Category Archives: nature

weekend

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We drove down to New York to see Eleanor at Sarah Lawrence College- she was part of a puppetry performance on campus, the Hoplite Diary. Here is a description from when it was performed another time.

poster

I think a lot about dolls versus puppets. I am fascinated by the mechanics of puppets, how they are constructed, how they move, how they work with the puppeteers. I don’t seem to have any interest in narrative or performance though- that makes it an unlikely art form for me. I am not someone who writes up stories to go with my dolls like many doll artists do. I am interested in making a character that the viewer wonders about- Who is this? Then the viewer makes up their own story. I can have a story or idea about who they are, but I’m not telling!

Other news-

frost

We had our first frost on Thursday night, right on schedule. It always seems to happen around the first weekend of November. I’ve been seeing lots of leaves that look like this-

leaf

and the paper bark maple is doing it’s beautiful fall shedding-

maple leaves

nothing in particular

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Family get-together at our house. Julian, we missed you! The empty space at the end of the sofa is for me and my laptop-

family

and, we had some tree work done last friday. That guy was really high up. The yard is so much better now. I’ve been wanting to do this for 10 years.

tree

Eleanor has been home (from Chicago) and is now delivered back to college. I visited the friends and relatives in Connecticut. Now I can get back to work and finish up some more fairies.

sad demise

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The mimosa tree in our backyard split yesterday- so sad.

mimosa

I am very fond of this tree and have posted about it before, here and here.

on a different topic- a low tech, recycle tip for today. It has been hot here. We use laptops at our house and they can get uncomfortable pretty quickly in the summer. Ben discovered that an insulated envelope (the ones with bubblewrap inside) make an excellent barrier between laptop and lap!

hint

poppy season

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It is poppy blooming season in my garden right now- I just love them! The blooms usually last one day and the petals start falling around midday if it is really hot. So many colors and variations.

crinkly petals- I think this one just opened-

colors

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I am going to New York City tomorrow for a few days. I’ve been checking out various blog reports for where my favorite craft people went in the city. It is harder then I thought though- People don’t just have a link on their home page that says “My favorite New York Places”… hmmm, maybe I should do that! I’ve checked out Distressed’s New York resources list- very helpful. It has a lot of the same stores as the Threads Magazine list had, and unfortunately that list seems to have disappeared off the web. I also want to go to some of the Japanese bookstores mentioned here on Crafting Japanese. This morning I was reading mmm… coffee and she mentioned some places she liked (perfect timing!). I thought I’d try to check out Pearl River– looks fantastic. I still want to see if I can track down the Yarnstorm New York posts and anyone elses… including my own.

I am not getting any craft work done, so instead of a boring no picture post, here are some beautiful colors from my garden-

hay ferns

green2

Graham Thomas rose

yellow

Abraham Darby rose

abraham darby 1

abraham darby bud

Wife of Bath Rose

pink 1

Betty Prior rose

pink 2

Scented geranium

red

Allium

purple

iris

blue

sedum

green 1

robot update and other stuff

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I have had several enquiries about selling the robot dolls. I am trying to figure out what I want to do. For some unknown reason I am feeling very attached to the last group of dolls- the robots and grandmas- unusual for me. Anyway, I continue to think about making and publishing patterns for these dolls. The wool dolls seem like they would be fun and easy. I am going to try giving myself a deadline- I will make up patterns of the finished robots this week and will list the finished dolls for sale next week- probably in Etsy, unless someone just wants to contact me directly. They will be around $100 each I think.

This beautiful tree peony is blooming in my garden right now- I love it.

peony

bloom

And, I made myself a reminder bracelet- now I need to absorb or embrace this idea…

moveon

it’s made using shrink plastic and Sharpie marker.

soggy weather

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It has been raining here in the Boston area for the past 10 days.

soggy pansies that never got out of their 6-pack-

pansy

wet allium looking discouraged-

allium

azaleas-

azalea

columbine-

columbine

and droopy blossoms on the dogwood-

dogwood

turkeys

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We drove down to Connecticut on Patriots Day (that was April 17 this year for non-Massachusetts residents) to go see family. While we were there we met these guys… there were 2 hens

hen

followed by 2 toms.

tom

Unfortunately we did’t get a good front view picture, but you can probably tell how amazing they are. I never saw a wild turkey when I was a kid. I don’t think I started seeing them until about 10 years ago, and only when I was in Connecticut. My husband was on the bus recently and there was a wild turkey crossing Mass Ave in Cambridge- okay, so they are getting closer.