Compositional Studies

Frozen stems

A whimsical summer arrangement of wild flowers, peonies, lisianthus, scabbiossa, dusty miller and grasses in an iron urn along with a curiosity from the fridge encrusted in ice.

Garden Roses from the Garden

Today I looked down at the rose bushes in my beloved border garden and the first roses of 2011 were holding court. Unfortunately, not for long. I nearly tripped running down the fire escape to grab my paws on them. Here they are with garden roses from the market and other specimen in antique bottles.

Rambling On and On....

The weather was absolute perfection today. My sister and I walked through the park and I took her through the Rambles. I hadn't gone there in so many years that it was hard to recognize with all of the fenced pathways. Every time we saw a little side path we'd wander off the designated ones. I explained the history of as I knew it,
" It used to be where the guys would meet for unmentionable rendezvous hence nicknamed in the 20's as "the fruited plane"- then it became quite dangerous and several tabloid murders occurred there."
Personally, it was always my favorite destination in the park and I'm glad I experienced it before the fences were put in. When the park was originally designed Fredrick Olmstead created this as ........"as a woodland walk through highly varied topography, a "wild garden" away from carriage drives and bridle paths, to be wandered in, or to be viewed as a "natural" landscape from the formal lakefront setting of Bethesda Terrace or from rented rowboats on the Lake. The 38-acre (150,000 m²) Ramble embraces the deep coves of the north shore of the Lake, excavated between bands of bedrock; it offers dense naturalistic planting, rocky outcrops of glacially-scarred Manhattan bedrock, small open glades and an artificial stream, The Gill, that empties through the Azalea Pond, then down a cascade into the Lake. Its ground rises northwards towards Vista Rock, crowned by Belvedere Castle , a lookout and eye-catching folly.

The Park's most varied and intricately-planted landscape was planted with native trees— tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica), American sycamore, white, red, black, scarlet and willow oaks, Hackberry and Liriodendron, — together with some American trees never native to the area, such as Kentucky coffee tree, Yellowwood and Cucumber magnolia, and a few exotics, such as Phellodendron and Sophora.^[1] Smaller natives include Sassafras. Aggressively self-seeding Black cherry and Black locust have come to dominate the Ramble.^[2]

The 20-acre (81,000 m²) Lake unified what Calvert Vaux called the "irregular disconnected featureless conglomeration of ground".^[3] It was excavated, entirely by hand, from unprepossessing swampy ground transected by drainage ditches and ramshackle stone walls.^[4] Through the low-lying site the Sawkill flowed sluggishly from sources under the present American Museum of Natural History and in the prospective park south of Seneca Village, originally exiting the park under Fifth Avenue about 74th Street, where Conservatory Water lies today, on its way to the East River.^[5] To create the Lake the outlet was dammed with a broad, curving earth dam, which carries the East Carriage Drive past the Kerbs Boathouse (1954), at the end of the Lake's eastern arm, so subtly that few visitors are aware of the landform's function. After six month's intensive effort, the Lake was ready in the winter of 1858 for its first season of ice-skating. Its center was seven feet deep, with terraced shorelines to lower levels for skaters' safety.^[6] Originally, in other seasons a tour boat picked up and dropped visitors at five landings with rustic shelters: four have been rebuilt and rowboats are rented at the boathouse.

...wiki

Applied Arts

You Can Get It If You Really Want

Japanese Painted Fern and White Garden rose

Climbing Garden Rose Bush

Sweat Pea Seedling

Clematis and Wisteria amongst Hydrangea and Peony bushes

Finally I was able to work on my border garden behind the studio. It was a perfect day for it with the cool damp air beckoning oncoming showers. I went to Crest Garden Center at Crest Hardware in Williamsburg on Metropolitan where I loaded the cart with all the essentials and more and more and more! Some people have a problem when they go to the mall, my impulse shopping is in its full glory at the flower market and garden centers.
Let me start by explaining that my backyard border garden is not really "MINE". It's the closest thing I have to a garden in NY but it does me well. When I moved in I immediately spotted two abandoned and polluted borders below the fire escape in the car lot that had a few hostas and sedum tragically making the lamest show one could ever imagine for any border- even for a back lot to a raw industrial building.
One summer I made friends with local construction workers nearby who told me there was a garden up for grabs before they levelled it with a bulldozer. I threw my back out on that one uprooting heirloom climbing rose bushes, peony bushes and even a large pear tree. The only survivors of the lot were the climbing rose bush which is now a monster invader and the small peony bush which has yet to show it's potential. Both must love Williamsbug in any of it's toxic soils. My loft neighbor explained that the ground that I was so lovingly tilling and planting was contaminated from the building's former life and wished me luck. That was several years ago. I never gave up and kept hauling bag after bag of fresh new garden soil. Since then I have made homes to two more rose bushes and hydrangea bushes. The past month I have been germinating seeds and nurturing them into seedlings which are also in residence downstairs. Today I fed and pruned the rose bushes and tied them up to start training them over the door and eventually into an arbor to shame all arbors! I cleaned the ground and transplanted the sedum to make way for some haut toit members of the crew which include wisteria, clematis, Japanese painted fern and lace-cap climbing hydrangea all obtained from my favorite neighborhood garden center(Crest Hardware) where Finn the bird always talks to me and the staff know their shit. It's an exciting day at the car lot!!!!!!

As Jimmy Cliff says:

You can get it if you really want
You can get it if you really want
You can get it if you really want
But you must try, try and try
Try and try, you'll succeed at last..........

............Rome was not built in a day
Opposition will come your way
But the hotter the battle you see
It's the sweeter the victory, now..........

.............You can get it if you really want - I know it
You can get it if you really want - though I show it
You can get it if you really want
- so don't give up now

Sea, Sand & Stars

I spoke to my mom early on Mother's Day. Her spirits were high as she and my dad were in a rush because they had a day ahead of celebrating her and the other mother's in my family. She was most excited to be going to the beach and I was happy that the day ahead was filled with family , sun and her favorite thing which was to watch my brother's dog go nuts in the sand and water! After talking to her I went to the studio reading a Constance Spry book. I felt inspired to make something with both her spirit and related to my Mother's Day. This is was my long distance gift to Mom with love. I hope she had a very happy day!

To: MOM

A few gift arrangements delivered today for Mother's Day- tomorrow. I love you mom!

Late Long Loving Spring

Central Park

Allegheny Mountains; NW PA
Photo by Paco Rodriguez

Jersey City back yard and massive old magnolia tree.

I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.~ e.e. cummings

You Were All Yellow

coldplay

I swam across
I jumped across for you
oh what a thing to do
'Cause you were all yellow......

MAY DAY

The Maypole Dance