winter garden

the garden calls to me in the winter with a full deep voice. sultry. seducing me. making me twirl with desire. so that i am desperate to feel warm earth under my nails. and when may warms my skin, i dig and rake and trim and haul. and then rarely touch the garden after the june lavender harvest. until february leaves me spinning and frantic to garden again.

beating rain and a singing sewing machine

a full day in the studio today. mostly dark and gray, heavy rain and wind wheezing around the house. i finished a quilt and made another quilt top. and then enjoyed an hour or two taking photos of items to list in my shop. and then suddenly the light shifted and from the back window there was this stunning tangle of branches and stone and sky and light.

i listed a boy baby quilt as well as a gorgeous girl baby quilt and i added several baby bloomers.

i will try to finish some embroidery to list tomorrow. but first i need to clean the kitchen and make myself a cup of chamomile tea.

since christmas i've been doing alot of paper stuff. the kind of work that i can lose myself in for days and days with piles of yellowed pages fluttering all around me. but last week i made a few quilts. and realized how it balances me to make a few quilts a week. i have a bright one listed on etsy. and a neutral one as well. quilts make me happy.

for the past several summers i've been saving all the chipped and jagged little eggs we find cushioned in the grass. it's always such a dreamy little thrill to find one, that i began taking them home, cradled in my hand and collecting them in a lovely little robin's egg blue tea cup and saucer. they are so delicate and always seem warm to touch and steeped with the scents of summer. in january it makes summer seem real again to look into a cup of baby bird eggs.

this house is beautiful and intriguing to me. i love it`s sagging eyes, it`s boarded over door, and the paint that has faded and chipped and refused to be any distinguishable color. i think i love this house for it`s defiance. it`s rebellion. it stands proud and refuses to believe that it`s anything other than strong and beautiful. i love this house. we found it a couple of years ago, without realizing it had a twin. but yesterday as we drove further up the road....only about half a mile....we found the same house, that had recently been restored. certainly brought back to it`s original beauty. the same slight curve on the front windows. the deep box around the front door. with wonderful detailed moulding. the same angle to the peak of the front dormer. all of it distinct. and identical. were these houses built together by two family members? i love this little discovery. although my favorite is the faded one with hay in the front yard, this certainly celebrates new beginnings.