new

hannah is building me a website

trusting a recommendation from the amazing shanna leino

we're trying square space. 

it's built, i just don't know how to use it.

yet.

knowing me, 

it might not ever happen.

shhh, don't tell hannah.

two precious objects from australia

 stitching up a sheet of paper

 closer vision

 a grouse makes a brief appearance

on my way home last night.

 and then there's shanna's little awl

(check out her store, you will love her things.)

 unwrapped.

this too is exactly what i needed. 

small for my small hands

with a big point.

safe

safe.

the new work is all about being

safe.

 feeling safe.

enclosed, not cloistered.

 i've been photographing these as i move through the work

and then i realized friday night

i felt safe 

at home.

deeply safe.

vulnerable, scared,

myself, definitely flawed and unable

to tie up 

the loose ends.

those ends.

TAUNY

(tradtional arts in upstate new york)

our local folklore organization with the (let's face it) bad name

has mounted a quilt exhibition.

 i love the real ones

the simple,

made from so little, ones.

 these are the cloths that speak to me

 and these photographic

patches of quilts

please my eye

and my sense of safe.

 meanings lost in time

but not the caring.

 beautifully stitched reminders.

the gallery space is large and those quilts soften 

and humanize the bigness.

i liked it so much.

 i was stitching this weekend

sampling

in case paper with kami-ito

and other samples came, too.

feeling safe.

 i buy anne johnson's cards at tauny.

they make me wonder

what it must be like to work as a botanist in this place.

to know the land that way.

 i come home to make more samples

as i think about things:

gratitude that my son is well,

my daughter is, too.

my love is well

over at our new home.

tauny had another surprise

 poems by a friend

john scarlett

 he practices farming with oxen,

sugaring,

husbanding, grandparenting

blacksmithing,

and writing.

i imagine him behind his team mowing his haymeadow: 

the children's path

through the grass

mown away

 (a haiku from his new collection, between waves, available at TAUNY)

stillness

taking a few hours here

marking stillness.

robins greet the morning

as do i

and i take a day away

time to regather my wits

my worries

my responsibilities and

my love.

 there have been some challenges

as i count down the days 

teaching special eduction

in a local school.

 sometimes i feel a little suspended

tangled

formed by hands

and 

 always fiber

 the lilacs are beginning to leaf out

 and a flicker came to the new place

giving me a show

as he explored the eating

 just outside the front wndow.

 what a beautiful bird

one i've only seen as it flickers by

or leaves yellow and spotted feathers 

as gifts i accept.

 there are a pair!

spring.

hope.

oh, and more to the point.

sex.

 everytime i return home

 whitetail are behind the yard

 in front of the barn.

these are for my children

this little flock.

my old house 

needs a new young family.

so i can take

myself over to the new place

and begin learning to live

in a wilderness place.

(there, i didn't mention

politics.)

upside down

neki and melissa both let me know

(with kindness)

that all of my pictures of

the japanese account book

were upside down.

it figures.

everything has been upside down lately.

 from ledger books

 and their beautiful details

to the people in my life.

i thought i was paying attention. 

and

i thought i could make things go as i see fit.

students' lives tossed around like baggage.

my own beautiful and gifted children struggling with grief

and upsidedownnesses.

until i was given a bit of sight,

 insight, when

a loud, very loud THWACK!

of two beaver's tails

woke me up.

pay attention, 

they shout.

you're needed here. 

now. 

i am listening.

i really am.

book stuff

this small kozo ledger 

was given to me.

 it has a lovely little "staple" holding it togehter

 and a special notation 

added in

 inks of black and some bits of red

 who knows what they say?

 out walking i see marvels

like this ice. 

it's been really cold this week.

 so the walking and thinking came together this way:

try to spin a little kami-ito

with one sheet from the ledger.

so i spun it up

and wove a page

 and the whole thing looks like this:

page, booklet, shifu 3 x 6 inch page, small bit of kami-ito leftover

 the page holds all sorts of marks

including a wee bit of red.

a book in the making.

and

please!

to everyone who contacted me before the australia trip

asking for a copy of the new book,

please remind me.

i've lost the list somewhere, somehow,

and before i put it up on the for sale page

i need to honor your requests.

return and refocus

there is a simultaneity to this growth

and my return

and my recovery from jet-lag brain.

i found a rock book on my walk at home

but at the place i'm now calling Home

i heard a symphony of robin and woodcock and peepers and frogs

friday night

that made my heart sing right along.

even though the fool played april

i've been looking at what i've brought backfrom oz

not all of it tangible

in fact much of it 

not.

i loved this little pod

and was gifted by a student

at the grampians.

i've been asked to return to the grampians

to teach a master class.

i'm thinking about this amazing opportunity.

i finally located a copy of this

to read on the LONG ride home.

i also traded for this zine

which i found to be somewhat disappointing,

not the trade, but the quality of the piece,

an editor was needed.

gifts and abundance

triggering thoughts and imaginings.

and the work of john wolseley

which i wanted to see more than i can say

but missed.

some bones were waiting my hands

one of which i injured on my first morning there,

but is better now.

emu feathers

i intend to weave with.

scales dyed madder red

and the one cloth i brought from the long dyeing session with felicity.

this was waiting for me

from catherine,

and i still haven't opened it

but i will!

and i am scheduling my teaching

 for life after public school teaching

retirement at the end of june-

some summer commitments, 

a wedding,

residencies

teaching and learning

and my house for sale, still.

i am hoping it will sell 

and i will be fully moved to the place i call

HOME.