Friday, December 3, 2010

In The Pines


It was a natural. I already made my casseroles with the
acorn knobs...



...and I made them with the
gourd knobs...


So when I was asked about pinecones (thanks Amy), I could easily see it. In fact, a few years ago an old ceramics shop in town was closing down and selling some very old casting molds. I spent a few hours going through their basement full of dusty, discarded old molds. I was thinking that I might find some interesting elements that would be useable on my pots. One such mold I found was for three pinecones.

Of course, the mold was meant for casting, but because of its tiny size, I've found it useful as a press mold.

When I moved to the acre on which I live and work, one of the first things I did was plant pines all the way around my property. My property is an oddity -- I live in an industrial park, but my house is the original farmhouse of the hundreds of acres that were, decades later, turned into the city's industrial park.

Across the street from me is the hay field where this summer I enjoyed watching my neighbor, Kim, baling his first cutting from the field...



So, though I live in an industrial park, because I have the view of the hayfield across the street, and I am surrounded on the remaining three sides by the pines I planted 20 years ago, I have little sense of the industry that surrounds me.


And I enjoy those pines. So do the dogs.


To my north I planted 30 white pines -- now a dense, dark green screen. To my south, I have a row of Austrian pines. Ouch. Running the lawnmower beneath them is a porcupine proposition. To my west, I got a dozen red pines from the soil and conservation department. When I planted them, they were hardly bigger than my finger. Now they're twenty-five foot twisted beauties. In addition to those pines that surround the property, I also have 3 stunningly beautiful thirty foot spruce trees.

I live surrounded by pines. The pinecone decoration was a natural.


5 comments:

  1. What a spectacular home you have! I've been planting trees for years; like our pots, they will be around a lot longer than we will and I find comfort in that somehow.
    Inspiration is often right outside our own window...lovely casserole...

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  2. Beautiful casserole and what a great place to live, your home is lovely.

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  3. Thanks to both of you. It really is a nice bit of architecture. It's required a bit of work -- it was in pretty bad shape when we got it. But the beautiful lines were obvious, even at its worst.

    Dan, I had a half-written song idea some time back. The gist of this tree-planting song was:

    In your twenties plant oak and walnut
    In your thirties plant maple and ash
    In your forties plant poplar and willow
    In your fifties plant pines
    In your sixties plant oak with your grandchildren.

    I kinda liked the idea of how we grow with the trees we plant and feel a bit differently about who will live with what we plant as we age.

    Oh, did I mention that I'm a hopeless romantic?

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  4. The pinecone casserole is the BEST! I love it!

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  5. Thanks Sister Creek! That casserole is enjoying its new life in North Carolina.

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