So Pretty

The bundle of radishes from the first CSA Saturday were so pretty that they looked like a wedding bouquet to me. I took a low light self-portrait and edited the grainy photo with software. This is the result. I love it. Never mind that I cropped out blood stains on my white shirt from my son's bicycle fall during our afternoon ride in the first constant sunshine in weeks.

Unexpected Beauty

While at the Casey garden yesterday, I was amazed at so many changes from the previous week. These photos record a beautiful surprise discovered from looking closely through photography. The dill plant in the herb bed was very dry. The dried seeds fanning out in their circular pattern looked like lace from the top. This was what drew me in. Then, I noticed the ribbon-like dried leaves further down and bent to take their photo. Waiting for me there, was a spider hanging out on her silken strands. She never moved even though I observed her for a long time. In the sunlight, she was the same golden color as the dried dill plant. Her spider legs seemed just as delicate and brittle, too.


One more image from the top. . . with a little imagination, it could be July 4th fireworks! I'm signing off for a few days of vacation-- back mid next week.

gARTening

gardening + art = gARTening!

We've been doing more gardening this year than ever-- at home and at school. I planted an eggplant, cucumber, sunflower, and watermelon plants yesterday afternoon and spent some time weeding the herb bed. We planted a thriving bean plant that my daughter had started from seed for a classroom science lesson during the last weeks of school. I also started a few more seeds in soil where the previous seeds did not germinate. Tomorrow, we meet to kick-off the summer school garden at Casey Elementary. On this rainy and overcast day, the children painted two clay pots for planting a seed in to bring home to raise.

GARTening is my new word to describe the intersections of gardening and art. I thought I might have made up something clever, but a search on Google revealed that the Art Museum at the University of Kentucky and Arboretum in Lexington, Kentucky, is already using this term. Garden in German is also spelled "garten."

Gardening is both a domestic art and a scientific art. Around here, it is providing inspiration for knitting and sewing projects, painted flower pots, journals, drawings, and photographs. Hopefully, these projects will also lead to writing (another art). It also helps with the physical arts of keeping our bodies healthy through exercise, hard work, and delicious, nutritious things to eat.

"The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses."
~Hanna Rion

"In my garden there is a large place for sentiment. My garden of flowers is also my garden of thoughts and dreams. The thoughts grow as freely as the flowers, and the dreams are as beautiful."
~Abram L. Urban