In the Garden, June and July

June. Papaver orientale 'Helen Elisabeth'. I planted this one and gave my friend Kathleen the other one. Our daughters, Helen and Elisabeth, have been friends since birth.
Lupines plant themselves.
The daylily, Hemerocallis, comes from Asia. I love H. lilioasphodelus, the Lemon Lily, which has a sweet scent.
The blue irises also have a sweet scent. My dear neighbor Bettie, who passed away many years ago, gave me these from her garden.

Iris siberica and Rosa rugosa, also both Asian imports.

Bistorta.

July in the garden. More daylilies. I love these orange ones. You see them blooming by the roadside all over Maine.



Monarda or bee balm, a North American native, Echinops (globe thistle, native to Europe and central Asia) and hollyhock (Alcea, another import from Asia).

I grow antique roses, mostly from the nineteenth century. Roses that Napolean's wife Josephine would have grown. Also known as Old Garden Roses.
Belle Isis. Rene d'Anjou.
Konigin von Danemark.

Duchess de Montebello.



Stanwell Perpetual.

Happy July everyone!
-Kathy

ARCTIC LACE!

Knitting Out Loud is proud to release our fifteenth audiobook, ARCTIC LACE! This wonderful audiobook is beautifully and lovingly read by its accomplished author Donna Druchunas, who was an absolute delight to work with.

ARCTIC LACE is the story of Donna's personal quest for the mysterious luxury yarn qiviut and the elusive Native Alaskan women who knit it into gorgeous lace patterns. Donna tells the moving stories of the women of the Oomingmak Musk Ox Producers’ Co-operative (do check out their great website, one look will make you smile) in Anchorage, stories reflecting their courage and determination to maintain and honor a traditional culture in the midst of contemporary pressures. We learn about the rare Musk Ox from which qiviut comes, and hear remarkable stories of the daring first European explorers to traverse Alaska’s inhospitable terrain.



Donna Druchunas is the author of Successful Lace Knitting, Ethnic Knitting Exploration: Lithuania, Iceland, and Ireland, Kitty Knits and The Knitted Rug. She designs knits for Family Circle Easy Knitting, Interweave Knits, Knitter’s, PieceWork and several yarn companies.



Join Donna this fall on her Canada & New England Knitting Cruise! I can't imagine anything more fun! It is a nine day cruise which stops, among other exciting places, in Bar Harbor, Maine, one of the most beautiful spots on earth.

My garden here in Maine is just stirring to life. Below are Squill, or Scilla, which I dug up from the side of the road in Blue Hill (so I think of them as Blue Hill Squill) at the prompting, or rather bullying, of my delightful plant thieving neighbor Bettie Thornton (Bettie passed away some years ago, but she could out dig, out garden me right up to the end and I miss her very much). You can see that the Squill have naturalized in the grass.

My hellebore!
This is cheating, a photo from last year, but the Jeanne d'Arc crocus are blooming.
Muscari are my favorites.
What I especially admire about Donna Druchunas is her interest in and commitment to folk, or ethnic knitting. She brings this sensitivity and love to ARCTIC LACE.

Happy spring! Odd how it always seems like a new and fresh miracle every year.
-Kathy

March 2011

This is the garden during our last snowstorm.
Fortunately many houseplants are flowering.

Orchids.
Amaryllis.
Geraniums.

Cyclamen.
And branches of forsythia from the garden.


My husband is making me another spinning wheel.


He likes to make things.

This is a trebuchet he made for a Medieval Literature class I do with children. It fires corks across a classroom.

Oxalis.

We had rain today and LOTS of snow melted. So now there is just a tiny bit of ice left in the driveway.

Spring is in the air!
-Kathy

In bloom! Outside and In

I live in Maine, and we have had a blessedly mild winter (sorry D.C.!). Usually March is still winter here, often very snowy. My snowdrops are always up in March, and they are a cheering sight (in bad weather or good!).
Crocus and daffodils are coming up too. I can't tell you how amazing this is, just as amazing, I suppose, as all the snow was this winter to my mid-Atlantic friends.
These are small species crocus.

And here's the witch hazel! I cut some for the house, it has a wonderful lemony scent.


More daffodils poking up through the leaves.
And lastly, an Oriental poppy.
And below, the orchids are blooming nicely indoors:




A delicious spring!
- Kathy