after and fuggish

thank you all,

i had a lovely birthday, 

beginning with a phone call just after 6 am. 

the day was overcast, but it was fine

a message came from aimee giving me permission 

(she wasn't the only one!)

the little back door garden had a surprise. 

blossoming on my birthday

today it's beginning to look more like winter, but it's just fog

a foggy, fuggy day at work

no matter

 yesterday was like this

calls from my kids, with *mail* coming today

and family, and friends checked in.

~~~

the cave of forgotten dreams was amazing

the artist(s) could draw. 20,000 to 30,000 years ago

lines were made with mastery.

they were rich, beautiful,

beautiful.

the 3-d glasses were not so fun. 

but i'm glad i went.

55

yes, that's how old i'm going to be tomorrow.

i will go to see a movie,

herzog's cave of forgotten dreams.

today i had a phone conversation that made me think.

and an email, too.

and while i am celebrating becoming older,

a friend i never knew has said good bye,

leaving stones.

~~~

yesterday i walked in the old meadow and woods, down to the stream.

i found a tick on my sleeve.

back home i checked for more.

i showered and shampooed

remembering that little crab scrabbling up my arm.

it wasn't a deer tick, but it was a tick.

i've never seen one here before

~~~

and that is how life is, changing,

always changing,

the great cave holds mystery, or graffitti?

does it matter?

what matters is that fabric

called life

which can break and be mended,

it may be dark or light or dense or gauze

this making and wearing a life

is essential. it's light

like feathers

like milkweed in the wind

and heavy, a stack of army blankets.

dense, worn, used.

spring walk

because someone asked

i will show

 this 

 spring walk

the first

 of the shifu

 and vellum books

 using stationers' binding

tackets & vellum

 lokta shifu

 ink & linen

 spun, woven, dyed

 knotted & recorded

 a watershed book for me

the beginning of an adventure

in paper, words, vellum, textiles

& a tiny vellum button 

stitching

 beverly gordon: textiles: the whole story

this book is stretching my thinking from the prosiac everyday 

to really seeing where this textile thing

where it comes from for me.

(my mother's birth name was weaver)

 and then i noticed a little thing

 stitches on the cover

 india flint: second skin

and this lovely book

yep also stitches on the cover

which sent me to my sketchbook

so i could play with threads

and then i noticed my shirt

waffle weave linen

flax shirt, beginning to go

but next it becomes paper

 i'm the second owner

and then i got back to thinking about books

those stitches WERE on books

me: spring walk

where a book may go

following the stitch

~~~

hellos going out to all the saggitarians 

like me, celebrating their births

thanks, jean

(even though i can't get it turned round right)

fiber memory

bounty

there was a time in my life when i made many many baskets.

most were free form, woven from red osier dogwood.

they were so far from this work
by judy mulford

 i met judy mulford at a symposium.

even then, 30 years ago almost, she was inspirational, 

her work truly awesome.

this morning i enjoyed an interlude of snooping around the internet. 

one of the great pleasures of this is that i can see work that, 

living so isolated,

 i do not see.

 and today i found this image of a work by judy.

i cannot attribute this photo, please forgive me,

but i honor the maker.

thanksgiving

on the internet, world wide

in the north country

in new hampshire

in portland

in washington

in cleveland

in toronto

all these places i have been

as guest, as friend

as student, as teacher 

all this

since last thanksgiving.

and i send out thanks to you all

and wish you peace.

~~~

good earth

iron in the earth

this is a strong colored earth i found

while walking in the woods

just a small spot

but a color unlike

all around it.

dyed sugar maple leaves 

many of us are interested* in how

color is imparted on cloth

on paper

from natural, non-poisonous sources

bloodroot on lokta

one of my favorites is bloodroot

which i source regionally and sustainably.

~~~

in other news

two out of three who took their g.e.d. exams passed

and one, one of them,

i will take a little credit for, 

that one could NOT write an essay

and he did it.

~~~

thanksgiving break. sorely needed.

~~~~~

*passionate

inside the blue line

wendy loves this place

 do you see my girl?

she made two HUGE leaps, the kind i haven't seen 

her attempt for a year

since her diagnosos she has trouble 

jumping into the car.

it was a cool day, the water very cold

 i love this hemlock's new architecture

 i can look at it all day

 soon it will become the forest floor again

 two 13 year old dogs 

and their people walked into lampson's falls

 water is very low

 coal in the thin november light

 steep falls,

sometimes deadly

roots for saturday

cloth

 "a cloth with the characteristics of dragonfly wings" 

describing basho-fu from 

mottainai: the fabric of life

this slim catalog is lovely, 

finely designed and square in the hand

with text in both english and japanese

from the current show at the portland japanese garden.

the co-curators are kei kawasaki and stephen szczepanek (sri textiles)

i would love to see this show.

~~~

 on today's walk

 the two calves in the front pasture

next door

were snoting and blowing and ripping and tearing

maybe it was the snow in the air.

wendy ignored them, but they were,

perhaps,

thinking she was a wolf!

 grrr...

what a supper...

...can do for one, when the day's been tough.

sigh

salad, toast, and a beer. with lime.

hump day: skewed

a workday that began with a visit

from the police

can never be a normal day

(whatever that means)

i keep wanting

this book to emerge

but i need a little space

and time

without so much

work-work

it is coming, a long, difficult, incubatiuon and labor