I Love Fairy Houses

In the last couple of years, I have become fascinated with fairy houses. My fascination initially started when I went to the Fairy Fest at Lakewold Gardens in Washington State about three years ago with my husband's grandchildren ... but perhaps even before, since I had installed a fairy door on my favorite tree in Rochester.    But, by seeing them in the gardens, it was magical, and I could imagine a tiny presence dwelling there.   

Since that time, my husband has built several and entered his houses into the Lakewold Gardens festival.  I love how he uses the natural materials he finds on the property--tree stumps, feathers, moss, fern, etc.--  to transform them into the magical houses.   

Now that the houses are here, they are becoming part of the experience of being here.   They delight; they inspire imagination ...  

I Love the Rochester Public Market

 

Saturday mornings are busy at the Rochester Public Market.  It is open year-round, and during the summer, stalls are filled with beautiful produce brought in by farmers fromall around the Upstate New York area.   During the winter, farmers also bring in their stored root crops, and other fresh vegetables that grow in their greenhouses.   Food wholesalers are also there.  The market is an amazing place, and I love it.

 

Last March, I started going to the market regularly on Saturday mornings.  I was inspired by Alice Waters, a chef who is passionate about food, and advocates for "buy local".  She claims that seasonal and local produce tastes best.  Because of the Rochester Public Market, I tried her idea, and I believe Alice Waters is right.

When I consistently began buying food that was grown within 50 miles of my home (and produce in season), At first, I noticed it all tasted so delicious, and I ate a tremendous amount.  Food was so satisfying and I stopped feeling guilty about eating.  After awhile, I noticed that I started eating less, and that the seasonal aspect started to meet my nutritional needs.   Food is beautiful.

Later, my goal each week became to find something I had never eaten, and I began to experiment with whatever was available--jerusalem artichoke, fiddlehead fern, celery root, scapes, trumpet mushrooms, etc. My meals transformed, and after a year, I find that I have become a food snob ... for several reasons.  Here are a few:

• The produce is fresher--often within a few hours from having been in the earth.
• The food is less expensive, 
• and better quality than the grocery store.
• There is less plastic packaging.
• It supports local farmers and local businesses.
• It contributes to the community of Rochester.

Every week, I photograph the bounty and the beauty of the food.  Every time I do, I feel the privilege of having such a wonderful place to go--even during a pandemic!!  It's why I love the Rochester Public Market.

 

I Love Birds

 

 

In second grade, I drew a cardinal.  It was my first bird drawing, and I was so proud of it because I hadn’t traced it.  When looking through old pictures and past drawings, I notice many of my images are birds.  So, I think it is safe to say, I love birds.

 

In 2019, I started drawing them in earnest, simply because I wanted to get better at drawing.  Birds are a great subject, and I found a really wonderful bird artist on-line, John Muir Laws, who has a fantastic blog with all kinds of helpful information to improve bird drawing.  His tips are practical and easy to follow, and I noticed that my drawings get better every day that I practice.

 

During the first few months of the C-19 shutdowns, I was alone in my house in Rochester, and it was the birds who kept me company, so I drew them.  All kinds of birds came to my yard—a wood thrush, a dark-eyed junco, a hermit thrush, a rose-breasted grosbeak, even a woodcock and a wild turkey! 

 

All About Birds and the National Audubon Society were great resources that helped me identify the birds, and with the information in hand, I felt a deep connection to the bird I was drawing.  As the winter changed to the early spring, I observed that no matter what the weather, a bird is always energetic, alert and in the moment.   Every posture expresses something, and a bird changes and adapts to every condition and in every moment.

 

Sages tell us that our past is only a trail we leave behind, and that life is generated through the energy of our present moments.  If this is true, then birds are a good example of how to live.  

 

A bird doesn’t seem care if I see it; it flies away if I get too close.  A bird doesn’t have to have an audience, or have a need be admired when it sings, dances in the leaves, or flies. Instead, birds live their lives.  They simply do what they do: fly, look for food, feed, build their nests, have their babies, and teach their babies how to fly and sing.  It is through the process of living in present moments that they bring beauty to the world and with it, a simple by-product called joy.  

 

I wish the artist in me could be more like that … showing up and living in every moment of creation without expectation … and just like my drawings, maybe that takes practice too.  Until then, I will keep admiring these little creatures, keep being reminded, and keep saying: I love birds!

  

 

 

A Garden Shrine

I love nature, and I love gardens … especially when gardens seem to blend in and work with nature.  When I walk around the yard in Spanaway, I love to pick up sticks and rocks and feathers, and I have vases of found feathers around the house, and a sizeable collection of birds’ nests.   To me, these are Nature’s treasures--Mother Nature’s handiwork--and I struggle to find places for them in my house.  That’s why I made my garden shrine.  

 

The shrine took me a long time to create—a little over ten years.  Its form started from the bottom of an old fiberglass shower stall.  When we re-did the bathroom 2010, I created a walk-in tiled shower with a concrete floor, and struggled with taking the fiberglass to the landfill.   However, when I saw the bottom of the shower on its side in the yard, waiting for the trip to the dumpster, I decided to keep it.   

 

For almost ten years, it sat under the cedar trees along the side of the yard.  I waited, partly to see where it wanted to live, and partly to decide how to make it work.  Later, I found a spot on a bank under the hazelnut bushes near the stone labyrinth.   It lived there for a few more years and started to deteriorate; moss began to grow on it.   

 

What finally made me finish the project was something my husband’s grandson said, “Oh!  She’ll never do that!”.   I laughed SO HARD!!!  I HAD BEEN CHALLENGED by a 10-year-old!!!  ... and set about to tile it—good or bad—ugly or beautiful!!  

 

I think what had stopped me from working on it was not knowing how the mosaic or design would look.  Even when I drew out my ideas, I felt that the shrine would never be able to blend with nature in the way I felt about it.  But, when I just gathered all the materials and started working with the monochromatic tiles of white and off-white, magical things began to happen.   I realized that all the shrine needed to be was this neutral space to make the treasures become the focal point.

 

The tile work also strengthened the integrity of the form and allowed for the outside coating of old towels in concrete, which created a rough surface on which the moss is growing.   To me, it is a magical place, and I love the things I find even more because they have the space.   The squirrels seem to love it too … they steal the feathers!