Digest

It’s all Odell. After a new experience I like to pretend it never happened for a bit until I’m ready to reflect. Settling back into life. Seeing what comes up.

Art Residency: Day 1

A late start on my end due to having to plant sweet peas and scarlet runner beans, a lovely residency participant picked me up for the drive to Fundy. I had warned her about my tendency to over pack. I did not disappoint.

If you told me my excellent oTENTic roommate was related to Lily Tomlin, I wouldn’t blink.

She had a cabin across the beach that was nearly visible from the residency accommodations. It was handy for recharging all sorts of batteries and making meals. I did not use my camp stove at all. One adventure at a time, I guess.

The first day remains a bit of a blur, getting situated/feeling out of place.

The curator from Conversations was the first presenter and she got everyone to read excerpts from their private applications off a power-point to the entire group and then hear feedback on possible directions for their work. The critique on mine was content-less and it made me feel like that was because I haven’t produced anything worthy of commentary. Greetings Devastation.

We did a nice walk through the woods in the pouring rain, talked about inaturalist and then settled in for the night. During the day I took a lot of notes which I am now avoiding. This post could really be point form. Feeling really Exit Stage Left here.

June Playlist

After publicly proclaiming I was done with making jewelry, my garden produced these miniature daffodils (you know, from when I panicked a week before the first autumn 2018 snowfall and planted 200 bulbs). They obviously need to be preserved for posterity.

I assume my next post will start “After publicly proclaiming I would be able to turn these into earrings …” Still unsure of how I’ll make it work. Dreamers gotta dream. Next show is June 1st. Just keep working.

I’ve been focusing on gardening and preparing for my week long art residency in Fundy National Park. As someone who dates outdoorsy people and rarely travels alone, I have limited equipment/supplies. Doing many googles.

Sugar snap peas, nasturtiums, borage, sweet peas, mustard, beets, onions, spinach, bachelor’s buttons, sage, poppies, swiss chard, carrots and arugula were directly sown. Room was left for beans! Zinnia! Purslane! Sun flowers?

While a few new daffodil types are opening every few days, not a single one of the wide array of tulips has begun peek out. It has been Cold! Gray! Non stop rain featuring snow/frost! Just generally awful. Today is paternal grandmother’s date of birth and it’s been ten years since she passed. This is the first time I haven’t had a full bouquet from my garden to bring to her grave to mark the date. While I certainly am feeling lousy about it, it would feel worse to overcompensate with store bought. Hopefully in a few days I’ll be able to correct this unpalatable error the weather created and leave something to warm my beautiful grandfather’s heart on his morning visits.

Redemption! I got this guy from Scott’s in Nov and he was huge! Buuut also full of giant terrifying bugs! I had to do a soil washout and repot to remove them all and that’s when this jasmine demanded to be cut to a 5th of its size. Fast forward to May 12th and we’ve got four blooms, some red on them (pulling a full stop phoenix maneuver). Thank goodness. Onward and upward.

Mother’s Day workstation

May Playlist

Art show! Flood! Favourite artist in concert! It has been a month. The snow is nearly gone from nearly all parts of the yard near to the house! Everything is soggy! Most of my newly planted plants died during the winter!(?) I am devastated and expressing like an oldtimey cartoon character! We’re six weeks out from the last frost date, but I’m claiming we’re four. Rather, I’ve got a death wish for my seedlings/lots of row covers and a can-do attitude/willful blindness.

I think the only solution is to move to a place that isn’t here? But autumn! And those three winter days when an evening ice storm leaves everything crystal coated and glistening in the morning sun …

Clematis Update:

I pitched my raised bed revolution/cold frame dream tonight. If I can set it in motion, my griping will reduce by a predicted 2/3rds. Significant!

Trying different things for an upcoming show:

Welllllllllllllllllllll, I’ve been trying many new things while preparing for a neat group show.

The second serious April snowstorm will start tonight and trail on for three more days. I guess that’s what I get for blaming March for all my problems.

Embarking on a solo Saturday, I reminded Mauly that I would not be needing my foraging basket as we’d only be running her for a bit since the sleet was a less than enjoyable companion. What a fool I was. Picture me bumbling home infomercial-fail style trying to keep all this in tow. Did I over-dry them? Yes. But they can still become books!

I have a show coming up that I’ve been ignoring. I had a custom order to deliver today and so yesterday, before I could convince myself to work on it, I did laundry and dishes and then baked a pie and also a ham of course. Part annoyed, part impressed. Mostly just why am I like this.

Can we just take another moment with the April playlist? Hot damn.