Wild Summer

unidentified spider from genus Auraneus

This has been the year of the insect...and nearly everything else. In our pond frogs and turtles are prolific with bullfrogs staging impromptu concerts any time of day (while the herons aren't lurking). Over the last couple of days this year's red-tail hatch-ling has been calling for its parents to keep providing meals, competing in loudness with the bullfrogs.

The winter was so warm there was no winter kill...seems every weed seed and insect egg survived. We saw several kinds of aphids in record plant-destroying numbers. Deer flies have been lurking in the shade for weeks and have bitten all of us ~ they are especially cruel to the dog. I know more people who have had Lyme disease this year than any other year previously, including me. Considering I spent a good portion of the summers of my youth where the disease was discovered I figured with smarts and caution I would continue to beat the odds. No chance, not this year.

A record dragonfly hatch brought hundreds of swallows gorging on an easy meal for several evenings. I have seen more kinds of insects I have never seen before. After Donna and I walked the dog last night I wondered about spiders. By now there would generally be several large webs in the garden. Don't get me wrong...they are there...just not the same types in the same places. Donna found the one pictured today.

tomato "cat-facing" 

Truth be told I have somewhat surrendered to the pestilence and vermin that are proving to be the scourge of the garden. Drought followed by 2 2" each rainstorms split most of the tomatoes which were already cat-faced. Patient trimming of tomatoes can yield edible fruit but hot humid weather gave insects a chance to occupy those yummy cracks and spoiled most of what I had. This year I changed types of plants on my father's advice but now this is the second year in a row with a poor yield I am not sure what I will do next year. Heirloom varieties are not always known for disease resistance and the plants were place improperly for irrigation through the drought. I gambled my garden and lost! I found the cutest little bunnies just outside the garden fence...and watched them zip right on in to the garden through tiny holes. They ate down favorite herbs and even nibbled the tomatoes they could reach. A rabbit now and again...yes...but a dozen? Really?!

The most surprising problem we had was with plants inexplicably dying. Turns out the black walnut and butternut trees my father planted years ago have put on just the right amount of root growth to touch the garden, destroying new asparagus plants and tainting a portion of the tomatoes. The trees put out a toxin in the soil designed to reduce competition. I dislike the bitter flavor of the valuable nuts...and now I have a new reason to scowl at these woody giants. I was already criticizing them for cutting down on morning sun in spots.

Time to get new bug books and figure out new gardening strategies.

Food Heaven?

Okay. So I admit it. One of the ways I express my creativity is through cooking. I suppose that isn't a surprise since my form is significantly more rotund than it was when I was younger, and I come from a family of cooks but unlike my the vertically challenged rest of the crew I am a mere 5 feet.

 I can't tell you how many artists I know are gardeners, and if not gardeners then straight out COOKS. The beauty of being a gardener and a cook is that as the bounty rolls in you just have to get more and more imaginative. This is late in the season because we started with high heat early on...like all of North America...so we are seeing the peak of the season early. Drought has all but destroyed the crops and four inches of rain in a few days after all that dry doomed what is left. But I wanted to have a revolution on the barbecue before it rains again. I had a ripe pineapple on the counter and grilled pineapple salsa has been the condiment of the summer. We like the cooking shows and in particular "Chopped", which currently is having a grill master series. They influenced me this way:

I took my pineapple slices and added SALT, pepper, brown sugar and cayenne pepper. Sweet caramelizing on sweet with a spicy kick. Awesome. And if you have to break up with someone at least take the family recipes. Turns out the family recipes were some of what I value most! To get near the original recipe but with my own twist I soaked 4 boneless pork chops (2 for lunch for each of us tomorrow) in soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, garlic powder, red pepper flake and salt and ground black pepper. In a bowl I combined Ken's french dressing (the old divorced family secret always was applied to lamb), soy sauce, brown sugar, granulated garlic, red pepper flake and ground black pepper. The pineapple slices and pork hit the grill at the same time, and I reserved the french dressing based sauce as if it was BBQ sauce. Essentially it was! After 3 minutes I flipped the chops and applied the sauce. Flip and apply...flip...rest. Yum freaking yum. What is your favorite food to BBQ?

Arctic Stories

After making several piece that included sea birds I kept wandering about the ocean and landed, easily, in Inuit mythology. This is the work contained in the Butler-McCook House & Garden show sponsored by CT Landmarks.

Keep reading for the longer version of how I got to these stories...

Over the last year as I muddled about with my work imagining and drawing birds trapped in oil spills and other at sea disasters the Audubon Society began a campaign to broaden understanding about the impact rapid warming in the arctic is having on species of birds we know and love locally. And I have always been a fan of Inuit art, often including a segment for kids when I teach. So I started reading...about new species being discovered deep in the trenches of the ocean, about Inuit life and the stories that make up their understanding of the world and all other kinds of arctic wonders.

Another reason I have been interested in the Inuit is that they seized upon traditional art-making as a way of life when their hunting and gathering ways were altered by the encroachment of modern life. Years ago I had read the story of Skeleton Woman as told by Clarissa Pinkola Estes in Women Who Run With Wolves. http://mavenproductions.com/index.php/services/dr-clarissa-pinkola-estes/ and I sought out the book and story again as I tried to embrace and feed my own bones of sadness after the snow storm accident last October 30. Skeleton Woman led to Sedna, the Inuit Goddess of the Sea...and suddenly a series of images was hatched. The Inuit people are spread across the world north of us and their stories of Sedna differ slightly from region to region. I created a panel that depicted an aspect of one of those stories and then a panel of text to accompany it.

then I created panels that depicted the new sea species being discovered. For the small but lovely gallery at the Butler-McCook House & Garden I displayed 4 of these completed panels along with 4 of the Deepwater Horizon Gulf Spill drawing. The preceding works are the panels. The stories have similarities and I have romanticized some details and minimized others, so you will see overlap in the texts.