birdieopolis

dahlias delight:just a quick post of some of the dahlias in the garden. man they grow quickly!


harvest from the garden:




berryliscious:it's a battle between me and the robins to see whom will take more! they're ripening faster than i can pick them. there a just gazillions of them out there! i think this is the first time in years that i have been home to enjoy them. i have put away bag after bag in the freezer to save for winter muffin making. i should make jam if i have time. the bunnies delight in their raspberry treats. it's just too cute to watch them eat these ruby morsels. ....yum


garden treasures of late:these skyscrapers are 9' tall. i thought for sure they would topple in the strong winds yesterday but these stalwarts didn't budge. the scent is heaven sent.those strong winds sent these campanula lactiflora horizontal. i like how a different orientation from the usual upright makes them look fringie.i'll have to save the seeds for poppy seed cake!this is a bee magnet. there can be four bees in a flower at the same time. i was buzzed quite a bit while trying to take the photos. i thought for sure i'd get stung, but didn't. they know i love them.


new applique +this one is about the history of strawberry farming on the island
ichigo kaku-dako

yosemiteit has probably been twenty five years since i last visited yosemite until last week. we were supposed to stay in the high country, at white wolf, but the road was still closed because of deep snow so we had to stay in the valley. as soon as i stepped out of the car in the valley mosquitos amased from all directions to zero in on my tastey flesh. i quickly learned that even in the heat i was going to be dressed like a victorian lady, covered from neck to toe, in order to prevent further attacks.
on the way up to glacier point wildflowers of all colors spoke to me from every switchback. i was hoping hoping hoping that the meadow i had remembered from long ago would be blooming with shooting stars on this trip. and it revealed itself resplendent in brilliant pink and cobalt blue (cammas lilies) at the height of bloom. it was perfect timing. i was in heaven. perfection. alpine wildflowers in profusion. life just doesn't get any better than teeming wildflowers in the sunshine.


birdie totefrustrated with the limited selection and high price of fabrics here on the island i went over to the hardware store, bought a couple of tea towels (nice heavy weight cotton canvas) cut 'em up and made a new tote bag. the cut outs made pockets for the inside. the handles actually go straight up unlike how it looks in the photo.


slip castthe light pouring into the bathroom this morning was so crisp and clean that it made this bowl sparkle. can you guess how the bowl was made? i took a sugar pumpkin, yes it was home grown (i like to make pies, bread + soup from them), cast it in plaster, then poured slip into the mold and voila (after firing + glazing) an assymetrical organically shaped bowl.


latest from the gardenin order of appearance: campanula percifolia (along the front walkway), carpenteria californica (one of my favorite shrubs), deutzia 'goodsall pink' (a gift from my friend sarah, who started the smith + hawken nursery in mill valley, when my son was born...it's travelled from garden to garden and still thrives), oenothera (from my grandmother's garden...wow that one has been quite the traveler...to my mom's garden then to my various gardens...it has the happiest-best-shade-of-yellow flowers ever)


birdieoodle
you might wonder why this blog is called "birdieoodle". when i was entitling paintings for my "circular needles" show last summer one painting jumped out as the encapsulation of everything that i love, aside from my family. there were wildflowers, birds (red breasted nuthatches...oh i love the noises they make), knitting needles + tools in an obvious nod to the joyous active nature of william morris textiles. that oil painting was called "birdieoodle". birdie has always been an endearing nickname given to my pets, as well as the usual greeting, "hi birdie", to visitors at the bird feeder. -oodle, with various consonants at the start, has been the middle name for many pets since i was little. i guess birdieoodle is me in a nutshell, or nutcase as my sisters would say. so here's the painting that named the blog.18 x 18"oil on canvassold

ahhh bloedelevery year before school ends and everyone is home for the summer i grab my fleeting moments of solitude and take a walk through the bloedel. i feel so lucky to have such a magical place so close by that is different every time i visit. it is the perfect place to stroll, although i always walk fast, and just appreciate the subtle beauty of verdure in peace + quiet. to peer into the blackness of the duck pond and get lost in the reflections, drawn into that space, nearly transforms into a state of vertigo. but that is the bliss of solitude, to allow one's self to be uninterupted, just for a moment, before it becomes a rarity for a long while.

ichigo kaku-dakohere's the model and a hint of the paintinggouache on awagami

kimonosince my latest project has japanesque influences i searched for and found my old japanese architecture sketchbook from college. i just found out from my latest issue of selvedge magazine that the plural of kimono is kimono. that is the greatest magazine for fiber devotees.

just a peek at what's to come in augusti'm just packing my sketchbook with ideas but frustrated that i won't be able to accomplish a fraction of them in time. this is such an amazingly busy time of year, and it just gets more complicated when summer activities start soon. i don't sleep because i'm thinking about what i want to make and how to fabricate it. everything requires it's own uncharted pattern that starts with a blank page. i love the process and materials that conspire to form the product. i look at the array of materials before me and swoon in rapture, hoping to honor their beauty with competent construction. we'll see.
more floriciousness...can a tree pack more blossoms onto a branch than styrax japonica (japanese snowbell)? and for an extra whammy of admiration this tree permeates the air with the most intoxicating perfume. i started this tree from a seed and now it's 25 feet tall i would guess. when i used to hang birdie basket feeders in this tree the racoons would regularly smash the baskets to the ground and break the branches with their avoirdupois, the porkers, and they gouged chasms into the trunk with their beastly talons. you can guess what i think of those critters!?#!and now to the simple delicacy of rosa glauca. sweet.

ahhhhh june!it just doesn't get any better that petal profusion and perfumed air!