Flowers!

            The lupines are blooming here in Maine. A good excuse to try out some of the vases I made back in February!

            This is a Dragon and Clouds vase, and it is currently showing at the Deer Isle Artists Association show, Spectrum. If you are in the area, you should go to the gallery and see it in person! 

            Actually, a number of things are blooming around here. The peony next door is currently blooming with flowers bigger than a dinner plate. That's my hand in the picture, for size. 

            The peonies outside my door, on the other hand, are covered with nice fat buds that will hopefully open eventually.

            The chives are blooming. I didn’t know before this spring that chives are even prettier than they are tasty. They have these great purple blooms that I didn’t want to cut, just in case they don’t like being cut flowers, so that I don’t lose a single one. The narcissus came and went, as did the lilacs. There are also flowers that I don’t recognize at all. 

            I am very fond of growing things – vegetables or flowers or trees or whatever strikes my fancy. There’s something magical about nurturing living things and watching them grow. Plants are about the right speed for me – I can largely ignore them while I do other things, and then surprise! They flower, or there are suddenly cucumbers in the garden.

The more I think about making fountains, the more I think of ways to incorporate plants. I just can’t imagine having running water without having green growth, too.

 But then I think about maintenance. Water plus plants often equals algae – usually fairly undesirable. If I have access to the fountain with plants in it that I made, I can keep tweaking things until it works right and remains stable, like my fish tanks. But if I don’t, say if I sell the fountain to someone else, then they get the job of taking care of it. Is there anyone besides me who would be willing to learn how to take care of plants in running water just because it’s pretty when it works?