a garden of autumn treasures
as seen on 10-28-06

pyracantha, cornus, sorbus, cotoneaster, arbutus, calycarpa, euonymus

acer, viburnum, sorbus, perrotia, oxydendrum

boltonia, geranium, rosa, dahlia, dianthus, fuschia, tagetes, lavendula, zauchneria, salvia,

saffron!
the most delightful end of the season harvest!
this is my first picking of this year.
the harvest continues daily for a few weeks.
the hard part about harvesting saffron is that the lovely lavender crocus petals tend to get sacrificed for the precious salmon threads held within their grasp.
the background is one of our rouge vif d'etampes pumpkins.

first one

this was the first birdie basket that i made years ago, although the original intent was to leave peanuts in it for the squirrels while we were at camp sherman, oregon. it fell off the tree here at home and someone stepped on it.
i'd like to have fabric printed like the leaves in this photo.

my latest birdie basket

with cornus kousa (korean dogwood) holding it in place
i put lots of black oil sunflower seeds in my baskets to attract a multitude of feathered friends

sunshine on colorthe latest quilt
wow fibers look so great outside. too bad they can't stay there without nasty chemicals to stave off degradation.

sorbus alnifolia
such an ordinary tree most of the year and then instantly becoming the belle of the ball in autumn. such happiness to behold your foliage in the sunshine!

what a noise maker you are mr. stellar's jay! you scare away all the sweet little birdies with your racket. the little guys have no problem sitting in the feeder baskets but you, oh big blue one, must be daringly acrobatic to grab the black oil seed. i must say i lust after your ultramarine feathers. i'm so tempted to catch you and bring you into my studio to paint your form. oh what a noise it would be resonating throughout the house multiplied by our cat kackling at you all the while!

can autumn get any better than this?acer circinatum

boltonia asteriodes

anenome hybridus

rosa 'ballerina'

70 degrees in october? how can that be? delicious!!! raspberries and tomatoes still ripening! how can that be? the sunshine penetrates my core with delight and admiration for the colors that brilliantly reflect back in the low angle light. whites are in their crispest cleanest form. chroma everywhere is intensified by this gift of sunlight in this already color charged season. ahhhh autumn. let me soak it in.

back up, hold on, wait a minutejust to stir up the pot of confusion some more...KNOCK is publishing portions of my green belt project in their fall issue coming out in late october, instead of next year. look for an issue coming soon to eagle harbor books.

patience x 2this just in from the publishing staff:
the next edition of the Seattle Review won't be published (with my cover art) until around the end of january because it will be a double issue. it is interesting to get a glimpse of the publishing world...a stark contrast to the architecture + design world (where i toiled for decades) where deadlines were yesterday and construction starts before the ink is dry on the design documents. patience required to see my stuff in print.

patiencewondering about the release date for the KNOCK publication i went back to the original entry info and my work won't be published until oct. 2007! wow, i thought it was coming out this month. i'll have to be patient.