In early October, El Professor and I dug up and divided perennials such as the campanula that grows in our front garden and potted them for gifts. El Professor carefully researched zones as we have relatives that range from the high Oregon plateau desert to the marine San Juan Islands. El Professor potted Shasta daisies, daisy mums, lamb's ear, pink calla lilies, ground cover rose, butterfly bush (one sister actually wants those), campanula, and purple iris taken from a patch that originated from a tuber that my dear 82 year old aunt gave me. The iris ended up being especially precious because we just learned that this cherished aunt has terminal colon cancer.
The irises are on the far right.
White campanula
Last summer as the days grew shorter and the blue explosion of the hydrangea bush changed to a bluey-green, I cut and cut and cut the blooms and let them dry in vases all over the house.
The dried blooms became wreaths and they really and truly aren't such a sickly green. Thank you camera.
Some of the summer pepper bounty became chili strings. Remember--NEVER rub your eyes when you are working on these.
The apples from our tree and from the local orchard were made into applesauce, but the skins were cooked and jelly bagged and made into apple jelly.
Our raspberries were mixed with some blackberries that were gathered along a nearby bicycle path (El Professor insists you only pick the blackberries that are above the potential dog pee elevation), and the mix made a lovely jam. (We don't have dog, so the raspberries are exempt from the elevation requirement.)
Our raspberries were mixed with some blackberries that were gathered along a nearby bicycle path (El Professor insists you only pick the blackberries that are above the potential dog pee elevation), and the mix made a lovely jam. (We don't have dog, so the raspberries are exempt from the elevation requirement.)
Our friends were in the process of adopting a little boy as well as residing their house at the height of their grape season, so we were given many of their grapes. We gave some of them back as a lovely, dark red grape jelly.
I canned and canned in a one day session; the juices and purees were carefully frozen in late summer and early fall, ready to be made into jam or jelly.
Last summer out in the Oregon high desert, I picked up an oil drum lid that was lying out on the dry landscape. There is all kinds of treasure lying around on my father-in-law's acreage--arrowheads, interesting rocks, dried pinecones, rusty metal this-and-thats. There was something beautiful about that old oil drum lid complete with bullet hole, so I decided to try my hand at sign painting. (I'm not a painter and I don't have nice handwriting, so this was no small task.) The 'bomb' for me? CARBON PAPER!
1. Print text in a cool font
2. Tape cool text onto carbon paper
3. Work over oil drum lid with soapy water and steel wool
4. Tape carbon paper/text onto dry lid
5. Press hard and trace with pencil to transfer the text
6. Paint
The end result was a family sign for one of my sisters.
I got hooked on the idea of painting metal salvage, so I hit the recycling/salvage yard hunting for another piece of cool junk for my other sister. Our local building/recycling/salvage center is another place full of treasure. I found an old tool box with the lid half off, full of machine parts. I dumped out the parts and paid a whopping $4 for the prize.
More steel wool, carbon paper, painting......
...the lid became a family sign and the rest of the scrubbed out box made a great gift box for the jams/jellies, wreath, pepper string, with the transformed lid wrapped and tucked in. (Can you tell I blocked out part of their name? )
The oil drum lid sign/gift ended up in a cool old wash tub found at the recycling center. It really was cool, but the photos are awful. Oh well.
Much creative fun was had..... we'll have to start thinking up ideas for next year.
1 comment:
You did amazing stuff, Gretchen! What fun to see. Have a very happy New Year.
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