The New Emerges

Working in the new part of the garden I finally looked up and saw that the buds had burst on the Ruby Lace, standing at attention, hands in prayer. This is such a beautiful tree [link here], late to bud and every year I worry. The leaves open much the same way as a tree peony, upright and tightly curled about each other, only to open and bend backwards exposing them selves to the warmth of the sun. As the leaves mature they become a silver gray on the up side with a magenta glow on the bottom side. Such a beautiful tree, Gleditsia tri.inermis [Ruby Lace].

A portrait

leaves unfurling

caught in the wind

Exploring

 All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you.

Chuck Close via Deborah Barlow in her blog Slow Muse

I had never read this part of of a longer quote and it came at the right time. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. I love this as I love to explore, to see what happens. I can get to caught up in wanting to get to the end of the exploring and actually start the work and then I sometimes remember these lines.

We shall not cease from exploration 
And the end of all our exploring 
Will be to arrive where we started 
And know the place for the first time. 

T.S. Eliot -- "Little Gidding" (the last of his Four Quartets)

Here is some of yesterdays explorings of right angles and blocks of color

held , 2013

held 5, 2013

held 7, 2013

held 9, 2013

Pink

While the garden is in full apple blossom mode I want to plant even more apple trees, but I know I'm fickle and when the lilacs are out I want more lilacs. And when the peonies bloom the same thing happens. Such is the nature of my garden greed. The job list is growing, my body is tired, it's way cooler [hallelujah], and there is a chance of snow. Hmmm, I may get a few days off. I forget that gardening is an extreme sport!

Apple tree that my Mum gave me

Part of the new extension to the studio garden

White

The garden smells of apple blossom. All of the apple tress have decided to bloom at once this year and where there is usually a stately progression from one tree to the next, this year they are having a orgy and so are the bees. Each tree is humming.

My sister gave me this crab apple years ago from her garden

A profusion of blossoms

My favourite narcissus, with the most divine smell

A Frequency of Blue

Spent the last few days rebuilding and extending stone walls, coming in to the house during the hottest part of the afternoon to play with color. I don't know what I am trying to do or where I am going with this but I do know I love the exploring. The "what happens if I do this". I have always wondered about color and sound and while I an not synesthesic I have had friends that were and I envied them their ability to hear the sounds of trees and leaves and sky.

A frequency of blue, 2013

Sunrise

Up early to catch the first rays of sun light the trees and mountain. I forget the variety of color in the young leaves. The maples a soft rose, the ash a soft peach, the birch that young sweet green and the wild cherries with a white cloud of blossom. And every day I watch the colors creep up the mountain, while all about the house the woods fill in and everything has a haze about it. Late afternoon I take all of the light I been gathering outside and see what happens in the studio as I work on the color studies.

Sunrise, 2013

Fiddleheads

First, small fuzzy knobs appear on the floor of the shady areas of the garden. The next time you look, they have legs, very hairy legs. And the next time you look the cocoon is splitting and green is emerging, folded into itself, pleated in a curve. I love watching these tiny, miraculous, impersonal bursting[s] into spring.

Spectacular Growth

It's been unseasonably warm the past few days and you can watch things grow in front of your eyes. When we walked Zoe the other night, the Horse Chestnut [Aesculus hippocastanum] had big fat buds and by morning they were starting to open. By afternoon they had opened and the flowers were forming. Truly wondrous.

Early morning light on the just opening leaves

The bud beginning to open

And the flowers beginning to form

Glimpses

Maybe sidetracked is a better word to describe right now. Choosing the garden where I'm putting most of my time and energy, when I do come back to the studio it takes time to find my place again. Actually for the past few days I can't find that sweet spot and most of the work is in the trash. Makes me almost wish for a rainy day.

Glimpse 2, 2013

When The Sky Falls To The Ground

In the wooded areas of the garden the scilla reign; springs herald. Iridescent, glowing, it paints the ground and hopefully, some day, the fern gardens as well. At the moment it's a tentative brush stroke. I scatter the seed heads every year and slowly they spread. And yesterday the daffs started to bloom. I think spring is finally here.

the lower pond garden, 2013

scilla, 2013

scilla and daffs against a stone wall, 2013