Each Little World

IVOM: By the book

Late last fall Typepad did some kind of massive update that screwed up my blog for a week or so. At first I was annoyed and frantic. Once I calmed down I began to think about what I might do with my unexpected free time.

In December of 2020 I made a 20-page magazine via Blurb.com. "A Christmas Miscellany" contained old family photos, pictures of my holiday decor and three family-related Christmas stories I'd originally written as newspaper columns back when I worked at a daily paper. I gave the book as a Christmas present to my sisters, nieces and nephew and a few close friends.

I was so pleased with my Christmas effort that I stared a 48 page 7" x 7" book called "The White Album." It was going to be white flowers and winter garden shots. 

I abandoned it when I got too busy with other things. Now I looked it up again and decided to finish it. Luckily I found a few notes I'd saved that helped me figure out everything I forgotten in the two years since I last made a book. 

I finished that book and did two others between Oct. 25 and Nov. 17. I did these just for me; a way to remember hundreds of moments in my garden for the day when I am no longer living in the midst of it. 

Back cover of the autumn book. This is also 7" x 7" and runs 152 pages. 

IVOM is the third in this 7" x 7" series of garden books. It is 140 pages. I'm not sure how many more I will do at this size, but I expect at least a couple more to showcase spring and summer in the garden. 

Currently I'm working on a small one about our ducks and a 6" x 9" book on "The Sweet History of my Dining Table." They are very satisfying projects that also include learning a new computer program, taking new photos and finding old photos from the blog that need to be resized. Like any art project it's all about the process.

HOW THIS ALL BEGAN:

Mark had two of his photos selected for a competitive exhibit this past fall. We went to the opening and stayed for the excellent lecture by the judge, Aline Smithson. I was particularly struck when she pointed out that my generation is the last one to have had the experience of shooting film, taking the roll to the local drugstore to get it developed, followed by the thill of picking it up and discovering what we had captured — or didn't.

She also emphasized how technology is constantly changing and there is no guarantee that we will be able to access our images when we want them again. Prints — real, physical prints on paper — are the only archival way to retain our treasured images. 

Mark has done almost 30 books of all different sizes, kinds of paper and subjects. I decided it was time to join him; though I consider mine more like scrapbooks than photographic art publications. They are essentially vanity publications but I am happy with them; knowing that I can look at my house and garden when and wherever I want once my images are committed to paper. 

You can look through my books page by page without buying them if you are curious. Here's a link to see the three I've recently done. Click on the preview link and full-screen. You can also find Mark's books on Blurb.com here. Scroll down to see them all.

End of November/early December views

I am loving all the green still visible in my garden, despite snowfalls and temperatures below freezing. I am especially fond of the contrast between the green Carexes and flopped over ferns at the top of the slope and the swath of golden Hakonechloa grass at the bottom. When the Hakonechloa blows in the wind, it's perfect.

Autumn ferns (Dryopteris erythrosora 'Brilliance') are still looking good and standing up compared to many of the other ferns. You can see these in the first picture at the top left of the hill, if you click to enlarge the photo. If you don't grow Autumn ferns, it is worth pointing out that the autumn coloration is on the new growth of the fronds when they emerge in the spring, not in the autumn despite the name.

On the left of the hill in the first photo, the Carex sidersticha 'Variegate' (above the Hakonechloa) is all flattened and brown from the snow and cold. Meanwhile Carex plantaginea in other garden areas, though not on the hill, looks as spiffy as ever.  

Luzula 'Solar Flare' with a noid Hellebore. The foliage on this emerges very yellow green though it's less obvious in December. 

Moss always gets center stage when there is not so much other greenery competing for attention.

OMG! You can see the exobitant price on the name tag of this small fern — Cheilanthes lanosa 'Mighty Tidy' — out in the Moon Garden. Hairy Lip fern has made it through two winters and is slowly increasing in spread. Though only 6" high, it's ultimate width is supposedly 1'. I like it because it likes full sun in rocky, well-drained soil. Not the usual location for a fern.

Another rock garden fern; this one likes shade however. Dryopteris affines crispa — Dwarf crisped golden-scaled male fern — is a Z5 plant and should do well for me. I've been growing the full size version of this fern for more than ten years. Here's hoping this miniature version will do as well.

Polystichum setiferum 'Divisilosum' is new this year from Fancy Fronds. It has settled in nicely and still looks lovely. I am hoping this one makes it through the winter as I am pushing the zone here. I took a chance as this was nicely priced. It arrived as a good sized healthy plant well-worth the money.

In a vase on Wednesday

I always bring in the last good-looking foliage and seedpods to make an autumn arrangement. This time I forgot about watering it after the first few days. So I remade it as a study in brown. 

Have a pleasant Thanksgiving. I'm not the cook this year, so it will be very pleasant for us. 

Fall clean-up finished just in time

October began with a few gorgeous days in a row letting me empty all my containers. The perennials went back in the ground, while I brought my Begonias indoors to see if can manage to overwinter them. Then I scrubbed all the pots — the ones that were planted — from the smallest to the largest. 

The small pots went into the garage until next spring. Mark and I turned the biggest decorative ones ones upside down to winter in place. Since they won't be able to hold water, they should be fine with this treatment. Mark can still pretty much turn these pots over by himself. I just help put the wood risers under them. 

They are very big pots. Here's what they look like next to a person . . .

and next to the fence for the winter. Also sitting on wood blocks.

We moved the rest of the decorative pots down to this storage area on the east side of the house. It's a surprisingly protected location with the garage wall, fencing and a big maple tree overhead. We've never lost a pot to winter weather yet. Knock on wood.

I got my work table all cleaned off (except for that big branch) and bagged pine needles from neighbors and a friend by the beginning of the last week in October. 

The weather was terrific so it wasn't as frustrating raking up the endless maple leaves from my neighbor's tree as it would have been on a miserable day. 

We spent the last nice day — Thursday, Nov. 10th — cleaning the garage, washing tools and putting them away. I cleaned and organized my metal shelving and cabinet and Mark did everything else.

Just as the sun was fading and the temperature dropping the team from Tiplok came to blow the leaves off of the roof on the house and the Tea House. Rain was forecast for that evening so we really wanted to be sure the gutters were not going to get clogged up. They did a great job, including blowing the leaves from the roof off of the yew hedge where they initially fell. 

We did get rain as predicted that evening and the temperature took a dive with snow showers on Friday and Saturday. It snowed lightly starting on Monday but it was enough to cover the ground. The view Tuesday morning.

It snowed on and off all day yesterday. Note the snow depth this morning at 7 a.m. My theory of winter is that it will be a long winter if there is measurable snow before Thanksgiving. 

The temperature is supposed to hit the mid-30°s today. But the high temp doesn't get out of the 20°s for the next few days. That's January weather. I was going to add more leaf mulch on some of the newer plants and already I can't locate them because of the snow cover. That's gardening in Wisconsin.

IVOM: Bouquets in black and white

I cut the seedheads off of my Belcamda chinensis knowing they have a reputation as rampant self-seeders. Given that it's planted next to the gravel-filled upper pond, I could just imagine my frustration if the seeds landed there. Thus I've been enjoying this small bouquet of shiny black buttons indoors, instead of worrying about them free out of doors. 

Our recent warm weather pushed my Thanksgiving rose — Helleborus niger — into spectacular bloom. Here it is last Monday, Nov. 7th.

_{Last Thursday we finished our winter prep on the last warm day. Overnight the temperature dropped from the low 70°s to the 30°s. That was followed by wind, rain and snow showers. When the temperature finally hit 32° early this afternoon I went out and cut a few Hellebore stems.}

_{The flowers were lightly brushed with snow with iced and downward curving stems. It didn't take them long to perk right back up however. You've gotta love a plant that can deal with serious weather.} 

Autumn perfection

The garden has never looked better in autumn than this year. This is the view from the spot I aways sit in our living room. Once I sit down, I've hardly been able do anything but look out the window at this glorious scene. 

Of course, the above photo is one I intended to post when Typepad started acting up. In the intervening days, that green tree turned red and now all of them have lost most of their leaves.

Gorgeous warm weather today, followed by rain and temps dropping into the 30s — if the weather forecast is to be believed. 

I'm back!

Thank you for checking in with me while I attempted to solve my problem loading photos. Fingers still crossed, but it seems to be working. 

IVOM: Halloween

Whenever I get bored, I change up the items on top of this pair of Chinese wine tables. Or on the glass shelves we added on the bottom to provide more display space. Recently I wanted something to punch up this room and bought this pair of lamps at a new antique mall in town. Mark is less than thrilled with them because they limit the size and number of pieces of art that can be put on the wall behind them — which is why I saved the pair of smaller scale lamps that had been residing here. 

I put this grouping of objects out at the beginning of October. I wanted something that felt like Halloween but didn't include typical items. This group showcases a Japanese incense burner, a squash-shaped box of unknown origin and a Chinese ceramic piece that was likely used as a roof decoration. 

I immediately fell in love with this piece when I saw it at an art show at a friend's farm the summer of 2021. It's an actual dried pumpkin covered with lead bullets and sculpt metal. It's called "Pumpkin Mine" and is a comment on the marine mines used to blow up ships. I'm still not sure why I am so drawn to it. I'm not a violent person and neither is the artist — a friend — who made it. But it certainly has that eerie Halloween feel. 

This big wooden bowl full of Honey Locust pods comes out every autumn. When we first lived here, we rarely got pods from our three trees. In recent years, we are buried in them. We fill a lot of big bags with them and send them off to the county dump. 

As a means of turning these lemons into lemonade, I saved the longest, shiniest, most velvety pods for display. They live in this bowl year-round in the basement except for their month in the sun every October.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday