...Candlestick Maker

These are 3/4 inch female adapters for copper piping found in the plumbing aisle at Home Depot.

And those are 10 inch plain, unscented, taper candles. The classic candle, with the classic "just wax and fire" scent, in the classic "thank you but white is a color too" color.

When there are no copper candlesticks to be found, indeed when any kind of candlesticks at all seem to be a rare find on store shelves devoted to jars, pillars, and votives, a bit of creativity is called for.

A little Boraxo and a scrubby pad quickly removed the price stickers from the copper fittings, and no further cleaning or preparation was required. Insert candle. Voila.

I love when simple things are actually simple.

Simply Color

"The simplification of anything is always sensational." -- G.K. Chesterton

Garden Colors

The white coneflower is blooming.

The red crepe myrtles are putting on a show.
Red cottoneatser berries have replaced the pink cottoneaster blooms. The white hydrangea are blooming, finally. The pink and white yarrows are almost finished, and the white tall phlox are mostly surviving even if they are losing their blooms. Phlox are perennial, so the plants will come back stronger next year.

The red nasturtiums are annual though and didn't survive the lack of watering, but the red and pink portulacas -- annual moss roses -- are thriving (and okay, yes, there are some pale yellow ones too, but that's to help tie in the yellow tones in the pink and yellow roses).

And the White butterfly bushes are blooming.
So is the purple butterfly bush. Can you guess what color it was supposed to be? Last year it bloomed pink. And last year I moved everything pink or red to the front garden... or so I thought. The red daylilies cheerfully and perversely blooming in the back garden where I could swear I had planted yellow hyperion daylilies might also argue against me.

I don't think the purple looks too very bad though. The humming birds and butterflies are loving it. If I add a couple more spots of purple maybe I won't need to move the huge bush and it will look like I meant to add a touch of purple...

... Come to think of it, last year all those lovely moundy (pink) mums edging the walk had a suspiciously purple tinge to their blooms.

Color in Front

Portulaca ... "Moss Rose"

Hot colors ... Hot dry garden spot

Portulaca are perfect for edging some annual color in right next to the sidewalk.

I love the way they pick up the colors of the real roses ("Tropical Sunset" and "Climbing Joseph's Coat") at the back of the bed and echo the planter of cheerful orange pansies.

Yellows ... Pinks ... Oranges ... Reds

Good thing the house is neutral colors. :D

Looking Back

A milestone in the blogging world, the 500th blog post offers a chance to look back over the accumulated postings and realize how far we have travelled together.
At first I thought I might let it pass without comment. Then again...

... a montage of photos from posts over these last two years might be just the thing to mark my 500th post.

Also, I just realized I actually have followers. And none of you are related to me! Thank you. I have no idea how anyone managed to figure out following when I didn't have a button up (I've put one up now) but I am delighted you did.

Green and Orange

Today, they say, everyone is Irish. Happy Saint Patrick's Day. Most Americans will be wearing green today in celebration of the feast day of this Roman Catholic saint from Old Ireland.

I won't be.

In the traditions of Ireland, it is the Catholics who wear green. Protestants wear ORANGE. In fact, in the more turbulent recent past Saint Paddy's Day saw Scotch-Irish Presbyterians marching in demonstrations known as the Orangeman Parades. So to those in green I have to ask: Are we all Catholic today too?

Me? I'll be the one in brown, or gray, or purple....

Vanilla Colors

Even with all the snow on the ground I am not tired of white.
Not tired of wide lace and old linen whites.

Low hanging moons and new taper candlewicks whites.

Crisp painted bead board and Clorox clean ceramic whites.

Big puffy horizon clouds and still seeds for the moment but soon will flower whites.

It is a very ordinary color. And gloriously so.

A Day of White

White Tulips in a white pitcher.

Looking lovely in the living room -- thank you to my sister.

White paint drying on new shelves in the closet in my kitchen.
With an air intake vent in the bottom of this closet it was useless as a coat closet. Project: add shelves and turn the useless kitchen closet into a handy pantry.

White Snow lining tree branches.

About a foot of it on the ground now and still coming down.

Blue Hoo

Can you guess what this is?

From the back it's hard to tell. Here's a hint.
That's right. It's BLUE HOO.
Future owls are planned, among them: Bally Hoo, You Hoo, Wa Hoo, Hoo Cares, and You Know Hoo.

A Lump of Coal, Part 3

Within a decade of Perkin's discovery of aniline Mauve, chemical dye production was in full swing and histoligists were using artificial dyes to stain samples. Although at the start of the nineteenth century doctors and scientists had no idea that bacteria caused illness, by the end of the 19th century researchers like Robert Koch were combining the work of Louis Pasteur and the work of William Perkin. Koch used synthetic dyes to stain and to see (under a microscope) previously invisible unknown germs and identified the germs for anthrax, tuberculosis, and cholera.

Another scientist, Gerhard Domagk, worked with coal tar dyes to create a pill which when swallowed would kill specific bacteria. Domagk discovered that the red dye Prontosil was effective against blood poisoning (Streptoccus) in mice. When his daughter developed blood poisoning Domagk gave her the treatment, as yet untested on humans. She recovered -- although her skin also turned an odd shade of red for a time. Domagk had based his experiments on the work of German bacteriologist Paul Ehrlich, who pioneered the "magic bullet" ideas of medicine now used in chemotherapy treatments.

Today synthetic (aniline) dyes still play a critical role in the discovery of new treatments and scientific discovery. The mapping of the human genome would have been inconceivable without colorfast synthetic dye. Modern medicine has brought Perkin's research full circle. Mauve, discovered in his search for an artificial quinine, opened the door to artificial dyes now employed in medical research on the malaria vaccine.

A Lump of Coal, Part 2

William Henry Perkin's research into coal tar derivatives, begun over his Easter holidays at the Royal College of Chemistry in London, also produced synthetic scents. Twisting the highly unstable molecules, Perkin developed perfumes for rose, violet, jasmine, musk, even the cancer causing coumarin, which smells like fresh-mown hay (previously used in cigarettes).

The volatility of Mauve also led to applications in explosives. The possibilities seemed endless, Perkin had opened the door to discoveries which changed the shape of our world. Other coal derivatives include:

Benzene:: a flammable solvent used perfume-making, dry cleaning, and gasoline production (de-greaser).

Creosote:: which is used to preserve wood exposed to the elements, and also as an ingredient in cough syrup.

Naphtha:: a flammable liquid spot remover and varnish solvent. Stoddard solvent, a special grade of Naphtha developed by Atlanta dry cleaner W.J. Stoddard in 1924, is used in laundry stain treatments and soaps such as Fels-Naphtha.

Paraffin:: which is not wax but an odorless wax-like substance derived from coal tar, solid at room temperature but easy to melt. It is molded into candles, poured atop jars of jam and jelly to seal them, and added to chocolate in candy making.

Toluene:: another flammable solvent used in seemingly everything: explosives [TNT is trinitrotoluene.], antiseptic, paints and stains, cosmetics, textile dye, even saccharine.

Unlocking the mysteries in a lump of coal brought science and industry to new levels and medical science would benefit too. ...

A Lump of Coal, Part 1

In 1856 William Perkin discovered aniline dyes, inventing the first color-fast (doesn't wash out, doesn't fade) form of that purple shade known famously by the name he gave it: MAUVE. Perkin, age 18, had been trying to create a synthetic quinine (cure for malaria) from coal tar derivatives, and instead invented the first mass market synthetic dye.

Even Queen Victoria wore gowns of mauve -- setting the fashion for purples as the third stage of Victorian mourning colors. Grieving widows wore unrelieved black, then black with gray/silver, and finally moving to mauve purples following the example of the Queen.

Perkin went on to produce green, violet, and a commercially viable synthetic madder red. But Perkin and the scientific community did not stop there. Aniline (coal tar) based colorings form the majority of modern textile dyes, wood stains, household and automotive paints -- even food coloring, both water soluble dyes and fat soluble lake colorings come from aniline colors.

Mauve was one of the first links between science and industry and William Henry Perkin retired at the age of 36 a wealthy man. But the story doesn't end there. The man who's wife was the model for the Statue of Liberty had opened a world of possibilities inside a lump of coal.

Red Winged Book Bird

Re-visiting old projects (in other words, going through old boxes) I found:

An easy scrap quilt with a bonus. This is my Red-Winged Book Bird Quilt. Using all my leftover red fabrics and scraps, I made "book" blocks from five rectangles (2.5"x10.5" each) to make the 10 inch blocks and sashed my red books with a black batik. But I didn't stop there. Do you see? Down in the bottom right corner of the quilt is a red-winged blackbird.


Stuffed machine applique on the unfinished quilt top, this attempt at a red-wing blackbird crooning over a cattail was inspired by an old favorite PBS show Book Bird, and the fact that while I was making the blocks for this quilt I was listening to Where the Red-Winged Blackbirds Sing. It's completely obvious I drew my template from looking at the woodblock print cover art of Jim Schulz's CD.

The Green Sofa

Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved,

truly delightful.

Our couch is green;

the beams of our house are cedar;

our rafters are pine.

~Song of Songs 1:16-17

"Our couch is green." She says. This sticks out at me each time I read Song of Songs.

Hair like a flock of goats feeding on the mountain? Fine.

Teeth like wet sheep, eyes like flighty doves, legs like ancient trees? Okay.

Handy home decorating tips? A tad out of place, perhaps?

Why is that in there? What does it mean for green couches and pine rafters to be included in this passage of Scripture?

Various Bible commentaries suggest that this passage is speaking about the pastoral nature of shepherding -- describing a resting place [cough, "bed"] among the trees. Some suggest symbolism, green being a color of spiritual richness and fruitfulness, pine and cedar being costly gifts, sweetly fragrant and strong. Either explanation seems logical...

...and yet, somehow I am not satisfied with that reasoning. Somehow I keep thinking how like a woman it is to plan a home as part of her expression of her love. To literally mean: the house you build for me and I tend for you has cedar beams and pine rafters because we love each other and that just says home to me.

"You're eyes are like doves." he says.

"Thank you, I love you too. Now, about our cozy little nest..." she says.

Maybe it's just me, but it seems intuitive that a woman might say something like that. To express love through home-making. It feels honest to include that detail in the story. There I was, he writes for all to read, pouring my heart out in poetry. Describing her beauty, telling her of my love. And she responded favorably. She loves me... and she'd like to get a green sofa for our living room.

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas

'T'was in the Moon of Wintertime

Pink Saturday Decorations

Couldn't resist snapping photos of all the old glass ornaments at the Flea Market. A surprising number were Pink. These are the only two shots that turned out any good though -- I was paying more attention to worrying about why some guy kept following me around, than I was to getting focused photos. I think he must have been wondering why I was taking so many pics of pink Christmas ornaments!

For more Pink Saturday posts visit Beverly.

Texture for Tuesday

Sweet Gum Tree

&

Fothergilla

These beautiful textural photos were lingering in my camera files waiting to be shared. Oops. Oh well, better late than never. The branches are bare now but weren't they stunning colors a month ago!

Pink Notions Doggerel

So you go to the store for All Purpose pink,

for thread that will sew up quick as a wink

Just in and out, that's all you had planned
But something occurs and it gets out of hand.
Before you go to the counter to pay
You ogle pink buttons they have on display.

You didn't need ric-rack, "Or did I?" you think,
When you happen to notice that it comes in pink.
I won't mention the fabrics that didn't get bought
'cause the sales slips say you bought quite alot
of notions and items with which to play
from fancy fat quarters to pink basting spray.

Notes to readers:

As some of you know already, this is quite far from my usual writing style, but every once and a while a quick bit of rhyming doggerel is just fun to whip out. Links to poems in my more literary style can be found in my side bar under "My Poetry Online."

Pink Saturday originates with Beverly at How Sweet the Sound, you will find links to other participants there.

Magnolias

The stream bends here, and if you are tempted to watch it to follow the curve and line of the water as it rushes and spills under the bridge and over the dam on the right side of the road, you will miss the sight on your left.

This magnolia tree. Long past the season of blooms it offers to the autumn season a rich red of fruits. The color so perfectly matches the old barn against which it grows that I find it impossible to believe the tree was planted for the glorious creamy white blooms that will cover it's evergreen branches in the spring.

No, somebody knew that other seasons need beauty too and planned for this perfect combination.