Today was doodle day on my experimental yard of linen. I went through my winter sketchbooks and found some great motifs. I followed instructions for making “complex colors” (adding complements to primaries — blue + orange, red + green, yellow + purple). My blank canvas was ready. I was surprised that my thin dye mixtures […]
Read More Dye Painting. Meh.One cure for Summer Hyperactivity Disorder is to devote multi-hour chunks to a single project — go deep, get it to a logical stopping point before veering off to the next shiny object. For months I’ve been planning to make a simple shirt from hand-dyed linen. I have the linen. I have the pattern. But […]
Read More Focus: Dive into DyeingIt’s crazy. Every impulse has me dashing from garden to computer to kitchen to copy stand. I always have work-in-progress on every surface, but summer expands the “surfaces” to include all of outdoors. Plus, I’m trying to add variety to our plant-based diet by experimenting with new foods and new recipes. Winter brought long weeks […]
Read More Summer Hyperactivity DisorderWhen we moved here for the lake view, I discovered the property we bought came with flowers. I had to ask my gardener friends the names of everything. I didn’t differentiate the beloved garden perennials (like peonies and day lilies) from the opportunists (like ox-eye daisies and buttercups). I just wanted to know what everything […]
Read More St. John’s WortI should call my garden Scheherazade. She tells me a thousand and one stories. Nothing gets lopped as long as there is a tale to be told. Today we have Curly Dock, or Rumex crispus, a member of the Buckwheat family. “A deliciously raw tart green if you can find it young. A delicioius cooked […]
Read More Of Ants, Aphids, and DockOnce upon a time, Jim bought a book called “Club Men of Rochester in Caricature.” It was produced in 1914 by Jack Sears and associated cartoonists and printed at the Roycrofters shop in East Aurora NY. The suede-bound volume contains elaborate and affectionate caricatures of 340 Rochester “club men” — businessmen, doctors, lawyers, architects, and […]
Read More The Rochester Patriarchy 1914I’m on Chapter 2 of The Library Book by Susan Orlean, the New Yorker writer of one of my very favorite books The Orchid Thief. She is describing the cataclysmic fire at the Los Angeles Central Library, April 29, 1986. It’s riveting. But of course, she started the book by reviewing her own childhood relationship […]
Read More The LibraryLast year, hordes of monarch butterflies came through, enjoying a flyway along the shore of Lake Ontario. They were such a delight that I decided to go all in on creating a butterfly garden. I had three stray milkweeds, which the visitors ignored. But I invested in seeds for five varieties of milkweed and dutifully […]
Read More Garden Gone WildWe admire people of lifelong passion–musicians, scientists, humanitarians, athletes. Nevermind that, up close, single-minded obsessives can be both unhappy and hard to live with. What is your passion? I’ve always had a hard time answering that. My interests have bounced around over my lifetime. I’m a hard worker, but I don’t enjoy the feeling of […]
Read More CuriosityJim spent time in Peru during the 1960s as part of a team of physicians learning about healthcare delivery systems across the Americas. It was a cultural exchange project, meant to open the mind to new ideas. Amid the meetings and tours, Jim (of course) found the time and mental energy to be curious about […]
Read More Ancient Peru: who are you, stranger?
