A basket case!
It's been a quiet week in Århus, my home town, out on the edge of the Baltic sea, where the gulls yodeling screams are just audible over the roar of the wind...
This weekend, Jannie came to visit.... and somehow Jannie's visits are never all that quiet.
There was a willow/wickerwork festival in town and I was really curious to try it out - they were advertising that there was a crafts-corner for hands on experiences.... and since Jannie is already a semi-pro and has planted various strains of willow in her garden, she came along and had fun buying books and checking out the more advanced technique demonstrations.... while I made a basket! I did!... it was so easy and loads of fun... and now I wanna make more! Look at the pretty colors of all the different kinds of willow we got to play with! Dunno if it's technically a basket... since it's flat... but it's wickerworked!
Only problem with wickerwork is that you have to soak the willow sticks for two weeks or so... before using them... so you have to PLAN two weeks in advance what you want to do... not sure I can do that.
Jannie also gave me a comfy chair she had spare... which Urracá has claimed for his exclusive use. He is most pleased with the present.
Oh, and I can haz tomaterz.. I know everywhere else in the world this happened half a year ago, but here in the frozen north, we generally manage to get ONE tomato red on a plant before it starts freezing again.... so this is really good! (This is without greenhouse obviously... sensible people grow them under glass and get loads of red ones - but where's the sportsmanship in that?)
Also.. the neighborhood policy caught up with me... apparently you're not allowed to let your grass or hedges grow wild... I got a little note in the mail with a list of problems with my gardening ticked off to please sort out within 3 weeks... so I had to cut the grass finally... too bad... I really liked the long grass with flowers of all kinds.. I can tell all the neighbors got the same sort of notes because everybody have been out frenetically gardening the last couple of days.
That's the news from Århus, where the women are strong, the cats are good-looking and the grass is above average.
This weekend, Jannie came to visit.... and somehow Jannie's visits are never all that quiet.
There was a willow/wickerwork festival in town and I was really curious to try it out - they were advertising that there was a crafts-corner for hands on experiences.... and since Jannie is already a semi-pro and has planted various strains of willow in her garden, she came along and had fun buying books and checking out the more advanced technique demonstrations.... while I made a basket! I did!... it was so easy and loads of fun... and now I wanna make more! Look at the pretty colors of all the different kinds of willow we got to play with! Dunno if it's technically a basket... since it's flat... but it's wickerworked!
Only problem with wickerwork is that you have to soak the willow sticks for two weeks or so... before using them... so you have to PLAN two weeks in advance what you want to do... not sure I can do that.
Jannie also gave me a comfy chair she had spare... which Urracá has claimed for his exclusive use. He is most pleased with the present.
Oh, and I can haz tomaterz.. I know everywhere else in the world this happened half a year ago, but here in the frozen north, we generally manage to get ONE tomato red on a plant before it starts freezing again.... so this is really good! (This is without greenhouse obviously... sensible people grow them under glass and get loads of red ones - but where's the sportsmanship in that?)
Also.. the neighborhood policy caught up with me... apparently you're not allowed to let your grass or hedges grow wild... I got a little note in the mail with a list of problems with my gardening ticked off to please sort out within 3 weeks... so I had to cut the grass finally... too bad... I really liked the long grass with flowers of all kinds.. I can tell all the neighbors got the same sort of notes because everybody have been out frenetically gardening the last couple of days.
That's the news from Århus, where the women are strong, the cats are good-looking and the grass is above average.
Comments
What a great post. I also love the Prairie Home Companion references. Just golden.
The basket looks great - congratulations! I know what you mean about planning in advance. If I want to make a basket NOW, I may lose interest in the two weeks it would take to have my willows ready.
Thanks for sharing. With a quick glance around, I see have not spent nearly enough time in your blog. *off to read about the Viking Moot*
Maybe you could fence off a bit of the flowering grass, so that it was, in effect, a flowerbed?
Of course the new chair is immediately claimed.
We only get to sit down now because we finally have more comfy chairs than cats.
Visitors have to fend for themselves though.
And hooray for a red tomato!
Ditto! LURVE! Garrison Keillor. Even more now that he's put (I know not really him personally but you know what I mean) one of my poems on the "first person" section of the website. LOL Loved the way you channeled him Drude. Very nice.
According to the website they just recently got home from the cruise to Norway. Must've been real nice.
"Only problem with wickerwork is that you have to soak the willow sticks for two weeks or so... before using them... so you have to PLAN two weeks in advance what you want to do... not sure I can do that."
LOL I know I couldn't do that. I can barely plan an hour in advance. Love the basket tho, I think it qualifies as a basket. Actually flat ones are often used by gardners to bring in long stemed items such as flowers and such. *just shooting from the hip here and thinking of old fashioned photos showing maidens in gardening get ups wearing a hat with ribbons and gloves and a basket like yours on one arm with a few long stemmed flowers in it and a pair of gardening shears in the other hand preparing to snip some more.
Hi, Drude!!! Love that basket (and yes, I vote that it's truly a basket...) Planning ahead like that would be tricky for me, too, but it would be worth it in the end, wouldn't it??? (Long long ago, like in 1974, when I lived in British Columbia for a while, I learned to make pine-needle baskets from long long pine needles. You have to soak them, too, but not for as long. And your hands smell wonderful after you've been working with the pine needles for a while.)
Great post!