tidbits

in my mail,

a record of experiments with wax and dye

by carol at warwick press

 carol loves birds

and color

see the beautiful layout on this sampler!

the tiny knots

someone is traveling through, again,

my backyard

another porcupine?

cat?

raccoon?

i couldn't tell, actually.

and a grandfather maple

who will not be tapped this spring

waits.

silliness

this english (setter) princess

likes the couch (and pillow)

so i covered her

with handwoven cotton

which, it seems, she enjoyed.

two in a row

 skiing 

 again

 keeps me feeling

 right in the head

 centered and grounded

 alive and tingly 

 but on this overcast late afternoon,

almost evening

 wendy took off for a little bit into the woods

just ran off, the brat

 her selective deafness annoying

 but oh, her love of the snow

the trees

the excitement of smells

traces of rabbit, deer, grouse

and three young runners 

who were unable to rid themselves of her

until one of them, wise in the way of dogs,

broke a stick and threw it back towards me

and then she remembered 

i ski with her, not these cute boys!

 another hermitage

 is slowly sinking into

the forest floor

 someone had a bottle

 and roofed over the a frame

with feed bags, then brush

and here is an enameled metal object

that i may try to salvage

next time? 

skiing day

 we had a little weather

 but i had slim hopes of snow

i thought it was just going

to go to ice

it has all winter

 but this day proved me wrong, indeed!

 we went skiing!

brilliant white 

i had forgotten how white

and indigo the woods would be

 a little ochre

 and a hobbit house

 beaver sculpture

 and a new home for 

 a dryad

new downed trees

but, as you can see,

it didn't stop me!

winter break

 this whole week has been 

one in which i keep showing up

 so to speak,

paying closer and closer attention

to what is going on

 in my work

 and in my world

 skies have been constantly

and continually changing

 clouds teaching me things

i need to know

 she makes me go outside

when i forget or

get lazy

 and then i see

rocks that would not

be books

stitches made by machines

  dots of starlings

all arguing and telling their stories

so much so that

i thought i heard the herald

redwing blackbird

but i think the damned

starlings were leading me on.

rain

the land here is thirsty

today's rain feels right.

 yesterday wendy found 

a bit of thaw

 i tried to photograph

reflections

 but she had to drink

precisely there

~~~

this is one of three hides i saw

on the dry roadside.

i am grateful, 

i say, 

for today's rain.

bleached

split

this winter is so bleached and flat

very different 

very dry, too,

also unusual

the snow

becomes punky,

shrivels

grasses hide 

the critters who mine their way

under cover 

i search for color

thirsty, parched

and most days

there's a tint of color

on either end of the day