Spring Bouquet

Spring Bouquet atop Garden Geese table mat

Yay! Bulbs, shrubs and perennials are abloom here in the Pacific Northwest. Out in my garden, I was shocked to find my white lilac already in blossom. Typically, it blooms earlier than the purple variety, but March does seems early. I love it when I can start the season of sharing bouquets with friends and neighbors. From now until autumn's frost my goal is to have fresh flowers in my house, or a friend's home each week. You really do get a sense of how the season flows when you watch the plants bud, flower and die off, making way for other varieties to blossom. Wandering through my garden I get so inspired trying to find just the right flower for each bouquet. It is such a simple pleasure to have a vase filled with garden flowers atop a hooked table mat. Heavenly!

Flowers in photo: species tulip, white lilac, lamium, wood hyacinth, doronicum, peony leaves

Everything Is Turning Green!

Country Persian close-up

 

I believe in green. Year round! Not just for green shamrocks, one day out of the year.

Hellebore

I have to confess to being rather lousy at remembering to decorate for holidays. It seems by the time I think to do so, the holiday has already come and gone. Or I leave the holiday decor up way too long!

Garden Hideaway close-up notice subtle & bright greens

Fawn Lilly

I think I'm better at seasons. Spring is just around the corner, and I can always embrace spring green! Seasons seems more natural and sustained, a progression of time, in rhythm with nature. Not as arbitrary as a one day holiday. So spring is the season of green! Yup, green, I can always celebrate that!

Euphorbia

Salmon & Wild Roses close-up (more greens)

First days of spring-the sky

is bright blue, the sun huge and warm.

Everything's turning green.

excerpt from First Days of Spring

RYOKAN , Japanese 1758-1831

 

Flowers Are Food For the Soul

Hydrangea

I love all flowers! Any and all flowers are food for my soul! The big and showy cultivated roses, the out of control climbing vining types, like clematis. Bulbs that bloom as if by magic with seemingly no work from me, dainty wildflowers growing along a woodland path, or lowly mosses with little spiked flowers, on a rocky outcrop growing at a standstill.

Evergreen Clematis and Flowering Quince

 

I admit to being a bit irreverent when it comes to drawing and hooking flowers in my art and rugs. For me, it's more important to capture the "essence" of the flower than to attain realism. Most of my flowers probably aren't identifiable as any particular species. I'm ok with that!

Garden Hideaway close-up

Old Garden Wall close-up

 

At this time in my life, I am a primitive-style folk artist. There are many styles of rug hooking, and all styles should all be honored and appreciated! Who am I to say which style is above another, or which technique takes more artistic ability, training or time. Whatever you enjoy, whatever makes YOUR HEART SING, whatever feeds your creative soul, is the perfect rug hooking style for you.

I hope hooking a flower of some sort is in your creative future! Spring is right around the corner, so look to Nature for your inspiration and start planning the next flower for your project. I know I am!

Love this, not sure of the name

 

Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall

Four Seasons

Four seasons! There really are four seasons that are equal in length throughout the year. Yet, this has seemed like a very long winter to some! My heart goes out to our east coast friends and all others who have been hit with such a harsh winter! I'm sure I would feel differently if I had to endure endless cold, snow and ice! However, that being said, currently, I love all seasons and have designed and hooked many rugs that commemorate the changing of the seasons. Stroll and scroll through some of my rugs and remember spring and all the other seasons are just around the corner.

Winter's Bouquet

One December, as I was gathering evergreen boughs and holly for a winter bouquet, I was surprised to find a rose bud on one of my rose bushes.

Winter's Bouquet

Winter's Bouquet close-up

Spring is such a happy time! Flowers bloom, green abounds, birds return and all sorts of wonderful babies come into the world.

Ode to Spring Center

The long days of summer invite this fawn to venture out into the meadow.

Meadow Bound close-up

Autumn's Smile, was inspired by a bouquet I picked towards the end of summer. My favorite rose, a heady smelling repeat bloomer, still had a few buds, as well as rose hips forming too. It seemed so poignant to watch right before my very eyes, this summer blooming rose, surrender to autumn. Hence, the name, Autumn's Smile, obliquely refers to William Cullen Bryant's poem. "Autumn, the year's last loveliest smile."

Autumn's Smile