A Little Update

(Click on any picture to view a larger image.)

Because there is going to be some disruptive construction work to address a leaky basement issue in the near future, I have to move all the plants out of the back end of the front garden in order to keep them from being destroyed when work begins. My apple tree is very popular with the local birds and squirrels which have been busy helping themselves to the abundant green apples on the tree. This creates a big mess because they tend to eat a bit of an apple, it falls to the ground, then they move on to another apple. Every day I'm throwing away pounds and pounds of green apples, as well as lots of fallen leaves, when I sweep the yard. All the bending associated with digging, uprooting, replanting, sweeping and collecting has done a number on me and I've been hobbling around with pains in my lower back for over a week. It was so bad one day I didn't get out of my bed. In spite of the pain, I love my garden.  My harvesting has begun and I'm already thinking about what cool weather crops to plant before the frost hits. I suppose I'm a sucker for punishment.

My personal garden show is non-stop and ever surprising. This week I was greeted by white and lavender Rose of Sharon flowers. I never even saw them budding because I was totally captivated by the beautiful caladiums that were showing off at their feet...er... roots. I was also surprised by morning glories on my front fence. Last year they took forever to bloom but this year they came up sooner than I anticipated. And my plum tomatoes are all blushing, leading me to believe I'm going to have a bunch of them ripening at the same time. Mmmm, I see homemade tomato sauce in my future.

In addition to my outdoor activities, I've been working on a baby scrapbook for my youngest grandson. He's already over a year old so I'm frightfully behind on this project but I'm almost done. I'm adding a couple of pages dedicated to his early school days and I didn't have any embellishments that conveyed that schoolroom vibe so, of course, I made some. I created miniature composition notebooks, pencils and a tiny ruler that I will glue onto the scrapbook pages. As usual when I'm making miniatures,

I tend to get carried away and I made way too many for the current project at hand. I made close to a dozen books in 1:12 miniature scale before I realized the proportion was much too small for the pencils which I created without any regard to scale. So I made some more books in 1:6 scale which worked out much better. I glory in the details when I make miniatures so these books contain actual ruled pages that can be turned between the traditional black and white covers. The one inch square grid they're on gives you an indication of their actual size.

Oh yes, I am truly a sucker for punishment.

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Paper Flowers for a Green School Graduation

This June marks a couple of milestones. First, my youngest daughter is graduating from high school and going off to college. Second, she is a member of the very first graduating class for The Green School, An Academy for Environmental Careers, a new high school here in Brooklyn that first opened its doors to students in September 2007. As its name implies, The Green School's focus is environmental responsibility and sustainability so, of course, its graduation exercises has to promote that mission. Also of concern is the budget so the event must be organized on a shoestring. To that end, I volunteered to create large floral arrangements with which to decorate the auditorium during the ceremony. The paper for these flowers was salvaged surplus that was previously printed with school notices, flyers, etc. and was designated for the recycling bin. Never mind that I have no floral experience and have never done anything like this before. I just jumped in, learned what I could as I went long and whatever I didn't learn, I made up on the fly.

The photos here were taken at the school one day when one of the art teachers volunteered all his art classes one day solely for the purpose of helping me cut the massive amounts of paper petals and leaves required for this project. In addition, the students also pre-assembled many of the flowers and the paper bows. Here is also a photo of three completed arrangements. All told, there will be a total of six arrangements that will be placed side by side across the front of the auditorium stage. I have already completed four of them. Two more and I am done. Phew! I had no idea how large a project this would be but I'm so glad I took the chance and did it. It has been a great learning experience and has yielded a very satisfying result.

Next time perhaps I'll actually get some floral training so I'll know what I'm doing.


Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva