Pollination and Propagation – A Painting Series

Do you like to propagate plants on your windowsill?   At our house, the sills are brimming with plant starts.

I also like using plant cuttings as bouquets with propagation potential. In the illustration below, you can see that a few of the flower stems are starting to send out roots. The plants pictured here are Shiso, Jasmine, Verbena, Cornflowers, and Fennel.

Petite Bouquet of Shiso, Jasmine, Verbena and batchelor buttons in a rectangular vase with bees flying around it and roots sprouting on the stems.

Bees found the bouquet!  This means we’re both propagating and pollinating indoors. It also means that I need to get screen doors.

A painting of two hands holding vases of squash blossoms while a third hand holding a paintbrush adds some paint to one of the flowers.

Above are vases holding nasturtiums. The stems sprouted roots quickly, and we kept putting them back into the ground. Soon, we had glorious orange flowers with lily-pad-like leaves climbing up and down the garden fence.

I set up a kitchen research project to determine whether propagation produces plants that are equal in health to those grown from seed.

This particular batch of nasturtium seeds came from a crop of vine-style orange and red nasturtiums, Tropaeolum majus, and I did not soak them or winter them over in the freezer.  Don’t they look a bit like petite brains?

The results from the research project are in!  Seeds grew faster, larger, and sturdier plants than those grown via propagation.

Gardening led to painting.  I worked with gouache paint, a vibrant opaque type of watercolor that comes in sexy tubes, and soon the propagation bouquets became handy still-lifes of reproduction in action.

I started including hands in the paintings in a previous series focused on indoor rock climbing. The hands might be pictured ripping the corner of a page, cutting with scissors, or holding a paintbrush, as you see her.

For the last two painting series, I made up two rules:

  1. The act of creating the work had to be part of the painting.
  2. The majority of the elements depicted needed to be alive.

The three bees below are different species, and each pollinates a particular flower. I had to swiftly capture their wings in flight, as they were quite lively and needed to be shooed back outside once I drew them on the page. The little roots on the stems speak to the fact that these are not only “cut flowers” but rather that they are alive and fully engaged in propagating. They are days from being returned to garden soil to grow into big, beautiful Fennel, Sorrel, Cornflower, and Verbena plants.

Petite bouquet of Shiso, Jasmine, Verbena, and Bachelor Buttons in a rectangular vase with bees flying around it and roots sprouting on the stems.

What do you like to stuff your squash blossoms with?  Our favorite filling was a combination of cheeses, pesto, and bits of spicy chicken sausage.

A painting of two hands holding vases of squash blossoms while a third hand holding a paintbrush adds some paint to one of the flowers.

These paintings are available as notecards here. I like to have cards within arm’s reach, sitting on the corner of my writing desk, so I designed a case for them. Though the magnetic flap-closing card boxes are stately, I wanted to try something else. This design takes its inspiration from a dresser drawer.

I found a high-quality manufacturer in Lahore, Pakistan who agreed to make the products, and we used Google Translate to convey the specifications.  Three weeks after our agreed-upon delivery date, I concluded it had been a scam and was ready to search for another manufacturer.  But then, late one afternoon, I was out on the porch observing how the squash plants had undertaken massive land grabs by crisscrossing the entire garden by staying just three inches above the soil. This strategy allowed them to weave a path underneath the other plants.

At about that moment, a yellow DHL truck pulled right up onto the curb, with one set of sizable tires cutting into the grass near the sidewalk so that he wouldn’t block street traffic. The driver wobbled when he came through the front gate, barely able to maneuver the massive eighty-pound box up the stairs to our door.  “Sorry these are a bit late,” he said between breaths, “they were held up in customs.”

Ah, so that is what happened.

I just love them.

What shall I paint next?

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Windows that open

This was probably taken in 1998. I had harnessed up and climbed out of one of the globe’s panel openings at the very top of the Smith Tower. I was thinking I would be able to lower myself down to each of the gothic windows and cut around them with a utility knife so they would be operable.  I had signed a twenty-year lease on a cool roughshod space and now I had to make it livable.

My body started shaking the minute I was outside the globe.  It was more than sewing machine legs.  It was a full-blown tremor upon tremor experience.  I tried waiting it out. I tried deep breathing.  I actually wondered whether I would be able to get back inside.

Looking down, I noticed that there was someone else far below who was also on the outside.  They looked like they were working on the exterior terracotta near the 24th floor.

I did make it back inside.  It was a relief to unhook the climbing harness and watch as my fingers slowly stopped their jiggling.

I sat still for about a minute, but I wasn’t ready to give this mission up. I quickly navigated down the dusty passageway, the ship’s ladder, the spiral stairs, and the catwalk stairs to the mess of pipes and patchy concrete that was the floor of the pyramid.

Of course, my next stop was to catch an elevator down to where I thought the masonry worker was.

“24th Floor,” said Hamilton, the elevator operator, as he slid the gate open to a darkened room. All the shades had been pulled down. As my eyes adjusted I realized that there were about 30 people tightly packed in and earnestly working on computers.  I asked if it would be possible for me to lift the shade and open the window in the corner to talk to a gentleman that is working on the outside of the building.

“It is an odd request,” said the person who appeared to be in charge. “But we’ve heard stranger.” A few coders looked up from their workstations.  “Okay.” He said. “Unfortunately you are going to have to climb on that desk. Move the computer carefully. Put everything back just as it is now.”

I thanked him and cleared a small spot to climb up on the desk. Then I raised the shade. Groans came from behind me as the searing daylight cut across the room. Then I gingerly raised the rickety 100-year-old window and poked my head out.

“Hello,” I said to the masonry worker and introduced myself.  He looked at me quizzically and then said that he was David and that he worked for Pioneer Masonry.

I explained that I was trying to make the windows of the pyramid at the top of the building operable. They needed to be cut loose as it appears they are sealed in place on the outside.  Would you be able to cut them free, so I can add hinges and locks?

He laughed and said, “I’d be happy to do that, in fact, I have something personal that I need to do up there at the base of the flagpole. Perhaps we can do a trade?”

I was flabbergasted. And delighted! “Wow. Yes. A trade would be incredible.”

“I’m all done here,” David said, “but I need to pack up a few things and reload the parking meter on my truck.” “How about I meet you up at the globe in 30 minutes?”

As I neatened up the desk, there were quizzical faces around me. I think everyone had heard the conversation and we were all likely wondering the same thing. What could it be that David needs to do at the base of the building’s flagpole?

Sure enough, David arrived as planned and knew exactly what to do.  He was a large man but he had no trouble squeezing through the narrow space to reach the globe. Together we uploaded his ropes and equipment.

Window with the words, "This window does not open."

Each side of the pyramid had six triangular windows. He would slice around the outside of them and push them in about a 1/2 inch. I was on the inside and could catch each one and carefully lower it to the floor.  Then I attached brass hinges to the bottom and screwed on a surface bolt style lock.  Together we were able to make 19 of the 24 windows operable.

It turned out that David knew the building well. He did annual inspections and patched up the terracotta with grout when it was needed.

David working on the outside of the Tower

Over the course of the day, David shared why he wanted to help me.  It was an incredibly sad story. Words simply do not capture the grief he was going through. We continued to work as he talked, but we were both crying hard.

About a week ago, his wife had died in a car accident.

He was taking things one day at a time.

Last night he went to his workshop had created a plaque for her. He wanted to attach it somewhere special.  He was thinking about putting it on the outside of the Smith Tower in a place that was not likely to disturb the integrity of the terracotta tiles.  He wanted to honor her.  He liked the idea of placing it on the tip-top of the globe.

“The flagpole doesn’t get many visitors,” he said. “I will treasure that it is there and I will be able to see it from many places in the city and I’ll be back to polish it every year when I do the building’s exterior inspection.”

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Are there people inside the camera?

We are visiting Los Angeles and it is Mother’s Day.  Naomi, Simone, and I are off on an urban expedition.

Above Simone (3) is sending a video letter to her friend Tanner (4) and about halfway through the video, Simone grapples with the idea that perhaps Tanner is actually inside the camera. (Sound on)

Naomi is 8 months and Simone is 3. We are back in the hotel room. They are exploring the toy instruments we bought from a vendor on the sidewalk.  They are creating an ad hoc performance.  Road trips come with lots of free entertainment.

These might be the first steps that Naomi ever took. It happened so fast that we really are not sure of the exact date.  Surely I am not impartial, but gosh, I am just in awe of Naomi’s ease and grace climbing things, holding things, and (now)..strutting her stuff.

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Gallery

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What are you reading?

2014

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2013

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Product Details

 

Where do you like to read?

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Creation and Re-creation

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Favorite Restaurants

Bar Sajor from Matt Dillon (whose other spots, Sitka & Spruce and Corson Building are also fabulous).  SW corner of Occidental & Jackson.  Scrumptious! (206) 682-1117  Their online reservation tool works well.

Bar del Corso from Jerry (and Gina) Corso 3057 Beacon Ave S, Seattle, WA 98144 (206) 395-2069

Il Corvo Pasta from Mike Easton (Lecosho chef & Bizzaro) 217 James St.  (bet 2nd & 3rd)  Perfect lunch spot.  The line moves quickly. Worth it!  (206) 538-0999

Il Terrazzo – 411 1st Ave S.  Delicious.  Hidden inside the Merrill bldg. (206) 467-7797 Outside seating.

Salumi from Armandino Batali (father of Gino Batali)  309 3rd Ave S.  Perfect lunch spot. Definitely get in the line. It moves quickly and the reward is significant.  (206) 621-8772

Rain Shadow Meats “Squared” from Russell Flint of Melrose Market.  On Occidental-off Jackson.  Tables and a counter in the back with superb food.  Lunch, early dinner and wkend brunch. Heavenly.

Wild Ginger by Rick & Ann Yoder. Rick’s Triple Door is around the corner. Walking in is fun. The sidewalk might even be empty and then you open the doors and enter a two-story masterpiece that is HOPPING!  1401 3rd Ave Seattle, WA 98101 (206) 623-4450

Tinello from LaValle & Hahne. 314 2nd Ave S  Across from the firehouse and waterfall park. New addition to the neighborhood!  Yummy.

Grand Central Bakery from Gwen Bassetti. 214 1st Ave S enter either on 1st or from Occidental Park. The bacon egg bolo couldn’t be improved!  They tweet their soups.  Fabulous pastries. Outside seating.

Café Paloma from Sedat.  93 Yesler Way.  A place to sit outside with friends and enjoy small tasty mediterranean dishes. Frequent music events. (206) 405-1920

London Plane – a bakery, lunch spot, flower store & handy take-out on the NW corner of Occidental Mall.  322 Occidental Ave S.   Coming soon….

Gaba Sushi 220 1st Ave S.   Weekdays 11am – 3pm

Delicatus from Derek Shankland & Mike Klotz. 103 1st Ave S.  (206) 623-3780  Brunch, lunch, dinner, wine tastings, events…

Julie’s Garden from Julie & Tony. 81 Yesler Way.  Pho lunch. (206) 223-3690

Little Uncle from PK and Wiley Frank. 88 Yesler Way.  Innovative Thai Lunch  (206) 223-8529

Pho Fuscia – 213 1st Ave S   DELICIOUS Vietnamese sandwiches & bubble tea. (206) 682-1454

East Smith Mercantile is at 208 1st Ave S in the Wessel Lieberman space.   I hear the back counter is the place for high-quality cocktails.  I’m looking forward to visiting.

Indigene from Katherine Anderson of Marigold & Mint. SE corner of Occidental Mall…Wine and cookbooks and….

The Collins Pub from Seth Howard.  526 2nd Ave. Brews.  Cheery outdoor tables create a lovely end-of-the-day gathering spot. (206) 623-1016

Blind Pig by Charles Walpole and Rene Gutierrez . 2238 Eastlake Ave E (206) 329-2744  Phenomenal!

Hitchcock – NOT in Pioneer Square…but it isn’t far, just a short ferry ride.  133 Winslow Way E #100  Bainbridge Island, WA 98110 (206) 201-3789  Chef Brendan McGill’s is as warm and wonderful as his incredible food.  Make sure you introduce yourself.

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MUSEE de la CHASSE et de la NATURE

I love this place!DSC_0366
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Handstand anyone? Cupcake with Sprinkles?


Simone’s “Person doing a handstand” for her Halloween costume.  Not the easiest costume to sit in…so (as in previous years) she had a couple back-up costumes that she cycled through during the day.

Naomi made many costumes this year but on the morning of Halloween she came up with this one.  When we got to school she had me cover her face with little colored marks for sprinkles.

Truth is, Naomi wears a costume to Christina Gwin’s Kindergarten class about once a week.  She favors the orange astronaut overalls or the man’s business suit or her lumberjack attire but now and then, she finds time in the morning to create a wonder woman or a red and black queen or an all white ice princess.

This year we did our trick or treating in Magnolia so that we could venture into the terrifying Alley of Darkness.  It does not look menacing in this photo but it was!  Those cute bouncy house looking things…are not bouncy houses. That is a ruse.  The minute you step past those, you are in the underworld.  The teachers from the Lawton school create this madness.  These professors are literally hiding under cars waiting for you. They then roll out to grab ankles or sneak up behind you in the darkness and yank your ponytails with a  devilish hisssssssss.  There were real chain saws smelling of fuel and cutting the air with their chilling burr burr burr.  Menacing sounds were everywhere and scary undead-types kept popping in and out of the heavy (fog machined) air.  Every time you started to breathe again, a monster from the underworld, would jump out and restart you screaming.  Hearing the screams, including our own, delivered the holy grail of Halloween, a kind of spooky cathartic-ism only had by being taken way over the edge!

The Alley of Darkness is hard to top, even though, just a block further is an ongoing zombie performance of “Triller” atop 16 gravestones.

This is where “thriller” later comes to life with about 12 performers.  Naomi made this her first stop.  Well…actually..a pile of leaves was her first stop.

Soft piles of beautiful red leaves this year.

Here are a few “in progress” snaps from Simone’s 2012 costume.  It went through many iterations…fuffy pink go-go dancer handstand to green cowboy with silver boots handstand.

       

 

Here are a few snaps from halloween costumes past. There were three ultra sweet whirling dervish looking creatures with mad scientists and skeletons hidden under their skirts and there was once an elf with curling shoes and there were a trio of pirates holding mermaids.

      

 

       

 

 

 

What should we create next year?

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Wallingford Greenway opens with a Kidical Mass Gathering

Fun video of the Kidical Mass gathering to celebrate Wallingford’s new Greenway.

Greenways are safe, healthy residential streets, usually one off of main commercial streets, where people can choose to walk, bike, or drive slowly to the places they want to go.  Seattle Neighborhood Greenways helps to mark a linked network of healthy streets where people can choose to safely walk or ride a bicycle throughout Seattle.  Great routes to know for inline skating and bike outings with the pumpkins!    www.SeattleGreenways.org

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A June day

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Surfing on her birthday

 

It wasn’t warm but nothing could keep the girls from swimming on Naomi’s birthday.  

 

Afterwards they warmed up in a hot tub of their own making.

 

Birthday sign for Naomi.  Now she is 5!

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Amber and Todd and baby Parker!

Amber and Todd have baby Parker in Tokyo!

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April Fool’s Day Pranks

Fun pranks for Aprils Fool’s Day.  Almost all of these are from Emily Heston’s terrific Splendid Market blog!

Ideas for Breakfast/Morning

  • Fill a cereal bowl 3/4 full of water and freeze it. In the morning give cereal fans the bowl and watch them try to pour in the cereal.
  • Make jello and pour it into a juice glass to gel. Serve it as juice in the morning.
  • Freeze glasses of milk or juice to serve in the morning.
  • Take the bag of cereal out of the box and fill it with sytrofoam peanuts, marshmallows, pretzels, dog food or whatever you have around!
  • Magic color cereal: put a few drops of food coloring at the bottom of a cereal bowl, pour the cereal on top of the food coloring. Serve it with a glass of milk on the side. When the breakfast bunch pours in the milk the color will emerge!
  • Poke tiny holes in the bottom of a paper cup and offer someone a “roadie”!!
  • When the kids go to sleep you can very gently move them so they wake up in their siblings bed, very confusing.
  • Depending on how deeply they sleep, you can apply a large bandage or wrap their arm in an ACE bandage, when they wake up and ask why they have it on you can say “oh dear, you don’t remember”??
  • This is a good one you can help the kids play on your spouse/ roomate: sprinkle A LOT of salt in their hair. Have the kids scratch their head in front of the spouse and talk about it until he/she looks to see what is the matter! The horrors!! You can easily brush all of the salt out into the sink after the prank is pulled.

Ideas for Lunch

  • Open the bottom of an individual serving size bag of chips carefully. Pour out the chips and replace them with cereal , Styrofoam peanuts, dog biscuits, whatever you have. Use double stick tape to reseal the bottom of the bag.
  • Imbed a gummy worm in a lunch bag apple.



Idea for a Dinner Prank

  • For surprising side, use vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce and make it look like mashed potatoes and gravy next to your regular dinner (then you don’t have to worry about dessert).

Anytime Pranks

  • Stuff newspapers in the toes of shoes.
  • “Frost” a cake sized, or sheet of brownie sized box (a shirt gift box) with canned frosting and leave it in the office kitchen with a plastic knife and a sign saying “help yourself”.
  • Call your spouse or roomate and say that someone called and left a very urgent message about a missed appointment and they want them to call back right away. Give them the phone number to the zoo and tell them to ask for “Mr. Lyon”.
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Jumping into the pool

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Being four


 

 

 

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The new series of jewelry is selling at the SAM Store

 

The SAM store agreed to carry the line of Plumb Jewelry and it looks great in the store and is selling fast. I just love that. What a rush to create a popular product. I’m working to create more and trying everything I can think of to see what other beautiful creations are possible.

Here is a close up of one of the necklaces.

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Howling the night away

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White blanket for the skyscrapers

Fun to watch the flakes quiet the city.The buildings get tucked under a white blanket.

 

 

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Making Friends with Every Gecko in Belize

 

We arrived in Belize City around noon and immediately headed two hours West, almost to the Guatemalan border.

Along the way we stopped at the Belize zoo and, lo and behold, both girls were sound asleep.

The zoo was fun but being in the jungle first hand with Howler monkeys right outside our cabin sounded far more exciting, so along we went. Our destination being The Lodge at Chaa Creek, located along the Macal River, just outside of San Ignacio.

Though Chaa Creek is secluded in the Belizean jungle, it’s certainly not roughing it. The staff describe it best when they say the experience is “wildly civilized”.

Towel tapirs greeted us and pointed the way to our outdoor shower, lush with flowers in every shade of pink and orange you can imagine.

Most of the food we ate was grown on Chaa Creek’s organic farm. And the butterfly hatchery provided endless wonder, hoping to witness the moment that the blue iridescent wings would emerge from their cocoon.

Simone and Naomi made daily use of the infinity pool where they made friends with each and every gecko, giving them names and finding them homes.

This poor thing’s tail fell off so the girls chose a big wooden bowl by the pool as the perfect nest to recover.

We especially loved taking canoes up the Macal river and the horse “pack trips” through Chaa Creek’s Nature Reserve.

On our second night, we chose to have a local guide can take us deep into the jungle for a midnight walk (8pm in our case) where we held our breath to try and catch the nocturnal animals in action. I found that leafy twigs provided the best bait to coax tarantulas out of their homes.

I’ll share more of our adventures soon…

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