Art – Page 40 – Ellis Hollow

2008 Year in review (Part 1)

The obligatory (and hopefully entertaining) look back …

January

Not much happening in the garden, so it was a good time to think about ordering seeds and plants (unfortunately, they’re more than 5 cents a pack these days, unlike these old packs) and sharing stories about the great bowling ball accident of 2003.

castor bean seed packet

While there were no blooms (or scans), there was surprisingly much to photograph on a very warm January garden bloogers bloom day.

February

February is for forcing.

And time to fiddle around with PhotoShopping that month’s bloom day scans and chase away the merry blues with Manu Chao.

bloom day scan feb

Had a sunset picture grace a CD cover.

Read and reviewed Tulipomania. Added my two cents (and a ton of pictures) to the Garden Bloggersâ€™ Design Workshop â€“ Color in the Garden edition.

March

I love March, if only for its excitement. There are the forced bulbs in flower …

The first of the spring ephemerals …

Then back to winter, hell and high water.

By Easter, plenty of signs that spring is on it’s way …

Iris

Then more snow. There’s a reason they’re called snowdrops, you know.

April

Speaking of snowdrops, April brought the open house at snowdrop collector Hitch Lyman’s garden.

And the spring ephemeral peak at my place. Crocus …

Puschkinia.

Hyper-spring also brings scilla …

… and erythronium.

And by the end of the month, a bazillion daffodils, these at Nina Bassuk and Peter Trowbridge’s annual open house.

May

Spring continues full bore. Purple primrose …

Thalia daffs …

Sakuraso primrose …

…an iris from Marcia’s garden …

… and many more in this bloom day scan.

In the world of art, Quilter Lisa Ellis used one of my canna images for this work of art …

… Cornell students built this Turfwork! project …

… and Durand Van Doran built this fabulous floral gate — roots and all — in Minns Garden outside the building where I work.

And we are reminded that there’s nothing new under the sun.

June

Some theme posts in June, because there’s so much to cover you’ve got to do some lumping. One on openings …

,,, another on chartreusey stuff …

… too many blooms on bloom day to fit onto one scan …

… actual bloom day pictures to go with the scans …

… East Digitalistan …

… and decent images of aruncus (finally!) …

… summer songs …

Mussolini was a-shavin’ whistlin’ tarantella,
Stalin was keeping eye on barbeque.
When their fish line bell started to jingle,
Mussolini caught a-nothinâ€™, Stalin caught two.

On the art front, Cornell graduation turf art …

I tried to push back on the bland reporting on leaf casts in the garden media, and reported on the infamous Memorial Day jello contest.

As we head into the second half of the year, these alliums in Minns Garden outside the building where I work are all ready for 4th of July fireworks.

Part 2 starts here …

More info on Gandhi in the Grass

Several folks asked me for more info on the Message from the Earth living art installation in the Mann Library lobby back for the holidays. If that’s you, see this Cornell Chronicle article I wrote.

I got this message from Christine, a co-worker who spearheaded this project. (On the left in the picture with Marcia Eames-Sheavly and Howard Raskin from Mann Library.)

On a side note, it was interesting to see peoples reactions today as we took it all down. One woman asked me with great concern in her voice “What are you going to do with Gandhi now?”. I replied that we were going to compost him! She definitely wasn’t satisfied with that answer, protesting that we must help him to continue to stay alive. She offered her own grow lights from home, saying that we should put him outside, give him more light and water, and try to revive him. I gently told her that it was too late, that his roots were already dead. And then reminded her that composting him is very much in line with his teachings of the earth as a cycle, what comes from the earth, goes back to the earth…. At last, she seemed satisfied with that understanding!

I love how people developed such a connection with this….

Pre-holiday miscellany

Image via Vintagraph. (Blog featureing great WPA-era poster prints and more.)

They better like it, as the state is getting dumped on pretty hard today. We’ve got probably 4 or 5 inches here so far, but it looks from the radar like it’s going to change over to sleet or peter out earlier than expected.

Below, a few weeks ago I noticed neat piles of spruce cones piled up at the base of two trees. JI just hope that the cones keep the squirrel that has moved in from munching bulbs and other more valuable things.

A few weeks ago I posted about Cornell Plantations’ use of ‘ugly mix’ — a short-lasting, homemade, spray-on dye used to discourage Christmas-tree rustlers from raiding evergreen plantings by making the trees look diseased. The picture I had wasn’t very good. Here’s what it really looks like — more subtle.

On these shortest days of the year, where it’s not fully light when I get to work and pretty dark when I leave, the glow of the greenhouses provides a little warmth to the soul.

Gandhi in the Grass

Art installation in the lobby of Mann Library at Cornell University. Nice place for stressed students to take some time out to meditate and build up some good karma during exams.

Face of Gandhi is ‘burned’ into grass growing on burlap panels using an LCD projector. Will post more details later when I have more time.

Garden Blogger Bloom Day Scans – Holiday edition

Or fun with poinsettias.Â I need some good winter-month scans if I’m ever going to do that calendar. Click on images for larger view (except the blingee at the end).