Happy Mother's Day!

'Had a lovely day - filled with all the things it should be-

Flowers - (and garden things..) -

-and chocolatey stuff.

And, although this was not a Mother's Day gift, I did want to show you my new 'baby'. A (pretty) Dell Inspiron 1720 . It is huge - a 17 inch screen (wide-screen ratio, so that you can watch movies in the correct format. :-) and enough bells and whistles for my studio needs. It even matches my green organza curtains that cover my studio closet. It is spiffy, sleek and fast. Such a treat after our old, creaky laptop. Now that I'm not chained to my desk however, we are not spending nearly enough time together... Soon, though, I'm sure... I do have more projects coming up.

In the meantime, I am on total illustration hiatus until July 1st (garden, garden, here I come!). My folks are in town visiting for the next couple of weeks, and tomorrow morning we are leaving for a 3 day jaunt to Victoria!

See you later this week! And hope your day was lovely.

Blogging elsewhere -

I had a visit today from the lovely and talented (and surprisingly local - we didn't realize we lived so close) Angela, who came over to rescue some herb babies for her deck. I love my herbs. I hate having to compost all of their inevitable offspring. So I am tickled when I can find them good homes.

After discussing our mutual interest in local and sustainable eating, Angela is graciously allowing me to 'share' her local foods blog - which will be a more appropriate venue for things like my impending chickens, creative eating from my backyard, etc...


You still may get the occasional garden/flower/chicken photo, and you may still get to hear me gripe about my son's newly-found grass allergy (my husband shares the same one) which leaves mainly *me* mowing the lawn (with some very reluctant help from my daughter) or somesuch, but for the most part, I hope to actually be able to focus and post about ART on this supposed art blog!

Chicks!

There are not many things much cuter than a nearly-new, baby chick (this one is just a few days old - with egg tooth still attached to its beak).



Besides watching British mini-series whilst working for the past many months, I also listened to a number of books on tape. These two quite caught my interest. I've always been a fan of Barbara Kingsolver's writing, and this memoir (although a bit preachy in places) was compelling - and the hilarious chapter on 'turkey sex' was an added treat.

Michael Pollan was new to me, but once I started listening to "The Omnivore's Dilemma" I couldn't put it down. Engaging and enlightening, told with self-depreciating humor and fascinating experiences. Between the two, I was totally motivated to 'unplug' from the Big American Food Industry where-ever possible. In this instance, by raising my own free-range, organic egg supply. ( I see a number of blogs popping up with similar un-plugged themes, this one by local artist friend Angela who has an even more interesting challenge since she lives in an apartment. )


Luckily, I do have a yard, albeit a modest, suburban one. Seattle sponsors an Urban Chicken program (and do click on the link. Insane chicken houses featured - from the charming to the elaborately ridiculous... This is Seattle, after all) and even with my modest land holding I can have up to *three* hens in my very own back yard. Alas, no chicken palaces for me - I am converting an old, wooden dog house into a coop to house my three chosen chickens. [If you are interested, the center chicken is an Araucana and the outside two are both blue-lace Wyandottes... I opted for a bit fancier chicken with 'good' egg production rather than for your typical, less visually-interesting Rhode Island Red that lays gangbusters... I'll be able to see the coop from my studio window and want to maximize my visual enjoyment - both of the actual hens, and of my blue-green and brown eggs...]



One of my POBL cohorts, who has a very respectable flock of fancy chickens of her own is allowing my 'babies' to grow up with her new chickens this year (I am not set up with cage, feeders, heat lamps, a barn to put them all into, etc...!) I have visitation rights, and when they are large enough to be 'out', they will come here to my backyard, and I will see how we fare adding fowl to our organic, backyard experience!

If nothing else, I'll have ready chicken reference to sketch.

Raise your hand if you love your garden!

Mine is being surprisingly forgiving. After two years of nearly complete neglect, I am beginning the rather daunting task of clean-up/edging/weeding/re-planting, etc! It is a fascinating process to watch the rather organic evolution of the shape and composition of beds and planting areas as we get to know each other better. Who knew that chervil would absolutely thrive in a newly partially shaded bed (the neighbor's tree has grown big enough in the last year or so to hang over the fence and block the sun), and I'm amazed at where I find borage and parsley and oregano spontaneously showing up. So many things have overwintered - the arugula, cicely and johny-jump-ups are all blooming so profusely, I can hardly bear to pull them out so that I can plant my spring crop of vegetables.

After getting a bundle of strawberries planted in a new bed, I had to tear myself away and address the making of dinner (another long-neglected activity). The sorrel and chives were so prolific and lush, I decided that Jerry Traunfeld's "Spring Sorrel and Chive Soup", from The Herbfarm Cookbook (*best* cookbook ever!) must be part of the menu. I had boiled a chicken carcass earlier in the week for stock so it was just a matter of saute-ing some onions and mushrooms and then pureeing the hot soup with the greens -

If you get your soup temperature right - not quite boiling, but hot enough to wilt the greens - you get a bright emerald liquid that is savory and tart and full of springy-goodness. (My stock was a bit too hot here - the green begins to dull when cooked. Still yummy.)

Unfortunately, it was near-dark after cleaning up from dinner, so I got to address the taming of the studio instead. Glad to say that progress was visibly made. Still quite a ways to go, but I am feeling a bit less overwhelmed today.

And tomorrow, I get to 'play' out in my gardens some more!

Happy May Day!

I hope you had a lovely May 1st. It was beautiful here - sun and flowers about. Although it's still awfully cool - I could have used a Beltane fire when the sun went down!

I am slowly easing back into 'real life' after endless months of studio-bondage. I've left the house every day this week! It's probably been two years since that's happened. There's been catch-up appointments, grocery shopping! visits to the nursery for herbs and starts, Home Depot for paint and supplies, the feedstore for baby chicks!(but that is a whole other post...)

There is SO much to do and catch up on. All of it seems to take way more time than it should - I have *days* of cleaning the studio ahead of me (and I promised myself that I would not start anything new until it was thoroughly dealt with)! Not to mention the rest of the house, the yard, the gardens, the various unfinished projects that have been put off for months and months...

I'm looking forward to it all! But I really must get on top of my life a bit before pulling out the sketch book in seriousness again...

finis...

It is over. Done. Scanned. Sent.

I am spent. And am going to bed (about 6 hours earlier than has been the case this past few months..)

You can see the cover of the first book in this new series here.

Remind me *never* to work on a schedule like this one again. Ever.

Good night...

Chocolate fairy to the rescue -

aka - the Laundry Faery - came racing to my aide after my last mournful entry. (She said to imagine her driving over here with her head hanging out of her window the entire way going "Woo-ooo-Woo-ooo.."). Thank you, O beneficent one!

Official deadline tomorrow. Just sent off the bulk of book #2. Still have 43 images left to paint however... 'Still argh...