The Language of Flowers

I have already printed off a set of these to bedeck my next series of mailings! When the US postal service produces flower stamps, I buy my fair share. I also love bees and birds. Nature, attending to it and having it around me, well it's key. So, seeds from Cascadia to plant here. a highpoint and receiving them is now part of the rythmn of my year.  Now to find the time to get them into a seed bed!

Love the poem on a postcard - its aesthetic and the words.

The precision with which Cascadia makes this mailing is fabulous.  A few years ago in the seeds Cascadiasent me some siberian wallflower seeds in the mix.  They bloomed for months and the scent was irresistible.  Using jack's key, I figured out what they were and about two years later I ordered some of my own. Now I have many many siberian wallflower plants and they appear in my paintings often!

                                        

Thank you SO much!

 

Gardening Joy from Cascadia Artpost

If you've been following this blog for any time, you will know that Cascadia Artpost and I share a love of growing things and that he sends me (and others) seeds.  He knows I will sprinkle them and try to make the world a little more beautiful.  Year by year, this corner of Suffolk UK is becoming a little more colorful and a little more like a patch in Washington. It's so exciting!

Cascadia packages, thinks through and executes his projects with care and lovein a beautiful, aesthetic way. He has laid down the mantle and asks that we pick it up and celebrate garden flowers. I have been painting my garden, bouquet by bouquet, but hopefully, I will find a way to share my love with all things growoing with my mail art community.  Thank you for sparking something for the future!

 

Spring Equinox Clutch - Cascadia Artpost

This mailing from Cascadia Artpost is my kind of double whammy! Having read the Cascadia CoffeeClutch from cover to cover (not yet attempted the crossword but found a few answers in the reading) now I can take my seed packet to a neglected corner of the garden and paint with flowers!  My only sadness is that when the mail went through the machine it was pierced so who knows how many seeds were lost in transit.  You can examine the images to see what I mean. 

As ever, Cascadia's post subtly brings me some Washingtonian wisdom, so Today my mantra will be: commit random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty!

Hope you are virus free in Cascadia.  Nayland Farm is an oasis of growing and making at the moment.

A few of my favourite things from Cascadia!

Not sure if Cascadia knows I am pretty in love with night light.  I have lots of pins on pinterest https://www.pinterest.co.uk/rebeccaguyver/night-light/ on the theme.  These stamps from Cascadia have arrived at the right home! I'll pin them later!

Another wonderful set of stamps! Is the original drawing Ipad art? I have to admit to not having used a single one of the stamps you've ever sent me because I can't bear to ruin the set… but I love these and think I should share! Bets on whether I will be able to do it...

Meanwhile back in the garden… Zinnas!  I love zinnias. This year I am already sprouting three kinds... but not these, not bespoke Cascadia zinnias! When I lived in Kenya (peace corps) I had a garden and every morning and afternoon I would survey the growth.  My zinnias were rampant and I would pick them and put them on my table, drawing then and just loving the. I will plant them tomorrow…one more job before my next hot cross bun.  

Below is my Cascadia garden that has overwintered and is already coming back vigorously!  Thank you, thank you.  I have been making a bit of mail again so will try to follow through and get it in the post after the long weekend to my mail art friends who bring me such joy!.  

It's a Waning moon tomorrow and I've got seeds to sow!

It's that spine-tingling time of year when we go to the potting shed and sprinkle seeds into soil and wait for magic to happen. Not only have I been ridiculously otherwise occupied, it has been rain-rain-rain.  Tomorrow is supposed to be a fair day and it's a waning moon.  The stars are aligned and the seeds will be buried! If anything as gorgeous as Cascadia's flower stamps appear I will be over-the-moon. 

 This year's' mailing is even more comprehensive than before. Some of the perrenials do well in our clay soil, others may struggle.  I have failed at Penstemon time and time again.  Perhaps 2018 will be the year that Nayland Farm delivers. I promise to try and send some photos this year and I have a mail art idea that I hope I can find time to execute.  I am so grateful!

The promise of spring - Cascadia Artpost

What a generous idea to collect and post seeds all the way from Washington! My mum is a plantswoman extraordinaire and I know she has smuggled the occasional seed between countries.  I am the more paranoid sort who phoned ahead to see if it was alright to bring my sour dough starter! I am putting the seeds in a seedbed in my potting shed to see what grows before committing to scattering them across our traditional medieval meadow.  I will report back! Very excited and looking forward to seeing the seedlings pop up!