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Because Joan and Daisy and Barbara told me lilacs like to be pruned,
... and because I haven't used this little pink pitcher for awhile,
... and because the threat of rain kept me from the farmers market last weekend,
... I cut myself a nice bunch from my wee bushes out back and brought them inside. I like to follow good advice.
Plus I just realized that I had only really done two posts about lilacs this spring and surely there should be at least three?
If you are like me, and come completely unhinged when you see things like this,
or perhaps this,
then you will need to check out Unconventional & Unexpected: American Quilts Below the Radar 1950 - 2000.
It showcases a collection of quilts put together by Roderick Kiracofe from the last half of the twentieth century. Amazing, unconventional, bold, rich, pieces of work from mostly anonymous quilters.
Quilts that make me want to jump up and down and scream and shout "how did you think to use that pattern or color like you did?"
Over the last 3 weeks I have run my hands over these images. Studied every page carefully.
Read about patterns that I never knew the names of before - spider web, string with unbroken grid, strips, log cabin, housetop, and nine patch.
I have read every essay in the book, fascinated by all that I have not known about quilting.
Beginning to understand why it is that certain types of quilts have always been most appealing to me.
Appreciating the ingenuity and artistic sensibilities of the quilters who created these works of art.
This is one of those books that I had to add to my personal collection. Checking it out from the library wouldn't be enough for me. I will want to refer to it again and again. As it is, I keep going back and looking at the images. Scratching my head. Puzzling over how they put these quilts together. Completely delighted by what I see.
My ongoing quest to get in 10,000 steps a day has me exploring new places to walk both in Lawrence and Kansas City. Neighborhood walks are convenient but get predictable, so on days off I like to seek out adventure. Last week this led me down to "the Mighty Kaw", more commonly known as the Kansas river.
In addition to lovely views of the water, train tracks, and dogs taking their owners on walks, I spotted a dolly watching the sun come up, a tree that I am pretty sure comes alive when the sun goes down, and a totally cool house number sign.
Just exactly the precise amount of adventure I was looking for. On a Tuesday morning.
P.S. This is the Kansas River Levee trail - I accessed it right over the bridge on North 2nd street.
This week's edition of FaceTime Sketchtime began with the assembling of objects I might want to try my hand at drawing.
It's best to begin with simple, so I made a box and a background of something dark and got right to work on the dandelion.
Then I moved on to the goose paddling away at the Rotary Arboretum last weekend. I didn't think about it. I just started.
FYI - blue worms = waves. I am not providing a key to any of the rest of the stuff below. It was all just a blur of fun as I told my sister she was nothing less than a genius and asked her when she thought I would be able to come up with ideas like she did.
She guesstimated that if we keep doing Facetime Sketchtime with our current level of commitment and devotion a breakthrough was bound to happen soon.
Along with tulips and lilacs and redbuds, spring in Kansas means storms. Which means interesting cloud formations and this crazy light that makes all the greens look so vivid.
I saw what I think were stratocumulus, cumulonimbus, and nimbostratus formations. But don't quote me on that. I have not taken the cloud classification class for my amateur meteorology degree yet.
When the leaves come back on the old locust tree out back, and the iris that were transported from Angie's yard start to bloom, and the garlic chives Nancy gave me get buds on them, it's time to uncover the birdbath and get it filled up.
I let all the neighborhood birds know today that I would be changing the water regularly, but that I would still appreciate it if they did their best not to get large quantities of food or poop in the water. I am pretty sure they said they would try.
At the conclusion of last week's FaceTime Sketchtime session I had completed an extremely inaccurate yet very evocative visual reproduction of the house that Mary Ann and I stayed in when we went to Summerland last June.
I could hear the train and see the ocean and taste the sketchbookery cocktails we drank on the balcony. When we were there Mary Ann drew the house and I have been wanting to do the same since then. I also spent about 15 minutes making this shape below. Trying to conquer the easy spontaneity of the over and under loop is more challenging than it might appear.
I also tried out some of my new watercolors and did a sketch of myself and Mary Ann with a Japanese brush pen.
I especially like the earphone on my left ear that has a special wire connected to my shoulder that appears to have water dripping from it. I like that a whole lot.
I'm not sure what it is about lilacs that make me think of kitchen tables, and farmhouses, and milk bottles on the back porch, and rolling out biscuit dough on the counter. I had none of these personal experiences with lilacs in my past that I know of. Regardless, it is that exact feeling that had me leaving the farmers market with a big bunch of them Saturday.
My lilac bushes are not so big yet. It's hard for me to cut the blooms from them. I like to enjoy them as I wander through the yard pulling weeds and chasing squirrels.
Besides someone has to bring the ones from the market home. It might as well be me.
They don't last long, but boy for the days they do, they make the house smell so good. Each time I pass by the table I lean in for a sniff and every single time I smile. That's a lot of satisfaction for the price of one dollar a bloom.
I have also just been informed that the lilac bushes adjacent to the parking lot of someone I share a house with are loaded with blooms.
Just in case I need a mid-week replacement.
How I missed the newsflash about a new coffee spot in Lawrence is beyond me. In 125 words or less I am going to make up for lost time. Introducing DECADE coffee. Where they make a rich, warm, earthy, smooth, delicious cortado that is served in a cup made by a local potter (Mike Crouch) with a spoon on the side (that you may not need but I appreciate what it adds to the presentation) where you can sit at a big table, and listen to the tick tock of the old fashioned clock, and enjoy all the light and faint aroma of fresh cut wood.
Take a book to doodle in. They don't have Wifi. You won't miss it.
P.S. Location: 920 Delaware, Lawrence Kansas
My sister Dottie told me months ago I would really like All the Light We Cannot See and so I put it on my list, and eventually requested it from the library. Last month I finally got it and today (because it is due tomorrow) I finished it. I had been savoring it slowly. Rewinding as needed, to listen to particular passages again.
Here is what I have to say about it:
1. Dottie you were RIGHT!
2. It just won the 2015 Pulitzer for fiction.
3. You will want to add it to your list.
It is a tender, story about the terrible hardships of war on everyday ordinary people who have to figure out how to survive and go on living. I have not previously read a book about World War II told from the primary perspective of such young people. It will go down as one of my all time favorites. Very highly recommended. Enough said. I don't want to give away any parts of this book.
I managed to make it to the farmers market on Saturday just before the sky opened up and the rains fell.
Potential for rain always slows down the pace at the farmers market. A little grayer, a little cooler, a few less people, lots of time to chat. If you want to. Or you can just look at lilacs in cowboy boots and fresh garlic, maybe some succulents in sea shells.
I love cruising the booths. First pass for photo ops. Second pass for purchases. Third pass to see if there is anything I might have missed. I stood for a long time over the strawberry plants. One day I am going to have my very own patch. I can absolutely see myself searching under leaves for berries and then coming inside to eat them for breakfast.
I was excited to see the addition of a "torched to order" creme brulee stand. Seven fifteen on a Saturday morning was too early this week. Seven forty five sounds like the perfect time. Next week. For sure.
I didn't get any edible flowers either. But they sure would be pretty on this plate of Texas White sheet cake I am eating right this second. I always think about garnish for guests. Never for myself. That should change.
I did buy myself a nice big bag of fresh salad greens. Nothing beats the flavor of super fresh greens. Plus they last so much longer than the ones you buy at the grocery store.
Next week I am crossing my fingers for peony's. I love casting my mind forward. Thinking about what might or might not be coming in the weeks ahead. Knowing if it's not next week it will be soon after.
Exactly 1,410 days ago, Tall Tales from Kansas turned on the lights and started sending messages out into space. I never dreamed that 1,399 posts later I would still be sitting here each evening doing this "show and tell" thing we refer to as blogging.
But here it is, 4 years later, and ideas still keep popping into my mind. Stuff I want to tell you about. Things that are interesting, funny, sad, important, trivial, curious, unusual, and sometimes beautiful. I do this for the love of words and writing, but anticipating your reaction makes it more of a conversation. Thanks to each of you who have stopped by over the years to see what I am going on about.
The succulents that survived the winter were placed back outside today. All in all I would say that wintering them over was fairly easy. They look a bit worse for the wear, but don't we all after a long winter inside?
I let them sit out in the rain today. Everyone/thing needs a good spring bath right?
I did get the porch swept, the chairs cleaned off, new pillows put outside, and uncovered the fountain. After all that work it was time for cake. Not just any cake. Mrs. Batliner's Texas White sheet cake.
Mrs. Batliner's husband was our patient, and for many years after he died she would come back to visit us at the hospital, always bringing some kind of a treat. Texas White sheet cake was our favorite. Everyone makes chocolate sheet cake, and don't get me wrong, I like it a lot. But there is only one Texas White sheet cake.
You let me know what you think when you make it. In my opinion the chopped nuts are a must. Pecans. Toasted.
Verdant, growing, leafy, sprouting, grassy, lush... no matter how you say it, green is pretty. From the spirea, to the hostas, to the coral bells, day-lilies, lemon balm, and oakleaf hydrangea, green never looked so good.
I don't want you to think with all my exuberance for spring blossoms I have forgotten the spring greens.
I hope you are making time for some spring on this fine Friday night. Rain is in the forecast here for the next few days. No matter. I still intend to sweep off the front porch, put the succulents back outside, attempt to get over to the farmers market, make a "Texas White sheet cake", and watch a movie. That is in addition to taking a nap, cleaning the bathroom, and getting in some sketchtime. Yes sireee, I got myself a full weekend planned. Whether I do any of it or not is beside the point. It's the thinking that's the best part.
This is what happened when the new palette came out to play during FaceTime SketchTime week 7.
Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Slate-Colored Junco under a mayan orange sky.
The grackle's got tired of looking at a blank page so I strategically placed the junco's next door.
I don't know who will be moving in to the neighborhood next, but I have room for them all.
Last week Chris and I zipped over to Topeka to check out "Tulip Time" - a celebration of tulips in 3 different parks in the city. All the photos below are from Old Prairie Town and Botanical Garden.
Other items of note included a contorted eastern white pine, more spectacular redbuds, a weeping mulberry, and a lovely pink dogwood.
Oh, and there was this squirrel. Just sitting in a tree. Eating a nut. Pretending like he wasn't posing but clearly he wanted me to take his picture. So I did.
You may or may not recall that while in Virginia we had a delightful appetizer of smoked gouda pimento cheese served atop crusty beer bread. I, however, have not forgotten for one single minute since we got back. I had been waiting for "Sunday at the Masters" to recreate this dining experience at home.
After my second plate, Chris said "you're going to spoil your dinner". To which I replied "mind your own beeswax!"
If you want to make this for your next formal or informal gathering, it's easy. Pimento cheese spread for a small group is 1 cup grated sharp white cheddar, 1 cup grated smoked gouda, 4 oz pimentos in one of those little glass jars, 1/4 tsp celery salt and 1/4 cup mayo. Mix it all up and let the flavors mingle for a few hours or overnight. Double it if you're having more than 4 or 5 people over. Here's the beer bread recipe.
This pairs well with a chilled fume blanc (2013 Dry Creek Vineyards highly recommended) and if you want to dress things up, put a sprig of fresh thyme on the serving plate and a few thin slices of lime.
After painting with my present palette of watercolors for the past year, I decided I needed to switch things up a bit and add some new colors. For me, it took a year of messing around with the colors I had to figure out what I was missing.
When the new colors arrived I went to town filling up some new half pans and trying to think about a logical way to organize my tray. I said good-bye to my old palette card and tucked it away inside my sketchbook.
Then I carefully made a new palette card. Trying not to be too precise but still wanting to be sure and fit 12 boxes in each row.
Next it was time to fill in the boxes. Without putting the wrong color in the wrong box or smearing them all up and getting mad and having to start over. Nope. I did not do any of those things.
Painting little square shapes inside little square boxes is soothing. Extremely therapeutic.
I am now officially ready to rumble!
Bedding plants were the order of the day at the first farmers market of the season on Saturday. I also saw old friends, pretty flower arrangements, and an extremely well packed bicycle. Mostly I just walked around grinning at everyone and everything. I can't help it. The farmers market makes me happy.
I like that this flowering tree was putting on a show for those in attendance.
I came home with a beautiful dozen eggs, spinach that I was going to make a quiche with but decided instead to do a strawberry salad to go with the last of the Easter ham, and tulips to take to supper club on Saturday night.
And just like that my weekend routine is back, and all is right with the world.
We worked in a mid-week FaceTime SketchTime session this last week because... well just because. Some weeks call for it.
While my Sister created bold, arresting, birds with colorful plumage, I did a study of the Quiscalus Quiscula family. More commonly known as the grackle.
Followed by the geranium cutting I have now potted in dirt, and then a practice sketch of Annette.
Now that I have captured the grackle I am infused with confidence to tackle other birds. Maybe a heron, or a snub-nosed bobwhite, or some such like that.
It is just this kind of thinking that has gotten me into trouble in the past. Happily there are no penalties for trouble of the artistic kind.
Walking the neighborhoods in Lawrence is a great way to experience spring. I saw trees in front of houses, an amazing display of muscari bulbs, cobblestone sidewalks strewn with petals, tulips, robins on fences, flowering fruit trees, and the most interesting old light fixtures.
I pulled over for the tulips and found so much more in the space of a few blocks. The muscari bulbs were crazy fabulous. I was lying down on the sidewalk to examine them closely enough to suit my purposes. There will be some of them planted here at Tall Tales Headquarters this fall. For sure.
If you happen to find yourself with 23 chocolate cupcakes on hand and no twin 5 year olds, or an almost 3 year old, or an almost 2 year old around to feed them to, you might want to go buy some strawberries.
When you get home, cut them up.
Drizzle a little sugar on them (and maybe a few spoonfuls of Chambord) and let them get all good and juicy.
Then get out a cupcake, or two, or three, and a can of Reddi Wip and you are ready to assemble.
What you do with the other 20 cupcakes is up to you. But numbers 23, 22, and 21 can certainly be turned into a chocolate version of a strawberry shortcake.
It makes a pretty decent dessert in a pinch. If I do say so myself.
On Tuesday, when it got up to 82 degrees here (I am NOT complaining), I decided to put away the fall kitchen towels and get out the spring kitchen towels.
Sometimes changing the kitchen towels makes the experience of cleaning the kitchen more enjoyable. Taking out the different towels made me want to get out a vase, which led to the scissors.
Which led to some flower cutting, which led to the first garden arrangement of the year.
Which led to me thinking about the farmers market.
Which starts this coming Saturday in Lawrence. Oh joy!
Here are the last 2 squares of the Lizard Ridge afghan. I finished them last week after my return from Virginia.
This morning I decided it was high time to pull ALL the squares out, and get the blocking party started. All those lumps and bumps from the use of short rows will need to be taken care of before I connect the squares.
In the very back of the cabinet (which was hard to reach), I found something. An extra skein of yarn. I thought to myself how smart it was to buy one extra skein just in case something happened and I needed it.
I meandered into the laundry room, where I have a nice big sink for soaking knitting projects, and I proceeded to toss the squares into like piles. I ended up with this initial sorting of colors. Muted tones, blues and greens, brights, and a darker group.
As I was sorting them I kicked myself for not already taking care of all those hanging ends you see. For the last 8 or 10 squares I did them as I went. Clearly I was not as smart in the beginning of this project as I am now. Before I carried them back into the dining room to work in the ends, I counted them.
Twenty-three??? I counted again. Twenty-three!!! Crappity-crap-crap-crap. Extra skein my eye!
It appears that once I get done working in the ends, I am going to be casting on 43 stitches and beginning the actual last square.
During this week's FaceTime SketchTime I tried to make an alphabet like the one on the front of Em and the Big Hoom. I may need to do it 37 or 38 more times before I get it just right, but it's bold and colorful and that's the direction I was going for.
I used some black acrylic ink to make boxes around my letters and then because I poured out an overly generous amount I was forced to make more letters.
Followed by an Icterus Galbula and a Mark Hearld crow.
When that was done I tried out a bunch of new watercolors and ordered some colors I positively HAD to have.
Then I bit the ears off my chocolate bunny, and called it a day.
Today Chris and I held the annual dying of the eggs challenge. I always use the method employed by the Moss family for generations - warm water, store bought food coloring, and a splash of vinegar.
Chris uses the Mulvenon method - store bought egg dying kit complete with coloring tablets, magic message crayon, dipper, and Easter stickers. The masking tape was his idea.
A good time was had by all and in the end they made extremely tasty jalapeno deviled eggs.
Happy chocolate bunny eating day everyone!
Spring is bustin' out all over in my part of the world. These days I carry the Nikon with me on all my walks. Frequent stops are mandatory. The red buds are spectacular this year.
The Japanese maple held on to it's old leaves so long I was beginning to wander if new ones were coming. Silly me. Mother nature knows her business.
The flowering plums are so delicately beautiful.
This morning I noticed some nest making activity in the weeping cherry out front.
I had to crawl underneath to investigate while building supplies were being gathered by the future occupants.
I look forward to lots of bird watching over the next month or so. I wonder if needing to watch my mama robin lay the eggs, turn them regularly, keep them warm, then feed them would qualify me to apply for bird-ternity leave?
The book below was snatched up at The Raven bookstore simply on the basis of it's cover. Can you look at that lettering without wanting to grab a brush right this instant and make yourself an alphabet? I can't!
The story that goes with this cover is just as wildly colorful and sad and funny and worth reading. While I am at it. I know I have told you about My Favorite Things before. I like to keep it by my bed and review it regularly.
Every time I do that I find something new to study. Last night I found myself looking at her words as much as her paintings. There is much to like there.
This morning when I awakened, as soon as I got out of the shower, and after I dressed for work, I grabbed a chair and tried to balance it on my chin. It's way harder than Maira makes it look.
But the beauty of Maira Kalman is that she makes you want to try things. Things you think you can't do.
Have you ever hired a personal chef to come to your house and cook? Yeah. Me neither. I had really never considered it until my extremely smart niece did it for her dad (aka brother Ray).
Above you see at least 5 reasons to take the matter under advisement. Shrimp salad in cucumber cups, smoked Gouda pimento cheese on beer bread, crab cake over corn tomato relish with chili oil and a cilantro aioli, beef tenderloin medallions with grilled shrimp accompanied by a mushroom medley, grilled asparagus, and grits. The finale was a flourless chocolate cake with a raspberry sorbet and a salted caramel drizzle.
While all the cooking was going on we sat around and admired the skill of Chef Brian, and tried to pace ourselves. In addition to a completely amazing meal we did not have to grocery shop or even set the table. We did not wash or dry one single dish and everything was put away, like magic. At the conclusion of the meal I suggested to brother that he turn 60 every 4 or 5 months... and invite me to celebrate with him each time.
Attention: Anyone having a toddler over for Easter get one of these.
Between the opening, pouring, scooping, closing, and carrying around you are guaranteed to have hours and hours and hours of fun.
After all this playing you will have one sleepy baby girl who may or may not make it through her lunch before she needs a long nap.
