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December 17, 2003
Dear Reader.
WHERE IS THAT CALENDAR?,
you ask, plaintively or pointedly.
I reply, "Soon you will have it, but isn't the whole idea
of starting a new year precisely on January One sort of too rigid???"
I am working on it, and you are cheering me on. Soon., Very soon....I
PROMISE ! (I blame my day job...grrr..it's Such a necessary evil.)
On the matter of Mood Puppies, some have said they look more like kitties, but PLEASE NOTE - are kitties ever anything other than poker-faced? They do not reveal their moods, that's how you know my cartoon is of Mood Puppies. (For non-card-players = if you don't want someone to guess what cards you have in your hand, you maintain a strictly noncommittal "poker face".)
So anyway, I am eating way too much sugar these days! Are you in the mad rush of the holidays, which seem to involve ever More and More things to do? Oh, and regarding the piggies - Here is mine, and here is one that was made by my friend Riri. To make your own, go here.....
A report from a friend....it's a lament actually, a true cri
du coeur..... (cry from the heart).....(of course my entire oeuvre
is a succession of cri's, but it's nice to vary it a little with
a cri of another color.)...... My friend and I call eachother
Riri, which is Polynesian for Lily, which we learned in a fabulous
book about Pacific Island Quilts "The Art of Tivaevae: Traditional
Cook Islands (University of Hawai'i Press)"
http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/cart/shopcore/?db_name=uhpress&page=shop/flypage&product_id=2293&category_id=b3e6237d1b1b3b8594488ed1c40d0dfb&PHPSESSID=9a4d54ba42f155889629d19d2079740b
Oh Riri Joy - How nice to hear from you: like a Gerbera daisy in a snowman's hand! I'm having a wretched time lately - NS is a mess, my house is in total chaos, people at work are either sick, silly or crabby. Sam and Morris just got into a dog fight that was terrifying. We had a leak in the bathroom wall and the bathroom was full of plumbers all day Saturday. I got soaked half to death on Sunday. I don't have my shopping done and I have to mail half of it!!!! What am I going to do????????? Woe is ME!!!!! and yes, I too am eating too much sugar but what else can one do under these circumstances? one can't be expected to buck up and smile can one??? :~
I replied,
Dearest riri,
I LOVE your report. May I post it on my website (anonymousely
of course) - it is a true cri du coeur.
Do you have an Aretha CD there?Put it on! Damn the torpedoes!
(or is it torpedos? where is Dan Quayle when you need him)
Write soon, dear reader. I will write again soon, and I will send you your calendars ! ! !
Love,
Joy
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November 7, 2003
Dear Reader,
WHERE IS MY HOW TO DRAW A RADISH 2004 CALENDAR, you ask? I
reply, "I'm working on it!"
Estimated completion December 15.
Can you wait that long? I hope so.
I have desaigned and laid out all the pages, and now I am busily
filling in the art. Things to Draw "Things to Do! Stories,
Songs,
Toys! And other things of interest, and
fun for girls and boys!" (as they say.)
If you'd like to reserve a copy AND get a "reader's edition"
on December 1, before the final daybook is sent to the printer,
send
$10 to Joy Sikorski, PO Box 1771, Hoboken, NJ 07030.
Your $10 will help support the author as she works furiously to
finish JOY'S DAILY RADISH 2004, and you will also get a
copy of the finished JOY'S DAILY
RADISH 2004 daybook at no charge.
Otherwise, just wait until you see the finished daybook advertised
on my website, and order from me then. Cost will be $10.
including shipping.
Size: 6" x 7" upright
Pages: about 108
Black and white, perhaps with some color pages interleaved now
and then.
Includes one sheet of sticky dots.
Glossy color cover, spiral binding.
I'm hoping to do an on-line version of Joy's Daily Radish as
well - every day you will get in your e-mail a link that opens
my
website for your daily radish treat.
Does all this sound like fun? IT IS!
I call this burst of activity and enthusiasm my "Kona Storm" -
Stay tuned.
Love,
Joy
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October 12, 2003
Dear Reader,
I'm making a piggie! My friends in a giant publishing company in NYC meet in the conference room on Thursdays to "stitch and bitch", as they say. Mark and Karyn decided to make Mom's piggie from August 9/10 in my 2003 Page-A-Day calendar! When Mark sent me photos, I quickly started on my own piggie - I'm working on the ears now. And now my friend Riri Lana is making two piggies with beaded eyes and noses!
Piggies can be any size. My first one, which I made in Hawai'i with Mom in 2001, kept getting smaller and smaller as I re-cut the rectangle until I liked it. This one I'm making now is big! The big ones take a lot of stuffing, the greedy things.
If you make a piggie, send me a photo and I'll put it in my piggie gallery.
Love,
Joy
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October 1, 2003
Dear Reader,
BIG NEWS! ! ! SQUEAKY CHALK IS NOW AVAILABLE AT AMAZON.COM!
(It was gone for a
while...) Now you can go there to get it!
Meanwhile....I have gotten very "writey" since moving
to Hoboken New Jersey. Maybe it's a traveller's thing - I have
travelled from
my beloved New York City. (Yes, it's only 5 minutes away by ferryboat,
and I can see it right there, but still.)
This is a big long letter I wrote for my visitors who came
to see my garden. They are members of the HOBOKEN GARDEN
CLUB. (Imagine!)
A Garden Narrative for my back yard
September 28, 2003
© Joy Sikorski
Of Gardens and Gardeners:
A garden is a human thing, that's what distinguishes a garden
from the natural landscape. A gardener will claim a garden, and
this
makes it so, as for example was done in the Garden of Eden.
This Back Yard Garden:
Looking around us at all of these backyards, we see the very human
content that makes gardening so interesting and fun.
First I will introduce you to my garden, then I will introduce
the surrounding gardens, which I consider part of my garden
ambience. I love to look down in the morning from my second floor
apartment and see my impatiens blooming brilliantly, and
watch the antics of the baby squirrels who play here. I highly
recommend viewing one's garden from above. I also enjoy seeing
what my neighbors are up to.
My landlord, Joe the Butcher, (as he calls himself, being the
proprietor of Joe's Prime Meats on the first floor) told me when
I
moved in that the third floor tenant was taking care of the garden,
but that I was welcome to tend to it as well. Brian was the one
who made the brick and stone outline around the edge of this yard,
and planted some grass in bare spots. He complimented me on
my flowers ? the impatiens were the first things I put in.
History of this Garden:
A tenant before Brian had planted these six giant hostas. The
next door garden on the right has no fence. The owners of that
building
have not tended to their yard in many years, according to my back
yard neighbors, who are pleased to see me taking an interest in
the entire space. Their words encouraged me to take over this
next-door yard to some extent, without of course consulting with
the
landlord. Why attract undo attention? I call this yard the apricot
yard ? that's what kind of tree grows in it. I ate an apricot
or two,
and squirrels ate some, too. They're not particulary savory, and
not profuse. The tree is overgrown, as you can see.
A rented garden suggests to me a realistic life philosophy
? one can't get too attached, yet one invests what one can to
make it a
better place while one is here. New tenants are moving in upstairs
in a few days. I wonder how they will connect with this garden
space.
My Gardening Strategy:
Its fun to discover the history of a new place. As one begins
a new garden one considers what it was before. I found slate sidewalks
buried under a thin layer of dirt, and exposed them as much as
I could. I moved assorted stones to the edge of the apricot yard.
I
moved the compost heap to the corner, too, discovering a heap
of rocks beneath. A friend at work gave me mints and balms, along
with one fern. This is where I decided to plant them. I kept finding
bread in this spot, and learned that the back yard neighbors throw
old crusts over the fence here. Pigeons, sparrows and starlings
come.
Money:
One can invest a fortune in one's garden. I decided to invest
as little money as I could, being a renter, although I did buy
some
flower seeds, grass seed, a few plants, and a few bags of composted
soil to help the new arrivals. It's hard to resist a giant bunch
of
lavender, etc. I love free plants, found plants, and donated plants.
Plants:
As I mentioned, my plant friend gave me mints, balms, and a fern.
She also gave me a white bleeding heart, which is along the back
fence. The bleeding heart is the earliest flower I learned as
a child. For many years I have received the OIKOS TREE CROPS
catalog, and at last I could purchase a paw paw tree. I got one
of those, a columbine, a gooseberry bush, a wild ginger, and a
wild
indigo plant. All are doing well except for the ginger, which
something ate, probably a young squirrel. I planted morning glory
seeds and "sambac" jasmine along Cosmo's fence. I have
one tomato plant and a geranium along the back fence. For today's
tour,
my mother in law gave me some mums, and an assortment of items
from her yard, including a gardenia! I adore fragrant plants.
I
also have this vine that has climbed up about 30 feet so far along
one of the back yard wires and up into the trees. It is Sicilian
cuccuzze, from my husband Nick's mother. This is a spectacular
and little-known vine that produces edible green squash four and
five feet long. Sicilians love them. For us today, Frances sent
a "small" cuccuzze from her vine.
My neighbor Mary gave me a sedum, which took to the yard like
a duck to water. It recently took a direct hit from a falling
branch,
and immediately started to bloom like mad. It blooms pink. I bought
as you see a wonderful batch of fluorescent impatiens from
Bill around the corner.
Mary also gave me a big iris, which I distributed also below
the apricot tree. From my brother in law's woods I gathered several
ferns. I collected columbine seeds from the corner of Hudson and
11th Streets where there is a large cement urn of columbines.
These have sprouted and are doing well. I ought to thin them now.
I found a chrysanthemum plant that someone was throwing in
the trash ? that seems happy here too. I like my yard to be a
"Home for Wayward Plants." My friend Maggie gave me
mints, which
I plant here and there. I am transplanting the blue kinky vine/weed
"Asiatic Day Flower" to fill in bare spots. I'm moving
ivy to the
brick wall, hoping it will get the idea and climb up.
I'd like to label my plants, but that seems too knit-picky.
Besides, I don't know what all of them are. However, I have created
a map
to the garden, and also surrounded some items with a fence of
wooden coffee stirrers from Starbucks, who has the best quality
sticks. Like all gardeners, I fear that visitors will tromp upon
the more retiring specimens.
Trees:
The tree next door is an apricot tree, and yields a small amount
of fruit, but it's not particularly sweet. The three trees in
my yard are
ailanthus. The neighbors hate them, for the usual ailanthus reasons,
but Joe won't cut them down. I love the trees, they are majestic.
Brian told me he cut back a lot of branches, and contracted a
severe case of poison ivy. I too caught a bad case of poison ivy
after
my first big session of gardening. I have been pulling it out
by the roots whenever I spot it growing anywhere. I've gotten
most of it
out, but I had to poison one virulent patch in a corner along
the wall. I don't like poison in the garden for any reason, generally.
But I
would not wish poison ivy on my guests.
Shade:
The first place the sun hits is the back fence. The sun moves
across the yard like a sundial.
Friends:
I have a friend who loves to dig. She came over and dug up all
the weeds fanatically, in the heat of summer. It was fun!
My friend Frank grew up in a similar neighborhood in Brooklyn,
and told me an amusing story of mothers hanging laundry and
chatting with eachother out the upper floor windows, passing things
back and forth on brooms. Other of my friends would rather sit
on chairs and sip wine, although I find that difficult, since
I love to putter around, picking up fallen twigs and pulling unwanted
weeds.
And of course there are the friends who give me plants and cuttings.
Walking through my garden I think of all my garden friends.
The neighbors:
This is a public garden in that neighbors look out their windows
and come out in their yards. I will tell you a bit about them,
as they
too are part of my garden.
Across the back fence on the right are Sue and Steve and daughter
(Emily?) ? lovely trumpet vine and rose of Sharon, and abundant
honeysuckle.
Bill and Mary ? Theirs is a truly spectacular dark blue hydrangea
And they feed the birds.
Mary ? Mary has a wonderful and full yard, with a big collection
of white impatiens, iris, hydrangea, rose, and sedum. Mary comes
out into her yard a lot, which is nice. She entertains friends
there, also pleasant. She has two German Shepherd dogs, one is
very
old.
Sam and parents ? their yard was paved as part of a business deal,
Sam's mother tells me. Sam comes out and plays with a hose.
Beyond Sam's is a house is a yard with a long sidewalk straight
to the back fence, where it stops abruptly, marked at the end
with 2
small cement urns. This sidewalk bisects a simple green lawn.
I call this the grand clothesline promenade ? you'll notice that
the
walk ends at a clothesline pole, so that the entire length of
the clothesline may be tended without stepping on the grass.
Beyond this interesting yard live a girl and a dog. The girl comes
out to water her roses and rose of sharons, and to clean the yard.
Mary's old dog enjoys barking at this dog.
To the right of my yard is River Street Realty's roofless brick
room, completely barren within. It used to be a Laundromat. We
think it would be fun to open up a hole in the wall and put columns
on either side, and a fountain in the center like Lorenzo
DiMedici's fountain at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The computer shop ? the owner periodically says he will tear up
his yard and put in a deck to entertain clients. When I first
heard
this I was alarmed, though it actually could be a good thing I
suppose. The backyard neighbors told me he has done nothing to
the
yard for years and years, and don't expect he ever will. So I
continue to putter here. Lacking a fence between yards gives me
a
tremendous space, which is great!
To my left is Cosmo ? Imagine! Such a big yard, and sunny,
too! He tears up the yard once or twice a year, and turns up the
bare
ground. Then he lets weeds grow until they are deemed too big,
and tears up the yard again.
Cosmo's mother ? Next to Cosmo's yard is his mother's beautiful
rose garden, mostly in reds and pinks, and the blue rose of
Sharon, with the statue of Saint Anthony. She waves approvingly
at me when she sees me in the yard, and signals towards
Cosmo's yard as if to encourage me to adopt it. She speaks only
Italian. Cosmo is resistant, however.
Ali Baba and Amanda ? these are two restaurants. The workers come
out and smoke on their back balcony, and occasionally one
hears the crash of a great quantity of bottles being discarded.
My Garden Ambition:
For as long as I am here, I intend to gather more plants and distribute
them around the yard, trying for as many perennials as I can
in order to maintain the yard for the future. Of course I need
shade lovers, and ground covers for the apricot yard. I want to
improve
the grass as much as I can. I'll try to do all this with minimum
of expenditure and maximum contributions of plants from friends.
That is most enjoyable. And I want visitors to stop in now and
then to relax, enjoy, and admire.
And that is my garden story.
Love,
Joy
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September 15, 2003
Dear Reader,
Hurrah! September is here! In the air there's a feeling of ambition - things to do! I am making a daybook calendar for 2004. It will be ready November 1. Would you like to buy one? Stay tuned....
I joined the Hoboken Garden Club, now that I have moved to "Hoboken New Jersey, of all things." (That's my name for Hoboken.) (I also call it "Plain old Hoboken." ) When you join a club of any kind, you feel like you can change the world! I'm going to change the world through gardening. Did you know that there's a little wild petunia called "Petunia Integrafolia"? It grows like a weed all over Hoboken. In fact, it IS a weed, a very pretty one. My first campaign as member of the Hoboken Garden Club will be to make "Petunia Integrafolia" the MUNICIPAL FLOWER of Hoboken.
There are State Flowers, so I'm sure there can be Municipal Flowers, too. Does your city have one?
Love,
Joy
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August 21, 2003
Dear Reader,
One week ago, all the electricity went off, and we had to go home early before night fell. Some of us were caught by the darkness. Night is beautiful and mysterious. When its very dark, you can't rely on your eyes, and you feel tingly all over - that's because all your other senses are working. I imagine that's how it must feel to be a bird in flight, with the wind in every feather.
Love,
Joy
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June 30, 2003
Dear Reader,
So sorry not to have written in such a long time. I moved to Hoboken, New Jersey! Imagine that! I now have a larger apartment with very high ceilings made of tin. The tin is stamped in wonderful curlicues and painted white, like a fluffy cloud in effect. I have a back yard that is very big, and I have been planting flowers and mint and jasmine. Fun. Hoboken is an Indian name meaning pipe stone - there are cliffs of green serpentine stone along the Hudson River. I'm going to try to carve a piece.
Mockingbirds are everywhere and alway singing. I love that. And my dear dear City of New York is just a 10 minute boat ride away. I admire New York City every evening as I walk along the river.
Love,
Joy
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May 10, 2003
Dear Reader,
I have been riding ferry boats lately. I ferry down the East River, around Upper New York Bay, and up the Hudson to my office every day, and I ferry back at the end of the day. I spend about an hour and a half on the river each day observing waves, boats, bridges, birds, and boatmen. I recommend it highly!
Advice: Spend some time with a large body of water.
My friend Lana says, "The boatmen I have known - - I have always found boatmen to be calm and concentrated persons - sort of "steady as she goes" types that one instinctively feels confident in. Persons who do their duty and then, and only then, sit down for a drink. They seem to know that a storm is coming before there is even a cloud on the horizon. It must be very centering to start the day in their company. "
Love,
Joy
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April 17, 2003
Dear Reader,
More about Marshmallow Peeps: A few years back, I saved a row of Marshmallow Peeps and wrote the date on the package. I just found that package recently. The peeps are very very hard, and the date on the package is 1994.
And here is a REPORT FROM THE FIELD: A reader writes: I've really been enjoying this year's page a day calendar, and thought you'd like to hear about what we did with your February 26th "Distribute Mustaches" page.
For April Fool's day, my little row of workers (we call ourselves "The People") rose up and mustached the entire office (undercover style, of course). Clocks, the lady on the women's restroom door, light switches, even the glue sticks in the supply cabinet were all decked out. The rest of the folks in the office were mystified and amused, and the remaining 'staches keep turning up in new places. Thanks for helping to make work fun!
Love,
Joy
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April 9, 2003
Dear Reader,
The Spring Snow ! and the Spring Snowman! Here is my little friend Victoria on a New York City Street, Monday April 7 2003.
Love,
Joy
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April 2, 2003
Dear Reader,
Every spring they appear - the MARSHMALLOW PEEPS ! - as bright
as daffodils, and you can Eat them! So far this season I have
eaten 18 marshmallow peeps.
Marshmallow Peeps announce the coming of Easter. This year Easter is April 20 - I looked it up. Every Holiday has its special food. I'm glad the special food of Easter is Marshmallow Peeps. Aren't you?
P.S., I met a wonderful lady. Her name is Pamela. She loves nature, and she loves people, and her motto is "Celebrate Life Every Single Moment." You can find out about her at www.our-planet.org.
Love,
Joy
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March 26, 2003
Dear Readers,
On March 24, 2003,
Lana from an office in New York tried the Great White Shark Hat
in my page-a-day calendar and reports:
It WORKED ! It WORKED! The Great
White Shark Hat scared him AWAY!!!!! He's not coming back
till Friday NITE! YIPEEEEE!!!!!! Now I'm free to draw Daffodils
all day - Daffodils here - Daffodils there - Daffodills Daffodills
EVERYWHERE!!!!!! (and listen to Keola Beamer {slack key guitar}
of course). :)))) Thanks for the great tip. . .
On February 26, 2003,
Mikey of Garrison New York writes:
I know many people say this but I loved your "How to Draw
a Clam" book. Thank you very much for explaining every page
and encouraging us to not give up drawing. . . . I have learned
that you don't have to be great at realistic drawings to be able
to become an artist. You can be a cartoonist!
Love,
Joy
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March 20, 2003
Dear Reader,
I don't KnoW abOut you, But I'm conceNtraTing on dAffoDils.
LovE,
Joy
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March 8, 2003
Dear Reader,
Did you ever stop to think of how much THOUGHT POWER you have? If you think good thoughts, it makes the world a better place. They don't have to be gigantic thoughts - just little good thoughts.
... not to be preachy, but I do consider these things sometimes.
love,
Joy
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February 28, 2003
Dear Reader,
A Fan writes:
Joy,
Yesterday's idea was the handle bar mustache. In honor of that,
I came
across this website and thought I would share it:
http://www.handlebarclub.org.uk/index.htm
Elizabeth
I followed Elizabeth's suggestion and visited the Handlebar Moustache Club, founded in 1947! ! ! ! Their web site is Complete with archives, lore, and more!
AND speaking of moustaches, I visited a school in Garrison New York, and all my friends in Middle School met me wearing their home-made Moustaches from my page a day calendar!!! .
EEEK! But at the same time, Most gratifying!
love,
Joy
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February 15, 2003
HAPPY DISCOUNT VALENTINE's DAY!
Stock up on foil-wrapped chocolate hearts; fancy valentine cards; pink-frosted butter cooky hearts with sweet messages written in squiggly red script!
All hearts are half price!
Love,
Joy
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February 7, 2003
WOW! My How to Draw a Radish Page-a-Day 2003 Calendar is SOLD OUT! I think you can still find one on Amazon.com, and I have just a few here, so if you can't find one, write to me.
Also - My friend Roderick writes: (in multicolors!)
"THE DAY OF LOVE
is soon upon us & I imagine you are already very busy creating abstract hearts from....God knows what shape!"
Taking this as good advice, let's remember that hearts don't always have to be heart-shaped... do they?
Love,
Joy
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January 26, 2003
Eveyone I know is having very cold weather now. When it's this cold, I try to go to the art museum every day.
I saw a Vuillard exhibit at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.. Thus inspired, today I sketched out a painting I'm going to make of my brother the oceanographer and his family. I brought home a brochure from the exhibit, to help me.
NOTE! As readers of How to Draw a Cup of Coffee know, you can copy a great painting as a potato print.
This ought to keep my mind off the cold weather. By the time I finish this potato print group portrait "homage a vuillard", it will probably be summer time!
Oh, and I also recommend, on a cold day indoors, crank up the volume of your favorite music, and DANCE DANCE DANCE!
P.S. I received a wonderful letter about a birthday cake! Click here to read it.
Love,
Joy
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January 16, 2003
In my 2003 How to Draw a Radish calendar, I suggested using the option key to get all kinds of wonderful symbols like ™ ¢ º ® ¥ ø ©! But then Gerard in Chicago e-mailed to say that he doesn't have a mac computer.
So sorry! I enlisted my non-mac friends to find these symbols in "the other kind" of computer:.Lana says:
I'VE GOT IT!! I'VE GOT IT!!!! In Word (and maybe Excel too), you clik on the Insert Menu, then on SYMBOLS. This allows you to choose a font and each font has gazillions of symbols. You just pick one and click the insert button in the box. Voila! Yes,yes, you're very welcome! xox, lc
Now th@ makes ¢ !
By the way, if you are wondering how long I'm keeping my christmas cards up, they stay up until the end of January, to accommodate a few cards that are still trickling in from the fashionably late contingent.
Love,
Joy
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January 10, 2003
I want to share with you this wonderful alligator drawn by two readers!
Oh and did you know I have posted a wonderful little plan that shows you how to make a book that you can photocopy? It's printed on just one side of a piece of paper, and has 8 pages!
Love,
Joy
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January 1, 2003
Now we can run around madly wishing everyone a Happy New Year. This can go on for weeks, as long as it takes to get to everyone you know.
Have a Green and Leafy New Year!
Oh and did you know I have posted a wonderful little plan that shows you how to make a book that you can photocopy? It's printed on just one side of a piece of paper, and has 8 pages!
Love,
Joy
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Click heRe foR my letteRs of 2oO2 ...
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(all material is ©2003 by Joy Sikorski)
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