Spring In Victoria

Springtime in Victoria is all about gardens springing to life and gardening.
The Buchart gardens, a national treasure, in April. 

We have had lots of company this past month and visited the Buchart Gardens 3 times. They have been different each time.

 

Plants grow everywhere at this time of year, when the rain still falls regulary and before the hot dry summer.

I am out in our garden most days, inspired by Toby Hememway's book.

Tree Cutting and Pruning

The other week Devin arrived to cut down 2 trees with root rot. 

I spent most of the morning watching him cut down the 1st tree.
He climbed up the tree with a chain saw, engine on, hanging from his waist belt...

...and cut off branches as he climbed up. 

He cut off the top section...

...then worked his way back down the tree cutting off the trunk in sections.

I had been worried about the whole tree being cut and falling on my new garden. I had no idea this is how a tree is cut down.

Devin then shredded all of the branches so we have a pile of mulch for the gardens.
Next we have to get in a splitter to spilt the log sections so they will dry and be ready for our fireplace in a couple of years.
It was a most interesting day.

Happy Mothers' Day Mum

My mother has a new computer - her first 

So I am showing her what our garden looks like today.

When she stayed with us she spent many hours in the garden 

 

 

Alliums are about to be the next bloom in my cut flower garden

Happy Mothers' Day, Mum

Installation Progress

Reluctantly, I have altered the bed sheets. Each sheet will hang from a wooden beam threaded through the top hem. The hem pocket needed to be wider to accommodate the beam.  

Also, the hem fabric is so fragile in its decayed state I doubt it would support the whole sheet for long. I opened up the hem and reinforced it with interfacing and sewed it back making it larger.

It was exciting to go to cabinet maker Chris Mead's workshop to see the frame he has made.

We got a lesson on how to assemble the frame without damaging any of the joints or fastenings.

I made a list of all of the tools I need to take to London with me. 

 

Chris holding up the assembled frame, without the bedsheets.

Are you going to be in London in June?

If you are going to be in London in June you might like to catch this grad show.
There will be the work of 10 students, 3 Canadians: Ingrid Lincoln, Judy Martin & me, Monika Brueckner from Germany, and from the UK: Val Cross, Vikki Jenkins, Marilyn Hall, Denise Jones,  Jean Kirk and Caroline Hibbs

BA (Hons) Embroidered Textiles

Graduate Show 2012

The Grove Atrium Gallery
Hendon Campus, Middlesex University
NW4 4BT UK

Wednesday 20th June 2:00 - 4:00 pm
Thursday 21st to Sunday 24th June 10:00 - 4:00 pm

For directions and map go to www.mdx.ac.uk

  

Outside

During breaks from stitching I wander outside.
Hyacinths (spelling?) break through coffee filter mulch in the cut flower bed. 

This beauty appeared in the forest. 

According to Pojar and MacKinnon, the plant bible on the west coast, it is a red flowering currant, a "harbinger of spring and hummingbirds."

In the bog area that looked like this 6 months ago after my sister cleared out a tangled mass of  20 foot long blackberry canes....

...it now looks like this.

The big plants are skunk cabbage or swamp lantern, traditionally 'famine food' if the salmon were late arriving in the spring - according to Pojar and MacKinnon.
I haven't walked around this area much yet because I don't want to disturb the myriad of other plants just breaking the soil surface.

Technical Issues

While stitching I had to resolve technical issues involved in hanging the 4 tree cloths.
Husband Ron understands material and joint stresses.

He sampled various corner joints for the frame. I made the aesthetic decisions.
Using Douglas-fir wood supports the work's concepts.

We settled on this type of joint. 

Carpenter Chris Mead made the frame. 

Airline baggage limits dictate each side has to be cut in half.
Chris developed a strong, non-flexing joint.

Pollen Moon

April was 'Pollen Moon' because the Douglas-fir released great clouds of yellow-orange pollen from young bright-orange cones high in the trees. This image is of an old Douglas-fir cone.

The Maple flowered and released pollen too. 

The new Cedar branches become a bright red. 

The Arbutus dropped more of its vivid yellow-green leaves and red bark.
I stitched with more intense colours that month.

Trialling the Installation

My lumber jack/sailor friend helped me with a trial installation of the 4 tree cloths. 

 

Unfortunately, the wind came up and it started to rain.

But the trial supporting frame was up long enough to confirm dimensions and to work out where the structural forces would be.

We quickly lowered the frame and got the cloths inside before they were damaged.