This blog started with small daily paintings then changed to a more personal sharing of projects, events and photos. Enjoy!

Friday, April 26, 2013

Spring






These are some of my favorite plants growing and flowering right now, at the end of the month of April.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Weaving Lesson

Our latest art project in my granddaughter's third grade class.  We folded newspapers for the warp threads and then wove in an assortment of found objects for the weft threads.  They look a little boring so the following week we created fringe, used markers and glued on some tissue paper.

These are drying on a piece of cardboard that is not part of the weaving.  Some students said they had never woven before?  That doesn't sound right--I'm sure they have,

Monday, April 22, 2013

Ponderings About my Garden Net

My small garden area is now completely surrounded in this black plastic net.  Thinking I solved the problem, I then transplanted a few volunteers into some more above ground containers and put them in this netted space.  Next day: a few more leaves chewed on the edges!  Did I just block off the birds that were eating the bugs?  Did I spend two days wrangling with this net only to make things worse?

Turns out I'm right about the sparrows--they will eat the greens and this little garden sits right on the edge of a wild area of chaparral--they can easily flit from the brush to this garden--and they have!!  Now I'm wondering if I'll have a bug problem since I've eliminated all the birds!

I just took the milk jug off this lettuce plant--it's my sacrificial plant--time will tell...

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Garden Net

The birds are slapping their little knees and laughing!  I worked on another sort of lid to keep the golden headed sparrows from eating my young and tender lettuce and kale plants, (which you don't see here--just my onions that have been growing all winter).  I felt I had to work quickly since in one day those little birds were eating the leaves down to the center spine.  This project took awhile--figuring out how to do this so I could still walk beneath the net and not stoop over the whole time I'm in the little garden area--extending the bamboo poles--and dealing with the large piece of net on a windy day...

I was feeling pretty proud to be using materials I had on hand--topping the bamboo poles around the perimeter with pieces of an old PVC pipe...

to run some old telephone wire through--things were going along pretty smoothly--my plan was working!

There--I tied down the net around the edges--I can walk upright into the garden, BUT when I looked at the garden this morning, there were about four or five sparrows flitting around inside, pecking away!!  They can fit right on through the metal fence along the bottom!!  Ha!!  Those little golden headed sparrows were watching me walk back and forth with poles and tools--watching as the net kept blowing over itself while I was sewing the hoop in place--watching me move slower and slower as I ran out of steam--watching me right up till dusk when I put on the final touch of sparkly tinsel and pinwheels.  Those little buggers!

I'm not having much luck with lids lately.  This calls for more net, I can't quit now--all that work for naught!?  I'll wrap it right around the whole thing--a lot of work for one or two plants of lettuce and kale!


Saturday, April 13, 2013

Discouraging but not Discouraged

I finished my lid, but it doesn't fit!  It's just a little too big and I can't stretch the opening of the basket--I've tried it in all directions.  What now?  I'll be making a basket to fit this lid and another lid to fit my feather basket--this could go on and on!  Like I've said before--"I'll learn from whatever happens"

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Final Pictures of Maui Part IV








High five to a Hawaiian sculpture on our last day,before our first flight--a red eye--to start our long and tiring journey home!

Maui in Pictures Part III



Going into a lava tunnel on a rainy day--thinking it would be a dry place--in fact we were told it would be a dry experience.  It wasn't ,but that's okay--it was amazing to walk through a very large passageway made by lava!  I didn't get pictures of the inside--much too dark and much too wet for my camera.








Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Maui in Pictures Part II



Red sand beach--now a favorite spot of mine