Back from Hiatus

Well, sometimes a six or seven month break is needed I suppose. I’ve been busy building my practice, Nightingale Acupuncture here in Portland. And I’ve also been terrarium maven and chicken wrangler at Pistils Nursery. It’s a great combination of worlds for me and I’m loving my decision to move further North. I haven’t stopped taking pictures for the Urban Field Guide or collecting pictures on the new-to-me Pinterest phenomenon. I’m constantly looking around at the intersection of nature, humanity and art. And the possibilities of medicine lurking within that tryst. Absolutely. Lately I’ve been in love with the blog From Moon to Moon. It has me dreaming of growing into a bohemian lifestyle now that I’m about to enter my 40s. Sure, why not? If it looks like this:

 

Aurora Borealis Inspired

Now that I’m further North I’m even more inspired to get to see this amazing phenomenon. Have you seen it?

 

Pottery Love

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted. I’m walking around and see hundreds of pictures I want to share here, and have a huge list of links to post about. So what’s the hold up? I’ve been so busy starting my business, and then also starting up a new neighborhood health clinic, that when I have free time I just want to run around in the SUN while it is graciously visiting Portland! But I miss it here, and when I saw these ceramic pots over at Design Sponge this morning I had to share. Check out this lovely work by tw pottery:

 

london’s chewing gum artist, ben wilson

The NY Times has a great post today on the art of Ben Wilson, London’s resident chewing gum artist. He works tirelessly with a blow torch, some lacquer and  his paints to create tiny pieces of art throughout the city from blobs of old chewing gum stuck to the pavement. It’s a sweet article, that you should definitely check out. I really appreciate his process and commitment.

 

anna garfoth

You know The Urban Field Guide is loving the work of Anna Garfoth! I’m so grateful to the always inspiring blog My Love For You Is A Stampede Of Horses for introducing me to her work!

I love her mediums in these photos: masking tape, leaves and moss.

 

miss moss, and life on the farm

I follow the blog Miss Moss pretty regularly and am always enamored with her posts. A while back she posted these gorgeous photographs by Nina Leen that she found in the Life magazine archives. I wanted to repost them here for you to enjoy.

 

plaid pigeon’s exciting planters!

I’m pretty much in love with these right now, of course that they are brightly colored and it’s another grey day here in Portland definitely helps. These cute planters are the creation of etsy shop Plaid Pigeon from Austin, TX.

 

plant pallets and kokedama

Sorry the posting has been a little slow around here! Spring has me back in motion and my days have been filling up. Lots of changes around here! But I have seen two tutorials in the past week or so that I am in love with so I want to share them with you. If you make either please send me a picture! I’d love to see your work! The first is a great tutorial on how to build a pallet garden, which is absolutely perfect for small gardens and can really add some vertical interest to your green space.

For the complete tutorial click here to go to the great blog, Life on the Balcony.

The other tutorial was posted on Design Sponge last week by guest blogger Aura Scaringi, who lays out in really great detail with lots of pictures, how to build a string garden, or kokedama. This post has created a new obsession for me so I’m sure you’ll be seeing more about that art form soon! Have fun!

 

NY: City Bus Gardens

So I’m sharing this story with you via the facebook page of Pistil’s Nursery, who linked to Urban Gardens blog. And I love, love, love this living roof on city busses project by  Marco Antonio Castro Cosio. For the full article, go here. But I have to point out his inspiring dream of turning all the city busses in NY into rolling green scapes, which would create 35 ACRES of additional green space to the city.

 

Currently Reading: Keeping Bees & Home Dairy

I’m so excited to be finally getting to read the second half of Ashley Adams English’s Homemade Living Series, Keeping Bees and Home Dairy. The first half of the series were the books Canning & Preserving and Keeping Chickens, remember? I admire Ashley; her blog Small Measure is fantastic, she has an informative and fun regular column on Design Sponge, and she is all around a sweet generous person. I like that in an author!

What I love about her books is, well, everything. The design is great – from the deceptively simple covers, to the colors inside the books to the excellent photos. There is a consistency in these books that lends a supportive feel to the newbie embarking on bee keeping for the first time, or  to the city dweller about to make their first batch of ricotta cheese. There’s something about Ashley’s work that just makes you feel like she gets it. She gets how to present information so you actually feel like you can pull off whatever project you are reading about. The photos are clear, instructive and well styled – a hard triptych to find!

The books are the perfect blend of super nerd (and I say that with high regard) with a great and somehow not boring at all comprehensive history of beekeeping and dairy farming, and extremely practical salt of the earth type advice and instruction. If you just want to read about these topics you’ll be happy. And likewise if you are wanting to buy the book (here) and then immediately begin building hives or making your own yogurt that day, well you will be happy as well!  Each book in the series also has a bunch of recipes that are drool worthy in the back. Lovely. Another feature that I love is that each book has profiles of beekeepers or dairy makers scattered throughout, and their stories and advice are well worth reading. It’s hard for me to keep this review concise because I feel like these books are so dense and thoughtful that ultimately I would like to point out all the little details. But I’ll let you explore!

The series is published by Sterling Publishing and Lark Press, are hard cover and are extremely reasonable priced. They will be well used, I assure you.