Springtime

 

Yesterday the twig was brown and bare;
To-day the glint of green is there;
Tomorrow will be leaflets spare;
I know no thing so wondrous fair,
No miracle so strangely rare.
I wonder what will next be there!

~L.H. Bailey

No matter how long the winter,

Spring is soon to follow.

~ Proverb

A wooden pecking toy from when I was little!

No winter lasts forever;

No spring skips its turn.

~ Hal Borland

Huge nest from Pottery Barn filled reindeer moss and white eggs from geese and emu.

All through the long winter, I dream of my garden. 
On the first day of spring, 
I dig my fingers deep into the soft earth. 
I can feel its energy, and my spirits soar.

~ Helen Hayes

Antique paper mache' bunny mold.

No details were left "behind" on this little guy.

First a howling blizzard woke us,
Then the rain came down to soak us,
And now before the eye can focus ---
Crocus.

~Lilja Rogers



That's how I know that spring is coming here
in the cold Midwest. I saw our first crocus pop out
of the brown earth. I would have taken a picture,
but my dogs seem to have trampled it on their path!

Ooops.

Happy Spring!

Something Else I Forgot to Post. . .

Our daughter Kaylee Nancy Clay was born last week! For more pictures, visit our family blog. Cheers!

American Chestnut Article

Whoops! I meant to post this some months ago. This is my Garden Geek article on American chestnut trees which appeared in the December edition of the Franklin Country Gazette.

The American Chestnut

At Idylbrook Field in Medway, an unmarked path leads through a meadow of wildflowers into rows of cultivated trees. A layman could easily overlook the site as a run-of-the-mill orchard if not for the sign explaining that these are Castanea dentata - American Chestnut.

If the words “American chestnut” don’t give you goose bumps, let me tell you why it should. Schoolchildren revere pandas and elephants and tigers, and most Americans have a soft spot in their heart for our bald national bird. The American Chestnut has similarly been pushed to the brink of extinction.

Castanea dentata is arguably more important a species than any of the charismatic fauna that top the food chain. A scant hundred years without American chestnuts has caused us to forget that East-coast forests used to be chestnut forests. These were New England’s sequoia. American chestnuts could average five feet in diameter and a hundred feet in height, but historic photos demonstrate that they grew much larger than that. On that sign in Idylbrook, a black-and-white photo shows three lumberjacks seated inside of the gash they have made in one tree - a trunk which is easily fifteen feet in diameter.

The chestnut was immensely valued for its wood. The trees grew fast and straight, producing hard wood that was so highly resistant to rot that there are still original chestnut barns standing. In Appalachia, they were known as “cradle-to-grave” trees, because the wood was used for everything, from fences to buildings, to cradles and coffins.

Unlike oak, which only produce a reliable crop of acorns every two to four years, American chestnuts produced copious yearly quantities of nuts. Not only were these a staple in the diet of Native Americans, but bear, elk, deer, turkey, doves, squirrels, blue jays, mice, and passenger pigeons were just some of the native animals that depended on the American chestnut to get through the winter. And Castanea dentata was a food source to hundreds of species of insects, which in turn were food for birds.

It was a fungus, accidentally introduced with an Asian chestnut, that killed the American chestnut. In 1904 the epidemic was first spotted at the Bronx zoo. This blight would kill a tree by forming cankers on the trunk that blocked the flow of water between roots and leaves. The fungus spread from tree to tree at a rate of fifty miles a year. The lumber industry reacted with a panicked spasm of logging that likely contributed to the loss of the few trees which would have survived the epidemic.

Within forty years, up to four billion American chestnuts were dead. Both North America’s ecosystem and the logging industry were irrevocably altered. The one paltry good came out of the tragedy was the passing of the Plant Quarantine Act of 1912, which has slowed, but not stopped other plant pathogens from wrecking havoc on other vital American plants.

There are now so few Castanea dentata remaining, numbering in the hundreds, and they are so widely dispersed, that without human intervention they would surely be the last generation of American chestnut trees. But enter the American Chestnut Foundation. This organization has been working for decades to raise awareness, identify and protect surviving chestnut trees, and most importantly, breed a hybrid American chestnut that retains just enough Chinese ancestry to be resistant to the blight.

To this end, the ACF has hand-pollinated many of the remaining trees, carefully tending the resulting generations in test plots up and down the East Coast. This brings us back to Idylbrook. Here, six hundred chestnut trees stand in the sun, looking innocently healthy and inconspicuous, as if they were just another common tree.

The eldest of Idylbrook’s chestnuts have matured, and have begun producing nuts. In an act that seems cruel at a glance, this year these trees were deliberately exposed to the blight. At some point in the future, the three or four of the healthiest trees out of a hundred will be chosen as breeding stock for the next generation. The rest will be removed from the gene-pool with a chainsaw.

Someday American chestnut will again be a major part of both the logging industry and the ecology, thanks to the long-term efforts of the ACF. This tree is a vital part of America’s landscape, and at Idylbrook, history is in the making. I urge you to go for a visit before the next round of culling takes place, and then get involved. Become a member, donate, or volunteer: volunteers will be needed when the trees are cut down, and are needed on a continual basis for weeding, watering, and other maintenance work. More information can be found at acf.org, and at masschestnut.org, which is the local chapter of TACF.

How are you fairing?

 

 Do you collect fairings?

Inscription:  "The last in bed to put out the light."

(Source: Denhams.com)

A little vase from RubyLane.com

Mama pig rocking her baby.

These small porcelain figural "fair"ings were made 
in Victorian times

from 1840-1900  as giveaway prizes or trinkets

when the large fairs were in their heyday.

This sweet little fairing is a small box. (Source: OklahomaHistory.net)

Inscription:  "An awkward interruption" (The other woman hides....) Source: Bathantiquesonline.com

They are not very big, usually 2 -3 inches 

maximum in height and or width.

Inscription: "Now Ma-am say when"  Helping her into a stagecoach.  (Source: Denhams.com)

Some where match holders 

with a match strike area, 

some were small banks, vases, or lidded boxes.

And others were sweet little figural pieces 
without a purpose --

many with a humorous inscription.

Some were sold inexpensively as
a souvenir item, often times with
a city's name hand-painted in gold.

This one is a souvenir from Niagara Falls (painted in gold). Source: RubyLane.com

A friend of mine got me interested in collecting 

the German pink pig fairings. 
 As you may know, 

Germans believe pigs 
are a sign of good fortune or luck. 

Inscription: "Good old annual" -- the baby pig is having a bath!

On the crib..... "Hush a bye baby don't you cry, you'll be a sausage bye and bye."

They are hard to find, but easy to identify, 

because they were painted using the same green paint, 

and the same peachy pink paint for the pigs. 

Often times, there were other colors added, 

like metallic gold and maybe a deep orange-red, but for the most part, it was green and peach/pink. 

Piggies in a purse at RubyLane.com

A piggy bank purse.

(Rear view)   :)

I love the little faces on the pigs....are they sweet or what? 

(My little collection, complete with bumps, bruises and some chips!)

Do you have any fairings?

Romantic Prairie Style

Welcome. I am so happy that you stopped by. My garden gate is always open for you to come in and have a cup tea and relax while I share with you the inspirations for my art. I just received my copy of Romantic Prairie Style by Fifi O'Neil. . . . . oh my goodness - I immediately curled up in my garden with a cup of tea reading every word and enjoying the fabulous photography by Mark Lohman. The book is lovely and embraces simple pleasures, family, love, gardening , simplicity and harmony with the earth. . . .and all things old and worn, rusted, repurposed, recycled and reused. I loved Fifi's beautiful book and realized that Prairie Style is not about living on the "prairie" but is a style that says home wherever you live. Let's join Bentley, my Studio Assistant, and go into my garden looking for "prairie style" roses to paint.

First, here is a little peek into Fifi's fabulous new book:

Fifi is having a wonderful giveaway along with several other bloggers to celebrate publication of Romantic Prairie Style. Her bog is a real treat and you can visit her at:

www.fabulousfifi.typepad.com and her book can be purchased at" www.amazon.com

My Ice Berg roses are blooming and I want to paint prairie style roses with a soft and old and time worn feeling - somewhat different from the brighter primary colors that I usually paint.

Finding inspiration . . . .

Here . . . .

There . . . . "I will be glad and rejoice in you". Psalm 9:2

Everywhere . . . . .

The finished painting with a softer time worn look.

Art in the Garden"

Thank you for stopping by. I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate and cherish your visits, comments, e-mails and those who are following my blog. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see me paint something special. I am going back on a little blog break to finish painting something new for my blog banner.

Have a lovely day. Blessings, Erin

HOME TOUR / A Country Farmhouse

You may already know about
this lovely white farmhouse 

which is not located in the northeast, 

though one would think so by it's looks.

This crisp, sparkling white beauty 

is a renovation project 

that is and has been shared 

by Trina and her husband over the past few years. 

It's located in the Pacific Northwest 

on 7 acres of rolling hills and farmland

and was built in 1923. 

Check out the snow-covered 

mountain view from their porch.

 

 I don't want to show it all.

You need to go and visit Trina

at her blog. There are a couple

of things that have

been occupying 

most of their

time lately! ;)

(BTW....Trina's blog was mentioned in the new

issue of Flea Market Style magazine!)

Here's the link:

www.acountryfarmhouse.blogspot.com

Just gorgeous. 

I think you'll love it!

(Let's meet back here on this porch 

and chat about it later, k?)