5/14/2007

In the garden today...well, actually yesterday!

Got some great ideas for garden art while visiting "The Vintage Roost," a cool little 3-times-a-year craft sale that takes place just a few miles from here. A group of women from Albany created this magical event, housed in a small barn constructed more than 100 years ago. It's an "invite only" event I've been attending for about 6 years...and I LOVE it!
Here are some scenes from yesterday...

"Leather Leaf" hydrangea, purchased from my friend who has created "Morning Wood Nursery." I now have 18 varieties of hydrangea to admire.

A view down the back pathway.

Barbie heads in the herb garden...nothing more to say...


The wisteria is in full-bloom along the back of our shop. We cut it back hard 2 times each year to encourage the big blooms!

Garden sculpture I bought at Fall Festival last September. It was produced by a local artist...and I'm going to visit her workshop soon so that we can design something with native fish images!
My newly revamped compost area. My husband and son reconstructed the original compost bin to have more open sides, for more air flow. I love it!
Wallflowers and Japanese Honeysuckle, along with some lavender just waiting to burst into bloom!

5/13/2007

More views about the house...

I really enjoyed looking at my teapot collection this morning, being that it's Mother's Day. My Beautiful Daughter and I began collecting pots together when she was very little. Now, we have over 100 pots in all different locations in our house and in the gardens. This shelf was something we constructed from old shelving purchased a a second-hand shop. Just added moulding, flat black paint, and TAH-DAH!

The second photo is a view of the side yard with the bottle tree I built a year ago. I have several friends who regularly drop by to give me cool colored bottles for my tree. One of my best resources, however, is my hubby, as he likes a wide variety of vodkas that come in cool bottles...



5/12/2007

Life Through a Guinness Glass...

Playing with my camera and my favorite glass. I was standing at the kitchen sink while preparing dinner for a crew of teenagers. I took a sip from the almost-empty glass and saw my big rooster through the bottom. Grabbed my camera and left the pasta boiling on the stove...
The photos include my rooster, Theo the Wonder Basset, and Beautiful Daughter...





5/11/2007

Doy. Dur. Duh.

You Are Not Stupid

You got 10/10 questions right!
While acing this quiz doesn't prove you're a genius, you're at least pretty darn smart.

5/10/2007

District Track Meet


In spite of her insomnia, excessive studying, and anxiety, Wonderful Daughter took 7th place in the district track meet today! I guess she'll get to go to the state meet for the 3000 meter race. On Saturday, she'll run at Western Oregon University in the 1500 meter. Go, girl, go!
Blurry, but fair photo...

5/09/2007

Errr...that darned "OS" is back on my mind...

I'm reading the "Oregon Stater." For those who don't know, it's the alumni magazine published by the Oregon State University Alumni Association...sent out periodically to inform graduates of who has died, who's donated huge quantities of money to the univ., and what research is going on in one of the many science colleges/departments.

Today's magazine has an article called, "gimme an 'o' gimme and 's'. Essay: You, too, can learn to love the new two-letter sports logo."

Ugh! As I related in one of my very first blogs, I HATE th new logo! Dammit, I went to Oregon State University! I was there when Benny Beaver and his beautiful "partner," Bernice, ran the roost. Benny had a bad tail, which sometimes looked as though he was carrying a load, if you get what I mean. Ok, so the football team was so bad back then that all students gained entrance to the games for free...and, well, honestly, we all came in with bottles of rum/peppermint schnapps, and whatever other cheap liquor we could get our hands on. There was an old joke. It went something like this, "I left my 2 tickets to the Beaver game on my dashboard and forgot to roll up my windows before leaving. When I came back to my car, I expected to find the tickets stolen, but instead, there were 2 more!"

Those were the days, you see, 'cause it was all about being a hard-working student with no car, living in the dorms, with very little money, but a lot energy to burn. Today, almost every student has a car and a debit card and enough money to have drinks at "Cloud 9." We, however, used to go to the "Oregon Museum" for beer and picking up guys. We had so very little money that we managed to sip on our pitcher of beer for hours.

We were Oregon State University students...and we wore our ratty OSU hoodies with pride. Everyone we passed knew we were from OSU, cause our clothes said "OSU." Now, with the "OS" logo, folks might think, "Oh, look at that kid. He's from Oregon Skaters," or, "Hey, does 'OS' stand for anything I should know about?"

If you want to read the article, you'll find that the author, Kevin Miller, gives a lot of explanation about how the new logo came about. I'm sorry, but I'm from Oklahoma, and I have always known the difference between the 2 logos, even through Oklahoma State University shares the same colors as my beloved OSU! But, they are the Cowboys. We are the Beavers. Their mascot carries 2 6-shooters. Our beaver is mad as hell, with his big incisors flaring with rage. Kevin even goes into detail by showing all of the other proposals for the new logo. There are some good...but, honestly, I could do better. I know it! Heck, my students....oh, I'll give it up...

I will never accept OS. I refuse to buy merchandise with the logo on it. Okay, too late. My husband received a beautiful new Oregon State University jacket for his birthday, as he is a recruiter for the College of Forestry and had an old, faded OSU jacket that was honestly embarassing! When I went to buy the jacket at the bookstore, YIKES! The only things available were "OU-ed" already! I asked the clerk, "Excuse me. Where can I find the real OSU garments?" She said, "You're looking at them."

Join with me. Rebel against the marketing ploy. Stand up for the return of the OS and the U on sports apparel!

Summer's almost here...

According to my calculations, there are officially 25.5 days of school left. I can make it, I can make it, I can make it...

5/08/2007

Today in the garden...

I made these "posies" last year...
Boo! Our old andirons! This Deodora Cedar will grow to 80 ft. I planted it from an 8-inch pot 3 years ago...
The bluebird of happiness welcomes folks to this pathway!
My students made these for me in 1987.
I bought a cheap pasta bowl at Costco, mounted it on a ceramic stand, and Tah-Dah! Birdbath!
I dug up these Columbine originally from my husband's dead mother's garden.
Love the Dutch Iris. The posts in back were old bed posts. I painted them red and they will soon have bird houses on top!

Mrs. Bradshaw's Geum! One of my favorite flowers. I've had it for 9 years...moved it here from the old house...
Beautiful Foxgloves! I planted them from seed 2 years ago. As they are biennials, this is their year to bloom!
Camas, Columbine, and cool insulators!

I made this wall of plantlife. It includes: Globe allium, Golden Hops, White Clematis, and a Climbing Hydrangea
Mint, herbs, wegelia, and little country touches...
Iris with a view!


Galatians Azalea along the roadside out front!
I bought an old shipping box from Holland bulbs, painted it white years ago, and now it serves as shelving on the edge of a deck...I made the birdbath on top after reading a Mary Engelbreit idea book!
2 weeks ago, while driving to McMinnville, I found this chair in a ditch alongside the highway! I stopped, opened my trunk, and now it's mine!
BEAUTIFUL SPRING IN OREGON!





5/06/2007

Garden Dirt...





Today was a day of garden work. This day was spent on the dirty side of the jobs that needed doin'. I emptied the biggest water garden (the one in a 75 gallon gavanized steel feed/water tank) on the old back patio. What a job! The Umbrella Plants, Rush, Water Iris, and Cattails had all outgrown their water pots and had managed to meld all of their root systems into one giant mass. I would guess it weighed near 60-70 lbs. I hauled it all up, pulled out my big hatchet, and hacked away at everything until the pots were separated, roots trimmed, and divided. I found 1 lone goldfish still lurking in the muck. Each year I fill the garden with feeder fish, as they eat mosquito larve, eliminating the need for any chemicals. I also found Pacific Tree Frogs swimming all around, about 1.5 inches long. Everytime I catch any frogs on our property, I put them in this water garden, hoping for egg-laying.
I used a high-powered hose to clean everything. I used a steel wire brush the scrub out the algae, and then set everything up beautifully. I have about 15 birdhouses in back. Some are currently housing house wrens, swallows, and 1 funky little white-crowned sparrow, which is odd, as they usually don't seem to like houses. There is a major problem, however, in that these huge wasps/hornets tend to inhabit some of the houses and they like to attack and sting me when I disturb their abodes. When I get stung, the pain is akin to someone jabbing you with a piece of steel wire that leaves a nasty burn. I tend to scream and curse when it happens. Even though we live outside city limits, we still have neighbors and I know they hear me. I bet they think I'm yelling at a dog.

Anyway, now that the dirty work is almost done, I will be able to turn to my garden rooms and get them all organized and ready for visitors, evening drinks, chat-sessions, and relaxing through the summer. Going organic has some awesome advantages, but there is a lot of maintenance involved and I spend a lot of time crawling through shrubs, beds, and areas pulling out weeds and invasives with my now-sore fingers.

I plan to host many evening wine/mojito/margarita evenings this summer...so, everyone get ready!

5/05/2007

Dance, Monkeys, Dance

I like this. Except, there aren't any monkeys. They're all apes. Monkeys have tails...
Watch it anyway...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a15KgyXBX24

Ready for this?


Today, my students and I hosted a HUGE benefit garage sale to help the family of a young child who is suffering with a brain tumor. The child is a student from our school, although, none of the children in my class know her.
We've been working for a month on this project, and the big work took place this week. The ENTIRE cafeteria at our school was FILLED with donated items...folks from all over our community showed up on Friday to make their donations. Kids were working in teams (they had to fill out "Job Applications" for their jobs and be "hired," including signing a contract). THE WEEK WAS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! Our total "take" was...are you ready?...$1600!

The principal of our school hasn't said one word to me about this adventure. She hasn't even acknowledged our existence in this work. She hasn't said ONE WORD of encouragement or inspiration to my students. Then, she showed up at the VERY END of a very long day, I'd been working for 9 hours and most of the kids had been working for about 7...as we were loading up 4 complete truckloads of items to donate to GoodWill...and managed to "sneak" in to one photo I took of children hauling boxes.
I have already deleted that photo...

5/04/2007

Earth Day is Everyday!


I was just taking down some artwork my students created when it dawned on me how pretty their pictures were! I decided to snap a few shots so I could share and remind folks how pretty our Earth can be!

5/03/2007

Oh, man!


During a recent adventure to the Island of Cozumel, my husband couldn't hold it any longer. I still love him, however...

5/02/2007

Shades of Orange...


I wore a beautiful sweater to school today. It's a new one...Liz Claiborne...very graphic, orange with small white stripes. A staff member was celebrating her birthday today. She had this absolutely eye-catching cupcake with a HUGE orange flower on top, made completely out of butter, sugar, and cream cheese. I sat by her at lunch and someone commented that the flower was the exact color as my sweater. As we all looked at them both, we realized that neither was really orange. They weren't peach, tangerine, or ??? So, I came home after running the last track meet of the season, absolutely frozen and tired, and did a little research. Here's a list:

This list got me thinking about a thematic approach to an upcoming blog. I'm going to search high and low for all of the amazing "orange" objects there are in my world. Watch out, world! I feel a collage coming on! If you have anything you'd like to share with me in regards to Orange Images I, please forward to boggywoggygumgum@gmail.com
I'm curious...

5/01/2007

Student stuff...



Today, I was working with a higher-level math group on the basics of algebra. We were using the SMART board and exploring some awesome websites together! One of the lower level math kids entered the room and asked what we were doing. I said, "We're working on algebra!" He said, "Oh, I now a lot about that. I know that ducks, salamanders, and fish eat it."