International Arte Y Pico Award

Isn’t she lovely?
Isn’t she wonderful?
Isn’t she precious?…
Truly the angel’s best…

Stevie Wonder

Oh, my goodness. In the last twenty four hours I have found, left in the wee hours at my virtual doorstep, not one, but the equivalent of two delicious bottles of cream! One was left by dear Ewa in Poland, who, bless her heart, awarded me with the Arte Y Pico Award and wrote:

1/ Kathryn at PlantWhateverBringsYouJoy from California – written by ‘light pen’ Kathryn – very witty and cheerful with many beautiful pictures. When I read it, I feel Kathryn smiling 🙂 Thank you Kathryn, that I found your blog and you feed my hunger for Good Vibes.

[Lap, lap, lap. Good timing!] Is that not so sweet? Yum! And if you go visit her blog you will be treated to a virtual tour in the most extraordinary multi-tiered garden in Poland at the moment. Lovely, Ewa!

And as if that were not enough, apparently the Universe has me on a little Recognition List this week (thank You, Mother/Father God) for when I opened my email, there was this lovely Arte Y Pico acknowledgment from the captivating Shirley Bovshow, host and designer of the “Garden Police”on the Discovery Home Channel! Wow! Thank you, Shirley!

1. Plant Whatever Brings You Joy blog by Kathryn Hall. How can you not love a blog with this name? Kathryn’s polished, yet accessible writing style inspires me to sign up for writing classes! Her posts are varied in subject matter from garden art, garden tools, vegetable gardening, recipes and much more. A common theme that I gravitate to is how Kathryn finds joy in most everything in life and in the garden.

[Slurp, slurp. Irreverent burp. Awww. Thanks. I feel better now!] Yes, timely. And I feel so very honored.

So now my curiosity is naturally piqued and I have to find out more about the Arte y Pico Award, of course! Apparently we owe this award to a woman named Ana who lives in Uruguay, who is a dollmaker. The tag line for her blog is “Dolls with History”! (Who knew??) Ana says:

…Me he embarcado en un maravilloso viaje conociendo artesanas de gran valor y con una creatividad increible.

And that means, she has embarked on a marvelous trip getting to know artisans of great worth and incredible creativity. And out of this impulse the Arte Y Pico Award evolved. Gracias, Ana!

I wrote to Ana in Spanish (she does not speak English) to see if I could hone in on the exact meaning of “pico” since it follows the word AND. Some things do better in Spanish. Here’s what she wrote to me:

Muchos me preguntan que significa el termino. Si tu entiendes lo que voy a explicarte y lo escribes en ingles, me lo puedes enviar para ponerlo en mi blog?? Yo no hablo ingles, solo uso traductor. Pico, es una forma de decir en mi pais, diciendo que es MUCHO de algo. Entonces ARTE Y PICO significa mucho arte. comprendes?

Which means, she gets asked that a lot, and if I can figure it out in English she will put it on her blog. It literally means “a lot of something.” And basically, ironically, it translates into a wonderful phrase in Mexico, “lo maximo.” LOL! It will never find its counterpart in English, but if it HAD to, it would be something like, Wow. The Best Art. Over the top.

I can live with that, right?

All awards and recognition, here and abroad, are to be cherished as recognition by your peers of what you have done in and out of magic.”

Paul Daniels, British magician

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

In humble gratitude,
Kathryn xoxoo

Posted on June 27th, 2008 by Kathryn
Filed under: Awards | 15 Comments »

I don’t care what those oil pigs charge us for gasoline (oink, oink) I will not go back to a motorless lawn mower, especially now that I’m forever hooked on my new Lawnboy. Yes, Lawnboy. No, not that kind of lawnboy. My Lawnboy! Here he is, standing in the bright, hot California sunshine:

Here’s how he came to be part of the gardening family. You might recall that Bunny Guiness’s book inspired me. I went into Home Depot knowing I really needed a new lawn mower. Frankly they all look about the same to me. Either you are standing up or sitting down. Fortunately I have a small enough lawn and I wanted a standup version. And I liked the green one, particularly as it was originally quite pricey, but for some reason had been returned, and substantially marked down. It looked fine to me. I took the chance and brought it home. Uh-oh. Not working. Went back and talked to a young man who actually had the following converation with me:

Young man: I’m off this weekend. I could come over to your house and see what’s wrong with it.

Moi: You would do that? That’s awfully nice of you!

Young man, dead serious: Yes, m’am. That’s all right. I like helping the elderly.

(GASP!)

Now I ask you…

Photo of Kathryn taken one week ago at Nickel Creek Nursery

See? What was he thinking? Maybe they all die really young in his family. I don’t know. But anyway, after I gave him a teeny piece of my mind, laughing the whole time, I gave him my address, and God bless his heart, he did show up and he not only fixed the Lawnboy, he noticed I was not given a bag, and ordered the bag for me from the company and it came along by UPS. How’s about that for a deal?

Still one problem. One morning I could once again not get it to start. Took it next door to Dave, my neighbor, whom you might recall, and Dave pulled the cord and pulled up a second handle I had not noticed before. And that’s how Dave and I learned about Self Propelled Lawnmowers! Because at that moment the lawnmower seemed to have a mind of its own and dug up a big line of grass in Dave’s perfect lawn and took off with poor Dave across the lawn, oh, dear. I yelled, “Let go of that handle, Dave!” And he did, thank heavens!

So now I have a self propelled lawnmower and, boy, does that make a difference! I obviously didn’t even know there was such a thing!

What else didn’t I know? I noticed Bunny used a very wide rake, so I bought this big blue one:

That makes a huge difference in impact with a single stroke. What a gift.

Then I ordered a hula hoe, which Dave had introduced me to last year, but I never saw any in any stores, ever. Got it from Seeds of Change. Oh, it makes weeding so much easier, I can barely believe it. That blade is very sharp. The hula hoe will make my gardening much more efficient. Hallelujah!

(I have a Dutch hoe on back order, as Bunny said it was the best.)

Then I got this tree pruner that has its cords inside, so I don’t find it intimidating. I can finally prune the old lilac trees that must be sixty years old, but way too tall to deadhead. Yippee.

And, oh, my goodness! Have you ever seen an edging iron like this? It’s amazing! You press that sharp blade down along the grassy edge, and place your boot on that little ledge and push down. Whack! I can now edge the front lawn so much more effectively. I love it!

And to round things out, Ruby and Conner got a new purple pool today! My lovely garden is totally transformed with new tools and playthings! Ruby, who loves to “swim” ran circles in that pool for a good fifteen minutes she was so delighted! Every photo I took of her was just a doggie blur. Fortunately, good boy Conner just stands in it when he gets hot.

What could be better?

Love and gardening blessings,
Kathryn xox

Posted on June 20th, 2008 by Kathryn
Filed under: People at Work | 24 Comments »