Sunday, May 25, 2014
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Emperor Constantine
What can I say, Constantine is a favorite of mine. There are so many wonderful quirky things about him & then he is a saint & then he is an emperor. Really, what's not to love? You can look up all the garden variety stuff in any world history, so let me go straight to the good bits:
Constantine had several children & named most of them for himself (except one daughter he named Helena, for his mother & another son called Crispus). Three of his sons were called Constatine, Constantius & Constans. He even named a daughter Constantina. For a man named Caesar Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus Augustus, son of Constantius Chlorus this shows a shocking lack of imagination. Or incredible self promotion. Ever since I learned this, I picture Constantine looking a lot like George Foreman. In a toga.
"Scholars debate" when he actually converted to christianity. His mother had converted many years before her death, but he held on to (& took advantage of) his pagan title until the day he died. I actually think you can make an solid argument for his being an atheist or at a minimum a major hedger of bets. While they debate, scholars like to point to the many protections he gave chirtians, certainly not the norm. Except his mother was a christian & even an emperor can have a soft spot for his mother. Finally, there is no disputing that the christians were not singled out for special treatment. He had a remarkably even hand when it came to religious tolerance. The better to tax you with, my dears.
& that was Constantine's real claim to fame. Put everyone in touch with everyone else, let them barter, let them trade & take your percentage off the top. He is looking more & more like George Foreman to you, too now, right.
Anyhow today is Constantine's feast day. The one I mean anyhow. Not the Constantines that came before & after. Not to be confused with the saints Constantius (yep more than one). There are scores of better looks at his life than this one. My brother recommends John Julius Norwich's Byzantium in three easy volumes. Our boy appears mostly in the first--but he is felt all the way through. I instead give you this.
Constantine had several children & named most of them for himself (except one daughter he named Helena, for his mother & another son called Crispus). Three of his sons were called Constatine, Constantius & Constans. He even named a daughter Constantina. For a man named Caesar Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus Augustus, son of Constantius Chlorus this shows a shocking lack of imagination. Or incredible self promotion. Ever since I learned this, I picture Constantine looking a lot like George Foreman. In a toga.
"Scholars debate" when he actually converted to christianity. His mother had converted many years before her death, but he held on to (& took advantage of) his pagan title until the day he died. I actually think you can make an solid argument for his being an atheist or at a minimum a major hedger of bets. While they debate, scholars like to point to the many protections he gave chirtians, certainly not the norm. Except his mother was a christian & even an emperor can have a soft spot for his mother. Finally, there is no disputing that the christians were not singled out for special treatment. He had a remarkably even hand when it came to religious tolerance. The better to tax you with, my dears.
& that was Constantine's real claim to fame. Put everyone in touch with everyone else, let them barter, let them trade & take your percentage off the top. He is looking more & more like George Foreman to you, too now, right.
Anyhow today is Constantine's feast day. The one I mean anyhow. Not the Constantines that came before & after. Not to be confused with the saints Constantius (yep more than one). There are scores of better looks at his life than this one. My brother recommends John Julius Norwich's Byzantium in three easy volumes. Our boy appears mostly in the first--but he is felt all the way through. I instead give you this.
Monday, May 19, 2014
The best plant sale of the year
This past Saturday was the local IFAS extension/Master Gardener's plant sale. & it was packed. they open at 8am & at &7:45 I was waiting in a looooooong line of traffic to make the turn into the IFAS extension office building lot. I have no idea if they opened early because by the time I got parked & out of the car it was after 8.
I had planned to take pictures even though my camera was on a trip to Miami (next week it goes to Paris without me!); I have been learning the camera on my phone which s actually a nice one but my hands were full almost immediately. I had brought sturdy bags which enabled m to carry plenty of plants but next year I am bringing a wagon!
I came home with one calendula which I immediately repotted (it had two unopened blooms & I was hoping to save one of them) & one cut-leaf coneflower. I actually went hoping to find one of the varieties of purple coneflower but they were gone by the time I made it to the perennials section. What I did find was a different variety of the rain lilies I am already crazy about. I also go two lavender plants because I never can resist them & four roses: two Belinda's Dream & two Louis Philippe. I forked over a whopping $26. Consider if you will that roses this size cost >$15 a the local discount rose garden. Yes I am delighted with my haul but that's not all.
The famously difficult to find UF campus IFAS bookstore had a booth where I could have easily dropped $100. What I did buy was a book on native tree identification, an updated poisonous pasture plants guide & a small but thorough booklet on fruit plant propagation with a special focus on different kinds of grafting. Yee-ha!
On the whole this event seemed to go smoothly. There were two unruly people, both of them elderly men who were probably themselves overwhelmed, not that that is an excuse. Still two cranks in a crowd of I don't know how many seems like almost nothing. There was also a snafu as I was checking out; they kept coming up with a different plant count & I nixed it each time; all of their numbers added up to an even number & I knew I had nine plants. In the end it was quite the headache to recreate the prices of what I had (they talked about going back to look but I knew the lavenders & one of the roses were already gone). As I walked away from the table I could not help but notice the older lady responsible for pulling the color stakes used as price tags still had some of the tags from my plants in one hand when she started pulling them for the next sale. Then she put them on the table & began to pile all the stakes together. The woman who was working with her caught my eye, smiled & shrugged. I can see how the crowd of people no matter how happy to be there could easily fluster a person who would rather be gardening.
In all the sale runs for five hours (four actually but there are still people there even as the are wrapping up) & it is just once a year. I have heard they made over $15K for the local Master Gardener program. A good day.
I had planned to take pictures even though my camera was on a trip to Miami (next week it goes to Paris without me!); I have been learning the camera on my phone which s actually a nice one but my hands were full almost immediately. I had brought sturdy bags which enabled m to carry plenty of plants but next year I am bringing a wagon!
I came home with one calendula which I immediately repotted (it had two unopened blooms & I was hoping to save one of them) & one cut-leaf coneflower. I actually went hoping to find one of the varieties of purple coneflower but they were gone by the time I made it to the perennials section. What I did find was a different variety of the rain lilies I am already crazy about. I also go two lavender plants because I never can resist them & four roses: two Belinda's Dream & two Louis Philippe. I forked over a whopping $26. Consider if you will that roses this size cost >$15 a the local discount rose garden. Yes I am delighted with my haul but that's not all.
The famously difficult to find UF campus IFAS bookstore had a booth where I could have easily dropped $100. What I did buy was a book on native tree identification, an updated poisonous pasture plants guide & a small but thorough booklet on fruit plant propagation with a special focus on different kinds of grafting. Yee-ha!
On the whole this event seemed to go smoothly. There were two unruly people, both of them elderly men who were probably themselves overwhelmed, not that that is an excuse. Still two cranks in a crowd of I don't know how many seems like almost nothing. There was also a snafu as I was checking out; they kept coming up with a different plant count & I nixed it each time; all of their numbers added up to an even number & I knew I had nine plants. In the end it was quite the headache to recreate the prices of what I had (they talked about going back to look but I knew the lavenders & one of the roses were already gone). As I walked away from the table I could not help but notice the older lady responsible for pulling the color stakes used as price tags still had some of the tags from my plants in one hand when she started pulling them for the next sale. Then she put them on the table & began to pile all the stakes together. The woman who was working with her caught my eye, smiled & shrugged. I can see how the crowd of people no matter how happy to be there could easily fluster a person who would rather be gardening.
In all the sale runs for five hours (four actually but there are still people there even as the are wrapping up) & it is just once a year. I have heard they made over $15K for the local Master Gardener program. A good day.
Sunday, May 18, 2014
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2014: Everything's coming up roses
The first time was for 52 Photos Project prompt A Crooked Line & the second time was for a Block Lotto linky post about color. So without further ado here is the quilt I made as a gift to the couple who had my cow bred (so folksy, right). He is the Dexter cattle fan (& rancher) but she has a landscaping business with a special interest in heirloom roses so my primary fabric choice was easy-peasy (it was not until afterwards that I thought about how many Einstein-themed gifts we get-they were still very gracious about it).
It may not be obvious at first glance (I think it is, but I already know) but this block is a revamp of a Block Lotto block I have taken to calling 8:56 (four to nine). The original block pattern begins with equal parts of two fabrics & then a narrow slice is taken top to bottom & another side to side there is some flipping & voilà. I am beyond fond of this pattern & have made several times it before & I am certain I will make it over & over again & even give this variation another roll.
In this most recent incarnation, I played with the dimensions of that center slice making it gradually wider as I worked my way out from the center. I was mostly interested in seeing how the larger cuts actually diminished the punch of color; the highest contrast seems, to me anyhow, to be in the blocks with the most unequally sized individual pieces. Because I varied the size of the cuts there is just that one center seam to match (except that one place where I accidentally bumped two blocks with the same size cuts up against each other WHOOPS!) so this quilt went together super-quick. After al that cutting is done which can be exhausting.
As for the quilting: the fabric had a vaguely geometric quality & I wanted to pick that up. I used a wide piece of bleached white muslin so no center seam would interrupt the design (which was just a happy accident). I made several starkly triangle "roses" in a variegated pink to yellow thread & then outlined them in dark green thread making ever larger triangles until they started bumping up against each other & then I threw in some jagged thorns in between. I was going for a sharply angled bouquet sort of look, but I am not sure it worked. 
The quilting (& the piecing for that matter) was done on my Bernina 153 which I still love. I have flirted with getting a new machine, but somehow they never feel right; this machine is the right size for me. On the small side by today's standards, I can still jam a queen sized quilt through it if need be. This quilt finished at just over 54" x 54". The fabrics are all cottons mostly from my scrap basket except of course for the yardage of that rose fabric. The batting is 70% cotton/30% polyester (my preferred batting for quick free-motion quilting). The thread was a YLI variegated & a Sulky solid dark green.
& as I said when we went to pick up our dairy cow (baby due in December fingers crossed), they took such wonderful care of her I wanted to say extra-thank you. Because while Cow-girl is standoffish & maybe even ill-suited to the whole backyard diary thing she is MY cow & I love her.
I have entered this quilt in the Home Machine Quilted category of the Blogger's Quilt Festival. & because I adds up to 216" all around, it is also in the Small Quilts category.
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