bed! Or life. Or that knitting project that's supposed to be felted in a month.... Yeah, that.

Official Introduction

For some reason, I thought that having a couple of posts under my belt would make the first hello less awkward. It doesn't. ;)

I'm Sara. I love pie, classic old novels and annoying my sister by humming the same lyrics to a song over and over again. Starting this blog to a) keep my LiveJournal from drowning in craftsy, writing-y, gardeny goodness. And b) be a more personal foundation for the Etsy that I'm going to start. Someday....soon.  

I'm also an A+ procrastinator. 

I think we'll be seeing more of each other. ;)

Toodles!

Inhale

It smells like pine needles here after a rain.

I like that.

It reminds me of my grandparents' houses. Of vacations. Playgrounds. Dr. Pepper. White hats emblazoned "I Love Grandma" and short pink knit skirts that twirl.

And then it rained.

And when it rains, it pours...













Poor little lily stalk!













How nice of the rain to bring the Rose of Sharon down where I could see it...













Gave the zucchini a cow-lick something awful, but with all the leaves pushed over to one side....look at that mighty guitar-string tendril!













Yes. It rained. The grass is still more than a little damp. May I come in yeeeeeet??

Hey there, purty.

Someone tell this little pansy that it's July.

"Little pansy, it's July."

Little Pansy (who picked up a southern accent from the azalea next door) : "I don' ca'! It's rainin'!"

Surprise Lilies pt. 2

They're blooming!













They're blooming!













And still more to come.

I'm in love. :swoons:

NEWSFLASH

This season's most stylish way to line your (squirrel) nest!













Chic garden liner in a vintage, charcoal coloring and hexagonal texture will add a fashionable accent to any winter dwelling.

(eg. the squirrels are ripping up the flower beds, stuffing their chubby cheeks with this stuff and toting it up the trees!)

Surprise!

These little plants are so strange, they deserve a post of their own.













In that same corner of the yard, on the side where grass and loosestrife quarrel, on the side where a cottontail made a nest in the spring, five leafless tulip-like buds have grown.



















See them? Like stiff green snakes in a jungle of grass? With kissy pink lips. ;)

I'm hoping for surprise lilies.

Surprise lilies have got to be some of the most interesting plants I know of. In the spring, they sprout a rosette of 'long, amaryllis-type leaves' (that sounds familiar!) that die down by summer. And then in late summer (that'd be now) KAPOW! Out of nowhere, 2-foot naked stems shoot from the ground and bloom into 6 or 8 pink lily flowers in the most decadent shades of pink. This habit invited names like "nekkid ladies", "pink flamingo flower", "resurrection lily". They're often found around old fences and foundations. I wonder how long these have been here?

Last year, before we moved, I planted two bulbs in pots and waited. Their leaves came and went, but never any flowers! I blame the squirrels. So if these are surprise lilies, magic lilies, spider lily, whatever, I will be soooo happy! And the buds look a deep, winey pink too. Luscious!

Pictures from the garden, er, yard.

There is one corner of our yard, even in town, that is like a tiny woodland. Ferns, trillium. Things grow there that I never even saw in our rhododendron tangle at the old house. Like mayapples. And gooseneck loosestrife.













Oooh, look! Berries!













On the other side of the yard....The cosmos seeds that IndianaLu sent me for my birthday have sprouted into plants and are 5, maybe 6 inches tall!!













These...somethings, Rudbeckia? seem to be in pleasant company. They don't look like Painted Daisies, so I'm guessing they were here before we were. Well, nice to meet you, Yellow Flowers.













They don't seem to mind the drought.

You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt. ~Author Unknown

Knit one, purl two.

Mama and I are working on a felted diaper bag for the Little Nephew who will be arriving sometime in September. Would you believe this is my first time trying a seed stitch? I like it!














Another new technique. Forgive the Red-Hat Lady colors. The pattern was really fun and easy! The motif is from Knitting for Baby: 30 Heirloom Projects. (as is the bag pattern.) I'm working up the courage to knit the "Nordic Snowflake Pullover". That would be TWO new techniques: color & circular yoke. It's for 12-24 months, so I've got some time. A new circular needle might help. (Ours have been inherited - they're plenty old, plastic and kinky!)

It wasn't rainy when I began...

I love these rubber boots.













I love tromping around the yard in them, my bare toes wiggling inside. Regardless of red clay smush or 'gifts' from this dog, I can imagine I'm a prairie princess, a full skirt whipping against the wind. Or a cowgirl, whose boots would've seen far more mucky stalls than these ever have. Yet, anyway.

These spent their hardest hours stuffed with so many layers of socks that my sister or I (whichever had the privilege of wearing Mama's boots out into the snow) could barely walk.

[picture]

How nice that my feet grew up size 6! (Of course, that is, as I said, sans socks.)














I...haven't experimented much with the self-timer on our camera. The first few attempts were off focus, so for this one the boots got set up and angled on. Good? Good! Press the button....beep, beep , beeeeeeeep. Run, jump into boots. Boots fall over, have half a boot on while wrestling with the other. Beeeeeep! That was close. So glad the neighbors are on summer vacation and didn't have to be exposed to such antics!

You however?