apologies

i looked for shifu books, and i only found a couple very yellow, poor quality pics. i'll try to get some more soon. i lost a bunch of photos when my old computer, a hand-me-down, decided to die. i'm gradually finding out how much was lost. this one is traditional limp vellum or stationers binding, sewn on tapes and laced into the cover. the poem is handwritten on vellum "tipped" in with endpages that are dyed with hollyhock. silk stitching, vellum button. one dyed silk page, too. the natural vellum color is seen in the tapes.

magic lilies appear in my spring garden with lavish leaves that flourish, then disappear. in august, several pale mauve flowers appear on long stalks. my old riding (hacking, bridget!) friend darr told me about them, and warned me they would be coming, and he was right. last summer, i celebrated their dance by the stone wall, thinking of darr, the days (and days) we rode our mares together, the changes he always pointed out in my garden. this vellum book is number three of a small series i made last year. one lives at st. lawrence university special collections, the other two will, i hope, be exhibited this coming year. if i'm lucky.