Cross Country Xmas

Wherever you are, whoever you're with, however you got there, for whatever amount of time you are together...

..have a very Merry Christmas with the ones you love.

Julie Paschkis card from Artists to Watch.

Really! They Were Just There a Minute Ago!

At the time we visited the quilt exhibit at the American Swedish Institute this delightful space was in place for the small visitors to the castle.

We entered the village walking past friendly trolls,

crossed over the old troll fishing hole,

stopped by the roaring felt campfire,

and finally arrived at the 

quilter's studio.

It was all very charming, but apparently we dreamed it or are seeing things.

Exhaustive attempts to search both the ASI website and the internet show no traces that the lovely little troll village does now, or ever did exist and is as imaginary as Gus the Griffin.

Oh well. You will just have to trust us that it was cute. In our dreams!

Sewedish

The American Swedish Institute housed in the beautiful Turnblad Mansion

hosted an exhibit of quilts by international quilters.

There were many interesting and provocative pieces on display,

but our favorites were the quilts of Minnesotan, Mary Chalmers

located and filling entirely the upper level ballroom.

This one is made of wool and intricately hand-stitched.

This one also.

The jewel tones of this garden lattice quilt are very pleasing

and the combination of contemporary Bali batik on a traditional ticking type stripe very clever and effective.

Sadly the exhibit ended in October, but in case you did not get a chance to attend we thought you might enjoy seeing a small selection of what was on display. 

In future will try to inform you in a more timely manner of events that might be of interest.

There is a Balm in Bromeliad

The title of this post makes no sense, but it is what we think when we see or say "bromeliad".

Anyhoo.... this weird plant came from a a craft fair about five years ago. 

We were assured it would eventually bloom.

One day when giving it a drink down the center as we were instructed, and as it would naturally capture rain and dew, we saw this.

Which became this.

And then this.

And soon it was a real flower-like thing.

This pretty pink emergence is just an extension of the plant leaves as are the colored "petals" of the poinsettia plant.

But soon it started to send out true little flowerlettes from the bracts.

Multicolored no less.

Our reading about the life cycle of the bromeliad tells us that this lovely event is actually the beginning of the end.

The plant will start to slowly die, but if we are lucky it will send out some side shoots called "pups" that can be re-potted to start new plants. That is how we got ours. Apparently the lady who sold it to us has raised many litters of pups and finds good homes for all of them. No paper training or shots needed. 

Sheep Wreath

Sheep in the holiday spirit?

Can you guess how the farmer got his friendly beasts into this orderly formation?

Squash Justice

We had just three little Delicata squash on the vine in our community garden plot.

At the going rate of 68 cents per pound we thought we would at least break even on our investment in the two squash plants we had purchased at the clearance price of 79 cents each.

But then there were only two.

Squash thievery! 

We were very upset. More upset, some thought, than the situation warranted.

With our new, amazing, community garden "wildlife enclosure" (which is actually a "produce enclosure") it was unlikely the usual suspects, the Duncan Creek whitetail herd, were the culprits.

The generous soul in the household supposed someone hungry was benefiting from the free food.

The suspicious soul in the household who has observed youths pass through the garden on the way to the skate-park, basketball court, and swimming in the creek, felt that the oblong squash's resemblance to a football, and an overwhelming temptation to spiral one into the crick for a teenage version of Pooh Sticks was the likely motive.

In any case, the generous soul, when assigned to cut down the massive clump of comfrey growing next to our home compost bin found, hiding under the tangle of leaves, this beautiful little bonus, volunteer Sweet Dumpling sprouted from last year's discarded squash guts.

In telling this tale to another generous, wise, if only politely interested soul rooted in this household, he proclaimed it "Squash Justice". Hear, hear!

And so, whether a full belly from eaten squash, or the thrill of the toss of same was the mystery history of the Delicata, we wish the "borrower" well and hope it is the first in a series of pay it forward events.

Cucurbit Karma, if you will.

Peace, man.