Nothing is better than expanding your thoughts. A rock cairn.
Hikers use these to mark trails. They are used as memorials, landmarks or places of meditation. Probably the meditation in some cases is, "How did they do THAT?".
Wikipedia goes into great detail regarding cairns and their backgrounds in a variety of countries.
Professional Rock Stacking and Balancing by Team Sandtastic
According to their website, they only use rocks to complete their sculptures. No glues, epoxy, etc. Their work is truly awesome, but I still think for safety's sake and my sanity, anything I build will have to have some sort of fixative.
Now if you are the ornery type and like to amaze some and frustrate others, check out this blog: http://rocksculptures.blogspot.com/2010/12/i-make-rock-sculptures.html
Personally, I love the idea of building rock cairns in public areas, just for fun! If it annoys some, then I suppose we can at least grin at the idea that we "rocked" their world!
While thinking of these rock cairns, I remembered driving through Illinois in December and seeing signs for Rockhome Gardens. As we were driving, I remembered pulling information up on my smartphone with several interesting pictures of rock sculptures. If your are interested in more ornate rock sculptures, you might like to visit their gardens, complete with an Amish restaurant. (The restaurant might help appease the spouse and family if you must bring them in tow!)
Late winter. Too early to really plant or transplant. Good time for some pruning, as long as it's not spring blooming. So what in the world do you do?
Well last fall I cleaned out a bed beside my pond. I transplanted everything and so it was just barren dirt with a steep slope. Today I went to the big rock pile, courtesy of a local farmer, and hauled boulders and hernia rocks over to the flower bed to terrace the slope. The ground was relatively easy to work other than a little crust on the top. It is now ready for spring planting. I'm envisioning a small evergreen in one area, but I want it to stay small. It can have some height, but I don't want it much more than 3-4 feet tall and 18-24 wide. Probably a dwarf Chamaecyparis will work the best, but I'll have to see what I can scare up next spring.
The squirrels and birds came to the feeders today, but there was definitely a decrease in the activity. It's amazing what a little warm weather (40+ degrees today) does to the feeding activity.
I'll be watching my seeds too. Planted some paw-paws (Asimina triloba) that we collected last fall and kept in moist peat in a ziploc in the fridge. We'll see if we get some germination.
Stone Cairn
NEW PROJECT IDEA: I just did a Google search for rock pile. Found several photos of "rock piles". Not exactly what I was thinking about. However, some great ideas to add to a small area of the garden that I'm wanting to turn into a Japanese style area. Now.... How do they do that? Some masonry glue? Epoxy? If I just stack, I can guarantee my two kids or the surrounding neighbor kids will feel the necessity to unstack!
Yes, I finally fired the kiln! Prior to child number 2, I fired the kiln at least 2-3 times a month or more. After child number 2, I think I've only fired it a handful of times. Anyway, I did a glaze firing with some interesting results. I tried a new glaze or two and used a bunch of Mayco's reptilian green on some bisque frogs I had. The reptilian green turned out very cool.
If I hadn't played so hard out in the garden today, I would be toting a 50# bag of fresh clay down in the basement. I haven't had fresh clay to play with for a while, so throwing hasn't been possible. Now, that I'm really thinking about it, I may just throw tired aches aside and go throw a chunk of clay. I wonder if I can even remember how?!
So last week in clinic, one of our regular patients asks me if I've ever seen a Jelly Roll race. Blame it on the fact I've been dieting, but I envision a plate full of nice sweet jelly rolls with a bunch people having some sort of contest shoving them into their mouths. Anyway, after my brief delusion, I said, "Oh yeah, a jelly roll... gotcha." Now maybe my brain was still on the edible jelly roll, but I didn't quite get the full concept, so I Googled "jelly roll quilt race". Boy was I in the dark! Very cool, fun and hey, why not?
Joan's didn't have a full jelly roll and what they had was not to my taste. Our local quilt shop here in Monticello did not have any jelly rolls, so I decided I would "design my own". I chose 11 different cathedral batiks in a variety of colors. The quilt shop lady inspired/insisted I throw in some brighter colors with the more muted colors I was choosing. Anyway, after some trial and error, I chose 11 colors from the cathedral batiks. The cathedral batiks are very cool in that they go from dark at one selvage to a lighter shade at the other selvage. They actually look like they were gradient dyed.
Anyway, after purchasing too much (1/2 yd each), I went home and cut my 2 1/2" strips and started sewing them end to end. After a couple of "oops" sewing the strips together, I was ready to start the strip sewing. Before I started sewing the strip together, I ironed the seams that joined them. As I worked my way down, I kept folding the strips back and forth on top of each other. When I was done ironing I had a neat fan folded pile of the strips. I was able to take both ends, one at the bottom of the pile and the other at the top, line them up and take the whole mess to the sewing machine. Unceremoniously I dropped the fan folded pile into a box to the left of my chair. My eight year old son volunteered to sit beside me and kind of line up the strips. In some ways, that just slowed me down, but for the most part I did sew pretty fast. I did goof and run out of bobbin thread and that slowed me up to. However, HOW that lady in the video did it in 25 minutes, I have NO clue! I wasn't really "racing", but it took me about an hour and 15 minutes. Even if I hadn't stopped to wind a bobbin or had to resew the area that I did with an empty bobbin, I don't think I would have been in contention.
The overall design came out fairly pleasing. The kids are calling the Joseph quilt based on Joseph and the coat of many colors. It also challenged me to work outside of my comfort zone. The process is totally random and even if you try to "plan" your randomness, it is just not possible. If you're like me and want everything planned and plotted, this will challenge you.
The lady at the quilt shop here in Monticello had not heard of the jelly roll quilt race until I told her and so she was anxious to see what it looked like. I took the top in today and she said she liked the way the colors came out. We were talking, and as it is smaller than a twin quilt and my son seems to like it, I think I'm going to do some "piano keys" with the remaining fabric and then get some black to set of all the colors. Working.....
We went out to the cottage today. It was a "balmy" 41 degrees but wet and a little breezy. Many of my bulbs in my yard at home have been peeking for more than a month now, so I was shopping for signs of bulbs at the cottage. The few daffodils I planted are showing here and there about 1/2", but I saw no signs of daffodils elsewhere.
Imagine my surprise when I found two separate little clumps of Galanthus in the front yard. One clump was by the front drive, so you could assume maybe someone had a flower bed there at one time. The other little clump was in the middle of the yard. I probably should have done an unethical transplant right then as now I will probably not be able to find it again!
There are certain spring bulbs that I really enjoy simply because they poke their heads out and defy nature's cold. Galanthus, or snowdrops is one of them. When I was out at the cottage yesterday, I either simply didn't notice the mentioned clumps, or they blended in with the scattered bits of snow that was still hanging around. The foliage is a distinctive spring green that looks fresh in comparison to the grass that still looks tired and winter worn. And then there is the obvious.... If the Galanthus can dare to grow and bloom, then others.... the crocus, daffodils and grape hyacinths will surely follow!
Now if you are thoroughly excited about snowdrops, you may check out Snowdrops: A Monograph Of Cultivated Galanthus(byAaron Davis, M. Bishop, John Grimshaw).Personally, I am happy knowing that to enjoy they need to be planted in the fall with other spring blooming bulbs. They do great naturalized as well as many of the other small spring blooming bulbs, such as glory of the snow (chionodoxa) or grape hyacinth (muscari). However, after looking up the hillside to the cottage today, I think that naturalizing some snowdrops in the woods would definitely be a great idea. I will definitely be doing some online shopping next year for an affordable source of bulbs. And just so you know, if you want these, you will probably have to mail order or hope that your local garden shop will stock them.
One would think winter blues are pretty blah. However, winter greys are worse! Earlier this week we got the 50 degree teaser weather. Today was rainy and drizzly off and on. It did stop raining long enough that I could go outside and clean the chicken coop and chicken run, but the sun refused to fight it's way through the clouds.
I took a couple of pictures of a red squirrel, but even a red squirrel looked grey today!
Drove out to the cottage, desperately hoping to find some sort of relief from the grey, but the drizzle came back and even though it was 38, the wet cold permeated your clothes. I didn't see any deer, any turkey or even a squirrel. I think they were smart enough to seek warmth and shelter. I even looked to see if any of the daffodils I planted were peeking, but I didn't see a one. Here at home there are bulbs peeking, but I guess I'm just overly anxious to start planting.
I did find some bladdernut pods with their seeds in them. Laying out in the cold like that, I'm assuming they will germinate easily. Anyone need a bladdernut?
In a few weeks my kids have a week off from school for winter break. I have taken that week off and although there is work around home to be done, I hope to go clean up some branches out at the cottage and cut up a couple of downed trees.
I will probably go set up my seed starting stuff tomorrow. I have plans.... Maybe some little green seedlings will chase away the winter blues/greys!
While thinking of these rock cairns, I remembered driving through Illinois in December and seeing signs for Rockhome Gardens. As we were driving, I remembered pulling information up on my smartphone with several interesting pictures of rock sculptures. If your are interested in more ornate rock sculptures, you might like to visit their gardens, complete with an Amish restaurant. (The restaurant might help appease the spouse and family if you must bring them in tow!)
