30 DAY ART CHALLENGE–I DID IT!

03 Wednesday Dec 2014

Posted by backyardnotes in Art, Creative, December

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30 Day Art Challenge, acrylic, Art, color pencil, Drawing, mixed media, painting, watercolor, works of art

FROM OCTOBER 17TH TO NOVEMBER 19TH I created 30 works of art, roughly one (or more) a day. It was a challenge and a blast! Tomorrow night as part of the Pioneer First Thursday ArtWalk, is the unveiling of the works of 110 artists and 3300 pieces of art! Check out some of the work here on their Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/30dayartchallenge. All of the work will be for sale tomorrow night through Saturday afternoon.

Here is a gallery of the work that I submitted. All work is on 8″ x 10″ canvas board. The work includes acrylic, watercolor (using watercolor ground for the first time), color pencil, mixed media, and oil pastel.

FORAGING THE DECEMBER VEGETABLE GARDEN

31 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by backyardnotes in Cooking & Eating, December, EAT!, Fun in the Garden, Winter

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Foraging, lacianto kale, mixed greens, mustard greens, radicchio, Rubine brussels sprouts, salad dressing, treviso, Winter salads, winter vegetable garden

The vegetable garden at partial rest on the last day of 2013

EARLIER THIS MONTH we had some decidedly cold weather for these parts–a week of temperatures in the low-to-mid 20’s overnight and not much above freezing during the daytime. Some of the more winter hardy vegetables are rebounding and shedding leaves that have turned to mush. Often at this time of year there are slim pickings for salads, but who doesn’t love a challenge?

Treviso type radicchio

Late yesterday I went foraging for salad material. I was able to collect some small, barely heading radicchio, lots of parsley, some Mibuna type mustard greens, cilantro, lacinato kale, small leaves from Rosalind broccoli, and some Rubine brussels sprouts; all hardy, hearty and strong greens.

Mixed, washed greens

Small lacinato kale leaves

Shaved Rubine brussels sprouts

Now, to put together the right dressing, equally hearty with flavors to stand up to and compliment the bitterness and ‘greeness’ of some of the greens.

The salad dressing

My favorite salad bowl was probably made for proofing bread dough once-upon-a-time. My grandma Aggie always had it filled with unshelled nuts, especially from Thanksgiving to Christmas and I never saw bread dough in it. I have owned it for 40 plus years and it is well seasoned by now. I mashed 2 cloves of garlic with some coarse salt into a paste; mashed 2 anchovy filets into a paste as well. To the garlic and anchovies, I whisked in 1 1⁄2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice, two teaspoons Dijon mustard and three tablespoons of grassy olive oil. About a tablespoon or so of capers added some extra punch.

The dressed greens

I added the greens, a little sliced celery and sweet slices of pear, the last one from our tree; tossed all together, sprinkled on some pomegranate seeds and a few grinds of pepper.

It was a fantastic salad, with bright and biting flavors. It may be on the menu tonight too!

A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who has stumbled upon this blog and paused to read one of my posts, and to those of you who subscribe. This is my 151st post since I began the blog in 2009. This year posts were kind of sporadic and I took a two month break; I might still have something left to say in 2014.

May you all have a HAPPY NEW YEAR IN 2014!

DECEMBER CATCH-UP

27 Monday Dec 2010

Posted by backyardnotes in Art, Birds, December, Garden Wildlife, Winter, Winter flowers

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HARD TO BELIEVE NEARLY A MONTH HAS PASSED since the last post, but December days seem to pass all too quickly and each day was filled with things to do as December 24th approached. Two days before the first day of winter we had a glorious sun filled day and stunning views of newly fallen snow in the Olympic Mountains to the west; an uplifting break from lots of rainy days. I even did some weeding and cold damage cleanup.

The first day of winter here revealed a beautiful full moon that set as the daylight grudgingly began around 7:30 a.m. Not the greatest photo, but kind of neat with Christmas lights on the fruit trees.

By moving the camera quickly I caught a more abstract composition of the moon and lights.

Plants continue to grow and show through the winter. The witch hazel, hamamelis x intermedia ‘Diane’ has begun blooming in the chill of December.

The fava bean plants, are growing nicely in spite of our coldsnap last month, as are some volunteer heads of raddichio ‘Castelfranco’, savoy cabbage, brussels sprouts and turnips. The broccoli plants really took a hit, so no more broccoli the rest of the winter.

ART CLASS finished up the second week of December and I finished a collage piece (below) in response to a poem received ( I also submitted a separate collage piece for the poetry class student) as a part of the annual Art/Poetry Show at South Seattle Community College. It is a collaboration between students in Poetry, Art and Photography classes. Students submit art and poetry and then create responses to those submissions. It is fun, creative and challenging. The show opens January 3, 2011.

AS DECEMBER wound down to Christmas Day I said so long to many jars of of jams, preserves, and pickles and little takeout cartons filled with cookies (decorated with art cut from Christmas cards received last year; thanks to Renée for the photo).

A FEW WEEKS AGO I hung up a suet feeder outside my office window for the flock of bushtits that pass through here twice a day. They were here this afternoon and mobbed the feeder; there are as many as twenty or more at times. They tiny, charming, and great consumers of insects (good!). It is also a treat for the Red-shafted flickers too.