Your Dad Called

He said he wants a Beer Bull for Father's Day.

Painted on 100% scavenged beach house.

Several colors; one bad attitude.

New for the 2011 Blue Ridge Farmer's Market

Haiku Monday / Cliche

China shops tremble

Grasp the horns, order now!

Bull Art. No B.S.

Sisyrinchium montanum (Blue Star Grass)

this gem can be easily overlooked in a field of flashy buttercups and queen-anne's lace

Around here, we call it "blue star grass",  but it isn't grass, its a tiny perennial of the Iris family. I mentioned it a while back, and Aunty said she had never heard of it so I am posting these photos for her. These are very small, about a quarter inch bloom on a spindly grass-like stem.

I have some problems with my field. A horrific weed has taken over. I am reluctant to use herbicides on the field because it is very meadow-like with its mix of wildflowers and grasses. I dont want to kill the blue stars! So I take a section every afternoon and dig up the bad weeds. It might take a year and Im not kidding. What I would do if money were no object is to plow and reseed the entire thing with a meadow mix.

blue stars on the indispensable distressed sideboard in my studio

I've let the field grow high so that the seed pods of the grasses can drop. Now that it is so overgrown I can see what I have: oxeye daisies, buttercups, clover, rye, fescue, wild yarrow, rudbeckia, a variety of early asters and the blue stars. I used to keep the field cut and trim, which is pleasing to my eye because it makes my place look tidy and bigger, but I think I made the weeds worse by doing this as the grasses didnt get to seed but the fast growing uber-survivor weeds did. So, that is a policy that has been amended.

What else is going on in the garden? (not much, we are in transition from spring to summer food. I harvested all the lettuce, spinach and radish. Carrots are still growing and tomatoes, squash, beans and pumpkins arent much to look at right now. In the meantime, heres this):

Have a wonderful weekend everyone. I will be getting footage around the county for the Chamber of Commerce tourism videos. Planned stops: the fish hatchery, u-pick strawberries at Merciers Orchards, tubers on the Oconee, and whatever else I can find. Wish I could get some decent footage of the bear whos been tearing down my bird feeders. (I started bringing them in at night) Right now, I am going to have a glass of iced sun tea on my back porch and watch the hens scratch around. See you Monday!

Wilderness is a Spiritual Necessity

The Appilachicola River

I love my North Georgia Mountains but I am a child of old Florida, and by this I mean pre-Disney Florida. Pre-SeaWorld and huge hotel and entertainment complexes. I remember when Gatorland and Silver Springs were a big deal; back then, the majesty of the environment and her creatures was enough. Who knew that one day, animatronic figures and faux everything would hold more fascination than living things?

When I was a little girl, my Dad woke me up early and we drove out to this swamp about 30 minutes from our house. We sat there watching the sun through the diffused fog and as it lifted you could see the big cypress trees and oaks dark against the sky. "This is all going away" he said, and added nothing more. We sat in silence for the longest time; then he turned the key, the engine fired and we drove away. That swamp is now the Bay Hill Country Club.

Old Florida is beautifully presented by photographer Clyde Butcher:

"Wilderness, to me, is a spiritual necessity. When my son was killed by a drunk driver it was to the wilderness that I fled in hopes of regaining my serenity and equilibrium. The mysterious spiritual experience of being close to nature helped restore my soul. It was during that time, I discovered the intimate beauty of the environment.
My experience reinforced my sense of dedication to use my art form of photography as an inspiration for others to work together to save nature's places of spiritual sanctuary for future generations."

The Fakahatchee Prairie

Ghost Orchid

(The Ghost orchid is the elusive plant that the movie "Adaptation" revolves around. If you have not seen this movie, you should. It is incredible on about a thousand different levels. )

Indian Key

Fisheating Creek in Central Florida where I am from

Moonrise

There are no clouds in the world like Florida clouds. I have lots of Florida cloud photographs and have yet to paint them successfully. Its an untamed big sky landscape that still has a vibe of mystery to it. The last five years or so, my trips to Florida were all about seeing my Mom and never having time to look around. I plan to take a trip this winter back home to look at this landscape in solitude and quiet and hopefully I can get a few decent photos of my own. I have a sense of urgency about it, too.

I cannot look at this amazing work and not see my own bare feet standing on a dirt road, surrounded by live oaks dripping with spanish moss. The power of Clyde Butcher's art is to tug at my heart's memory and evoke a sense of longing to return to a time when the world seemed untouchable by greed and indifference.

I highly recommend a visit to Clyde Butcher's Website to see the full portfolio. It will not disappoint.

Meditation on: Clover

Georgia O' Keefe famously stated that she made her flower paintings on very large canvases because flowers weren't noticed, and to see a flower takes time, just like a friendship takes time. If we have become too busy to notice the tiny beauties around us, that goes double for common grasses, weed flowers and clovers. 

Clovers are often blended with rye grass as feed for pastured livestock. Vigorous clover growth is a great indicator of honeybee health in your area, so it's always nice to see great mounds of it on the waysides of roads and landscaped developments. I planted mine as a cover crop before I started my garden. The clover was turned under feeding the soil with rich green compost.

I often use clover in my country bouquets for the farmer's market. The inclusion of clovers, as well as grasses and ditch flowers, gives them the airy freshness that just cannot be rivaled by commercial floral arrangements. Its the flowers your grandmother had in her kitchen window- or at least the nostalgic idea that she might have, because they have a timelessness to them and are always in fashion. Today I made a bouquet of just clovers. I was lucky to have found a few of the crimsons. The white ones were fading fast, but the pinks were wet and plump and in full glory this afternoon.

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.

-Emily Dickenson

Clovers smell faintly and purely sweet like babies. And of course the four-leafed kind are lucky (unless you are backed-up on a highway inter-change named for one).

creation

Uncensored, unedited stream of consciousness painting. At the show last week, many people reported this to be their favorite. Busy today; I have a very special guest arriving. Boxer! Too bad I was in the ATL last night: there was a frost at Chickory and I fear that I will return to ruined food: strawberries, blueberries, greens, and my flowers! *sniff*

Back on Monday with a detailed post on my painting process for Susan over at 29Blackstreet. Have a great weekend, everyone!

* Here's some details from the painting above: