Lemons, beaches and family…

It’s been a while since life gave me lemons. The problem is that she didn’t give me enough, so I’ve been poking away at lemons for the past few weeks. I finally have enough for my “When Life gives you Lemons” piece! The last piece of the puzzle was finding just the right fleece for the lemon pith, the white material between the zest and the fruit. Luckily, my friend Ruth gave me some white fleece two weeks ago and it was just what I needed. I also discovered I was short on the yellow I needed for the rind. Unfortunately, my never-ending supply of every possible color failed me this time and I had to resort to web shopping. The problem is that you never know exactly what color you’ll get in the mail because the screen rarely does justice to the color. The fleece I got was a little too bright, but when I carded it with some yellow fleece I created by dyeing with dandelions a couple of years ago I was back in business with two big rolags. It felt great when I was able to lay out the lemons and sections on the background and saw that I had an abundance of my citrusy friends.

This week I drove with my family to Michigan to meet the newest member of the family, my brother-in-law Tim’s new bride Bobi. I don’t mind the drives because I get to poke while Jim drives. That’s how I finished up the lemons. On the way home I started poking on the trunk of a willow tree. I know that’s a bit of a leap, but last week I envisioned a new piece I’ll call “Meet me by the Willow.” The inspiration for the piece flows from all the bike-related things I’ve been doing lately. The boys and I have been biking to destinations when we can, including on geocaching adventures. I’ve also had my eyes peeled for bicycle wheels for the Fourth Street Festival children’s booth this year, which I described in last week’s blog. Bikes on the brain translated into a desire to make a scale model for the ‘Willow’ piece this week when the boys are in school. This year it starts on Tuesday the 16^th! I can’t believe the school year is already here! Anyway, the piece imagines meeting a friend after a bicycle trip, leaning my bike against the willow while we talk. I wove the background between cleaning the house and trips to buy school supplies last week, so that part was ready. It was nice coming home to pieces in progress, which makes me feel all the more productive after slower week in Michigan.

If you’re reading this because you’re interested in family news, you’ll note that I glossed over some big stuff. Jim’s Mom had a big family reception for Tim and Bobi, and it was a big hit with everyone. There was lots of good food and drink. Kathey Gibson made her famous carrot cake, Naomi brought brownies, and lots of people brought different salads. All the cousins, spouses and families came and a good time was had by all. Bobi handled it all well, but she seems more comfortable in intimate settings than big parties. She and Tim Yu-gi-oh dueled the boys several times over the weekend and, I’m somewhat surprised to report, were able to defeat my boys in every duel. They don’t give up easily, however, and will undoubtedly be better prepared, perhaps with more powerful cards, before they meet again. Bobi was graceful in victory, and we’ve decided we’ll keep her.

We had a full visit, as usual, including a delightful trip to the beach at the Tawas Point State Park. We swam in Lake Huron, walked along the beaches to explore and find treasures, and watched the kite boarders do their thing in the wind and waves. It’s definitely a place we have to visit again next year. We went on a fishing trip, which was more of a boat ride, although Tommie caught one walleye and Jim caught a perch with Captain Ryan. I got to sit in the ‘pass me a drink’ chair and try to detect bites that never came. A few might have slipped past, because I put up my feet and enjoyed the blue skies, happy and relaxed. That made it a good trip. Tonight it’s late and time to call it a day, though, because I went back to Zumba this afternoon and made every muscle I own sore. Thanks Trish! But I’ll be back.

Until next week…

Martina Celerin

Celery stalks, strawberry shortcake and big walleyes

I spent a delightful week in Michigan with my family. The weather was cool, even cold at times, but we had a great visit. We brought some fresh blueberries and Jim made us a pie. Luckily, we also found some just-ripe Michigan strawberries. Add some fresh-baked biscuits to the week and we had two fine shortcake desserts—yum! But my biggest success was—wait for it—on the waters of Saginaw Bay fishing for walleyes. We took out the Lila Mae, my late father-in-law’s boat, on a trip to look for walleyes. Over Jim’s pooh-poohing I picked out a red and silver lure with a spider on it at Frank’s, announced that it was the perfect lure for the day, and proceeded to catch a huge 24.5 inch (62 cm) walleye on it. It was the only fish of the day, and boy, I reveled in that victory. Jim turned it into a tasty fish fry, supplemented with Grandma’s homemade coleslaw. Everyone feasted!

All week long we generally just spent a lot of time doing things we don’t normally do at home. We all played mini-golf (and Jacob beat everyone), the boys did a lot of archery in the back yard, and we did a little shoe shopping between feasting. It was just a great vacation all around.

I may have been on vacation, but don’t think for a moment that I didn’t spend some quality time creating art. During conversations and quiet times I did a lot of poking. I was focused on making small vegetables for a piece I’m doing called Summer Salad. I finished off the tops of some radishes, carrots and broccoli and I created my first celery stalks. The stalks tend to have a thick center rib and are thinner on the outer edges of the curved arms. The progression of stalk creation was interesting to watch. I laid out the fleece as a unit that was three times as long and wide as the final stalk. After I started poking I eventually shaped it down to the size I wanted and I’m pleased with how it turned out. I also made a few dandelion flowers for a different piece – those still need a haircut to transform them into well coiffed lawn flowers. The pressure is on to get some art pieces completed in the run up to the Art Fair on the Square in Madison, Wisconsin. Sadly, I wasn’t able to participate in the show of the same name in Bloomington Saturday due to booth and art damage from the Columbus show. I’ve heard that it was fabulous – congrats BPP on transforming it to a well attended show – and look for me next year! And fortunately, the replacement booth frame pieces I ordered arrived in the mail while we were in Michigan. Hopefully by the end of this week I should have a workable booth.

I do have a few other newsy things to tell you about… First, I’m the facilitator for a community weaving project out at McCormick’s Creek State Park this Saturday. I’ll be warping my five foot loom and organizing all sorts of natural materials to use in the project - all in organic, earthy colors. When I do a project you never know what materials will end up in it—this time I’m including some rope I got from Grandpa’s barn while we were in Michigan. I’m also gearing up to do some dyeing this week, or at least getting ready to dye. My photographer, friend and frame maker Tom Bertolacini brought me some Osage orange wood chips. He said that he had heard about dyeing with them and wondered if I was interested. What? Something to experiment with? Sign me up! That got me reading about Osage orange dyeing, which led me to dyeing with bark. Grandma had a lot of trees come down during the windy spring. Normally these get chopped up and burned, but there was quite a backlog of materials. I picked up a couple of bags of maple and oak bark to experiment with. These even have some bonus lichens on them, which is supposed to enhance the colors. I’ll soon set up some soak pails and see what I extract from the bark. I’m hoping to dye some Merino wool for natural color scarves this fall season. Time to get busy again!

Until next week…

Martina Celerin