Collar Garden

Vegetable Garden, Flower Garden, Rock Garden, how ‘bout a Collar Garden?  Well not really, but dog collars are helping me grow a garden.  I have lots of little fabric scraps left over from making my collars.  I have duffel bags full, boxes full, totes full, you name it and it’s got little pieces of material stuffed in it that I’ve saved up all winter.    Most of them aren’t even big enough to give to someone to use for a quilt.  So they just get tossed aside and wait for summer. 

 And why do I save all those itsy bitsy pieces you ask?

   

COMPOST!!! 

Yup, compost.  I won’t even call that stuff we have under the grass around here soil, I don’t even think I want to call it dirt.  It’s a little dirt mixed with clay and lots and lots of rocks.  The only thing that grows in it is rocks.  They seem to just pop up like weeds, every spring I swear I find rocks (more like boulders) in the middle of my yard where I KNOW there wasn’t any the last time I mowed.  Forget about keeping a blade sharp on the mower, sharpen it and you’re just asking to hear that sickening scrape of rock against metal.  Anyways, back to all the little bitty pieces of fabric.  (Sorry, I hate Missouri “dirt”)  As soon as the weather warms up I start putting some of it in the compost bin.  

     This is what's left of a zipper I put in the pile last fall!

 

This is what all those little bitty, itsy bitsy, teeny tiny scraps (along with whatever vegetable scraps comes out of my kitchen and garden) turn into.  Nice rich dark compost that I can grow my garden in!

 

So Coopers Collars really truly are recycled in more ways than one!

Now to figure out what to do with all the stuff that won't compost.....  I’m thinking rugs.

Booker WIP

REALLY going slow on this one! 

 I so need to get motivated and get this done!

But it's been just sooooo nice out and my garden keeps calling....

and Cooper needs walks........

and yard needs mowed.......

collars and camera strap orders needed made.......

and Cooper needs walked, oh, did I say that again?

well, he does love his walks!

Pickin' up PawPaws

Where, oh where, Is dear little Nellie?
Where, oh where, Is dear little Nellie?
Where, oh where, Is dear little Nellie?
Way down yonder In the pawpaw patch.

Come on, boys, Let's go find her.
Come on, boys, Let's go find her,
Come on, boys, Let's go find her,
Way down yonder In the pawpaw patch.

Pickin’ up pawpaws,
Puttin' 'em in your pocket,
Pickin’ up pawpaws,
Puttin' 'em in your pocket,
Pickin’ up pawpaws,
Puttin' 'em in your pocket,
Way down yonder
In the pawpaw patch.

I remember my Grandpa singing this to me.  Imagine my surprise to find out I have a PawPaw Patch of my own down by one of my creeks!  Whenever I go down there I'm always reminded of him and our walks in the woods when I was young.  

Every spring they are covered with these deep burgundy blooms.  They bloom in early April and IF they get pollinated and IF we don’t get another frost ( that’s BIG IF’s, seems  we almost always get a killing frost) there’ll be some of the most delicious fruits about Oct.!   

I know, they're really weird looking! 

Sooo, I came across one of my photos of a bloom and decided to take a break from Booker and do something with a little color.  Sometimes I just have to get away from a piece and come back to it to keep from getting bored and getting sloppy.  This was a nice little distraction.

 I started with a grisaille using Tuscan red and Marine green.  And I did not use any black!!  That was my challenge for myself, to do a painting without using any black.  That's very hard for me!  I want to grab that black pencil sooo bad.....

  All CP (can you believe it no watercolor!)  

  This is a small one, only about 6x6

140lb. Arches Aquarelle

 

And now back to Booker.