Today I’m continuing work on figuring out the best way to portray the influx of Hazelnut crops into the Willamette valley. Halsey and surrounding communities have their share of newly planted orchards. The above piece focuses on the actual developing nut cluster with their wild paper coverings. The current crop is on the young side. Come fall, the brown nuts will be dropping and the farmers will be gathering them up. The above hand-cut paper image is wild and full of lots of jagged cut lines. I can see some areas I like and others that are less appealing. I’ll keep working on this image tomorrow. My fingers are about done in for the day.
Not seen the real thing? The developing shells are still a creamy yellow-green color and won’t be turning brown for a bit more time. The leaves are very soft to handle. 
This design (or something similar) will become part of the public art piece in Halsey Oregon. The project is part of Art in Rural Communities through the Arts Center of Corvallis.
Sticks, Stones, and Paper Stew Blog 
The nuts will be dropping? Every one of our hazelnuts gets robbed by voracious squirrels! Are your Oregon squirrels politer or don’t you have any of the pesky varmints? Lovely piece by the way
Around my house, the squirrels and jays do quit a number on them. I’m pretty sure the orchards have means of controlling the little guys, or they don’t care about such a small loss.
We have fat squirrels, fat pigeons, fat blackbirds and fat badgers on our allotment site 😡
I didn’t even plant anything this year due to the expanding rabbit and deer population. We have volunteer sunflowers right next to the house and I check daily to see if any of them will make it to flower. At this point, it looks doubtful. Maybe I need to allow the dogs out at night…
That’s a good idea. We can’t grow corn anywhere on our allotment site because the badgers hoover them up!
I should also say my dogs eat their fair share too!
Really? Sparta says, “Well what do you expect? ” 😉
Meme says, “so true! Stupid dogs!”
haha Sparta says, “Meme rocks” 😀
It’s 4.30 am and the seagulls have woken me up and now Sparta wants to get out and murder them. No peace for the wicked
Bad kitty! Has she ever caught a seagull? What a mess that would be!
She dragged one into the garden once but we distracted her before she could do much damage. We carted her inside and the seagull recovered from shock in about an hour and flew off. Don’t know how she manage it, our seagulls are huge
I’m totally impressed! Yes, gulls are HUGE! Boy, she’s full of spit n’ vinegar!
She certainly is. Friends brought their Border Collie round the other day. Sparta terrorised the poor thing.
As always, love the detail and you description as well as the “real” picture. Never seen one. Can’t wait to see the work continue to unfold.
I take it for granted that not everyone has this tree in their neighborhood. We have 8 volunteers that I’ve actively kept from chopping back. They’re prolific in our area especially since the scrub jays and squirrels plant them everywhere!
Glad you’re following the progress! Hi to everyone!🐿
So Beautiful Gale! Such striking images!! So sorry it causes your hands so much pain..
The hands are doing rather well. Hips and legs, not so well. Back pain too…. So goes the mysteries of my body!