I’m using this nice stretch of days to line up materials for spring installations. today, the stoneyard. though it’s so familiar after years of exploration, I always find myself rooting beneath the massive cottonwood trees that dot the property…especially along the ditch that cuts the site into halves. big trees act as traps for odds and ends that get enveloped by stock and forgotten. so in a way, the material emulates a tree which itself grows outward, the newest tissue encircling the old.
today I found a couple of treasures. one, an old palette of vintage masonry blocks stained dark by tannins in the decades of leaf fall. two, a box of stone shafts that i believe are cores left by the boring of large blocks. similarly stained.  finally, two hollow ceramic floor tiles from the demolition of an old factory or station.

these will become garden ornaments. and when they do, I’ll write about it here.

This little cluster is always among the first to open each year. And there are a few more every season. I’m always glad I tucked these in by the front walk where the sedum and veronica carpet keeps them snug.

Doing what it takes to wrest every bit of sun from the winter sky for the light-starved succulents.

This amaryllis bloomed once and as sometimes happens, sent out another flower spike. I watched it for a few weeks and nothing changed. So I cut it open to find the 4 juvenile blossoms the bulb lacked the energy to complete.

Two of my latest experiments in terrarium-building. Excellent for refining material combinations and compositions quickly and most importantly, warmly.

I believe that curiosity, along with capability, are a designer’s most vital traits. i’ve included this journal of sorts in my professional website because i hope for my present and future clients to see through my eyes the potential of the land to touch us and draw us closer to understanding our own nature.