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A Different Kind of Mushroom

Do you know what these are? They're a common mushroom (more specifically I think thought of as a "shelf fungus") found in lots of places all over the world and in the States we call them turkey tails (trametes versicolor)..Curiosly, they're a major component in many herbal anti cancer formulas....I am fascinated by how they grow in concentric rings. Plus, they have a super velvety texture when they're fresh.

And their colors are more nuances of earth tones than you knew about.

I found a whole bunch out in the filbert orchard behind my house. It's pruning time and there were lots of downed logs with loads of turkey tails growing on them.

I brought some home and thought about displaying them all science like....maybe pinned onto some black paper with names and arrows written in white ink.

But then I decided........to make one big hybrid rosette out of them.

And enjoy it on my front porch for a while.
Turkey tails mesmerize me.

Longing for Mexico

It's raining and I miss Mexico - it's noise, it's color, it's civility, it's age.

Some pages from when I first started my travel journal: Yucatan November 08. I don't journal much but traveling seems to bring it out in me.

Here's one of my favorite pages from my Chiapas trip.

It says, " the river of life"....I had just come back from witnessing a beautiful Easter procession in the town of Zinacantan......And I had been interested in exploring the egg shape..a young Mayan girl (who was selling trinkets with her brother) made the drawing on the bottom of the page and gave it to me when she was done.

Oaxaca anyone?

April Showers Bring May Flower

Lilacs are blooming.

Need I say more?

Beautiful Bumblebee Tattoo Spyed at Passionflower

How fun is this?

I think the larger than life size scale of the bee is just right. And those are orchid flowers on the side. She's going to have it colored in but I like it in this stage too....

Apple Blossoms in the Willamette Valley

The palest of pinks.......apple blossom....it's a member of the rose family......five petals.......

These delicate blooms are from some gnarly old trees in the side of my yard.......and if the apple is blossoming the lilac cannot be far behind.

More Tillandsia Love

Here's a tillandsia getting ready to flower. I attached it to a piece of rustic bark.....

Kind of grounds it don't you think? Gives it something to spring forth from.

Experimenting with Tillandsias

I took some tillandsias home because I wanted to get to know them a little better. Tillandsias are in botanical world what is know as epiphytes or air plants because, while some have roots, they do not need to be rooted in the ground. How cool is that? They can live in the air!!!!!!!

This actually is an ingenious strategy for how to live higher up in the tropical forest canopy where there is more sun and less competition. I think if one considered the forest like a city their strategy might be called infill. And they're not just exactly free floating away in the atmosphere, they generally tend to attach themselves to trees and branches.....If you've ever been to Hawaii, Mexico or other tropical places you've probably seen them in the wild. Anyway I digress....I took this one home.
And then it had little babies!!!!!!!!! This little guy literally dropped from the plant.

And then there were two.

They're so tiny....but I don't see any reason why they won't continue to grow.
I'm just going to dunk them in water once or twice a week like I do the other tillandsias.

And then I have an idea about maybe attaching them to rocks (instead of branches) -
sort of like a plant/ mineral hybrid.

I'm still playing around with that idea.

Changing the Mantel......

Remember my stark winter mantel tableau from January? See it below.

Well the times they are a changin'......I have been playing around with tillandsia (more on these amazing NON TERRESTIAL plants in another post) a lot lately and so scattered some throughout the mantel.

Here's one on a pile of driftwood and assorted coral and shell pieces. I like how otherwordly it looks.

More tillandsias and I added a baby photo of moi....which qualifies as vintage....



Of course wanted some kind of flower on the mantle so am using the pretty little white phaleneopsis orchid. It is the orchid world equivalent of the little girl photo.

So I didn't really start over. I just added.

Interior Shots

Close ups from my house on a very grey Sunday morning.

Retail Therapy at Terrain

If it weren't for blogging I never would have discovered one of the most inspiring stores I've been to in a while. Sara at Saipua (which by the way is my go to blog for great flower shots) wrote about a store called Terrain in Pennsylvania. Hmmmm, I was in Pennsylvania and I think a trip such as this is just what GPS systems were made for. I had high hopes as the store came well recommended. I was not disappointed.

Words and photos cannot do the experience justice.

It was whimsical.

It had high drama.

And quiet beauty.

It was part garden center/hothouse -

part kitchen store - part apothecary.

Kind of like Etsy met Smith & Hawken on steroids.

There was total attention to detail, a strong point of view, and some really great buying going on.

A little googling and I discovered Terrain is the love child of the Anthropolgie/Urban Outfitters visionaries. Of course it is. Click here if you want to go to Terrain's site but don't be disappointed because (like so many stores), the site is just a faint shadow of the store itself.
Nonetheless, I almost never encounter a store I really love and this was it.

Thank you Terrain for giving me something special.