Cape Wind

The Cape Wind project has been approved by the federal government after an extended battle over the issue. For me, this is one of the most interesting not in my back yard battles I've seen in recent years. It certainly amazes me that the party that wants to drill in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge is opposed to Cape Wind. A case of out of sight out of mind? I know I cannot support canceling this project when the main opposition arguments are that it will be ugly and make fishing harder.

I completely agree with those that say the view of the sound would never be the same. Though I feel it will become a national wonder like the Hoover dam. At my dad's cabin on Lake Huron we can see giant wind turbines on the horizon and they are fascinating. We take turns looking through binoculars at them, and I have never once thought that they ruined the skyline. There is a majesty in the sight of wind turbine's cranking away on the horizon that I find tranquil and calming.

On the fishing front, my main issue with the current plan is that it is too accommodating to fishermen. I would love it if the proposed area would be off limits to all industrial fishing operations and become a marine preserve. As much as fishermen might complain I believe the long term benefits to marine and the fisheries off the Cape would far outweigh the short term hardships. Though I know that long term benefits would do nothing to assuage a fisherman that lost his livelihood in the short term.

To be fair, I'm not one of the property owners or fisherman that will be effected by the project. Though if it knocked property values down to a range where I could afford to own a vacation home on the Cape I wouldn't complain about the view. I can understand their concerns, but when I weigh a future where the Cape is under water from global warming or the Cape has a view of wind turbines in the Sound I'll take the wind turbines. I am not so naive to think this project alone would make a difference, but I think it is a stepping stone to a solution.

I'm sure there will be plenty of legal challenges to it, but with everything I know about I really hope I'm around to see this project rise above the waves. If it's opponents do manage to kill this project than I know I will lose even more of my hope for the future of our planet.

Chicago Blues

This weekend I had the most glorious time in Chicago. Although the mother nature did her best to challenge us with her temper tantrums, she couldn't put a damper in our visit.

Over the four days I walked every inch and mile that I could, taking photos like crazy. The spring plantings were a gardeners dream come true.

Chicago is famous for it's Blues scene, well, I found quite a few different blues there. To begin with, that's me in front of the Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park. As you can see the sky was as blue as could be.

Plantings were everywhere, containers covered the sidewalks. I took so many container photos that I'm going to dedicate a separate post for them on my Melanie's Perennials blog. I just love the blues of the Hyacinths and Pansies against the gold of the Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea' (creeping jenny).


Here's a close up of those amazing blue Hyacinths, I found them all over the city!


Mertensia virginica (Virginia blue bells) is a plant that's relatively new to me although not new to the plant world. Obviously somebody in the parks dept in Chicago has realized just how well this plant works in the landscape.


Here you can see the Mertensia combined with white Tulips, Narcissus, and backed with an amazing Cercis canadensis (Red Bud) tree.

Unfortunately it's hard to get quality shots when the sun is shining so brightly but I couldn't resist trying to photograph this unusual pairing of Muscari (Grape hyacinth) and an unknown Euphorbia. One thing I wished for was to find plant labels with the names of these beauties but no labels were to be found.


Lots of blues planted in this windowbox and just in case that's not enough blue, there's the reflection of the sky up above.

Myosotis (Forget-me-not) is a biennial. Some people call them short lived perennials but I think they only live 2 years, a biennial in my book. A nice cool combination with yellow daffodils.

At the Lincoln Park Conservatory they had forced into bloom all kinds of plant material. The combination of Lilium and Tradescantia andersonia was breathtaking.

Also at the conservatory I spied this planting of Campanula poscharskyana just cascading out of a window planter. What a charming use of this hardy perennial.

Hope you liked my version of the Chicago Blues, it was all music to me :-)

Melanie

Franklin Selling Rain Barrels

The town of Franklin Department of Public Works is selling rain barrels and compost bins. I am tempted to pick up a second rain barrel for our house.

However, those compost balls they are selling are junk. We own one. They are too flimsy for the amount of material they can hold, causing the sphere to deform and the lid to pop off when rolled. I suppose you could stick to composting just a few pounds of wastes at a time, but then for the months that they spend composting, you have to do something else with all the compostables coming out of your kitchen. That means either a second (and possibly a third, fourth, and fifth) compost ball, or landfill (which defeats the purpose).

For serious composting, a plain wood box works better. Or, heck, the cheapest (if ugliest) route is just to make a pile on the ground.

Thanks to Franklin Matters for the heads-up.

Alfalfa Goes to Court

Roundup Ready Alfalfa goes before the Supreme Court today.

Monsanto's take on this.

A New Your Times article on the subject.

Critters in the Yard

The frogs have returned to our little pool of standing water. I love the location since it has a rock large enough for me to lay down on right at its edge. This lets me take up residence and wait for the frogs to surface after they jump in when I get into place. This frog eye photo is of a frog about the size of my thumb from about five inches away. I love frog eyeballs and their little flecks of gold.

Here's the same frog from the photo above from further away as I was slowly creeping the camera closer. Sorry buddy, but that leaf isn't hiding you.

This is a different frog that didn't stay still long enough for me to get extra close. I think he felt particularly exposed and decided to head for deeper water. I love how the bubbles cling to them.

I found a garter snake near the house and Michelle captured it for re-location to the asparagus patch. The asparagus patch is chock full of slugs which loved eating the asparagus under its layer of leaf mulch. Mental note for next year, pull back the leaf mulch in the spring. Now that we've pushed the mulch away from the asparagus it isn't being attacked by the slugs, and hopefully this little guy chowed down on a couple too.

We have a lot of snakes in our yard, though more often than not I hear them rather than see them. We have lots of snake habitat that Michelle has created, and being good snake habitat they can retreat into it and go unseen. You can still hear them slide away as you approach though. Now if only they would eat more slugs!

More Chinese travels

            Just come back from a two week trip to China, leading a Gardens Ilustrated tour group with a colleague from Sheffield, Lei Gao. I went to China last year (see blog **), so we re-visited all those places, but added a few more. One was the new city museum in Suzhou, designed by I.M.Pei – the central courtyard lake was stunning, especially this backdrop ‘rock garden’.

            Had a proper look this time at ‘Viewing Fish at Flowering Harbour’, though very crowded (a weekend), a park in Hangzhou by the Western Lake, designed by Sun Xiaoxing, China’s first really-acclaimed park since 1949, built in the mid-1950s to incorporate western and Chinese elements. Struck by how good the planting design was, a mix of unclipped and clipped shrubs largely.

  


The Western Lake at Hangzhou is really beautiful, but to appreciate it you need to be on the eastern built-up side, not the greener and much nicer western side. You could be on Lake Geneva, all very smart lakeside; you look across to the mountains with the clouds drifting between them. The Hangzhou Botanic Gardens include some good 1960s design, framed garden vignettes, between various buildings and walkways. Modern, but still invoking so much of the traditional approach to combining inside and outside.

            High point was going to Anhui. Lei’s home province. So green and lush. Mount Huang Shan was stunning although overrun with tour groups. Everyone in our group I think understood just where Chinese aesthetics comes from: the naturally bonsai pines, the dramatic rockfaces, the clouds. We were familiar enough now with Chinese landscape painting to feel that we had finally walked into the painting.

            Also in Anhui, we went to a couple of UNESCO heritage villages: Hongcun and Xidi, with some exquisite little gardens, all owned by local people (i.e. not Shanghai yuppies), some now run as B&Bs or restaurants, others were people Lei knew from research here years ago. Genuinely vernacular and made the famous Suzhou gardens look like museum pieces. 


 

Container Gardens

Welcome. I am so happy that you stopped by. Would you like to join me in my garden to relax and smell the flowers while having a cup of yummy Pomegranate tea? I would love to share parts of my container garden with you and the fun news that my container garden is featured in Country Almanac's Container Gardens magazine.



The beautiful cover photo was taken by Jerry Pavia and the lovely photos of my garden were taken by Mark Lohman and styled by Sunday Hendrickson. I was so honored and excited when Associate Editor Diane Speros contacted me earlier this year with the news that she wanted to feature my garden in the 2010 issue of Container Gardens and that she was writing an article "Artist's Vision" about my garden and how to create and instant cottage garden using containers.

The above photo was featured in the magazine and is an example of an "artful accent" on the back of my Adirondack that gets a flourish with a planter filled with mini zinnias.

Diane Speros's beautifully written article really captured the story of my personal garden that I created when I downsized from a large home with a generously sized garden to my Cape Cod Town Home with a smaller garden. The article is filled with lots of tips on creating a lush garden using containers, decorative details and re purposing and recycling using flea market finds.

I would like to thank Diane for getting to know me and my garden and then writing an article with so much useful and practical information to share with the magazine readers.

You can view the entire article on the side bar on my blog under Press or better still you can purchase the magazine on the news stands to get the full impact of the beautiful photographs and article.

I will be taking a blog break for the next few weeks getting ready for the Balboa Island Art Walk show on May 17th. Please enjoy my personal photographs and tips on my container garden while I am on a blog break.

My blue chair was featured in the magazine and it is a great example of how flowers planted in pots can give your garden a very lush look.

A flea market wash stand makes a great container for plants. I planted Azaleas in the wash bowl and hung one of my little garden hat paintings on the stand for a touch of "Art In The Garden"

The same container shown in the magazine only this time I planted it with happy little pansies.

Geraniums planted in a window box attached to an old window with mirrors.

Bentley, my helpful Studio Assistant, helping with Natstrums and Geraniums waiting to be planted in a container.

This is one of my favorite areas for container plants. The old white bench was also featured in the magazine. It was planted with pinks and blues in the magazine. I have since added lots of reds to my garden. Note the old blue tool boxes that now have a new home as planters. The bench was given to me by a neighbor - it was originally a seat in a Boston Whaler boat.

Another favorite "container" is the basket of my old vintage Rocket bicycle.

A close up view of the old bench with a tool box planter.

A flea market white wicker chair surrounded by pots of flowers in containers.

Containers can also be hung on a fence.

Containers filled with lavender soften an old Adirondack chair.

One of my favorite tips for container gardening is to use mirrors in your garden to reflect flowers planted in containers. I have three mirrors in my garden. The angel and mirror are garage sale finds.

Another example of adding color to your garden by using pots and an old tool box. I also use old rugs and lots of fabric on my chairs to add another dimension and to tie in the colors.

I hope you enjoy smelling the flowers while I am on a blog break.

Thank you Diane Speros for sharing my container garden with the readers of Country Almanac's Container Gardens magazine and for letting me share your beautiful article with the readers of my blog. The article is on my side bar - under Press.

Thank you for visiting my blog. I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, comments and those of you who are following my blog. If you would like to see me paint something special or have any questions, please leave me a comment or send me an e-mail.

I am sorry that I have not had time to visit each one of you as I am getting ready for the Balboa Island Artwalk this month and simply have not had time. I promise to visit you after the art show. Have a lovely week. Blessings, Erin

Charles River Watershed Cleanup

Yesterday was the yearly Charles River Watershed Cleanup Day. After meeting at the local Whole Foods, we went out to our designated location: a dirt road leading out to a dammed bit of the Charles.



You can see my friend Walt out there, just between the trees. He donned waders and bravely slogged out into the wetland to extract trash. Among the stuff he hauled out were a broken baseball batting practice device, part of a table, an entire sealed bag of garbage that someone else had dumped, and the ingredients of beer pong: beer bottles and ping-pong balls.



He also brought a turtle back to shore for Gabe to examine. A snapping turtle perhaps? Judging by the damage to its shell, the poor critter had led a rough life.



Kelly, Gabe and myself stuck to the shore. Of the three of us, Kelly did the most work. I bagged a measly half-bag in between keeping Gabe out of the poison ivy and ineffectively keeping the gnats from biting his neck. Gabe contributed a few sticks and leaves.



Walt and Gabe.



Here is Gabe scaling sand bags left over from the recent flooding. . .



. . .and playing with sticks.



And this is what we were cleaning up. Beautiful, isn't it?

French Inspirations

Welcome. I am so happy that you stopped by. Would you like to join me for tea and raisin bread toast sprinkled with lavender sugar? I would love to share with you French Inspirations for a new painting of a lavender field that was inspired by my recent win of Penny Carlson of Lavender Hill Studio 's fabulous French giveaway.

I love reading French Decorating and Home and Garden magazines and Penny's giveaway included four beautiful magazines. Love looking at them and trying to figure out the French words.

Mon Jardin was filled with beautiful photographs of gardens in the South of

France as well as lovely lavender.

After pouring over the beautiful magazines I was reminded of my own trips to France and decided to paint something reminiscent of traveling through Provence in the South of France.

Penny also included two jars of delicious French Tapenade D'Olives Noires.

I noticed on the jars that they were made in Fontvielle which is a charming little village in Provence. How special as I stayed in a delightful bed and breakfast in Fontvielle on a trip through Provence.

Penny also included a charming French tote bag as a special surprise and a Euro bill and coin to spend on my next trip to France.

Penny is a fabulous mosaic artist and has two beautiful blogs:

http://www.lavenderhillstudio.blogspot.com/

and

www.thecomfortsofhome.blogspot.com

Bentley, my studio assistant, is looking for French inspiration for the new painting.

Finding Inspiration . . . . . .

Here . . . . .

There . . . .


Everywhere . . . .

I decided to paint a French lavender field in my favorite village of Fontvielle with a roadside stand selling fresh cut bunches of lavender, sunflowers and red geraniums. I also added Olive trees that could have produced the olives in the yummy Tapenade D'Olives.

Thank you for stopping by. I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, comments and those who are following my blog. If you have any questions or would like to see me paint something special, please leave me a comment or send me an e-mail.

I am sorry that I have not had time to visit each and every one of you lately - I am getting ready for The Balboa Island Artwalk in May which is the one big show I participate in every year. I promise to stop by and see you when I have a little more time.

Have a lovely week. Blessings, Erin