Running Rabbit: Art and Madness

Back in the Saddle Again...

Oh alright, back in the studio again...I spent yesterday and Saturday doing outdoorsy things because I live in Washington and the SUN was out. Incredibly warm, somewhat windy but lovely all the same. The gardens have been signalling to me desperately as I stroll past and I finally got to work and pulled out a freight car of weeds from about half of the beds.

The kiwis are popping into leaf and its already time to get in there and fight them to a standstill. For those who know the small-fruited kiwi bush/plant/tree, the thing is beautiful but it will strangle anything it can scramble over, this includes power lines, my beautiful copper beech, other trees, the neighbor's fence and slowing moving cats. When I'm bored I just go prune the kiwis, a fast cure for the doldrums and it lets me take out my ire on something stronger than me.

Son Joel and g-daughter Cam were down from Seattle on Friday night, thoroughly enjoyed a Jamie Oliver-style stir fry before Joel toddled off to his party and we settled down to making eclairs. Yummy. Sunday, the sun was still out, I put the top down on the Mini Cooper and we made a quick pilgrimage to Good Will for salt shakers. I am in throes of an  obsession with green garden art and I am having a lot of fun with salt shaker garden hangers.

Amazing how hard it is to find really quirky salt and paper shakers. There are so many really blah ones out there. I found a set of watermelon shakers that fit the bill nicely and they will be joining the garden brethren on my website in the Green Rabbit division shortly.
I scrounged up some nice copper pieces for jewelry too and even found a most excellent old floor lamp that will soon see new life. There was even time to get home and hop on the motorcycles for a quick spin to blow out the cobwebs before the day ended.

Today is back in the studio with lots of wonderful bits and pieces waiting for me. I'm starting on about a hundred, really, old jars that are becoming outdoor candleholders with wire bales and decorations. Fun and they will be so affordable for everyone. I'm excited! Best of all although its cloudy today the week promises to get sunnier and more springlike every single day until the weekend.

Photo expedition on Friday to the tulip fields with wonderful weather for the day.

May Days

I am so glad that spring seems to be here-- finally. Washington State springs usually land full-blown about mid-April. Not this year, spring seems to be coy this year. One day  sunshine and heady flower scented breezes and the next its gray again, spitting a mist of rain on the greening flower beds.

This past weekend I dragged everyone and everything out of the greenhouse. The scented geraniums all got a major pruning and bolstering of their fragrant egos I'm sure. They are in residence around the portable pond on my mosaiced 'deck'.

Note to self: pieces of china and tiles will spall and give off chips when they freeze and thaw again and again through a cold winter so don't make another 9'X6' mosaic deck covered with broken tiles and china bits.

The orchids are still inside the greenhouse until the temperature climbs to the 70s and stays there. I found all the pond pumps and put two of them to use already. I bought two new pumps and here's an irritation--neither of the brand new ones works right! Arg. I have to return them to Home Depot and go through that hassle. How aggravating is that?

The pond in front got all the reeds and plants clipped of dead bits of grass and now it looks beautiful again. Next to the pond, my beautiful, beautiful copper beech suddenly sprouted delicate new leaves overnight. I love that plant that is going to be a magnificent tree someday. It is absolutely magical. One day it is covered with sere, tan leaves and it looks dead. The next, the new leaves pop out of their buds and drop the leaves from fall. It goes through a series of colors too. Starting in pale pink like folded fans and as time goes on the leaves turn the color of a new penny.

The jays are glad I hooked up the pump in the pond, they love splashing around in the stone bowl that is at the top of the small waterfall. I found a plastic duck decoy at Good Will and added a mallard to my pond. Since my sanctuary is a Magic Place, the duck looks at home.

I'm still out nipping and pruning and clipping and shaping but I can see the spring is on the way, like a green express train. I'm waiting to be run over by the season in the middle of May and I'm staying on the tracks until it happens!