Experimental corn crossings... August third

 This is the first third of the ornamental corn crossing.  This is the Smoke Signals, Pink Hopi and Mandan Bride mixed with last year's corn.  I think the Glass Gem had a hand in the one with the blue kernels, it was in the next plot and because I WANTED mixing, I did not shield any of them from each other.

notes: Pink Hopi and Mandan Bride were flour corns.  The corn from last year was a flint corn with some flour components.  The Smoke Signals, Glass Gem and Japonica were all flinty popcorns.  Most of this crop shows the flint or 'glass' kernel type.  There is one cob not pictured that was pulled a week or so ago that had more of the flour type kernel, larger, flatter and not as shiny.

Pink Hopi is showing through on this set.

 The Smoke Signals was the dark black vs. yellow and it shows up in several of the cobs.
The second cob from the left is nearly ideal, and will be passed through, as well as some of the more pink and purple kernels and some from the flour cob.  The Glass Gem is still to come. we will see how that turns out!

Esme had to show off that she helped me find the corn and shuck it in the field.

What Makes you Smile?

Beautiful bowls by a Fargo artist

Sometimes I feel like I need a skylight to shed some light on my head and a big hole in the floor to put all the clutter into until I can deal with it properly. It seems like there is never enough light, yet it is everywhere. And I am craving color - outrageous vibrant swaths of it - and even that is never bright enough. It must be the oncoming of winter or a lack of coffee. What makes you smile when the clutter and bland gets overwhelming?

I look at my desk space and it is cluttered with things that should be somewhere else. But their somewhere else isn't big enough, or has too many things in it that ALSO should be somewhere else. And I clear off a tiny spot to shine some light on and then the rest of it gets set aside for another day.

When I get stressed out I just want to tear everything down to the bare walls.

But in the realm of reality...

'gypsy jewels' bracelet made from Etsy beads
A simple stretch bracelet can bring color with you everywhere

And those wooden bowls made by a good friend in Fargo long ago... finally recovered from storage in Minnesota. A pretty piece of pottery to hold pens, also from storage. These little trinkets have both brought some happiness seeing them again and also made me wonder where else I can put some color and usefulness into my otherwise bland and cluttered workspace.