trillium

 trillium

wake robin is the red one

deep red petals

*stink pots*

*stinkin' willie*

beloved of northern woods

wendy plays with a stick

spontaneously

on our walk

once common,

now very occasional

as she ages

 asao shimura's book

 came today 

with little shifu samples

i mean tiny

and it was wrapped in this lovely thai kozo

a treat

after a fine day 

at bittersweet farm.

new and new

i have spent delicious time

inside a new book

reading and waiting

terry tempest williams has published this:

when women were birds

fifty four variations on voice

it is beautiful, hard, confusing

compelling, comforting, solid

and light as a feather.

(the physical book is also beautiful)

 the rock there

it connects me to what i've been seeing

birds birds birds birds birds birds birds

~~~

i watch the heron nest,

there are three fledgelings now

with wind sounding like ocean.

~~~

and at home i watch my place here

and the new place i will inhabit

in a year or so

a new ecotone

all ecotone in fact

an old farm

structures

long in decay

now a private place open to sky and dreams

and land. old geography, new to me.

we will honor a dream begun by a young family

but reshape it into

a place to grow old in

it will change

it will be the same.

~~~

little fiber, except yet more shifu

but spring and change is here.

a little precarious,

but fine

 i will live in a house

someday soon

that looks

 out over this water

a stream

work often

leaves me feeling

like this tree

or like this 

dammed and fruitlessly

looking for release

but today a writer friend visited

and read her novel to us

they, we, LISTENED

with, what my teachers called 

our thinking caps on

(found on the way to school 

at st. lawrence university this morning)

 cooler weather with rain.

and birds are calling away

in joy

each morning.

natural history of a daughter

news news news! 

this border collie wishes to make an announcement:

her family's hannah was given the gaylord brothers internship 

at syracuse university library special collections

she will be looking for a place to live

in/near syracuse,

so email velma if you have a lead.

i like to read natural history

above you see four books

my favorite has these 

hand colored plates:

 a blue jay

and an elephant 

from 200 years ago.

this is the kind of book

hannah will get to know!

marsh news

 beaver plus josh

 josh and louise did some woods work

in the marsh by their place

while the marsh was in ice

 it was beautiful last week

one morning

on my way to work

 quite beautiful

 in this tiny, rich ecotone

i haven't checked in on the herons this weekend

i've been feverish

and sleeping half again as much as usual

i watch this heron drama

on my table, sometimes drinking tea

and making funny pictures.

earth day, 2012

on any day around here

 so i took a little walk

along the perennials

and spied one slippery elm

 which i sawed down

and peeled

 and i have had narcissi 

on the table for several days

 and i washed up 

some more amazing silk

ready for the next thing

and there they sit,

other things on my mind

they look so monochromatic

 and i wrote in the journal

and found a treasure

 flattened fauna

 so small

so real,

so paperlike, leatherlike

skin

so they're all on the table where i sat for a while

between naps

as i'm in the heyday 

of a spring cold

NEWS, NEWS, NEWS!

pulp clouds:

this summer i will be teaching at several venues

~~~

daylily paper, case paper, stationer's binding

my news is that the amazing nancy zeller 

inspired by milkweed and clouds of pulp

has asked me to teach at long ridge farm.

here's the blurb:

it's going to be a grand time!

do join us 

~~~

"Pulp Clouds: Hand Papermaking" • August 3-5(3 days), 2012 • Instructor: Velma Bolyard

Handmade papers from locally sourced plants provide a connection to place that is profound. Utilizing those papers in your own work as substrate, structure, or design element furthers that connection. Join us making paper at Long Ridge Farm in August where we will gather plants, cook pulp, form and dry sheets of your own papers. Expect to make strong, useable, and beautiful waterleaf (un-sized) sheets.We will each make a book from our papers, binding sheets into sample books utilizing structures that allow us to explore bookbinding as well. Each participant may expect to make a portfolio of sheets of various sizes from at least five different plants. Pulp combinations result in endless variations as we experiment. There will be a surprise or three as we move through our days, culminating in making a book that reflects your time here. You will leave with the ability to make paper, thorough haptic understanding of the necessary steps, and the ability to tailor papermaking to your home studio (even if that is your porch). there will be some exploration, some discoveries  and some play with milkweed, slippery elm, cedar, daylily, and a few more plants. we will make pulp, color, and, well, you'll have to come. i'm really looking forward to learning this landscape through fiber. ~~~ bloodroot on lokta paper and sugar maple braided slippery elm

the great blue herons of cornell

find the cornell herons here

make sure you get the highest definition video,

and the sound.

playing catch up

this week away from teaching hooligans 

has been respite.

however, i have been 

busy to crazy busy

playing catch up.

thank you, carol! 

there were mail presents

and an order came in

 

which included seeds

 i continued with my new book

(thanks, lee) 

 and finished up the zine

 that goes with the zine.

whew!

 bloodroot is marvelous

 protected by those big leaves

 clouds and cool weather

(there was snow in the mountains

but not here)

 fiddleheads beginning

 and heron events.

i have been looking at the eagles, too

 but the herons

i have fallen hard for them!

more news tomorrow, i think!