Colors and Textures

I've known Becky since we were 5 years old. 

We both grew up on farms in Edgerton, Wisconsin...and we've seen each other through the best and worst of times. No matter how much time has passed we always pick up right where we left off.

This is actually from a year or two ago...we'll take a new one at some point during this trip.

We had a delightful day together and here are some of the colors and textures from her gardens and yard. 

Then AND now!

Last year I made Becky a an altered art journal where I ripped down pages in a commercial art journal and stitched in some of her own art and snippets. I wrote about it here: https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2025/03/altered-art-journal.html

I was able to hand deliver it when I visited last April: https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2025/04/hand-delivery.html

And just today I got to see how she has been making it her own. She's having fun with it! 

On the right is a calendar page I stitched in that she gave me. And I love how she took the colors and textures from the landscape to create the squares on the left! Well done Becky! 

I had stitched in a piece of one of her coloring pages....and now she's starting to doodle.

Makes Me Happy!

I had a lot of rainbow puzzles to choose from in my stash...but this 500 piece button puzzle was the winner this time. I'm really enjoying reworking puzzles I already own. 

I think my favorite thing about this rainbow is that it STARTS with pink. I already have all the pieces laid out in my boxes....so I'm ready to go...and that makes me happy! 

My day kind of got away from me....all in a good way. And the boys are coming for dinner...so it's only going to get better. Having the four of us together makes me happy!

I thought it was time for this bird's eye view of my favorite part of my garden. There are a few plants that are still coming along...but most things are just reaching their prime. I love all the textures and variations of green. That tiny hosta on the left was just a root I found when I was digging.....I tucked it in and it's growing and should get bigger. I do have some teeny tiny ones that won't get bigger. I divided the purple coral bell in the front so it's a bit smaller than usual...but it will grow too! 

One of my very favorite plants is the maidenhair fern. I brought it with me from Lexington...and I've been splitting and spreading it around. The wispy leaves sit on a very slender but sturdy stem and I love the movement in the breeze.

This small condo garden makes me very happy! 

I hope there were things in your day that made you happy.

Order of Operations

Maybe living your best life just means slowing down enough to see how good it already is. author unknown

It's been downright chilly the last day or two. Yesterday Paul and I walked to nearby sidewalk wildflower garden that we check out every year. It's wild and wonderful...and always worth a look. The feel-like temperature was in the 30's...so I wore my winter coat, gloves and ear protection.  

The garden is in the neighborhood where Fall and Autumn Lanes intersect. It looked like spring...but felt like fall and autumn.

When making layered cyanotypes...the item you put down first is the what doesn't get exposed and stays white and ends up being in the foreground of your print. Every layer added after becomes more and more in the background. I often do two layers and sometimes three giving the pieces depth. 

On this one...I placed the meadow rue leaf down first...then after about 20 seconds I placed a punched circle for the moon.....and it looks like more leaves at the very end.  And it looks like there's a few vinegar spots too.

The paper was already a little exposed before I put the first plant down...so it's a pleasing light blue. I painted the moon with metallic gold watercolor and added a few splatters. 

I quite like it.  

I had to chuckle when I got the order of operations wrong on the FIRST try....and put the moon down first putting it in the foreground.  Oops. But the print wasn't that great....

so it became the background for my sign for the garden store display. I'll be delivering my stack of cards on Tuesday. 

I like the softness of this one!

A House From Home

Many many years ago I bought this small decorative birdhouse perched on a curvy wrought iron stand. The artist had a roadside stand in rural Maine...he was a really cool guy. The birdhouse was birch with a lot of rustic charm. 

It lasted a LONG time through many many Maine and Massachusetts winters....but just last year it had completely fallen apart. 

I had some pieces of barn board from the family farm in Wisconsin....and asked Jim, our handyman, if he could build me another house. 

I told him to keep it simple. I wanted the house made from the red side of the barn board and the roof from the back of the board. I didn't want it functional...just decorative. 

He took it home for a winter project...and just brought it back to me a week or so ago. He absolutely nailed it...pardon the pun! 

It's simple and sentimental...and the perfect for the wrought iron stand. He drilled a shallow hole and painted it black so it would appear to be an actual hole. 

I'll have to see if I can find the star that was on the original one....if fell off years ago. But I also like it just the way it is. 

It sits along the fence between our patio and our neighbor Anna's. I may be done with the bottles...but they're staying for now. The wild blueberry bush wreath is new...and I still love my wrought iron dancer. 

I absolutely love this view of my garden from the patio...which now includes this sentimental house from home. And the most heartwarming thing about it is that he gifted it to me and wouldn't let me pay him. As someone who is enjoying giving things away these days...I didn't even try and talk him out of it.

Just Enough

It rained all night and most of this morning....just enough to be extremely beneficial.

I'm pretty tickled with this cyanotype card featuring my meadow rue. There's just enough green watercolor...and a touch of blue to tie it into the print. I'm also quite fond of the blurred meadow rue and the vinegar spots in the background. Just enough!

And the gold speckles seem just right too. I can honestly say that I love it! 

"The flower doesn't dream of the bee...it blossoms and the bee comes." Mark Nepo

I tried to get a photo of the shimmer. You can't see it very well...but it's there!

After the rain....I explored the raindrops that pooled on the leaves. 

Here they are on the meadow rue...kind of a nod to my gold splatters.

My day was fabulous...just enough of everything!

Foam Flower

Foam Flower is one of my very favorite perennials. It loves the shade...which I have a plenty of...the bloom is so dainty and pretty....and the leaves are so special! 

I split my plant last fall so have it in a couple gardens...and it's all thriving! 

Once the blooms are gone...the foliage will be lovely all seaason. 

Big...But Satisfying Job

This foxtail fern and I go way back. I've blogged about my journey with it over and over....and you know I'm tempted to revisit all that again. But I'll spare you the ancient history...and just share the recent history. I'm pretty tickled with the plant...and the big job I took on today. 

Read on only if you're interested. I like telling stories...but this one is probably a little confusing and ridiculous. Maybe that's why I like it.

Last year I planted the fern in a moss basket that I placed in this fabulous antique red metal laundry cart that Patty gave me. I thought I could bring the whole thing inside for the winter and water as usual with just a drip pan underneath. Wrong!

The water went everywhere which didn't matter when it was outside...but not in the dining room. So I repotted it in the biggest pot I had for the winter. I had to squeezed all the roots in...but it did just fine. 

As a matter of fact it looked so good this spring that I didn't want to repot it. But the pot was ugly...and I wanted it up off the ground at my front door. The big plastic pot was too big to fit inside the tall blue ceramic that I wanted to use. 

So I came up with a solution that I thought was brilliant. I painted the rim of the plastic pot to match the ceramic pot so it could sit right on top. It worked perfectly!

I remember cramming all those roots into this pot....so I knew it needed to be split and repotted. And I wanted it to have the winter to recover from that. THAT'S what I did today....and it was a big...but satisfying job.

This is what the pot looked like.

It took a bit of work to wrestle it out of the pot...but my favorite soil knife helped.

I use this soil knife for everything. It's my absolute favorite tool. I use it for planting...weeding...and wrestling plants out of pots. 

The serrated edge is perfect for dividing plants.

One looks pretty good....and one looks pretty sad. The good one will winter in the dining room and fit nicely inside the tall blue ceramic pot next spring. The sad one will live under my table in front of my studio window....that's my sad little plant nursery. I may cut the branches off let it start over. I know from my history with this fern...that sad can eventually lead to fabulous....and there are plenty of good roots in that pot wo work with.

(Here's a little of the ancient history with some old sad to fabulous photos.)

One last photo from this year! I wanted a better view of the laundry cart...which held begonias this year. Phew! Thanks for hanging in there!

Rituals

There's no right answer for what's going ot make you happy. There are only little things that add up to how you spend your days and it can take a long time to see it's as simple as that. Flying Edna

I am a big fan of rituals. Simple...daily habits and comforting routines make me happy. 

When we visited Alex and Jim's farm (Patsy and Brian's daughter and son-in-law) in Pembrook they were about to head out on a daily afternoon ritual....and we got to tag along. 

Every single day they take their three horses down the street to a field on their neighbors property giving them a big space to graze and run. Horses love to run free.

Later in the day...they return to pick them up and walk them home. 

It's a family ritual with their daughter. They take it slow spending quality time together as they care for their animals. It's one of the little things in their day....and everyone is happy. 

It felt so special to be a part of something as simple as this.

As we walked the farm...

we snacked on tomatoes...blueberries... raspberries...and strawberries.

The gardens and greenhouses were still overflowing with beautiful produce...and it's October! Life is good on the farm.

Always Joyful

Everytime we practice savoring, we teach our brains to recognize goodness and remind ourselves that joy is worth returning to. D. Michele Perry

Today was a full and wonderful day and I savored every minute. The air was cool and the sun was warm and the birds were busy at the feeders. I spent the whole morning outside working on some garden projects and doing a few other outdoor chores.

Several days ago I dug out 3 boxwoods that were not thriving giving me more garden space. I'm moving plants around and reinventing the back end of my patio garden. 

I'm calling this the messy middle....and I've got a ways to go. I have to pace myself these days...but it always feels good to do hard physical work.

I'm mostly using plants I have...but I do have a couple new things that you can see there in the foreground. I wanted to add a little more purple coralbell...I love it so much and it seems to thrive in this garden. And I'm quite fond of the crevice alumroot there on the left. The perfect additions to this mostly texture garden.

Then I spent a few hours this afternoon at Janice and Jay's. It was Janice's birthday and they had an open house for friends and family. It's always festive and fun.....always colorful....and always joyful.