Paula Hayes: Her Hand in Nature

Nature's beauty has been central to many artists, including American artist and botanist Paula Hayes. Juxtaposing  microcosms of miniature environments and oversized morning glory blossoms, Hayes' work reveals a playful and thoughtful interpretation of nature's importance to the balance of our world. Mixing acrylic shapes with actual plants, the transparency, light, fluid forms and organic textures of her work serve to magnify the beauty of our natural environment, which often gets lost in the overwhelming whir of a world man has created.

Nature Abstractions Continue

How does the viewer handle abstraction?  He makes sense of color and shape, finding forms that resemble everyday objects.  Flowers emerge out of brush strokes, water shimmers with lines. As I prepare for a spring exhibition at Seatuck, a nature preserve, the power of our environment abounds.

Flower Power

We treat flowers as sweet and delicate, as an inconsequential idea, as a romantic weakness, but without flowers, there is no fruit nor vegetable, no food for bee or butterfly.  When the medians on the highway remain uncut, what first returns is the wildflower-- bachelor buttons, Queen Anne's lace, thistle-- flowers dot the landscape offering seeds and beauty instead of cropped greenery. Leaving the landscape to her own devices inspires me. Nature has a way of healing itself, and in a world of upheaval and turmoil, I can only hope that we humans can step aside long enough to allow nature to rejuvenate and prosper. As an artist, the only imagery that makes sense right now to me is the power of flowers.

Summer Garden Days

Like many before me, I am taking inspiration from the garden these days.  The bursts of color, the blossoms turning into food, it's all such a happy summertime metaphor about life's bounty.  But it needs tending, of course.  The watering, the weeding, and the harvesting is dividing among our family, making it a communal experience.  Best yet, we are eating healthful food-- zucchini practically every day, cucumber salads, tomato soups, and the like make this season's experiment in eating local food even more successful and delicious.

Loco-vore

 This book amazed me in its philosophy about living beings, especially moss. After I read this book, I wandered Potic Mountain in search of all the different types of moss we  had on our little spot of earth.  The results were surprising, and quite life affirming.

I love this author-- from BEAN TREES to LACUNA... and now this book.  I totally enjoyed the audiobook. As I drove to work each morning, plus a couple of trips up the Hudson Valley, this 12-disc book inspired me to attempt to eat locally and to perhaps even grow my own food this summer.

And in the midst of all this botany love, I enjoyed everything about Black Horse Farms in Athens, NY. Owner Chellie is a doll, and the plants are brilliant, the soups are savory, and don't get me started on the bloody mary mix.  I'm going to try and 'eat the seasons' this year-- buying produce locally as it comes into season.  With climate change now a reality, food consumption, habitat restoration, and bike transportation are added to my list of eco-friendly considerations. Eating locally offers so many benefits. Taste, community, environment, economics all come into play. And please don't even get us started on local beers.  Crossroads in Athens, NY and Great South Bay Brewery in Bayshore, NY can attest to James' love of a full growler.

Bouler Pfluger Architects is now investigating native plantings for many of their Sandy relief projects.  By using native plantings, habitat can be improved.  Properly considered, the platings can serve as habitat for wildlife as well as improving drainage for flood zones.  Best yet is landscaping that doesn't require mowing or pesticides.  If NYC-LI truly considered strategic wildlife and drainage zones, not only could future storms be mitigated, people could experience the return of wildlife to their backyards.

The Power of Planting

 Here are some before and after pics of our front yard in Islip, NY.  

 2004

2012

 2004

2012

2025?

Clearly our plantings are intended to provide as much privacy screening as possible. James and I hadn't realized just how much our plants had grown until we found these pictures of the yard from eight years ago. A pleasant bonus of our plantings is the habitat it has created for birds, with an active robin's nest right by the dogwood tree.  

Native Planting at Seatuck

 Jackson helps lay out the plants before digging some impressive holes.

 Tags are used to help educate the public about best plants to use on Long Island.

 Landscape designer Sue Avery shows Liv how to space the plants.

 Meanwhile, a local Boy Scout troop was rebuilding coup for the quail restoration project.

Quail getting ready to move into their new home.

Bouler Architecture is proud to support the native planting project at Seatuck, a nature preserve and education center in Islip, NY. Running along the Great South Bay, the preserve features a landscape that is a diverse mix of wetlands and woodlands, and is now developing a native planting scheme that will not only add beauty to the property, it will teach the public about what we should be planting in our Long Island yards. Jackson has been very interested in plants ever since he received a gardening book for attracting birds, so Olivia and I joined him by getting our hands dirty and planting some ferns, viburnum, mountain laurel, and blueberries under the direction of Seatuck's Chairperson of Landscaping, Sue Avery. Sue Avery, a biologist and landscape designer, has been working with fellow members of Seatuck and Long Island Native Plant Initiative to create a garden scheme that will enhance the landscape while restoring habitat.  LINPI has been traveling to untouched areas across Long Island and harvesting plant seeds to cultivate new plants before the species is lost forever. The value of native plants is to not only preserve the species, however, but they work better in our climate, thriving without human intervention.  They also help combat invasive plants.  From bamboo to mustard garlic, invasive species choke out native plants and tamper with our ecosystem.  Unfortunately, in the process they often choke out plants that provide food or habitat for wildlife.  Seatuck's quail restoration project is another effort to restore the balance of our habitat.  Having lost open space, their numbers in the wild have been depleted.  Coupled with the desire to curtail the tick population, Seatuck began raising quail a few years ago, and the results have been phenomenal.  As we rode our bikes home from our morning at Seatuck, I reflected on how lucky we are to be a stone's throw from such a beautiful spot.

Earth Day: Go Garden

Have you ever found yourself sitting in traffic, wondering how you would survive if there was a full scale apocalypse? No? Obviously you haven't spend enough time on the Southern State Parkway. One morning I began to run through one such scenario and realized that, despite my packed cupboards and stocked freezer, I'd be at a loss on how to grow my own food. Sure I have a small kitchen herb garden, but beyond the oregano and the sage, then what? This year will be different. With starter plants and seeds, we've been preparing for a vegetable garden. I've ordered a rain collection barrel and recycled soaker hose, and to celebrate Earth Day, James tilled up a stretch of grass in the sunniest part of the yard. Step by step, our goal of a summer garden will hopefully become a reality, and not the nightmare scenario that inspired it.

On the Radio

I have a thing for the radio. Fiddling with the tuner, hearing a bit of static, adjusting the metal antenna offers a comforting nostalgia unmatched by the ipod. The idea of a radio that requires no batteries, no electric-- I swoon!! Perfect for the garden or a blackout, this handy crank and solar Eton radio also serves a flashlight and cell phone charger. And unlike the other one we tried, which will remain unnamed, this one actually holds its power long enough to finish a round of Car Talk and beyond. Get one for everyone you know!

Mushroom Madness

Identifying mushrooms is a long standing tradition in Europe. Most mushrooms in Europe have been identified and studied my the many prestigious mycological societies throughout the Old World. In North America, not so much. One mycologist who had catalogued European mushrooms bemoaned his decision to take on North American mushrooms once he realized the scale of the region and its lack of previous documentation. Indeed, even at Potic Cottage, we've had a huge variety of mushrooms pop up seemingly overnight with subtle differences that could be the difference between edible and toxic.

Bring on the Butterflies!

Our garden this year has been neglected more than usual; however out of concern for our polinating friends, Jackson decided to add some plants to help out the bees and the butterflies. With a little help from his dad, he was able to add a butterfly bush to the meditation garden, and for the birds, a blueberry bush and cherry tree. It was with interest then that I stumbled upon master gardener Eileen's blog, Milkweed Gardens. A gardener for the Orange County Extension Office in Florida, Eileen enjoys butterfly gardening with her children and encourages parents to turn their backyards into a hands-on, butterfly biology lesson. Hm, creating a lifelong gardening lesson and enriching the environment at the same time? Sounds like a good addition to the meditation garden.

The Cost of Green Lawns

What's with the lawns, people? Scotts is developing a genetically modified bluegrass for golf courses, and we all know it's a matter of time before it makes its way to homes across America. Not regulated by the agriculture department or the EPA, we all can write the next line of this story--- INVASIVE SPECIES! Like kudzoo's march through the South, we'll then be scrambling to contain the grass at considerable cost financially and environmentally.
Our obsession with a green lawn borders on insanity. Pesticide use for grass is off the charts, especially on Long Island, where run-off and aquifers are of scant concern in light of the lure of a lawn. Then teams of fossil-fuel burning lawn mowers and leaf blowers plow through our neighborhoods, all for a crop that feeds no one, not even birds, which is then watered with a precious resource: drinkable water.
So here's my proposal-- Charge a HUGE tax on pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Encourage people to appreciate natural looking lawns, to plant native plants to feed animals, or to cultivate crops to feed people.

Arbor Day

While I was listening to a college radio station this morning, the host was chatting about the contrast between big business and the environmental movement. "The oil industry has money, but the environmental movement has the collective." He went on to assert that the collaborative nature of the environmental movement, sharing members and resources, allows for many leaders who vie for progress not power. The power of the environmental movement comes from everyday people making choices in their everyday actions-- and in this way, the collective can affect change. For example, my students recently implemented a water bottle recycling program at our high school, capturing 1.3 tons of plastic in March alone. Needless to say, the actions of individuals, positive or negative, have a combined result.
With Arbor Day upon us, it seems like an appropriate time to encourage the collective response of planting trees. Instead of a national day of consumption-- cards, flowers, candy, toys-- let's honor a day dedicated to improving our natural habitiat. The collective act of planting trees has great political power too. Wangari Maathai started the Green Belt movement in Kenya one tree at a time-- the end result was massive in terms of the environment and the empowerment it provided.
And why not plant trees? We need to counteract those lost annually to overdevelopment and to storms in order to provide a healthy environment to animals and people alike. Consider adding a tree to your yard this spring, or simply protecting the ones you have. Or instead of giving out a rubber bracelet for a fundraiser, or a tchotke as a wedding favor, consider sharing saplings. Those trees might just add up to a forest.

Signs of Spring

A million thanks to mother nature for bringing springtime weather to Long Island. This spring, however, will be different for us. Olivia's book tour will take us cross country, leaving the garden to 'go natural' until we return to our usual routine in May. Til then, I can enjoy birds eating at the feeders and building their nests on a sunny Sunday morning. That may be all I need anyway.

October's Autumn

Every year, autumn rolls around and for me, it's time again for the Transcendentalists. With people today spending upwards of 7 1/2 hours on electronic mediums per day, it's worth considering how Henry David Thoreau would view our attachment to the world and to each other. What do we miss while we are distracted in our multi-media, multi-tasking lives? The term 'nature deprivation' smacks of new age mumbo jumbo, but what if Emerson and Thoreau were right, that by becoming a transparent eyeball and communing with nature, we restore our moral compass. Most people see the outdoors as an inconvenient space between their hermetically sealed homes and their airconditioned cars. Being so removed from nature makes them less inclined to connect with its beauty and less inclined to protect it. Thus, I assigned for my 11th grade students to sit outside for 15 uninterrupted minutes. As I watched them dutifully write their homework in their planners "Sit outside for 15 minutes", the inevitable questions follow: May I listen to music? Make a video? Work on my pitch? No, No, and No. In our overprogrammed lives, downtime is a lost art. It's not to be occupied by a nap, tv, or a checklist. Kick leaves five times (check!) Study a rock (check!) No, it requires meandering mentally and physically. Now let's see if I can do my own homework. Try it yourself and let me know how you make out so I can give you an A+.

September's Summer Sunday

As I soaked in the last Sunday of summer 2010 by weeding my scandalously overgrown meditation garden, I felt an unfamiliar sense of calm. Not feeling particularly reflective or anticipatory, my mind became quiet for the first time in many months. I wondered, Am I actually living in the moment? It was a fleeting thought, but there nevertheless.

While You Were Away

If you've ever seen the Japanese animated movie Spirited Away, you know the girl falls into a parallel universe of dreamlike spirits, and when she emerges, she discovers her family's car covered in leaves to suggest the passing of time. It was like that for me last night. When did the cherries come in on the cherry tree? Hadn't I just planted the herbs in the meditation garden which are now going to seed? And don't even ask about the window boxes.
The family returned to the backyard last night-- its sanctuary and its chores. Cherries were picked, plants were watered, the bird feeder fortified against squirrel attack. It was a lovely moment of calm reminding us to literally stop and smell the roses.

It's Official!

Drum roll please. . . our backyard is now a certified wildlife habitat with the National Wildlife Federation. Establishing eco-friendly landscaping and setting up feeders for birds are two of the easy ways to help stave off the detrimental effects of poor town planning and suburban sprawl. A nationwide campaign to 'green' American backyards makes a lot of sense as birds across the country are losing habitat and not just those living in the Gulf. Acting locally doesn't get much closer than this.

Backyard Sanctuary

As a healthy ecosystem seems perilously close to being a thing of the past, please consider acting locally. The National Wildlife Federation is holding a challenge of turning our backyards into safe havens all across the country. I was surprised to find that our suburban backyard was able to gain certification of a wildlife habitat by the NWF with one or two tweaks. The checklist is incredibly straightforward-- seeds or berries, trees and shrubs, nesting location, water source, organic fertilizer-- it is quite easy to meet the standard, leaving me to wonder why shouldn't we all get on board. The Audubon Society also has information on their site on how to make your backyard bird-friendly. With the marsh areas of the Gulf chewed up with oil, perhaps we can do our part for bird populations in our own region.