Blog entry
Coreopsis flower dye
I've been collecting these annual coreopsis flowers all summer. They're small but they pack a punch in the dye pot. These plants are getting a little ragged but are still popping out the blossoms.
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The brew has a nice, fresh medicinal smell
Silk embroidery threads dyed with coreopsis flowers. The one on the right was dyed with coreopsis and madder roots.
Middle of August
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.
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The robins and cardinals love the grapes!
Honey bees
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.
August
Summer is ripening
Phlox has a sweet, somehow sad fragrance
To commemorate the end of July, I made a small harvest of Japanese Indigo leaves yesterday. . I dyed some silk organza.
Selenicereus grandiflorus
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Selenicereus grandiflorus
After several years, the selenicereus plant has bloomed!.
The buds are quite interesting. They start out as a fuzzy white spot on the stem, then grow to look like a rabbits' foot.
The flower bud pushes through the fuzz and elongates. To the immature mind, this can be a great source of silly laughter...:)
A little more dignified...
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Some white showing through
Almost ready
Like fireworks!
So far, July has been packed with projects and flowers
More Naturally dyed embroidery silks
Gratitude
Plenty of rain
Wild campanula
First sweet pea flower
Happy harvest
Thank You.
Rose Henrys' GoldJune 16
Portulaca
It's very hot with temperatures in the 90's and high humidity.. Outdoors really smells like summer.. The scent is both sharp and sweet. It reminds me of summers past.
The heat makes it hard for me to work on anything besides spinning hemp fiber into yarn. and dyeing it with indigo.
I've also kept up dyeing the silk thread.
Silk threads dyed with indigo, coreopsis flowers,walnut hulls and madder
May 10, 2018
Redbud (Cercis Canadensis)
How quickly the days, weeks and months rush along! Every day there are new amazements. I like to spend my time in the garden and pay close attention. The only trouble is that I don't get much done indoors.
Milkweed (Asclepius syriaca)
As I was emptying the old potting soil from a flowerpot, I discovered several pods of milkweed that had dropped into the soil and been covered up.These seed pods had overwintered here and are now sprouting.
Elsewhere