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rosaprimula

statuary and other fripperies

Campanula UK Z8
9 years ago

Garden artefacts - having or not having them, has been the single most contentious issue in my gardening life. Our family (all gardeners) is utterly divided on this - my eldest and I loathe and hate it while my partner and daughter are considerably keener. I could only sympathise with my eldest (who lives in a housing co-op) when a hideous plastic buddha head appeared in his carefully arranged epimedium collection (he was almost weeping in rage and had gnashed his teeth down to gums). Looking in my own garden, I cannot help but see that nasty green fairy (an effing fairy!!) my daughter and grandaughter have not so secretly sat under a euonymous. Despite pushing it over and even hiding it under the hemerocallis leaves, the bloody thing appears with every family visit.....but worse, Mr Camps actually suggested an urn for our woodlands (over my dead body....or maybe his....inside it). Where do you stand on this issue. Would you lose a friend over a garden gnome? consider divorce over a concrete birdbath? or do you bond over resin owls and plastic bulldogs?

Comments (101)

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    We made a recessed place to house the statue my husband's mother had sitting in the little grotto in her garden for as far back as any of us could remember. I like having a place to serve as a memory for a person or a pet now gone. The cactus is from one of hers, she used the young pads for napoles and we used to make jelly from the pears.

  • coll_123
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I love your Penny Lane!

    Hoovb, I started to make the statue when my dog Seamus was still alive...I did not think we would lose him that soon. It was a couple years after his death before I could finish it. I strarted by making a clay model of just his head...I wasn't sure if I would sculpt the whole thing out of clay and make a mold to cast concrete, or what. I have worked with concrete/hyperufa in my garden so I am somewhat familiar with the material and I bought a book about concrete garden sculptures which helped.

    So I made a mold out if the clay version of his head and then cast a plaster model from that...I used the plaster one to help me with the rest of his body, which I wanted to freely sculpt over an armature. You just slowly add layers of concrete, and then you can carrve areas away when the concrete is still "green". So before the body was done I cast his head in concrete, and attached that to the rest of the armature

    {{gwi:268669}}

    {{gwi:268670}}

    this is my sweet boy Seamus
    {{gwi:268671}}

  • moliep
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Coll_123, that's an amazing likeness of your dear little Seamus. Thanks for sharing the process.

  • arbo_retum
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    well darn, coll, you are one talented woman!! Fascinating for me to hear the 'How-to' details. We have 2 life size Dane statues here- one concrete and 1 bronze. If I can remember how to post photos, I will. Otherwise you will see them in photos on our website.

    I have to tell you something funny: I've never seen a Boston terrier w/ dalmation-like spots under the white fur on its chest...But when I first saw Seamus' photo, I thought they looked like faint pawprints!!

    Here is a link that might be useful: Cotton-Arbo retum website pg., Art in the Garden

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    My favorites are tinfoilhat's roadrunner and fire hydrants in Arizona, makes me want to take a trip out west where you see all kinds of whimsical, colorful stuff like (even at gas stations so they must all be artists out there) because it just fits so well and people have a that casual sense of style and humor.

    But.........

    Wanatanamara's blue bowl and statue in the dried grass has to be my very favorite one. That's true art -- the colors/textures are fabulous! I give that bit-o-frippery an A+.

    I like leaning pots, the kinds with the rounded bottoms sitting at an angle among grasses and have those but I really think that bowl does it much better. I mean, you do see that a lot with the roundy bottom pots and I can't call it original but what else can you do with them?

  • tinfoilhat
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    TexasRanger10 liked my fire hydrant and Coll_123 had that nicely done concrete dog so I thought I’d share my dog by 1956 fire hydrant. He’s a Barbed Wire Terrier.
    {{gwi:158502}}
    I was going to pose him differently but my wife came by as I was working on him and asked what I was building. I told her and she thumped me upside the welding helmet and said don’t even think about it.
    Art critics can be so cruel.

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    OH GAW! I love it. Show us more..... You got any more? Don't 'ya mean a bobbed warr terrier? That's great.

  • ritaweeda
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    This is too funny. I have benches, bird baths, gazing ball, bottle tree, statuary, wishing well, whirligigs, I even had a gnome but it got pretty knarly looking and we threw it out. But when I drive by other people's houses with all this stuff I hate it. Maybe it's because we have it spread out over our five wooded acres so you really have to take a hike to see it. That's why we don't live in an HOA community. To each their own.

  • hoovb zone 9 sunset 23
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Seamus is beautiful, as is the BW Terrier. There is no better art in the garden than a beloved pet.

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    tinfoilhat--- seriously, I really want to see more photos of your garden. I like the big rocks, the fat railroad ties and the way it looks like you did split level (?) Looks like you have a purple ladder and some big rusty iron stuff back in there. I want to see the plants too, I love desert plants and wild stuff. You can name names, a few of us are always on the lookout for the heat loving stuff. Whats that yellow blooming plant by the dog? The delicate tree behind Roadrunner? When I pull up your attachment it won't stay up on my screen for more that a second RATS!

  • paul_
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    @Coll_123: Fantastic job on the dog statue!

    @Wantonamara: Really like that "dish" garden (last pic).

    @ tinfoilhat: The "alternative pose would have been hilarious! Gotta kick out of the Roadrunner, too!

    @TR10: From what I can see of the icon in the window, it looks awesome!
    (As a side note for any who might be the slightest bit interested, when discussing such icons it customary to say the icon was "written," as opposed to "painted". Don't know why though.)

    I'm one of those "fence sitters" so to speak. Generally speaking, I don't mind lawn/garden ornamentation but I am rather finicky as to what I actually like. I think, too, that for me a lot depends on the setting. Something like the Roadrunner statue up here would look ... well rather dumb, IMO. But in a desert area like AZ, it is so very appropriate. Same for TR10's painted sticks ... in such an arid region and against the foil of the house with its austere exterior ... it really works.

    Old beat up &/or rusty objects don't do much for me .... think it brings to mind yards I have seen with a number of rusted out cars/trucks on blocks sitting in the front yard. That said, I will add that on the plus side I have seen some such objects rather novel/cleverly utilized.

    Plastic flamingos in the Great White North .... those I despise. I just find them incredibly tacky. Same can be said for many of the garish plastic yard ornaments.

    Windchimes, some of the spinners, decorative stepping stones, & understated statuary tends to be more to my tastes -- provided such are just used as accents here or there.

    Always interesting to see and hear about other people's tastes.

  • tinfoilhat
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I wandered into this forum because I saw this post on the side of the page in recent posts. I was curious because I have to admit I didn’t even know what frippery meant. Now I know what it means and I am shocked to find that I spend my afternoons actually making them.
    I have a covered welding area next to my shop and when the temps hit over 100F I escape to my shaded area in the afternoons and build mostly whimsical things to put around my yard.
    Rumor has it that people on this forum talk to plants. Your secret is safe with me, I talk to my welded critters as the take shape on my welding table. By the time I’m done with them we are friends and share stories and adventures together.
    I made Peg Leg Peep and we chased bodacious buxom beauties through the ports of the Caribbean while consuming vast quantities of rum. We stopped in Cuba for a daiquiri with Hemmingway and after a dozen or so I beat him arm wrestling. That night I fell asleep to the gentle sound of the wind in the rigging.

    {{gwi:146266}}

    I met Hula Girl at a rundown cantina on a Mexican beach. In her glory days she was a madam at a cathouse in Honolulu. We shared a few bottles of cheap Sangria as she told stories all night.

    {{gwi:146788}}

    Bobbed Wire? You want bobbed wire?
    I was going to make a warm an’ fuzzy set of love birds. I jolted myself with the arc welder and my tinfoil hat changed channels and started picking up Mexican soap operas out of Nogales down by the border. There were no plans for any bobbed wire in my lovebirds but after listening to the lies, cheating, and deceit for a week the bobbed wire just kind of snuck in. Hell, it took over. We fought back with a bouquet of flowers. While there is still hope in their eyes my 2 love birds have now seen a new reality that is all rust spots, nicks, scrapes, scars.

    {{gwi:174920}}

    {{gwi:174921}}

    {{gwi:174923}}

    Bastogne the Desert Tortoise
    Low and slow, the way my plants grow here in the desert. Shell is 18' in diameter, weighs 40 pounds.

    {{gwi:174052}}

    I’m jealous and envious of the greenery in your gardens. This is the view of the open range looking south behind my place.
    {{gwi:140876}}

    I bet that view traumatizes people on a forum called Perennials. Add in string of 110F+ days and you can see why I wear a tinfoil hat and talk to Freon tanks, tire rims, and old pieces of rusty junk. Today is different, the rain has been coming down in buckets this morning and will keep me from working at my welding table this afternoon. I was looking forward to it. There is an old blind saxophone player waiting out there with stories of the good ol’ days in Memphis, Chicago, an’ Kansas City. We were going to New Orleans today.
    Enjoy your yards, gardens, and secret place, whatever kind you have. It’s good to have a place to escape politics and the 24/7 news cycle.

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    tinfoil, I'm jealous of your landscape. I'm jealous of jadeite's in NM too for that matter in spite of the dangerous sharpies and stickers, rabbits, bears and pack rats. Wantanamara's property down there in Lady Bird Johnson country is a goldmine of plants growing wild, I have heard it called the "Wildflower Capitol of the World" and when it comes to specimens, there's none other as rich. You guys have that stuff growing wild all around you that I drool over --- I love the desert and Texas.

    As is, mine is a dry prairie with desert overtones & I try anything that will adjust here because day after day of 100 to 110 with no rain is not at all unusual here in summer for weeks on end. Soooooo, from my perspective your landscape is all about plants I am interested in, the kind you look and look for but cannot find for sale very easy or at all. Seeds are usually the best bet, but even so, its not easy finding those either. Guess its "an acquired taste" for the adventurous but hey, anyone can find a regular "purdy" commercially sold perennials like you see planted everywhere. My preference runs toward subtle color and texture, not green and flowery. Thats why you can do that bright sculpture.

    I love your Funky Fripperies. Out here where its a whole lot of flatness and prairie grass it would work. Oh, and we got plenty of bobbed warr around these parts. The whole state is bob warred out in the country.

    paul, yea I know all about the "written" part but it turns some people off. There is a reason for expressing it that way and when I am being formal I do.

  • tinfoilhat
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    TexasRanger10

    Try clicking on one of my pictures to get into my PhotoBucket album that way. Click on blue Bucket link in left upper corner and see if that gets you in.
    Most of my plants are native. I don’t have a green thumb. Plants cry and faint when I walk in a nursery. What I don’t kill I have to fight the javelin and rabbits off to keep alive. My place is basically centered around a large water feature.
    {{gwi:130763}}

    I like it but so does all the wildlife it draws. It draws everything from frogs and turtles to bobcats and mountain lions. After looking at the open range picture in above post, it would seem impossible for a frog to make the journey but they do.
    A 10-12 year drought also makes my little oasis the go to spot in my corner of the desert. Bad habits like feeding the outside cats in the garage brings in large creatures that eat the cat food and then my plants for dessert.
    {{gwi:198899}}

    {{gwi:198507}}

    Ol’ Harvey there has some pretty nasty teeth and he’s part of the reason I have flowers made out of steel

    {{gwi:198505}}

    Several years ago I saw what I thought was a bobcat chasing one of the barn cats through my backyard in the predawn light. Without thinking I ran out there in my boxer shorts and stocking feet. I yelled at it as it was climbing a tree after the cat and it dropped down and faced me. Three thoughts struck me at once. 1. That isn’t a bobcat, it’s a way bigger young mountain lion. 2. This ranks right up there with some of the dumbest things I’ve done. And number 3. What was I thinking, I don’t even like that nasty old barn cat, Lucky for me the mountain lion figured me and the cat weren’t worth the effort and walked off. To paraphrase John Wayne, “Life is tough here in the desert and it’s even tougher when you’re stupid.
    It don’t know the name of the little yellow flowered plant by the dog. It washed in here on a flood about 10 years ago. They will grow with our natural occurring rains but love spots where I have drip irrigation. They self-seed and flower spring through fall. Send me an email with your address and I’ll send you an envelope full of seeds.
    Lantana grows well here on just a little drip irrigation.
    I grow bog plants like Water Canna, papyrus, elephant ears easily out here using old 5 gal. buckets, old plastic coolers or any old tanks I run across by burying them and putting them on drip system. Only drawback is they need dividing often and some need some shade for part of the day.
    I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place here. Most things that can stand the scorching heat, die back to the ground every winter with the freezes I get. Most trees I water heavily to get growth are weak and break in the high winds we get.
    Red Mexican Bird Of Paradise (Caesalpinia pulcherrima) grows well here on little to no supplemental water. Most years it freezes back to the ground but returns following spring.
    Yellow Bird of Paradise (Caesalpinia gilliesii) grows well here and makes it through the winter.
    Mexican Honeysuckle (Justicia spicigera) comes back every year.
    Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis) grow well and provide a little shade. They are easy to start from cuttings once you have one.
    I have Yellow Bells and Orange Bells but they die back to ground year.
    Must yuccas do well here and provide a nice focal point.
    Only 3 things I can really tell you.
    1. Go native.
    2. Don’t go native and find a doctor that will write you prescriptions for the despair that is surely to follow.
    3. Learn to weld and build your own flowers and critters to add color to your yard.

    Wait a minute, make that 4 things.
    4. Get a garden helper.
    {{gwi:170761}}

    In yet another unrelated note: I was going to build an army of Minions and take over the world but production stalled because I couldn't find teeny tiny combat boots. Then my wife found out and took away my sangria, thumped me upside the welding helmet and grounded me for two weeks. My prototype is now a garden helper but we still have plans for world domination. My wife will rue the day she took my sangria away and thwarted my plans

  • littlebug5
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    While my lush, green, Midwestern garden is pretty much frippery-free, I really enjoyed looking at tinfoilhat's creations. You have a gift, sir. And skill with the pen, too (err, keyboard).

  • catkin
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    You're a treasure, Tin--and I'm not being frippant!

    This post was edited by catkin on Tue, Sep 9, 14 at 1:14

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Tinfoil that looks like a really nice place, the water is an unexpected feature and gee, it looks huge. I have a Desert Willow too and the Yellow Bird of Paradise but don't think I can grow the Red Bird. I know another guy who lives in Arizona, he's into wolves. He lives in the desert, address known as 'Somewhere in Arizona'. I got some cactus from him a few years ago. You sort of remind me of him, same type of humor and attitude. Yep, natives are the only way to go. Our problem is very hot and dry is expected but then it can be wet for a period, just long enough to mix everyone up and kill the dry loving stuff so I experiment and complain a lot about the weather making up its mind. Is Ol'Harvey a pet or a wild guy? Looks like a cute pet with personality.

    I may just take you up on that seed offer.

    I did Fripperies a while back for the Dallas Market, you can see I like bright colors too and did these as a joke in the beginning. Here's a few pictures, sort of a Saints and Sinners theme --- nocturnas, nuns and monks. They were sold to buyers as garden art until I got to the point of being pretty burned out and finally sold my kiln because buyers want multiples and I hadn't counted on the repetition part, if you can relate, a real nightmare. These are terra cotta figures done by coil method and they are about the size of a two year old child. Kids love them and go up to talk to them.

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Here's some more, sorry Photo Bucket has me locked out and I can't for the life of me figure out how to get in since I quit using it about two or three years ago and it changed like everything does every other week in the digital age so I combined them on an email and am posting them in separate posts, best I can do.

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Here's a happy couple and a Lady of Guadalupe for a woman who had an antique white structural antique piece for her garden.

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    2 more nocturnas.

    This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Tue, Sep 9, 14 at 2:30

  • catkin
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Incredible, Tex! Thanks to you and Tinfoil for sharing!

  • moliep
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Great creations, Tex and Tinfoil! Truly, these are works of art that fit your environments.

    (Hmmmm.... is it all that desert sun that makes you both crazy ... in the nicest possible way ... or do you have to be crazy to take all that desert sun?)

    Tinfoil, can you explain that large body of water. What is it and what's your source?

    Like Paul said ... this thread gets better & better as more folks from different places show frippery in their part of the gardening world.

    Camp... you have to post a photo of that offing fairy! I imagine it looks almost antique after having been smashed into the dirt so many times.

  • karin_mt
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Wow, some serious talent here. Thanks Tex and Tin, what fun to look through. Thanks for sharing!

  • Adella Bedella
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    There is some really creative art here.

    texasranger, your nuns remind me of an art piece I saw in San Antonio a while back, except your nun is wearing clothes. Lol!

    This is why I love art in the garden. It's individual expression. You never know what you're going to find.

  • wantonamara Z8 CenTex
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    OH Man, TxR, I need/WANT a garden whore!!!!! They are just PERFECT. Gee TX, From Garden whores and nuns to Icons. Golly, I love the world. There is a niche in the world for everyone it seems. I bet your resume is a hoot en a holler,….. I know mine is. Not a normal job on it.

  • Lilyfinch z9a Murrieta Ca
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Just want to say this thread is fantastic , I adore it all and tins artwork is Incredible !
    I wonder if camp decided she's done with this thread ! Lol

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    There was one normal job right out of college, oil & gas draftsman, that's big business down here in Oklahoma. I did a short stint of painting garden furniture, a one job leads to another sort of thing. Here is a child's Adirondack chair painted to go with her favorite stuffed lion. Interestingly, the woman who commissioned it stopped by a couple weeks ago and I'd forgotten all about doing these. We've done etched & carved glass, paper casts, portraits, fashion illustration..... whatever pays the bills.

    Maybe the sun does make us a little crazy, but I think its probably the "howdy-do" casual atmosphere that exists out west along with the fact that most people have an overdeveloped sense of humor and fun. We do seem to like amusing fripperies down here. Lots of people have those bed frames in their yards with a garden planted in it, get it? A Flower Bed.

    This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Tue, Sep 9, 14 at 15:03

  • dbarron
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    TR, you have some talent...but maybe I don't really know you (lol).
    I can't draw a straight line..I'll stick to photography.

  • wantonamara Z8 CenTex
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    What are the generic popular regional fripperies in peoples different areas? I.e , I remember lots of wind driven kinetic lumberjacks chopping logs on mailboxes on the coast of maine. A lot of pecking birds too.. NOT one in Texas. Bathtub ( half buried old cast iron bathtub) Jesus and Mary niches in rural New Jersey. I haven't been there in a while . Maybe people are too sophisticated for them now. My mom would look down her nose at them , but I thought they were playful. Out there in west Texas where the Ol' bidness is , one sees huge tires buried half way in a row around a boundary of a small yard and painted pink or some "gawd awful" color. The bigger the wheel the better. There were a lot in Ira Ann towards the Pecos river. Around here in Central Texas there is the HUGE entry gate that is totally out of scale to the tiny house behind it. Sometimes it is really laughable. Great driving entertainment. I have always wanted to do a photo essay on them but getting my husband to turn the car around and STOP is very hard.Montana has people piling up antler of deer, elk, and other honed animals. I saw a lot of those piles.

    So "garden beds" in OK. I have never seen one of those. Not a texas thing.

  • littlebug5
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Well, these are big in Missouri. snicker snicker

  • wantonamara Z8 CenTex
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Those two look like they belong in the Garden Bed.

  • dbarron
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I remember the ladies bloomers and such....

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    We had the big butts here a few years ago too but I don't see them anymore. I've seen toilets, old fashioned bathtubs, milk separators and horse toughs used as planters. Lots of farm equipment is used in rustic style gardens too, some of its not bad at all and I like it used in the right place if not overdone. I really like the horse troughs too, isn't there at least one at the LBJ Wildflower Center? I wouldn't mind having one of those if I had the room.

    I'd have to draw the line on the toilets and I'm not really into the "metal beds" either, the joke is kind of worn thin on that one. It will probably go the way of the butts and something else will pop up.

    I have seen some really nice antique weathervanes but those don't come cheap. We have big brass buffalos all over the city in the municipal plantings with native grasses and I like those a lot.

  • aftermidnight Zone7b B.C. Canada
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I'm really enjoying this thread, some very talented people here. It goes to show, placed in the right setting almost anything goes.

    Annette

  • mnwsgal
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Annette took the words right out of my mouth. Thanks all for sharing your garden art.

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    We shot this in New Mexico which has to be the Artistic Frippery capital of the US with a flavor all its own. You can hardly drive anywhere that doesn't have art in the gardens and outdoors. I wish there were more people on this forum posting pictures from there. This is a typical house in Santa Fe, frippery is almost a requirement.

  • Campanula UK Z8
    Original Author
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hmmm, my youngest is a couple of years into his welding classes (TIG this term) so I am stiffening my sinews in preparation for various metallic objets d'art to appear around the place. So far, have confined his creative oeuvre to practicalities such as lantern holders, firepits and barbecues but the collection of gas bottles, old water tanks and ancient farm machinery is growing. I am (marginally) consoled by some of the arty endeavours on this forum (and appalled in equal measure).
    The closest I have come to pure ornamentation was a long-ago hommage to floral clocks, beloved of faded seaside promenades (lots of sempervivums, sedums and tiny foliage plants).

    No, I am not posting a picture of the fairy......ever. I like to think that daughter produced said item in a spirit of subversive irony so I may resort to filthy tactics and gift grand-daughter with some supremely annoying trinket in return.

  • greenhearted Z5a IL
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    This thread is so much fun! I did not expect to see such artistry and creativity... I expected the usual gnomes and statues of children, etc.

    Coll_123, your tribute to Seamus turned out beautiful and looks great keeping watch in your garden!

    Tinfoilhat, you had me in stitches reading your posts and I am in awe of your skills... I adore Bastogne the Desert Tortoise

    TxRanger - Wow, those are made out of terra cotta? Very cool! I can relate a little bit of turning something that I enjoyed into "work" and deciding not to sell anymore.

    Paul, I like your stepping stone and window. I have a few homemade stepping stones myself; a very enjoyable project.

    Aside from the aforementioned stepping stones, I have two concrete bird baths. When DH and I moved in last summer, there was a ton of kitschy statuary and signs about the property. We immediately rehomed all of it. I would like to get some urns/large planters, perhaps a sundial or an interesting statue if it speaks to me.

  • catkin
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Campanula, I like your sense of humor!

    My tastes for garden ornament have changed over the years. I had one of those *flower beds* at the beginning over 20 years ago--you know, an actual twin sized metal bed frame planted with annuals...I thought is was awesome at the time. Had various rusty things here and there in the borders...not to my liking now, although I do have some rusty implements on some of the sheds.

    I have a cement 3-piece bench, two cement urns on pedestals in the beds and two vintage aggregate birdbaths planted with succulents that are not thriving! Need to change the soil mix!

    I also have a small statue of a boy that's almost all covered with moss, two hollow cement orbs, a vintage gnome with peeling paint peeking out from under a shrub and an older cement crow that has a wash of blue paint on it! Got these from a neighbor's yard sale a long time ago and can't seem to let them go! I also have one large-ish empty pot that sits by the aforementioned bench next to a giant evergreen fern.

    The yard is big so there's not a lot of congestion of objects--guess that's how I justify them!

    I've been trying to figure out how to transfer pics from my Moto G to my laptop--haven't got the correct USB, I guess. So tech challenged am I!

  • Min3 South S.F. Bay CA
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    TR and Mara, I am in awe of your very individual decorating senses! I could look at another hundred photos of anything you have put together- they are wonderful.
    In my area there aren't many fripperies, at least not in the front yards. I have seen some old farm implements but not much else. Guess its all in Santa Cruz and San Francisco- I'm down in the boonies.
    I am going to call my garden the "Rusty Iron Frippery Garden" - It needed a title, and also Frippery will be a great name for my next cat- (meaning frivolous, not tawdry). Thank you, Campanula. I love your sense of humor. Min

  • wantonamara Z8 CenTex
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    MY sister sent a moose skull from alaska and I found a deer skull in the front field. My husband absconded with them and stuck them on pikes for a bit of a medieval feel. I washed off the red paint. Too much. I have named it, finally, Barbaric Fripparies. My husband wants my huge boar skull for the one remaining pole. I did have a wind chime made with surgical implements , mostly birthing forceps and gynecological tools from my father in law. It appropriately hung above the gate of my vegetable garden. It got knocked down in a big storm here and needs rebuilding.

    {{gwi:268686}}

    This post was edited by wantonamara on Fri, Sep 19, 14 at 1:33

  • tinfoilhat
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Be careful what you wish for.

    When I first wandered into this forum and post I said I needed more rainfall to have any kind of greenery and that's why I make my own garden art/fripperies. Mother Nature sent me some WATER!!!

    Here is a link that might be useful: Two Aquatic Critters and One Not

  • Min3 South S.F. Bay CA
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Mara- red paint on the sculls! so funny- your dh must be quite a character.
    Please do re-make that wind chime, i am green with jealousy. And show us a photo when its done? Min

  • wantonamara Z8 CenTex
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    No, the red paint was dripping down the poles from the skulls not far from the entry door. This is what you see when you ring our doorbell.. My husband is quite the Character. I met him playing pool with pencils. It was love.

  • wantonamara Z8 CenTex
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Tinfoil hat, I love your crab.

    We have gotten the moisture from Odelle too combined with a gulf system. Day after day of multiple inches of rain. We are up at 6 " now and that is light compared to others. More rain for the next three days. It is welcomed. Is your water feature some where under that lake?

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Well...... WAH! Thats not fair!

    Tinfoil ...We are still dry as a bone here. Yours Truly is glad Mr Turtle got saved from drowning but wishes some of that water would move her way. I like Mr. Turtle but I think I like Mr Snail even better, there's just something about that dopey looking face.

    Wantanamara, you are worse than me, I've always thought so but now I know. I may be a Tex-witch but you are truly bad and so is that dude you married.

  • tinfoilhat
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Wantanamara, that flood was from the storm the week before Odelle. Heavy rains from Odelle for the most part just missed Tucson.
    My concrete pond is about 4 feet higher than the flood level reached so no problem there.
    Most of mud washed in has dried out and I'm slowly loading it out with flat shovel and wheelbarrow. That muddy area is probably 1/2 of an acre and I'm noticing my back is older than it was last time this happened. Trying to look on the positive side, 1000's of mesquite beans that soaked in the water and mud for a few days are sprouting. I can always use a few more trees.

  • paul_
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Well I guess I'll finish out this thread with its 100th post.

    "Blood" dripping down the poles would be humerous, if a bit macabre. heh. Perhaps for Halloween you could let hubby put some drippings back on the poles.

    Some clever work there, Tin. And good job on rescuing that tortoise! (Lucky for him that you saw him bobbing in the water.)

    Here is a link that might be useful: Fripperies continued?

  • arbo_retum
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    tin, just curious, but why not leave the mud there? is it really worse than what was there before? wouldn't it be river-nutrient rich?
    mindy

    ironic that this is what got me to write you because I have been enamored of your writing in this thread. Wish you would try your hand at a short story; might surprise yourself.