Photos of late in Oranges!

Thought I would share a few of my autumn photos from the iPhone that I carry everywhere and use liberally to collect oranges and things that catch my fancy. Quilting season and orange season are upon us! Happy Holidays. 

walking on the Highline elevated native plants park in NYC with John Kelly. 

free to view art installation at the Whitney in NYC October 2015

Posing with some of my friends from the 1980's nightclub Pyramid of the lower East Village  in front of my Log Cabin quilt exhibited in NYC as part of the 'what happened to those creative people from the good old days...

Now it's nearly time to go take a walk and see what new colors appear on the way. 

birds nesting

Last week we had a pair of mourning dove appear on our windowsill next to my desk where the promptly build a nest and began laying eggs!

first one egg appeared...

next afternoon a second egg...

I tried my best to keep the blinds closed and leave them in peace but it was an ill fated spot for many reasons. Not long after this photo the mate was devoured by a hawk which Keith saw as he was coming home one afternoon. That evening we listened as the survivor called but got no familiar reply... and eventually abandoned the nest and it's two white eggs. 

In the following days we watched for the lone dove out the windows. Out back I found that it found a new partner who was very attentive, they preened together in the cedar trees. 

Then they started a new nest in the tree about ten feet from the old nest still holding the eggs abandoned and undisturbed. 

It's close but not easy to photograph, the drama continues in that area each day. I took a short video of them early in the process of building that new nest. 

In the backyard I hung the usual house wren house for the wrens I heard singing it's mating call back in early April. Now that house is full of twigs and when I went out to sit in the garden I noticed a mate has joined the male bird who built the nest and began adding her own grassy bed on top of the twigs. 

Look closely you will see she has a fine sprig of grass in her beak and the big twigs hang out the bottom thru the air vents at the base of the house.

Behind me in the choke cherry tree which is beginning to flower another nest! This year, lets hope the cats or raccoons don't attack it, on a branch another dove is nesting and keeping a watchful eye on me in the garden. 

It was a great spot that some robins built in last spring and raised a brood of three orange breasted babies. 

Now all we need is a bunch of tent caterpillars to spin their nests in the native choke cherry tree to provide food to these babies that will soon arrive looking extremely hungry! 

spring arrives bringing snow, flowers and an art exhibition

 It feels like ages since I wrote a blog post and well maybe it is but everything takes off in the spring time and there is that little pocket computer that draws me into a black hole of Instagram fun which circumvents the previous goal of being a blogger who is posting stories as they happen.

 My life feels so full of good stuff I feel guilty sometimes wondering when the dream is going to end. That doesn't mean there aren't stresses and worries but I like to focus on the joy and delights and marginalize the other end of the spectrum here on my blog. I also like to use this place to make a record of what has been good and beautiful in our lives here on 10th St. NE in Washington, DC. With the long winter we had and the snows and cold spells I had almost forgotten the joys of spring would be coming along. It was especially odd to have yet another snow storm on the first day of spring but we are fortunate to have warmth in the city this time of year that pushes the earliest flower right up through the cold snowy ground and reminds us that it is time for things to change. The sun comes up in a different spot than it has done in a while making the crystals in our windows cast bright dancing spectrum's around the room. It happens every time we have a sunny day but this time of year it is more directly shinning through the window and that makes it more intense. It was an inspiration for the bowl I made and donated to the Smith Healing Arts Center's annual funds raiser show of 125 artists work. I was invited by my former boss George Hemphill to submit an Alchemical Vessel for this years exhibition. I had a bit of a hard time digging up a idea for a vessel that could be made like my quilts with fabric and thread but in the end there was a great little trick with ropes, thin strips of fabric and long hours twisting, sewing and building a fabric bowl. Much like a clay coil pot only the glue wasn't clay but thread, its a technique used to make rugs too I believe. I started out with a small bowl to try one way then built a second beginning that seemed more pleasing to my eye with less exterior threads showing. Orange was the start up color and then the rainbow fell into place ring after ring...

slowly building rings in a spiral up and out to match as best I could the shape of the ceramic blank canvas most of the artists were using as their canvas I really didn't expect it to take so long. Each day it was growing slowly and the anticipation of the next rings of color helped me move forward day by day. 

In the end I added a foot and a label to the bottom and finished with a little fabric hook to hang it on the wall then whisked it off to the gallery with my statement to be photographed and installed and added to the catalog. Each bowl will bring a $150 for a ticket to the guests which they get to select according to the first come first serve ticket purchases. But you can also go see all the bowls Tuesday-Saturdays at the gallery on U.Street NW near the corner of 17th. from March 27th through May 22nd. The benefit is May 1st. for more information on getting one of these great art bowls check out the Joan Hisaok Healing Arts gallery's website. 

I went by yesterday and really enjoyed the show and began wishing I had a ticket. The glossy photo catalog will be available next week!  

In Mother's Garden

Last week I spent several nights in Manassas and was delighted with this summers garden visitors and a few special flowers at my mother's house.

While there visiting, several times we saw a streak of color fly away from the big pot of flowering anise hyssop as we came out the front door. Eventually from my bedroom I noticed the bright color was a male gold finch perched on the flowers harvesting seeds. I did not realize that seeds formed this early in the year but there he was eating them. With my new camera's zoom lens I caught yellow billed with a mouth full of seed. 

Also visiting this native flower which blooms all summer were Silver-spotted Skipper butterflies (Epargyreus clarus) butterflies and lots of different nectar seeking bees and a very strange and interesting looking wasp. It's nice to see at least a few butterflies as we just read an article about why there seem to be so few this summer in the Washington Post. To read that informative article follow this hotlink: Where have all the butterflies gone. 

The farmers market offered up some lovely peaches and plums with mom's favorite bananas in a great little wooden bowl we found a few weeks ago. 

The geraniums are blooming steadily but their pretty hot pink color doesn't quilt photograph the way it looks to the naked eye. Here in the back ground is a lilac colored summer phlox for comparison 

The crowning glory of the garden this year again is a pretty pink dahlia that survived yet another winter with deep freezes and plentiful snows a true indicator of the changing climate in Manassas.

Looking forward to my next visit to plant some of the native flowers we collected at the Merrifield nursery and others I plan to share from our city garden. Quilting shop sales kept me in town and Keith joined me for a long nature flower walk in the battlefield. We caught a little case of the devil weed rash called Poison Ivy which kind of slowed me down this week posting all those great photos I made on the walk. That and a new quilt are completed now so on to the next post to show and tell those stories. 

Mid summer birds report

Bluejay practices it's songs overhead in the choke cherry tree 

This morning as I was getting my things ready to go out into the garden I heard a familiar sound on the porch roof. Garbled notes and squawks, all mixed up, I wondered what was making the noise. I went to the window as I heard the sound moving towards the roof's edge where I saw a blue jay swoop down into the garden and land on my chair. Then with camera, book and coffee in hand, I took my usual time in the garden to write and photograph the flowers and birds. The the choke cherry tree is beginning to drop it's ripe red-maroon berries that many birds flock to eat. It seems after a few years of watching that many young birds spend a lot of time dining in our tree.

They dart and dangle around a lot so it's hard to get a good photo of them. Today the blue jay came and perched on a low branch and started practicing it's songs. Lots of other noises in the garden this morning but I recorded a short video to share the blue jay's rehearsal. I learned yesterday that it takes about a year for a fledgeling bird to learn the adult songs but they practice and mimic the adults until they master the sounds.

ripening choke cherry 

Earlier this summer I saw a family of blue jays in my garden briefly. They occasionally  stop by for a few choke cherries, sometimes a bath or drink from the bird baths and then off they go to the huge Oak tree down the alley. Their cries are so distinctive it's easy to pick them out. Usually blue jay songs are very bold and memorable once you know the tunes. It's color is so spectacular making it a back yard favorite. Back in 2001, the West Nile Virus arrived in DC transmitted by mosquitos that infected birds blood, the large population of crows and bluejays was nearly wiped out. It's nice to see them making a come back.

Blue jay on the compost searching for food 

fledgeling blue jay in choke cherry tree 

A few days ago I discovered a family of Mourning doves out my bedroom window in the white cedar trees as I was rushing to leave for an art history lecture. There were three of them sitting on a limb so close I couldn't resist grabbing my camera and catching a few shots. The very next morning as I was going out to write with my coffee camera and book when I opened the door to the stairway down I got a shock. Nearly spilled all my coffee as there was a dove out there flapping against the window to try and get away. I quickly closed the door trying to collect myself and clean up the mess I made. I decided to skip going out for that day then watched to see if the bird figured out how to escape. It sat there on the railing looking out the window that doesn't open all day and I assume it had been there all night roosting. A second night and the next morning it was still there. It was clear after about 36 hours this mourning dove wasn't clever enough to realize or discover that going down the stair well would free it to go drink eat and live. I got worried it would die of dehydration or starve so it was time to muster some courage and go help it get out. Towel in hand I wet straight out and it flew to the lower corner of the big windows I finally got hold of some part and swung it over the rail and down the stairs where it quickly saw the light and escaped to the garden. My heart was beating fast but I am sure it wasn't as fast as the dove's little heart. I realized now that it was a fledgeling not quilt mature and a few of it's tail feathers came out in the struggle. I arranged them on the antique foot stool for a document of the incident. It wasn't possible to make images of this story on my own but I have the earlier images to help.

The dove survived as far as I can tell it is hiding now in the low shrubs along our fences. 

Meanwhile the house wrens are working hard showing off all the insects they catch as they come and go to feed the babies growing in the green A framed birdhouse. This image of the adult about to deliver a big bug is pretty exciting to have caught. They feed them all sorts of little creatures every minute or three bringing in a new delight from the garden to the waiting peeps.