in all honesty

in all honesty,

this school year has left me deeply

.........tired........

i've gladly agreed to teach twice this summer

both at places i hold in high esteem.

immediately after school ends i go to the morgan conservatory

to teach with aimee our four day

paper /spirit class.

that class isn't full yet so may be cancelled, 

and i am ambivalent about promoting it.

surely i could just stay home and rest?

but it is so good to be at the morgan!

so do consider this class.

and then the class at women's studio workshop 

is set to go.

it's a place i have always wanted to visit,

and now i get to do just that, 

paper and spindles in hand.

it will be lovely to be in a new place.

but oh i am tired.

may has been a month of light nursing and has turned

on me so now i'm flu-ish myself.

so i am getting some rest!

the joke is on me because the beautiful old world goes on dancing

and springing.

and once this flu runs its course

all will be fine.

the book project, 

unsurprisingly,

has been on hold this little while.

do you recognize this seed?
sophie has me looking at seeds, bless her.
and do go here
to look at an amazing exhibition
put together by india.

old man blue

outta dodge

that's where i'd like to be.

instead i'm home in bed.

the intestinal scourge.

curiosity

i am curious about a few things.

it seems odd that my interests are so, well, so weird

but i'm used to that.

hmmm.

julie johnson sent this to me a while back,

i'm sure i blogged about it, 

but i love how it's now ok to think of knowledge as both 

traditional and scientific.

connecting rather than separating.

 here's a seed from the poplars, i think,

along my walk.

they're hairy and encased in a papery tear.

they were in a garland of cottony fibers,

now they are separate.

and woodhenge, as i call it,

the structure my neighbor has left unfinished

looks mysterious or just plain odd

depending on how you see it.

 on my refrigerator

dard hunter has pride of place. 

my kids as teens and me, the princess

and james dean all hang out there

mari sent me some cypress shavings from japan

to weave with

there apparently are competitive planing competitions

and these are the waste

 they remind me so much of the bits of paper

left over from big ass papermaking at the morgan

 hibe- yellow

sugi-pink

hinoki-light pink

 all good

 i think i might have found it

it still smells great 

(don't worry, i took it from a spot that will be mowed this week)

the tiny blossoms were just waning 

 maybe it's what i hope it is.

IV, III, II, I

 thursday there was so much good news:

my sister claudia macdonald, 

got her masters in school administration degree.
she did it just days before she turns 71! 
my hero.
~~~

and my friend wendy

wrote about textiles and healing

in the on-line hand eye

with lots of captioned photos 
crediting the textile makers, too,

of her healing work with and children.

my first botanical paper and shifu book is there.
~~~

there was other book news in north russell:

this:

collection 

housed in this birch box

is a letterpress book set

published by the minnesota center for book arts

and the words

are excerpts from

braiding sweetgrass

genevieve nordmark

who just graduated from esf

(another masters degree!)

was interning at the center and helped with

making the cover papers...

she sent me this.

THIS!

she took it to dr kimmerer's office 

also at esf,

and had her sign it for me.

such a treasure,

words, well, they fail me...

the illustrations:

one in each booklet,

are lovely, too.

~~~

here:

fiber raining down

pink maple seeds, too.

circlet of sweetgrass.

another roadside attraction

in a tiny town with a funny name on the way to work.

that wooden tree cookie is the doorstep,

the portal too small for me.

on the way home from work

 on the highway, 

near the college

 there once was an ugly rock

 that became something

else.
rockbeast.

the beast has acquired its very own cairn.

~~~

in other news, the patient is very well, 

no more doctor's appointments.

hernia well mended.

one more day of class and then memorial day weekend,

four days off. hurrah!

working on the edition.

also hurrah!

the weather here has flown from 80's to 40's

in just a couple days.

rain still needed, though.

healing and human

there are a couple of people 

who may be able to identify this

 years of fingertips patinaed this wood

over the funky decorative painting

the latch many times repaired

this is what an old house holds: layers of time and lives

and if

i look up

on an ordinary may day

i sometimes see little dances

 or down, the ferny places

 that invite me to ponder

 as do the cool mornings we had last week

as healing progressed

and i didn't work on the book.

 i think

healing and decay

all keep us human

 knowing our place.

humid and hot saturday

i've been a barely adequate nurse 

for two days.

my dad thought nursing would be a good career for me.

i thought

i'd like to be an artist,

whatever that was.

my partner is healing from a successful hernia operation.

helped by so many good wishes from friends:

my initial made by therese, 

gold on walnut, 

i like that.

and here i am watching gary frost

 using the plough at syracuse university's bird library's conservation lab.

a photo found in the ethers by tim ely!

it's from when my hair was more brown than white.

~~~ 

about the book project:

 the printing is complete, 

we think,

after a really frustrating day

when only one side would print on the big press.

the next day an elf brought over a stack of printed magic.

my happy dance

wrecked my photo.

 the printing was excellent, 

the photography lousy. 

i can only say that all my photos were like this,

i was so excited!

 i harvested slippery elm bark

 as the ferns came along,

they are MUCH bigger now, 

now, when it's 90 out.

ugh!

and here's a little something-

a stationers binding that i saw online 

and didn't save the source.

but i quite like it.

~~~

surfacing here a little bit to say that i am swamped

but fine, sniffling the pollen,

but 

feelin' allright.

nursing with a smile.

may day

ROADBLOCK!

driving home from school there was a singular roadblock

pulled out across both lanes

a team of three with single bottom plow.

by the time i fished out my camera

their young driver had u-turned those large dancing workers

and moved ahead, waiting for me to drive past

he had a huge smile and a wave which i returned, 

and off i went.

the huge energy of these big horses

always has me in awe.

there was this, too:

 hepatica after dyeing

a shock of tomato in the contact print

 the bloodroot down the hill

in a spot new to me

has appeared amidst the stubble of last year.

 tiny stars

 here and gone so quickly. 

 again an evening walk

 and that moon has changed this week

as she always does

 silver weft on cedar warp

 fiddleheads in the evening sun

may day.

i won't be attending the wayzgoose 

at wells college in aurora next saturday

as planned, my 

dear partner has surgery on friday.

so i will be tending to that and to two bird dogs.

but please consider making the trip

supporting wells and the book arts

and finding treasures.