weekend stuff

aimee met hannah years ago, 

and now she's met ian.

all the way over in portland!

yes, he is tall; aimee is not short.

i love this picture!

and they had it made

just for me!

hugs to you both.
~~~
and
~~~
friday afternoon i taught the second
of two classes at st lawrence university's
sustainability semester
there's a lovely post here
and maybe a picture or two when 
i get to it!

i was very impressed with this
amazing group of students 

transitions

 transitional times like march and november

move me 

i must go outside

(hence my absence from the ethers)

and i have been making lots of ecoprints

  i did get out on my land

several times

and found a stack of rock books

this rock i've not seen in years

in fact, having lived on this piece of north country

for 26 years,

 much has changed,

is changing

the stream has become a series

of ponds

six now, i think

as beaver rearrange the land to their suiting

 i walked across several dams

 became dazzled by the late afternoon

brilliant sunlight

 saw myself reflected on ice

 and walked gingerly around such trees

 there were other dam visitors

before me.

 while there i heard some birds, chickadees mostly,

beginning to think about spring

 i've ridden my horses, skied, and walked,

sometimes hauling out a child or a load of stuff

up this hill from the woods

this is the back of my pasture

and there i am with a bag of plant bits

 i often come out here and just 

stretch out on a rock

or examine the plants

or watch a woodchuck hole, a rabbit run, a deer trail.

it's really growing up to brush now

without grazing animals on it

there are still

milkweed blessings 

all over this place.

at work the men were talking of milkweed

how toxic it is, blah, blah, blah,

and i told them i'd eaten it.

poor (wo)man's asparagus.

mouths fell open,

astonished.

(i grinned)

luna

my little camera found this sphere

and

there was music,

coyote and geese

arrivals, etc

a nifty project: mail art

 these two made it to iowa city

unravelled

part of emily martin's project

 a small visitor

 strange and wonderful 

cards and doodles

from the perfect friend

(one of my peeps as i keep hearing) 

 to the west tonight

and to the east

i listened for woodcock, to no avail.

sap is running.

redwing blackbirds continue to sing.

 paper bird

dyed silk ribbon

from beautiful silks

these colors are from the recent dyebaths.

just some doings around here.

repetition

i've learned that to repeat 

a process

 repeat

 more than two or three times

 more even than twenty times

 during many seasons

 maybe even years

 makes it possible

 to begin to understand

the possibilities

there are 60 papers

ecoprinted.

i'm beginning to learn a little

my hands know a little more.

~~~

north country: 

late winter, late afternoon,

a workshop with eight college students

the sustainability semester

at st. lawrence university

learned some dye techniques, too.

no photos; i forgot.

some news: pod cast

the incredible aimee lee 

forwarded me this message 

from susan mills

Hi Aimee and Velma,

Your podcast is posted - thank you so very much for participating in this series.

http://www.bookbindingnow.com/ 

Have a wonderful spring, 

Susan

this means that aimee interviewed me for susan mills'

book arts podcasts.

it's a touch hard for me to talk about my work

i'm not used to it.

but i must say that aimee 

made it simple for me, she did all the hard work,

figuring out the technology.

if you have a bit of time,

go check it out. 

~~~

i've been doing a bit of dyeing, too

 ecoprints for a 

sutra

~~~

hanging out...

...with my friend caliban, 

always inspires me to want to be a printer.

alisa golden has three 

bookarts videos on her current blog post.

two i already knew of,

this one made me smile a bunch.

maybe there's something else, too, 

a little bit of that old timey west virginia spunk, 

from my mom and dad.

holdout

 this is the way

the silk fell 

and this script

could be read

many ways

like a poem can

 not so much these large ones

who move through winter

with magesty

 who know the signs of springing

the redwings, the starlings, the cardinals, the chickadees

and all are singing

their spring songs

 color paints the sky,

then white outs 

this one with thunder

 i'm moving through 

this time

and soon i'll have some news up here

but not just yet.

sunday morning breakfast:

pancakes with brand new maple syrup!

what the camera saw

 in the evening's golden surprise

 between showers, cloudscapes, snowmelt gurgling

the light was long and 

 there was a reminder that this walk 

is now mine alone.

there was a trickster surprise on the roadside, too

left by a border collie with a sense of humor,

not a print, something more present

than absent.

but,

then the geese surprised me

quieter than in fall, but in huge flocks.

later

i went out to listen, flushed a white tail,

but didn't hear

woodcock, peepers.

yet.

another blue

 the sky, the snow, the land

 the beaver dam

 i was too timid to cross

 little drainages

 one the beaver did not

 blue and blue and some red catkins

 the stream north

 and south

 shadow play

 gold and silver

 and magic to draw you in

and...

the pantone postcard project

for emily martin.

i am getting used to 

not being homebound by necessity

and love. 

strange freedom.