Tag Archives: Garden installation

And Owl Moved to Some Other Tree

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I’ve been trying to find a place for this hardwood carving of my husband’s for 19 years! It just didn’t go in the doggie domain. It needed its own space. A couple of months ago, I went over the dark wood with a white wash, then painted and wiped or sanded off the claws, eyes and letters. I wanted it to look weathered and friendlier than the rich dark wood had looked. Then it sat in my studio. A month later, I drilled and screwed in screws and wire on the back to hang it from. But where to hang it? The pistachio tree next to my hammock already had a Soleri bell and a little painting of a prehispanic figure in the knothole. (Thanks, Jesus Lopez Vega.) Then as I was walking up to the house, I pulled at the trunk of one of the really tall palms and the wood just gave way in my hands. I peeled off a few of the leaf shafts still clinging to the tree and voila! A space just right for the carving. Today I found a big nail and hung it, sorta tucking it in to the frond shafts. Perfect. With the color, it sorta blends into the tree, but as you get closer, you can read the message, “And Owl Moved to Some Other Tree.” R.I.P. Bob. I hope you are watching.

Click on photos to enlarge and read captions.

 

You can probably see it now, but can you read what it says?

 

For Sunday Trees 445

Two Circles

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Two Circles

Two big problems were solved for me today with the construction of two circles.  First of all, the lovely installation created by Leonardo in my garage was removed today and reconstructed in a better spot so the garage is free again to park my car and load it up with supplies for my two month stay at the beach.  Eduardo, an artist friend who is also Leonardo’s father, is here for the next 6 weeks to build flower boxes around my flower plots in the garden, to build a brick sidewalk leading down to the pump for my irrigation system and to repair salitre damage and paint my house.  We have negotiated the terms and most of this work will go on while I am gone.  Here, then, is my first new circle.  It is just to hold the sand for construction, but I’m fond of it already.  perhaps a little pond here later?  No, probably not.

IMG_1163 (1)I love how he incorporated the flower pot into the design! Actually, a semicircle now, but we will imagine the other half of it, for purposes of maintaining my theme!

So, with one problem solved, I set about trying to figure out how to keep Frida from licking her “hot spot” wound.  The neck cone definitely didn’t work.  She was a crazy woman for the one night after I put it on her and that made me a crazy woman.  Also,  although she’s taking a course of antibiotics, they will do no good if she keeps licking the wound and reinfecting it and also it does no good to put Neosporin or other medicine on it because she licks it off. So, what to do?

A friend suggested colloidal silver for the wound.  She had tried this before and it had worked, so yes, I went to town and bought a big bottle of colloidal silver and put it in a spray bottle.  Another blogging friend suggested I tie a rolled up towel around Frida’s neck to keep her from bothering the wound on her hip.  I couldn’t think of how to keep this on her until I had a flash of inspiration.  When my nephew Craig and Jessica visited, they purchased an upscale neck pillow to aid with sleep on the plane.  When they left, they asked if they could leave it as they hadn’t used it and it was cumbersome to carry around.  Voilà!  I was even able to locate it–wonder of wonders.  I took off Frida’s collar, sewed the pillow to it with a huge needle and six strands of waxed linen and fastened it around Frida’s neck.  She didn’t even flinch.  Here she models my new invention which I should patent if it works!  Brilliant!!! (If it works.)

IMG_1170 (1)We will see how Frida’s new “necklace” looks after being outside for a day.

So that, my friends is how I resolved my two biggest problems and how circles came to save the day!!