Reindeer Games
on being a bowerbird...
Hello,
Looking around my home/office/art desk I think I must have a bit of bowerbird in my blood. I’m always collecting and holding on to pleasing fragments of nature. The more durable pieces remain long after I’ve completed a color study, taking their place lined up on my windowsill and scattered around my desk. A shelf in a bookcase where I stash favorite seed pods has exploded into a cloud of gossamer fluff -- the milkweed pods I brought in several weeks ago have ripened, split and are prime to release their seeds into the world (or my office) with the smallest puff of breath.
This month is all about laying on light, color, sparkle and glitter. You may be surprised to hear that for all my layering tendencies, I’m not a holiday décor aficionado. Although after getting schooled by the littles about my lack of Halloween decorations I’ve vowed to up my goblins game next year. But reindeer games? The coming week will tell. I’m so glad you’re here.
xo Lorene
Upcoming Workshop
Seeing Color in the Garden” workshop & Sonatinis*
Saturday, Jan 11, 2025
11 am to 3 pm
Get 2025 off to a colorful start with a 2-part workshop hosted by The Barn Marche. We’ll spend time creating a nature-based color study, enjoy a delicious lunch, and potting up Sonotini.
Sign up for The Barn Marche newsletter for details on this workshop and everything happening at the exquisite Faraway Flower Farm.
*Sonotini ‘Alasca’ are elegant frilly white, double Amaryllis from Peru. They are slightly smaller than the large Dutch forms you may be familiar with.
(not so) recent writing: Mutual Tending first appeared in Pacific NW Magazine in The Seattle Times in the very anxious days of spring 2020 as the global pandemic was closing in. It occurs to me that many of us are headed into the New Year somewhat unsettled. My advice remains the same: Go garden.
recent reading: Sunlight & Breadcrumbs: Making Food with Creativity & Curiosity by Renee Erickson. [Bookshop link] Renee Erickson is one of my personal sheros — this week I got to meet her and say thank you.
in the handmade kitchen: Sticky. Cranberry. Gingerbread. Three of my favorite words. Every year during the holidays I fall hard for this moist cake chock full of ginger and black pepper swirled through with an easy tart-sweet cranberry conserve. This is an excellent offering on feast days but perhaps lives its best life as an indulgent breakfast. The recipe (gifted) is by Melissa Clark in the New York Times.
Shop Talk
In recognition of Small Business Saturday — I may be the smallest of small businesses — I’m offering newsletter subscribers 25% off the price of each 2025 In Living Color Calendar. Just enter the code: SMALL25 at checkout. Inventory is good and ready to send to you and your loved ones, post haste as they say. Offer runs today through Tuesday, December 3, 2024.
Get Colorful
A soft lime carnation in a party dress. Swoon!
Petticoat Junction
Walking home from school — “for you Nana” This one goes in my index of things I will never let go of.
Again and again, and again, again. Shells are my scales; practice, practice, practice.
Hot hues for a chilly day. This Thanksgiving cactus isn’t nearly as demure as my apricot lovely picture above.
Nature’s baubles in the back garden.
While I lead a fairly layered, bowerbird life, I am always reluctant to deck the halls for the holidays. I just want to skip ahead to the sparkling lights and the sweet resinous fragrance of a cut tree. Unpacking tangled wires and complicated memories, not so much.
Crabapple — Malus ‘Evereste’
It’s sage season. Stuffing — but of course. The color of foggy conifers in my place. And wisdom — that one’s a bit more tricky. It takes courage to trust your inner sage when navigating the holiday season.
Let’s review:
* A delicious flavor. (I can make a meal out of stuffing)
* A signature of home
* A color!!!
* A reminder to take care of your/our self
Still love the scent of the trees and fir boughs, too! I'm going very light this years with tiny fairy lights and small hand-crocheted snowflakes on fir boughs on the fireplace mantel. It just feels right.