This and That

I still haven't taken down all of the Halloween stuff.  Yesterday, the plumbers were working on the new addition to the laundry room, and I stayed in my bedroom reading.  I couldn't play in the studio because they were adding a sink up there.

The addition is very small (but then the laundry room is so tiny that anything will be an improvement); it will give me a little more space, a built in ironing board, and a shelf, hopefully, for folding clothes.

Anyway, I spent most of the afternoon going back and forth between a mystery and India Flint's book on eco dyeing.  I started it about a month ago, but was side-tracked by various other projects and the R.I.P. Challenge.

Yesterday, I started at the beginning again, hoping that it would be easier to digest (the chemistry aspect and multiple mordants tend to overwhelm me).  As I suspected, a second reading was beneficial -- and third and fourth readings will probably be even better.

Flint's eco dyed fabrics are so beautiful (slow and complex cloth) and just looking at her work is a real treat.  Her influence is felt all over the textile world and more and more people are venturing into this environmentally friendly method of dyeing cloth.

She uses eucalyptus in many of her fabrics, and I regret even more the loss of our eucalyptus tree to the tornado.  I need to get another one for this house (although we have a postage stamp yard) because both Fee and I loved that tree.  It was fast growing, too.  I planted a baby that grew mighty fast.

  You can see the eucalyptus at the end of the path.  It had grown much larger before the tornado hit.  Terrible picture, but it had grown this much in just a couple of years or so.

early spring; the comfrey hasn't gone crazy yet

early summer

Oh, how I miss my garden.  This one simply can never be the same.  This yard is so small and already planted in a simpler style with lots of shrubs.  The soil isn't very good either.

I spent hours and hours, days, weeks, months... shoveling huge piles of eco mulch, creating my old beds; the goal was that the grass would just be for pathways.  It had finally gotten there. My beloved perennials came back each year and many annuals re-seeded to the point of invasion.

 Oh, how I loved my Queen Anne's Lace, comfey, daylillies, etc..  It is sad to think of all the dye material no longer available, but maybe I'll have a little more incentive to work on this new garden.  All I have to do is dig up dozens of box woods and double dig the soil.  Huh?  I don't guess that is going to happen.  There is a great deal of difference between 50 something and 60 something.

I'm looking forward to next week and our little trip to North Carolina.  We will fly to Chapel Hill and rent a car and see as much as we can in 4-5 days.  I suspect it will be just a taste of what is on offer!

What's going on at your house?