Gardening Books

(Robin's Meadow, pastel)

At work, months ago, I was asked to produce a list of my favorite gardening books (which I just came across). My boss said that he didn't read very much (what?!!!), and asked me to speak about gardening books to augment his brief presentation at a local bookstore. Here's my list, in no particular order (I discussed my 5 favorites, but here's the long list): 

Insituto Geografico de Agostini Novara, Monumenti d'Italia Ville e Giardini 

Mosser, The Architecture of Western Gardens 

Hazelhurst, Gardens of Illusion 

Dan Hinkley, Winter Ornamentals 

Kruckeberg, Gardening with Native Plants of the Pacific Northwest 

Grant, Trees and Shrubs for Pacific NW Gardens 

Bryant, Propagation Handbook 

Solomon, Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades 

Colebrook, Winter Gardening 

Jane Brown, Gardens of a Golden Afternoon 

Roger Grounds, Ornamental Grasses 

LH Bailey, How Plants Get Their Names 

Rosemary Verey, The Englishwoman's Garden 

The American Horticultural Society, Encyclopedia of Garden Plants 

Sudworth, Forest Trees of the Pacific Slope 

Pojar + Mackinnon, Plants of the Pacific NW Coast 

Emily Brown, Landscaping with Perennials 

Bruce, Winterthur in Bloom 

Penelope Hobhouse, Color in Your Garden 

Stephen Lacey, Scent in Your Garden 

Penelope Hobhouse, Garden Style 

Oehme + Van Sweden, Bold Romantic Gardens 

Rosemary Verey, The Art of Planting 

Reader's Digest, Encyclopaedia of Garden Plants + Flowers 

Gertrude Jekyll, color Schemes for the Flower Garden 

Karson, Fletcher Steele Landscape Architect 

GC Taylor, The Modern Garden 

William Robinson, The Wild Garden 

Patrick Blanc, The Vertical Garden 

Louisa Jones, The Art of French Gardening 

L Jones, Gardens of Provence 

Stephen Mansfield, Japanese Stone Gardens

To prepare for my exhibit opening i doodled mendhi on my feet and made a dress from fabric that my husband brought back from Shanghai many years ago.  The fabric is a yummy chocolate brown (not really how it shows up in the photo). 

'Anticipation' is now on display at the Intiman Theater at the Seattle Center in conjunction with the Global Health Exhibit in the next 50 plaza. The piece illustrates a segment of PATH's Sure Start program in India.  The border represents the 200 rupees (each disk is the size of a 2 rupee coin) needed to transport a woman in labor to a safe health care facility instead of giving birth at home where mortality rates are very high.  200 rupees is about $10. and that's what it takes to save the life of a new born and the mother.  The father in the piece is putting a coin into a traditional terracotta bank, held by his daughter, as savings towards the cost of transportation.  The piece has an excerpt from a poem by Swami Vivekananda, that is embroidered, which reads:

Before the sun, the moon, the earth,
Before the stars or comets free,
Before e'en time has had its birth,
I was, I am, and I will be.

The fiberwork is made out of cotton, silk, linen and mylar.  The rupee border is also a take on shisha embroidery in India that uses tiny mirrors to repel the evil eye.  
This was such a fun piece to work on and I'm happy to have it eventually go to PATH's Seattle offices.

Anticipation

 I'm working on a new commission that illustrates a segment of PATH's (a global health organization) maternal health initiative in India.  It will be on display at McCaw Hall in Seattle for a global health gathering (featuring Melinda Gates as the keynote speaker), then on to the Intiman Theater at the Seattle Center, as part of the Century 21 exhibit, and then will go to PATH's headquarters.  Like the Greenbelt project this is a fiberwork with a deeply personal connection.  I have researched traditional Indian landscape paintings, clothing, embroideries, plants and native birds that conspire to hopefully create a deeply rooted piece.

Here's just a peek.

cheers!

this fellow is a constant companion in the garden.

apples apples everywhere!

 our harvest of liberty apples that didn't hit the ground already

we made 12 pints of applesauce from fruit glen picked near omak

doodling in watercolor

change of plans

I started knitting the pattern with the intention of making the top as designed but then as I was knitting my husband asked if it were a skirt, and voilà a different project took shape.

Yarn: Ella Rae Classic Chunky Superwash
Pattern: #1 by Rebecca Design Team
Published in Rebecca #22

Missoni

What a crazy scene when I arrived at Target this morning to shop the launch of the Missoni line!  There were teams of shoppers cleaning out the shelves and racks of all of the products as fast as they could before another shopper came along.  They were communicating by cell phone with other shoppers in a coordinated attempt to score exactly what they were looking for.  I just happened to be there at the right time to get exactly what I had wanted.  If I had left the house a bit later there would have been nothing left.  Target's website crashed from all of the shoppers.  Clerks said they had never seen anything like it before. When I shopped the launch of the Liberty of London collection I found some great stuff that I could fit into in the girls department, so I headed there today and the leggings in the photo were from the girls department.  They're so soft and cozy.  I love them. 

september's garden

 this year's dahlias

hi mr. froggie!

jelly!

it took all day to pick this year's white currant crop.

here's the white currant juice.

nothing but fruit and organic sugar....no pectin needed with currants.
they are naturally loaded with pectin.
once the warmed sugar is added to the simmering pot of juice the juice turns to a honey color. all of that fruit produced ten half pints of jelly. jelly is so much more work to make than jam. but it sure is pretty!

bracelet

crochet bracelet

yarn: Habu Textiles A-174 1/8.5 Cotton Gima
it feels like paper
pattern from: 風工房の小さなクロッシェレース

Happy Birthday Dear Husband!

Marionberry of course.

sunshine

splayed out on the sofa, watching wimbledon semi-finals
on a spectacularly sunny florabundant day,
when ordinarily I would be at work,
reflecting on a life fully lived.
my sister's torture is finally over
and she can at long last rest in peace.

wool flowers

I started this in April,
took a long break for puppy house training,
and finished today.

pattern from
ぽかぽかニットこもの > Motif Book モチーフBOOK

Shore Run

I ran my first 5K yesterday in support of immunotherapy research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Along the shore of Lake Washington, by beautiful homes and gardens, I ran the whole way without stopping, even up the hills, fulfilling my goal. I wasn't concerned about my time. I just wanted to see if I could actually run a 5K, and I did. I came in 12th out of 26 runners in my age group, and beat the average race time. Yeay, above average! During the whole race I was thinking about my sister's struggle with cancer, and if she has fought so hard in her battle then surely I could complete a 5K. I did it for her.
Thank you sponsors for supporting such a great cause.

Shore Run

If you don't have a smart phone then you can go here

Shades of Grey

From Mitch Albala's Understanding Simplification and Massing for Landscape Painters workshop.

Reflection Pool

Bloedel Reserve Reflection Pool inspired by a drawing by Robin Siegl
Perfect Sunday morning walk.

Asleep in Comfort

I sewed two pillows together, featured in the previous post's video, to make a puppy bed this morning. Nellie loves it.