It's for the birds!

It's been awhile since I posted.  We went to Big Bend for a week.  In spite of being rained on, we had a lovely time.  April is a nice month to visit the desert.  The ocotillos were blooming, as were the prickly pear.  We just missed the yucca's extravagant display, but did see a few still in full, luscious bloom.

We had a few nights of rain.  I hate getting up in the middle of the night to go pee anyway, but getting up when it's muddy and rainy sort of sucks.  Our tent kept us mostly dry--if we didn't roll too close to the edge of the air mattress, where the bedding was sopping wet.   But  being in this beautiful, unspoiled region of Texas always feels like a gift.  You can drive 50 miles in any direction without seeing a power line or a billboard, or any other evidence of man, except of course the road you're on.   I love the harshness of the desert.  All the plants and animals who live there have to be extra tough.  I admire the tenacity of desert creatures.  

So this week we acquired a truck:

And started making a birdbath:

observing and contemplating birdbath

We still have many more bottle caps to apply.  I think we'll probably finish this little project tomorrow evening.  It may not be beautiful, but if it gives the birds a place to splash around and drink, then it's serving its purpose.  We joke that it's wabi sabi--imperfect, rather odd, and using materials we had at hand.  

Stepping into Spring

I stole that title from Kathleen, who hosted the most wonderful mid-day party today.  We made stepping stones.  Kat had quikcrete, concrete pavers, and everyone brought all kinds of yummy stuff to create beautiful stepping stones.  Some of my favorite things were ceramic pieces that Kat's mom, Pat, brought--just so many lovely things to play with.  Thanks, Pat!  Edmo brought some really cool stuff, too, including some fabulous ceramic angel heads.  Wish I'd had time to incorporate more of the great things everyone contributed. 

Making in the "artport"

Triple threat--Erika, Elena, and Kat

my first stepping stone

Supplies galore!

Some of our handiwork

Elena's feet and her lovely work

Happy Laura

my second stepping stone

It was a great spring day with fine friends,  delicious food, and time well-spent making!  It doesn't get any better than that.  

Now it's time to finish getting ready for our trip to Big Bend.  We leave tomorrow.  I'm sure I'll be posting about it upon my return.  My love for the Southwest just keeps growing.  

Austin Funky Chicken Coop Tour

Hooray for the folks who sponsor the Austin Funky Chicken Coop Tour!   We had a fabulous time this morning and visited 7 different sites.  We saw big operations: House Bar Farm, owned by the folks who run Eastside Cafe (They also supply the cafe with all their eggs.),  is a big chicken ranch with 200 Bovan chickens who are happily roaming acres of land.  Their coop used to be a crack house and now securely houses the happy flock at night;  and Springdale Farms with their flock of 70 or so beautiful hens, and one rooster.  We were particularly interested in the families with 6 to 10 chickens who nest in some wonderfully creative and aesthetically pleasing coops.   What I really loved was getting to visit with the owners of these contented birds, who were very generous in sharing what they've learned about raising happy hens.  The chickens were delightful: curious, attractive, interested creatures so unlike the sad birds who spend their short lives on factory farms.  

The girls in photo just above may look like they're in crowded conditions, but they had acres to roam and these particular hens were just having a chat fest on the shady side of their coop.

This was our favorite small coop (Morgan and Pat liked it a lot!) artfully decorated with tile.  This coop (the owner, who's name I didn't catch is on the far right in the yellow shirt) housed 6 chickens.  We liked this chicken house so much that we're planning on incorporating elements into our own coop design.

We've been collecting materials for our coop for awhile now, so we'll have to figure out exactly what we have and what we'll need.  I'd love to have a rainwater catchment system so the hens can have fresh rainwater.  I'm sure they'd like that!  I'm going to be spending a lot of time Googling free chicken coop designs to download.   There are still a lot of bulky pick-up days coming up, so you can be sure we'll be out there scavenging stuff to build our dream coop.  I'm already planning to make some silk screen designs for it!  Chickens!  Yay!

Blooming

I took some snaps yesterday of what's in bloom around our house.  

The columbine in the tub isn't quite blooming yet, but it has little buds and I bet today at least one of them will open.  The one just above, tropical sage or tropical salvia coccinea, was just planted last week. The little jasmine that was also planted last week has grown a sturdy new sprig.   The weather here has been glorious and perfect for the spring garden, lots of sunny days interspersed with days of rain.  It's a Central Texas gardener's dream.  

Bulky pick up day!

It's bulky pick up week in my neighborhood.  I love it.  So far we've scored a big roll of green fencing for our future chicken enclosure, a hollow-core door for my screen printing table, a crappy dolly with really good wheels, two wooden planter boxes, and my favorite thing so far: an old rattan table for the patio plants.

I'll paint the planter boxes and clear coat the table.  I like the way it looks, but it will need protection

from the rain and sun.  Don't look at the sad ginger plant in the back.  I'm putting it in the ground this year.  Poor thing barely survived the freeze, but it's making a valiant effort to come back.  

The two Mexican feather grasses that my friend, Stella, gave me are doing well in their pots, but I'd really like to give them a home in the ground.  Maybe if I ever get rid of the grass in the hell strip, they'd like to live there.  

Our garden is doing really well this spring. The seeds we just planted are sprouting and the lettuces and greens that were planted about a month ago are thriving.

Stamp making/madness

I've been making stamps today and thinking about a larger project to incorporate them.  

I will be making stamps for the rest of the week I think.  They're pretty basic at this point.  They're super fun to make and if you want to learn how to make them, you can take a really fun class with Kathleen

McTee (I can't stop singing her praises!) at the Stitch Lab for only $40!  What a deal!  She will show you several different techniques and you can print your designs on paper and/or fabric.  I keep thinking of different things to do with them: borders on paintings or prints, greeting cards, tea towel borders, pillow case borders (I like borders!), or  using several different ones together to make an image for a screen print.  Learning how to make stuff is super fun and I can feel new spaces in my brain opening up every time I learn something new.  I think this is called "burning new neural pathways."  It's a good thing.  

Spring Fevered

It's been awhile since I posted.  I made more t-shirts and this time I got the iron really hot so when they were washed they barely faded.  Success! 


Tuesday my friend, Kat, and I went to the nursery in the pouring rain.  I donned my rubber boots and if my feet don't get wet, I'm perfectly happy tramping around in the mud.   I needed only tomatoes and peppers for the vegetable garden and it's still too cool to put them in ( It's supposed to get down to the upper 30s this weekend, so I'll plant them early next week.), but I did find a few other lovely plants. 


 There's a lot to love about springtime in Austin: the weather's perfect, many of the trees are budding and blooming, and the air smells clean and sweet.  

My lady banks rose has just begun to bloom. It doesn't bloom long, and only in the spring, but it's huge and blooms profusely.   I'll try to get some better pictures next week.  This one is a little overexposed. 

 A few of the plants I bought for the back yard beds are two coral berry plants, a couple of Katy ruelias, a beautiful white tropical salvia coccinea, a wood violet, and a barely pink jasmine.  The jasmine is pictured below.

I couldn't resist these English Daisies for the front porch.  I'm loving white flowers right now.

I also pulled up a bazillion baby hackberry trees.  I love having a creek behind us, but the creek bed is lined with hackberry and ligustrum.  Meh.  I try to think that all trees are good, but because these are not native species and are very invasive, I don't encourage them.  Unfortunately,  in a war with hackberry, humans rarely win!