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We had a mixed bag of weather this weekend. A beautiful Saturday and torrential downpour on Sunday. There’s water in the basement. It rained Monday too and I stayed inside to finish work I wanted to deliver and show today. The Lion Cup is done, I intend to have a mold made so that we can have it electro formed in a variety of metals and finishes.
Her are two shots.

I went into the city today to buy gold leverbacks for a pair of earrings to go along with the necklace I finished yesterday.  The beads are carnelian, they alternate in a chain with 9-10 mm freshwater pearls. The necklace is just under 20″ long, all the wire and findings are 14kt gold, I soldered and forged the hook clasp.  It’ll be available on my website soon, as a set for $350. Or you can email me at colsage@earthlink.net

The Azaleas are blooming out of sequence this year because of the little heat wave we had a few weeks ago and the prolonged cool weather we are having now.

My cross between an Exbury and  a Ghent hybrid  azalea is having a banner year. I love the color which is more subtle than here in the photograph. You’ll see the whole bush in the pans of the garden at the bottom of this entry.

The Ken Janek Rhododendrons are also blooming in a strange way this year.  In the past the blooms all were together, the bush showing pink buds and then with the flowers opening the intense pink was all gone. This year some flowers are opening  and some buds are delayed so that we have a real splash of mixed color.  Colman thinks it’s because the plants are sensitive to the microclimates around each bush; sunny branch, cool pocket, warm draft.

In the front the Sekidera Azalea in blooming. The flowers are very nice and large, but the bush itself looks wretched most of the year. I cut it back severely last year and it started to look better, I’ll do the same this year after it finishes blooming, that is if it doesn’t continue to rain like it has the past few weeks.

Here are two pan shots of the back yard, one dappled with sunlight when I got home today around 4:30 and then again a little later as the sun got behind clouds. You can see my glowing, orange azalea in front of the greenhouse. The red azalea on the left in the shade pan is Girard’s Scarlet, the one in the center is Silver Sword, called that because the leaves are variegated with white edges.

On the 14th of this month we went to an opening at the College of Staten Island to attend the opening for an exhibition of Tracey Jones paintings. I was attracted by the invitation image and knew I had to go to see the work. I was not disappointed.  When we arrived there were a number of people already there and a photographer was shooting the show.

Tracey was talking with her friend and I asked if they would stand for a picture.  Colman likes the painting ‘Table’ behind Tracey’s friend.

Here are some shots of the gallery during our visit.

The blue canvas titled ‘Etruria’ was on the invitation.

Behind this trio, the gray canvas, ‘Large Fence’.

Colman talking with Craig Manister, also a painter and supervisor of this gallery at the college.

One of the paintings that I enjoyed seeing,  ’Sign 5′.

As we were leaving, a final shot of the gallery.

The sun was beginning to set on a beautiful Spring day.  These photos were taken just outside of the Center for the Arts buildiing.

This will be a first for me, getting an entry online the evening of an event’s occurrence. I’m already two openings behind, something I hope to fix tomorrow.

Today was also the day Tysen Street held it’s Spring Yard Sale, after I packed most of the remaining stuff up, we headed down toward the terrace  to a show opening. The CPG Gallery is only open weekends from 1 – 5 PM.

The Creative Photographer’s Guild held an opening for their group featuring the work of Virginia Ross. Colman and I were not quite the first to arrive but we were early. We met our friends Joanne and Richard and had time to talk before other friends started to arrive.

Here’s Joanne, Steve Nutt had just arrived and is behind her looking at some of the photographs, Colman is talking to Richard.  Four of the guys there are named Steve, isn’t that an unusual occurrence for a small group of people?

Virginia was the behind the desk greeting people as they arrived, she’s in the white blouse.

Our painter friend Sarah Yuster arrived and introduced us to her friend Gail Middleton.

Willie Chu, a member of the group, with Regina on our left and Nan on our right.

Richard Capuozzo, Joanne Homsey and Flint Gennari.

Another shot of Gail before we left the gallery.

Flint framed  in the doorway as we headed back up Tysen Street.

About 15 years ago I was hybridizing with azaleas. We had clipped and rooted cuttings from a friend’s collection in Lederach Pennsylvania. He had a wonderful collection of Japanese azaleas that I used to make my crosses. These seedlings from that time are crosses that were made with a variety called Geisha. It has single white flowers splashed with stripes and spots of bright pink. Geisha is still growing in our garden and it is usually the first azalea to bloom each spring. The whole bush can be seen in yesterday’s entry, the first photo.

The seedlings in the following photos are most likely a cross of Florence Waldman and Geisha. Florence Waldman was a hybrid  from Roslyn Nurseries on Long Island, one of the only American hybrids to have stripes and spots. While it had beautiful flowers there in Long Island, it performed poorly here in Staten Island, the buds came early and were often blasted by late frosts. Crossing it with Geisha, which has similar coloring, gave us plants with larger flowers that perform much better and reliably in our garden.

This first hybrid is outside near the back yard door, it’s one of the small bushes that Max used to sleep under on summer nights. The flowers are larger than Geisha. A strange thing about the seedlings is that all of them, at least the ones that survived some neglect for a number of years, have hose-in-hose flowers, that is to say the blooms are two azalea flowers, one inside the other.

The second seedling has more substance and color, the petals are more ruffled rather than rounded like the first seedling.

Primulas are blooming in the bed closest to the deck, there are more in pockets all around the back yard, but this is the main part of the collection.

I am especially fond of these white  flowers with the cut edges, I think I bought them on 28th street about 5 years ago.

I got these yellow  primulas a few years ago to replace some that just weren’t surviving very well.  The types I like come from higher altitudes and don’t like it much here at near sea level.

These came from our friend, Bud, in Lederach too, in his garden they are in an abundant array in a border and along a path that leads to his azalea collection.

The painters have been here most of the week, the front door couldn’t be used as usual and we had to walk to the front by going around the house from the kitchen. Spent the early part of the last weeks days moving abutilons out of the basement so we could finally turn the lights off down there.

Walking around to the front,  the ephemeral arabis flowers were blooming. It’s been cooler than usual this year; that coupled with the mini heat wave a week or so ago, has made a lot of our plants bloom early and stay fresh longer. The rhododendrons are on time but the azaleas are already showing color, if it had been a little warmer they would all be open today. Here are two rhododendrons with Japanese Geisha, an early azalea on the right.

We were driving around Staten Island this morning with our friend Diana who  introduced us to places we should have known about and visited for the past twenty years. We took her to the store on which I’ve been working with Friends of Fire (we will have a Grand Opening May 8-9), it’s been a lot of fun and we’ve met some nice people. Just one shot of a new arrangement at  the store. (you can see more photos of the store in my FaceBook Album)

The striking visual thing about our drive today was that the cool weather this week has slowed the passing of many of Staten Island’s blooming trees.  There are a LOT;  flowering almonds are in peak bloom everywhere, forsythia, crab apples and red buds color every road.  It seems that part of mayor Bloomberg’s Million Trees Project includes redbuds, there are streets lined with them.

Here’s a shot of my arabis before the rain last Thursday night.

And a view of the path from the back to the front. I shot this about twenty minutes ago, the arabis is still looking good.

Fritillaria melegaris, ‘Checkered  Lilies’, have naturalized in the front border.  I think it’s unusual for the white flowers to do better  than the colored varieties, they out number the maroon flowers.

All the porch furniture had to be stacked in the yard while they were working last week.

One of the treads being cleaned and trimmed.

Colman on the porch with some of the carpenter’s tools.

Trevor on the right with his Dad, a family carpentry business.

All new risers, the old ones had rotted edges.

Today the porch is finished and the paint has cured. I began to move some of the furniture back into place and hang new chains for the plants.

Some more Spring flowers.

Ipheion, attractive and fragrant, it’s also invasive. . . the leaves last until July, dying off  (so you can plant annuals over them), reapperaing in late October to grow in the pale winter sunlight.

A close-up of some Rhodies in the back yard.

And Henry keeps us company where ever we go.

Helen Levin has opened in a show with Gene Bocknek at the Ezair Gallery on Madison Avenue,  Helen is showing paintings and Gene is showing sculpture.

Helen invited me to the opening that took place on April 7th, it had been a long time since I went to an opening above 28th street.

Helen is on the right with Hedy in the middle and Joan on the left.

Gene Bocknek with a friend  by one of his sculptures.

I can’t resist a mirror, sometimes it’s the only way I get into one of my photos.

Here I am with Helen and  Ed, another friend from the Staten Island arts community.

Helen talking with another painter.

Leaving the opening, I headed  back toward Lexington Avenue. I passed by a closed but elegantly lit Chase Bank and took these shots through the windows.

On Lexington Avenue looking south, I was surprised by the way the new tower was lit. It was very hard to get the tower, Chrysler Building and some street into my camera.

Star lights in a shoe store window.

The silver leaf caught my eye here.

Chinese fruit shaped ceramics.

The guys at Plaza Flowers always have  beautiful windows, I like the pots shaped like poppy seed capsules.

I’m about a month late posting this and the show has probably come down by now. (The evening of March 9, 2010)  I took almost a hundred photos and it’s taken time to put this posting together.

We were invited to the opening our friend, Gwen Strahle, (she lives in Connecticut) who was selected for this exhibition. It’s been a long time since we were in this neighborhood, 20 years ago Colman and I had an apartment a few blocks from the Museum of the American Indian and the Hispanic Museum complex. Since then, the Museum of the American Indian has moved downtown to the old Customs House near Battery Park.  The Academy exhibit is in two of the buildings in the center of the museum complex near 158th street on the West Side. The photo above is of some of the grand sculpture in the passage between the museums on the way to the academy  exhibition space.

This is the central area of  the first  building.  The exhibition is in two buildings with a small courtyard in between.

Taybin and Kat were on the same train, we met them as we were getting onto the platform at 157th street.  Taybin is in this shot.

This is Laura Battle with some of her work.  It turns out she knows Gwen. Laura battle info.

This is Lisa Sanditz with one of her paintings.  I thought I would try to get as many of the artists with their work as I could find.  I was only able to pair four with their work all evening. Other images by Lisa.

One corner of the gallery.

Our Friend, Gwen Strahle with one of  her paintings.

Some more Gallery shots, the next few are taken in the second building.

Gwen talking with Anja, Austin and Colman.

I like this large sculpture. It was very difficult to get a good angle on it, you can see how wide it is in a photo above of the whole room. It’s called Fold  by John Grade.

Kat, Taybin, Anja and Austin talking with Colman

I thought these were particularly strange.

Laura Battle talking with  some of her friends.

I was surprised to see two friends from Staten Island, Mitchell and  Lorraine.

Alexi Worth with a couple of his paintings.

This is where we came into the show first, a very large room with a really high ceiling and enormous skylight.

The courtyard between the buildings, looking toward  Broadway.