the polyphemus moth

photo by Dan Mackinnon 

I saw my first polyphemus moth the night before last.  Something fluttering around the window above my desk caught my eye.  I realized it was a BIG moth with gorgeous eye spots.  I went outside to have a better look so that I was able to identify it.  Isn't it beautiful!?!  I can't stop myself from wishing I could have one as a pet... but I switched off all the lights and went to bed so that the moth could get on with its life.  Polyphemus moths look like dead leaves when their wings are folded up, which is how they camouflage and protect themselves while they rest during the day.  And their wingspan?  Over five inches!  

I have really enjoyed my time here in Madison living surrounded by the forest.  There's usually a chorus of monkey-voiced barred owls each evening as dusk is settling, I hear hawks whistling overhead all throughout the day, I had my regular visits from the red bellied woodpecker, the beautiful little moths that I'd find settled all over my door in the mornings, and now, the breathtaking polyphemus moth.  I'd have missed all of these things had I not been in such close proximity to the forest.  But on July 1, I'm moving!  I'm moving into a beautiful old house in the town of Orange.  The house has been divided into apartments, and I will be in Apt. 2 on the second floor, with hardwood floors and enormous old windows that overlook the large, lovely yard with trees that are well over a hundred years old, and a beehive (which the landlord's brother takes care of, but I'm planning on asking him if I can help).  When you're visiting this old house, you become completely unaware of being in town in 2012.  It's very serene, enveloped by a peace and timelessness.  I'm really looking forward to setting up my home studio there, and will be posting lots of pictures as I settle in and decorate.  Until then, I toss and turn in bed at night thinking of exactly how I want to re-cover the old couch I bought from the junk shop last weekend (which is sitting in my parents' barn, waiting for me to fix it up), and where exactly I will position my desk for the greatest flow of inspiration.  I've also bought a wonderful old oak table, and am waiting for a package in the mail, which will contain my new phone.  

Yes, this is the very phone I am expecting to arrive this week.  When I move, I'll be getting rid of my cell phone and switching over to a land line.  Yippee!

new at rock paper scissors!

I've now got pencil cases I made from my fabrics for sale at rock paper scissors on the downtown mall in Charlottesville.  Here are a few examples!

luna moth & walnut leaves fabric

Remember the luna moth I rescued from the gas station?

Here's the watercolor I did of him or her.  I put more yellow into my painting rather than pastel mint green.

And the fabric it inspired.  Does anyone have any suggestions for a good use for this material?  Porch furniture cushions?  Table cloths?  What do you think?

making lavender oil

I go through a lot of lavender oil... a few drops are so nice in a hot bath, or in the car or closet, and then the biggest quantities I use to infuse rice for the little herbal therapy pillows I make.

So I started wondering why I wasn't making it myself instead of buying half-ounce bottles that are about $12 each?  I found varying recipes that involved shoving lavender into dark bottles with olive or almond oil and letting it steep for a month or two to make a 'carrier' oil, which wouldn't be pure lavender oil, and doesn't it sound greasy unless you just want it for a massage or the bath?... or steam distilling, which overwhelmed me the deeper I got into it... and then, I stumbled across a very simple recipe on this blog, which I think is a crude method of the 'solvent' technique for extracting essential oil using alcohol (to put it very roughly and vaguely).  Oils extracted this way are not 100 % pure, as 2 - 3% of the solvent remains in the oil, but their fragrance is supposedly very potent, and as far as I can tell, there isn't anything harmful about a little bit of solvent residue.  Anyway, in the spirit of inexpensive experimentation, I've attempted the blogger's simple technique, which the doubter side of me is thinking is too simple to be legitimate.  If it fails, I've lost a couple cups of lavender and a couple cups of Aristocrat vodka.  The time it took to lightly crush and chop the lavender was time I enjoyed outside on the porch on a beautiful evening.  If the recipe works, I will have my very own homemade lavender oil around June 7th.  We'll see!

coreopsis & larkspur

Treasures from my mom's garden...

I am living in a very woodsy place where none 

of the summer flowers I love will grow.  But I visited 

my mom yesterday evening, and she is generous with

her beautiful flowers and let me gather up a 

sunny bouquet to take back to the shade.

first little harvest

This morning in the drizzly mist, I clipped my first lavender bouquet from my lavender patch.  Last Sunday, I planted sixteen plants at my parents' house, in a bed made on the old spot of my favorite childhood climbing tree, which finally kicked the bucket last year.  It was the tree that held our hammock, the tree that shaded our tree fort, and the tree that I saw my first owl in - a little screech owl my sister and I heard through our bedroom window on a hot night in August before I went to college.  We'd been talking, and I heard it calling, shushed my sister, and made her creep out into the dark toward the tree with me and a flashlight.  Sure enough, we found him with the flashlight beam, perched in the branches.  I don't think there could be anything better than a lavender garden in place of such a special tree.   I'd collected a real assortment of lavender plants over the weeks - a few older ones from the Orange Co-op (from whence these blooms came),  younger ones from the Culpeper Co-op and from Whole Foods, and then a whole bunch of teeny tiny plants from the Garden Patch in Orange.  I can hardly wait for them to grow and bloom!

tea time

 Last week, I clipped and collected a whole bunch of German chamomile blooms and laid them out to dry in a clean, shallow cardboard box in a dry, airy room.  Is there anything nicer than a box of flowers that practically turn themselves into a beautiful tea?  A tea that can help you sleep, and that helps fight infection, inflammation and  indigestion!  Just pour a cup of boiling water over a couple heaping teaspoons of dried flowers (or three if you'd like it stronger), and steep for about 12 minutes.  Unless you're pregnant.  No chamomile tea for pregnant ladies.  You can also make a chamomile bath to treat bug bites, but you'd need a whole quarter pound of dry flowers.  Here's a link if you'd like to read more about the medicinal potential of chamomile!  

 For years now, I've been wondering where all the luna moths have been.  I used to see several of them each summer, and aside from a piece of wing I found in the mountains while hiking last year, I haven't seen one for many summers on end.  Saturday night after work, I got a wonderful surprise.  As I was pumping gas in the town of Orange around midnight, my eyes fell on this gorgeous moth, sitting still on the concrete ground.  I wasn't sure where it was in its life cycle, but if it was dead, I wanted to keep it as a specimen to paint, and if it was alive, I wanted to take it out in the country away from the discombobulating artificial lights at the gas station.  So I scooped it up carefully using two flattened cardboard coffee cup sleeves that I had in my glove compartment, and put the moth in a paper bag.  When I got home, I left the paper bag open on the steps, so it would be free to fly into the night when it was ready.  The next morning, it was still there.  And it spent the day laying low on the brick steps.  But the following night, it finally flew off to seek its fortune... We've got several walnut trees in the backyard... so I hope they'll be some luna moth eggs there now!  Here's a video if you'd like to learn more about the life cycle!