About Me

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Sublimity, OR, United States
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I am artist of texture and color. I enjoy working with textiles, mixed media and the graphic arts. I am an avid cottage gardener with a love for pass along plants and big fluffy pink peonies and pink roses. Many of my tangible creations reflect my love of the garden and all its wonderful colors. I have been selling my creations online since 2002 beginning as a hobby. After 10 years I quit the day job to pursue my art as a full time passion.

27 May 2014

Peony indulgence!

Last weekend was a perfect opportunity to visit a local Peony Farm. Next to my favorites of fluffy pink roses is the fluffy pink peony. And I never miss a photo opportunity of beautiful flowers. Sorry, I did not take the time to write down the name of each variety, but you can visit Adelmans Peony website http://peonyparadise.com/ to see more.

Enjoy! (there's a lot of pictures, I couldn't help myself, there were too many pretties to resist)




















22 May 2014

Late spring in the cottage garden

The first flowers of the cottage garden make living thru the dismal grey rainy winters of the Pacific Northwest all worth it. When I was growing up I used to hear the adults say this is "God's country" but I thought to myself that there is so many other beautiful places on this planet, why would one say that? I came to realize as I got older that the reason Oregon natives called this slice of earth "God's Country" was because of the rewards springs holds for us putting up with dismal winter months.




So here is the first tour of my cottage garden of the season. What is so unique about a cottage garden is that it never looks the same year to year with so many surprises.


When I mulched this spring I was able to get "mushroom compost" from a local Organic Mushroom farm. Very different in texture as it has a sawdust base, and the color is light brown rather than black as other compost mulches. But mushroom compost is supposed to be the ultimate for vegetable and flower gardening as well as highly regarded by landscapers as a base for sod. So that will be a later post on how well it does for me.

I no longer have any pink columbine, they have cross polinated with the yellow with this interesting combination. 

The lupines have reverted back to the non-hybrid colors and are reseeding freely like the those in the wild

This is the really "green" part of the warm season. This is the view from my house. Large fields of young wheat against the foothills of the Cascade mountains.


By August these fields will be completely gold in color


01 May 2014

The buzz cloud in my cottage garden....



Yes, my cottage garden is starting to awake on this wonderful May Day! I call this tree my "buzz cloud" as it reminds me of a fluffy cloud of blossoms and the honey bees love the sweetness of this Lollipop Crab apple tree.

 Lollipop crabapple is a slow-growing, dwarf version of an ornamental crabapple tree, named because of its pleasant, rounded shape. Mature height of Lollipop crabapple is about 8 feet, with an equal spread. I think mine reached beyond maturity with all the organic compost it gets in the cottage garden. It will get a good pruning after the blooms fade.

 Leaves appear first then white blooms appear on the tree in springtime, followed by small, golden crabapples in late summer. In autumn, the foliage takes on a yellowish tint. Lollipop crabapple isn't difficult to maintain and is suitable for growing in US Department of Agriculture hardiness zones 4 and above.

 Honey Bees love it in the spring and the birds love the tiny fall apples


 I took some time to step inside the tree, the bees didn't seem to mind that I was taking in the intoxicating scent too. 




And since we have had some really nice warm weather the peonies were ripe for the picking~a perfect May Day bouquet!

Every Saturday

Where we reside

Where we reside

The Oregon Coastline

The Oregon Coastline