Pack Rat Tuesday

Objet d'rat #2, big sticks and...



...little sticks.



I consider the garden an extension of my studio, so yeah, these count! For years, I've been thinking that I could make something with these (in addition to the trellises and such). Most are from my yard, but some I have dragged back from other places too. Most notably, in the big sticks photo, the curved branch right at the front—I dragged that one back from Tektronix campus a few years back when they chopped down a bunch of trees between Building 50 and 58 (where I spent my mis-spent youth) and built a Starbucks! They had the area all cordoned off, but when I came back from lunch, there was an opening. So I figured, hey, that must meant I could go in there.

So naturally, I went in there poking around. Then a couple of big guys in hard hats came out from behind some big tractors and started yelling at me and Giao, my accomplice. But then they asked what we were doing there (that was their mistake), so of course I said I was looking for a big branch.

"Ah, well, do you know which one you want?"

"Umm, how about that one?" I pointed to a big curved branch still attached to a tree.

"Well, ok." Then they took out a chainsaw and cut it right off for me. They even offered to load it in my car for me! But it really wasn't so big that we needed help.

So that's my souvenir branch from Tektronix. I had thought I'd use it to top the 2 big posts to make a little gate of sorts, but when I tried it, it didn't look quite right, so I did this instead, and the branch is still waiting for just the right project to come along.

Tragedy in the garden.

Not sure when this happened, but I noticed yesterday that half of the persimmon tree was lying on the ground!



The fallen half had ripped itself right off the trunk...this looks pretty serious.



I had been meaning to prune the tree for a couple of years and just never got around to it, so now it's gone and done it itself, although it didn't do a very good job. I've rescued the persimmons, 3 with spouts, but I doubt that they'll ripen.





After I cleaned it up, it doesn't look too bad. I'll have to see if there's something I'm supposed to put on the wound. The upside is that the vegetable bed will now get more sun.



The camellia that's blooming now. It's one of my favorite plants in the garden.



Relay/Replay at the library.

So here they are, at the John Wilson Special Collections, with lots of reflections from the overhead light and the window.





But what did I do today?

I did finish the 2nd room divider screen, and took photos. I'll upload those tomorrow. By 'finish,' I just mean that I put Danish oil on the wood and buffed it. I still need to insert the prints and gocco screens into the openings. These past 2 days have been really nice, so I wanted to take advantage of good weather and do the stuff that I have to do outside.