Here on this beautiful May Day with all the promises of the season of Spring…
The studio is roaring to life along with the lilacs
and the snow peas
and the greenhouse full of seedlings ready to spread their wings.
We Welcome the light and the warmth and we welcome YOU to the New Website.
To help you navigate some of the new features we’ve created a short Video Tour so roll the top down and take her for a spin and enjoy the freshening breezes…
The Winter of Website Revamping has finally blossomed and we are ready to SPRING the new site on you !!!
I’d like to begin with a giant THANK YOU to developer Ross Ritchey. He was a young software genius all those years ago when this internet presence began to be a thing and I turned to him in 2008 to help me build out the designs I had for my first website. Today Ross is a polished gem of a programmer and has initiated his own business…
It has been both a professional and personal pleasure to work with Ross over the last few months to bring this site into the age of newer technology. He is a master at communicating the complex world of programming to the likes of an artist born in the age of Aquarius and I am grateful for his patience and expertise.
Most of the changes have been integrated “under the hood” and are designed to make the site work across all platforms and devices. There was also a fair amount of sweeping out the dust bunnies and my broom is well worn from that job. As we launch it out into the stratosphere we welcome comments and observations should you find any dust I’ve left behind, and suggestions for ways to improve your viewing experience.
A rather special nod of thanks is due to Herself as well. She most patiently listened to my tech woes as I struggled through my computer blowing up at the beginning of this project and all the many many nights of “This is taking longer than I expected” texts flying from studio to log cabin. It truly was “Our” pandemic project and I wouldn’t have made it to the other side without her.
So…without further ado
In order to help you navigate the new site I have made a little video tour.
You are most welcome here…
“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” Margaret Atwood
We aim for St. Pat’s Day as Potato Planting day. . .
but every day around here is Pat’s day
and today most especially as it is Herself’s BIRTHDAY !!!
And since this is a journal entry about the garden
this photo of the Eggplant Whisperer is most appropriate to celebrate her new found gardening prowess…
Well on their way to a parmesaned casserole near her soon.
Meanwhile in the studio nursery, we had around 50 lbs of seed potatoes chitting out for the last week. They arrived from The Maine Potato Lady the week before, and every available square inch of the studio was lined with boxes and dedicated lamps to aid in their preparation for planting.
Then out to the wheelbarrow they came . . .
Next step was to rake back the matte of hay which had been snug and cozy under a heavy blanket of snow in the Ruth Stout Bed all winter. Exposing the rich organic matter underneath I am beginning to realize the work that our soil bound friends have been doing. . . or is that chewing . . . for the last few years. All that organic matter is building a substrate of nutrient rich medium for the veg and makes for easy planting.
Then cover ’em back up with fresh hay.
And that’s job done.
Turning around you can get a peak of the RS annex which was added last fall.
The ground underneath that section, which only 5 months ago was the grass you see to the left in this pic, is still in transition. Covered with cardboard, a few inches of mulched leaves, and then a foot of loose hay. . .the grasses and weeds beneath are a muddy slick and, judging by past experience, will be for some time. So, the plan is for straw bales to provide some growing area this season and then the decomposing bales can be strewn in the fall to add another layer of goodness. By next year this section should be plantable.
The squash tower in the distance straddles those bales and two extra ones on the other side. Last year this method proved successful so we’ll try again.
The skinnier Pea Tower to the left got a boost of some compost added to the two rows on either side. Something for the Peas to ease into before having to contend with the hay.
Today’s rain is sealing the deal and gives the gardeners a chance to rest up.
So here’s to the wonders of the burgeoning Spring. . .
And celebrating the most wonderful Pat Lackey. . .
Happy Birthday My Love,
It is late here in the studio.
Dark and stormy.
Outside
and Inside
our country.
We are in the throes
Ross and I
of rebuilding my website.
My job
is to load all of the paintings
up on to the site.
Every
single
one.
This major review
is forcing me
to take a long
deep dive
into my past.
Both creatively
and historically.
I just came upon this painting
and paused.
Prescient
as in 2017
we were fully engaged
in the tempest.
Not knowing
where the storm
would throw our boat.
As the seas were building.
Tonight
there is a light
on the horizon.
But the monsters
have been unleashed.
Be safe dear ones.
And hold on tight.
These were the words
I chose for the original
Painter’s Notes…
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door !”
From Emma Lazarus…
The New Colossus…
on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty