Blog

Mom's Birthday

Every day I remember Mom. It's deeper than a habit.

The morning glories are really getting good. I planted a lot of different types this year. I don't remember all of their names - I wrote them down somewhere. I'm pretty sure this dusty pink one is "Chocolate Silk".

the blue speckled one is smaller, but I love the starry points. I also love the color of the larger blue one, but the slash in the side makes these seem sort of incomplete.

This type is very tough - the first to start blooming and each morning new blooms appear on these vines.

For the last couple weeks I've been slowly emptying and sorting  through boxes and baskets and stacks of fabrics. Many of them are leftovers from other projects. A lot are pieces that I didn't love at the time and put away, thinking I'd "fix" them someday...

Early morning on the back porch . The sunrises seem different lately. The angle of the light is interesting.I guess this is always true, but I'm sure noticing it a lot these days.

Interesting morning sky

As usual lately, I'm still dyeing silk threads. Before dyeing the silk is exquisite.

Dyed with madder roots. I love the wide and surprising range of warm shades from madder.

The morning's work wound up.

 The mornings have been hazy, hot and humid. The air seems yellow.

Everything in the garden is growing and changing very fast.

I love the twisted curve of these morning glories.

Their leaves are beautiful too.

The robins and cardinals love the grapes!

A lot of honey bees have been visiting the garden lately. They love the Impatiens balfourii.

 An interestings thing is that they always arrive in the late afternoon and hang around until a little after sunset.

 The really interesting thing is that they don;t go inside the flowers like other bees. They grasp the tail end of the flower and seem to drink nectar from this part.

In the moments between visitors, phone calls and household chores, I sorted, washed, and ironed  some odds and ends of indigo dyed linen fabric.

These are some of the leftovers from experiments and bits of fabrics I dyed and put away thinking I might use them in the future. They add up quickly.

 Yellow and indigo moon.

None of these are "perfect", but they're still pretty good.

Id like to be able to mimic these patterns!

Mom's piano

Sometimes the thing our life misses

Helps more than the thing that it gets.

- Alice  Cary

But I still long for a piano.

Though all around us there seems to be plenty of rain falling, it's been dry and really hot here for a long time. Yesterday afternoon we enjoyed refreshing cool showers. For once, I didn't have to spend hours dragging the hose around!

Impatiens balfouri

The flowers are drippy and rejoicing

The Japanese indigo seems to have grown overnight.

 They even look great as they melt away

Hibiscus

Today there are happy new flowers to take the place of the rain-soaked ones.

 I often receive customer requests for more green silks. This is always a welcome excuse to experiment with shades of yellow and indigo

 Sometimes the yellow comes from coreopsis flowers. Even the red ones give yellow dye.

Reaching naturally dyed green is intersting and challenging

It's so rewarding to see the different, (un-repeatable) shades!