Birthday present: BULBS!

Ha! Celebrated my birthday this year a bit belatedly to be able to share with my dear friend Eta and also so lovely daughter Antonia could join us once her grad school classes were complete for the semester. That’s our beautiful Princess Cake above. Yum.

What I had not anticipated was that my dearest friend Cornelia would bless me with 106 bulbs as a birthday present! Fabulous, glorious and intimidating!

She gave me 36 lilies (a mix of Casablanca, Rio Negro, and Dizzy–what I’m going to be after planting so many bulbs!) and 70 gladiolus (Espresso and Fiorentina). The bags say Sun/Soleil on the front, so the folks in France are going to be joining me in finding sunny spots for our new beauty endeavors! Now. In spite of having lived in Holland for three full years do I know zip about bulbs? Not really. So this is not only a gift of bulbs; it’s an opportunity for me to finally get over the mystery in my head about bulbs in general and learn to Do This Right!

So off I go to John, the nurseryman, to ask for his kind guidance in bulb schooling…

[Here you imagine my getting into my truck and going off to the nursery. BUT!]

A funny thing happened on the way to the nursery. There’s a woman who has been remodeling a house in the neighborhood who happens to have a lot of gorgeous new tulips out front. And she was there in the front yard as I drove past. Screeching halt. Pull into her driveway. Hi! I’m your neighbor!

As it happens this woman is a very experienced garden with professional credentials. No need to go all the way to the nursery. At all.

“I’m noticing all your lovely tulips out front. My friend gave me bulbs for my birthday.”

“Too late.”

“For tulips?”

“Yep.”

“They aren’t tulips. They are glads. And lilies.”

“Oh! Well, perfect timing.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

And this is why I believe her.

delicious orange tulips!

lovely creamy yellow tulip

OMG, BIG red tulips

“Uh, what kind of tulips are these?”

“Normal.”

“Normal? I’ve never seen tulips that big.”

“They’re normal. They’re just open.”

“Open? Those are BIG tulips!”

“Huh. Maybe they are empires.”

LOL!

So talking to my new friend Lois, I guess all I really have to do is plant these bulbs soon, in the sun, about 6-8″ deep in the ground. And here’s the best part! Because I live in California, I don’t have to do anything much else except enjoy them! Because apparently all that early programming I absorbed about bulbs being mysterious only applies to other regions. Not here. Isn’t that fantastic?? I can’t wait.

Love and gardening blessings,
Kathryn xoxo

Oh! Book News!: Ode Magazine is publishing one of the stories from Plant Whatever Brings You Joy in their June issue! It’s the story of when Antonia and I created a garden in front of our flat in Amsterdam, thereby transforming our connection with the whole neighborhood! Happy about that! 🙂

Posted on March 31st, 2011 by Kathryn
Filed under: People at Life | 8 Comments »

Letter from Sendai


Zelkova trees in Sendai, lighted for annual Pageant of Starlight

Sendai is recognized throughout Japan for its exquisite nature and called as “mori no miyako” or the City of Trees. From the lush greenery of the zelkova trees that line the streets, to the clear and tranquil Hirose-gawa River that winds through the heart of the city, to the beautiful scenery that offers a peaceful atmosphere, Sendai is a modern city in harmony with nature.

A letter from Japan

On Mar 13, 2011, at 9:59 AM, SUSAN wrote:
From my cousin Anne Thomas in Sendai , Japan where she has lived for the past decade teaching English. Very moving.

Hello My Lovely Family and Friends,

First I want to thank you so very much for your concern for me. I am very touched. I also wish to apologize for a generic message to you all. But it seems The best way at the moment to get my message to you.

Things here in Sendai have been rather surreal. But I am very blessed to have wonderful friends who are helping me a lot. Since my shack is even more worthy of that name, I am now staying at a friend’s home. We share supplies like water, food and a kerosene heater. We sleep lined up in one room, eat by candlelight, share stories. It is warm, friendly, and beautiful.

During the day we help each other clean up the mess in our homes. People sit in their cars, looking at news on their navigation screens, or line up to get drinking water when a source is open. If someone has water running in their home, they put out sign so people can come to fill up their jugs and buckets.

Utterly amazingly, where I am there has been no looting, no pushing in lines. People leave their front door open, as it is safer when an earthquake strikes. People keep saying, “Oh, this is how it used to be in the old days when everyone helped one another.”

Quakes keep coming. Last night they struck about every 15 minutes. Sirens are constant and helicopters pass overhead often.

We got water for a few hours in our homes last night, and now it is for half a day. Electricity came on this afternoon. Gas has not yet come on. But all of this is by area. Some people have these things, others do not. No one has washed for several days. We feel grubby, but there are so much more important concerns than that for us now. I love this peeling away of non-essentials. Living fully on the level of instinct, of intuition, of caring, of what is needed for survival, not just of me, but of the entire group.

There are strange parallel universes happening. Houses a mess in some places, yet then a house with futons or laundry out drying in the sun. People lining up for water and food, and yet a few people out walking their dogs. All happening at the same time.

Other unexpected touches of beauty are first, the silence at night. No cars. No one out on the streets. And the heavens at night are scattered with stars. I usually can see about two, but now the whole sky is filled. The mountains of Sendai are solid, and with the crisp air we can see them silhouetted against the sky magnificently.

And the Japanese themselves are so wonderful. I come back to my shack to check on it each day, now to send this e-mail since the electricity is on, and I find food and water left in my entranceway. I have no idea from whom, but it is there. Old men in green hats go from door to door checking to see if everyone is OK. People talk to complete strangers asking if they need help. I see no signs of fear. Resignation, yes, but fear or panic, no.

They tell us we can expect aftershocks, and even other major quakes, for another month or more. And we are getting constant tremors, rolls, shaking, rumbling. I am blessed in that I live in a part of Sendai that is a bit elevated, a bit more solid than other parts. So, so far this area is better off than others. Last night my friend’s husband came in from the country, bringing food and water. Blessed again.

Somehow at this time I realize from direct experience that there is indeed an enormous cosmic evolutionary step that is occurring all over the world right at this moment. And somehow as I experience the events happening now in Japan , I can feel my heart opening very wide. My brother asked me if I felt so small because of all that is happening. I don’t. Rather, I feel as part of something happening that much larger than myself. This wave of birthing (worldwide) is hard, and yet magnificent.

Thank you again for your care and Love of me,

With Love in return, to you all,
Anne

Tend your hearts, dear readers.
Love and blessings,
Kathryn xoxo

Posted on March 16th, 2011 by Kathryn
Filed under: Planet Earth | 23 Comments »

Book Notes: The Handbook of Natural Plant Dyes

Some long time ago in my earliest explorations of All Things Natural and Organic [read When I Was a Hippie] I found myself enchanted with the notion of creating dyes from my natural surroundings. While I was partially successful, with the lack of good information available at the time, it was a hard path to sustain. If only I’d had Sasha Duerr’s new The Handbook of Natural Plant Dyes to guide me! This seminal work is probably the only book you would ever need to spend weeks or months or years exploring the latent possibilities of the plants you find in your own environment as sources of rich and wondrous color. What a gift!

The Handbook of Natural Plant Dyes is a comprehensive manual for fully exploring dyeing with plants. These plant sources can be drawn from your neighborhood streets, vacant lots, or your own backyard!

Here are some of the plants you are familiar with that can be used for dying fabrics, yarns, ribbons, sheepswool, silk, cashmere, alpaca, and angora (from bunnies!) as well as many other natural fibers.

Jasmine–makes light yellows and pale greens
Rose hips–create a rosy-beige
Lavender–makes shades from light beige to cool purple-grey
Rosemary–makes greens to browns
Elderberry–yields shades of purple, blue and grey
Sour grass–makes a bright yellow
Japanese maple–creates a silvery grey when used with iron (directions included)
Comfrey–makes light to deep greens

Old lace bathed in black walnut hulls and mint

Brilliant blue dye created from red cabbage!

One of the sections of the book I found particularly inspiring spoke of creating small “spiral gardens,” rather a garden within a garden where you might grow plants specifically for your dyeing processes.

A Spiral Dye Garden
A unique way of creating a raised-bed garden is by making it a spiral garden…a round garden made from a spiral of rocks that winds upward, enclosing the soil and warming and dehumidifying it…Spiral gardens can be quite fun to have on a school ground or in the community, since they add both practicality and creativity to the garden landscape.

Everything you need to know has been included in this book, including an extensive list of equipment one needs to get started. The list includes:

*stainless steel pots of different sizes
*a mortar and pestle
*glass jars for mordant solutions (which fix the dyes)
*a sturdy drying rack
*plastic buckets for soaking, washing and rinsing fibers
*glass measuring cups in a variety of sizes
*stainless steel strainers

Author Sasha Duerr was raised on a Christmas tree farm in Maine and in Hawaii. Her earliest roots lie in nature. Out of this rootedness sprouted an artist determined to stick with her natural instincts. She has done much work to provide us with such a fine resource and many will be inspired by her teachings.

Love and gardening blessings,
Kathryn xooxoo

Book News: I want to take a moment to express my deepest gratitude to Baker Creek Seed Bank in Petaluma; to Bookshop Santa Cruz, who selected my book as a Staff Favorite!; to Kepler’s in Menlo Park; to Gallery Bookshop in Mendocino village; to Book Depot in Mill Valley and to all the Copperfield’s Bookstores in Sonoma and Napa for selling so many copies of Plant Whatever Brings You Joy: Blessed Wisdom from the Garden. What a wonderful launch for my book! Thanks so much to all of you and to all of my wonderful readers!

Posted on March 6th, 2011 by Kathryn
Filed under: Book Notes | 10 Comments »

« Previous Page — Next Page »
© 2008 - 2025 Kathryn Hall. All rights reserved.
For optimal viewing Mac users using IE should access via Safari.
Pixel Surgery by Site Mechanix