Art & Garden

Art:

I am making progress on my double-portrait commission. I'll try to post a photo of it soon.

I have to run some errands on my lunch break today, and I plan to stop by the railroad tracks on my way to cut some bamboo. Besides making good garden supports, I want to experiment further with making my own bamboo dip pens for drawing.

Someone inquired with me today about doing a very large aviation-themed mural. I'm interested, certainly, but I'll have to work on ideas; getting a solid concept is always the hardest part (though a close second, for me, has always been the middle part of the painting process, the part that comes between drawing/blocking in and the finishing-up towards the end.) I'll have to work on ideas.

Garden:

The garden is off to a spotty start for the summer. The fennel came back strong, and fennel volunteers have been a problem all over the place. It reseeds itself vigorously.

The mesclun greens are doing pretty well, especially one particular plant – I think it's the endive, but I'm not sure. Last night I picked a selection of these greens, a few fennel fronds, a few cilantro flowers, and a bee balm leaf, put them all in a bowl with homemade vinaigrette, and ate it for dinner. The sliced up bee balm almost overpowered the whole thing, and my dressing was far too strong also (it's only my third attempt in 20 years, do I don't feel too bad about it, and I didn't have anything but olive oil and balsamic vinegar, plus a little lemon juice concentrate). Otherwise, it was pretty good, and I'll eat more.

The spinach never came up, probably a victim of too much rain.

The broccoli is growing, but it won't do well in this heat; it'll bolt before there's anything worth picking, though it's still very small.

My tomatoes are still very small and probably won't have any fruit until far into July, although it might surprise me; this heat might really do it some good.

The garlic looks all right on top, but I don't know what it'll look like underneath.

The coreopsis is blooming, the glads are all green and happy looking, the mums have tiny buds, the three sunflowers I planted are up and running, the little blue flowers that Helga gave us look quite nice, and the Asiatic lilies have been blooming vividly for a couple of weeks. So with the flowers, I have no complaints.