Week 23

Art comes in different forms. This week, I enjoyed two different forms of art: quilting (which I adore), and gardening (which I adore).

Yesterday I enjoyed touring a large quilt show in Manhattan. I loved every bit of it! It has inspired me to get in there and CREATE. Or, at least, COMPLETE. I saw several quilts which reminded me of some unfinished projects lying in my art room. Case in point: the 12+ quilt squares I cross-stitched some 27 years ago while living in Egypt. I had sent these to my sister, who, quite a few years later, returned them to me, un-pieced, and there they have lain...
It's time to address these unfinished works:

Works in progress (WIP)
Unfinished objects (UFOs)

Today I enjoyed a local garden tour, hosted by the K-State Master Gardeners. I love garden tours. I have gone to many such happenings. Today, I enjoyed many gardens, and I was unimpressed by two on the tour. (More on that later).

My companion Mary & I visited all the homes on the tour, and I think the heat finally set in at the last home we were to visit. It was a nice garden, and it gave me ideas for some of the wildflowers that both Mary & I have seen in our mutual pastures. So...I am thinking that she & I will arise early some morning soon, and transplant some of these into our yards - before the summer heat sets in again.

We saw several gardens in Manhattan which were nice. Not remarkable, in my opinion, but nice. One home put me off, though - the homeowner was apparently NOT the gardener of the place: she could not identify shrubs and plants on her property. She panicked when I asked about a shrub in her garden, and she exclaimed, "Someone took the plant sign!" several times to her husband. She must have employed a landscaper. To me, this was fudging a bit, to get on "the Tour." Meh.

Mary & I drove a bit for one home's garden, and we are SO HAPPY that we did! The homeowners were obviously THE master gardeners of their home. They knew every nook and cranny of their ? 2+ -acre yard, and it was positively lovely.

Another home on the tour was grand: grand in size. The "garden" was simply ridiculous in my opinion, in that she (the homeowner) must have spent $$$$$ in landscaping. I mentioned to my companion Mary that this "garden" was a product of landscaping, and not gardening. Come to find out later down the "tour line", other visitors felt the same. A simple gardener such as myself can easily discern a master garden from "landscaping", any day. So, in my opinion, that home on the tour was a "fail".

So here I am, Saturday night, wanting to go out and GARDEN!
And yet, wanting to stay in and QUILT!

Both are good.