now, listen...

posting two days in a row, 

this time to let you all know that the amazing morning voice 

of north country public radio, 

todd moe, 

interviewed me, and made little papers with me here at home,

and has posted that interview and a video plus some photos on NCPR's site. 

here: interview with TODD

todd was one of the adult students 

in our Book Arts class at St Lawrence University last fall. 

here he his enjoying some of the SLU

special collections treasures

in the owen d young library.

business!

(flax)

just a little business: 

many blog comments are coming to my personal email rather than the blogger site. 

last post I pulled two of them and placed them on the blog. 

but that is a little weird, so

if you want your comment to appear 

you should use the comment box, 

rather than the lower down reply thingie. 

i think. 

i love hearing from you and try to respond, 

but if they come to my email i sometimes loose track. 

thank you as always for reading

wake robin. 

i truly appreciate it.

ice lines

lines.

kami-ito

wound off the skein onto cardstock

ready for weaving.

ice

 icescape

 landskeins iced over

 ice broken

 warming ice

 plant lines

 old grasses

 ice fissure

galacial

 big ice becoming stream

again.

the outlet from trout lake 

here.

view from the road.

alder cones illuminated 

ever so little.

 ice outlet

 letting go the water

 leaving an ice gown

 petticoat

 the snow, the ice, the changes this winter

from 27 below to 60 above.

and today, an ice driveway.

 sweet setter gwen is saying goodbye, little by little

here and not so much

like the ice.

woody

and this morning as i was thinking

about the cold (-21) and the sun shone brilliantly

on the snow

there was a loud thunk.

i looked at the window as a large bird recovered and flew up.

must have hit the upstairs west window and fallen,

recovered,

and landed on the utility pole in the back yard.

it was stunned, not behaving as they usually do.

pileated woodpecker.

or

cock of the woods.

 immediately after the collision

on the dark side of the pole

 moved around to the sunny side

 got bearings and flew off.

 these birds are what woody woodpecker,

he of ancient cartoon fame, was.

 i don't remember a thing about that cartoon

besides his weird laugh

which is nothing like the call that named this one

cock of the woods.

another north country name.

and i have finished off two pounds of flax fiber

made into 8.5 x 11 sheets 

(some are with my papermaking partner melissa schulenburg)

 beautiful flax with the remnants of other paper pulp

(that thin white line)

indicating that the felts are dirty

but oh, these deckle edges!

 i made the last little post of about 20 little sheets at home in the kitchen.

i added some inclusionsincluding 

habu wrapping string (silk wrapped paper thread)

and mica or shell iridescence

which didn't photograph.

 it's always good to make paper.

even through the cold of winter.

it looks like i can see a few sparkles on this sheet.

this is NOT glitter, more like mica dust. 

but it's there.
there was also this,
the life of death video
happened to come along this morning.
coincidence
or
not.

maybe goodbye

when i looked out around 8 this morning, 

porcupine was heading back from the cedars, 

or so i thouhgt.

we're having a big storm

which began with ice and turned to snow in the night.

temperatures dropped some 50 degrees 

more or less

overnight.

porcupine was out by the spruce on the way to the barn

when i ventured out 

to shovel some snow and examine my flattened mailbox.

a rough night.

heading back towards the woods

after visiting the garage and leaving

a scattering of scat and urine.

 (it's rough weather for human beings

and porcupine beings

this crazy winter.)

then porcupine stopped and stayed perfectly still

 i walked over and tried to spook porcupine into action

there was none.

with my snowshovel i moved porcupine to the tree about 15 feet away 

from this open spot.

maybe porcupine will clinb up and eat.

or maybe all the suppers are done.

it's not for me to know just now.

but i am sad.

porcupine fell

excuse the focus

when i'm in a hurry i struggle with technology

so i couldn't get the camera on it. 

porcupine was in the cedar, 

i was working at the table.

out of the corner of my eye

i saw a dark gray earthbound flash in the morning light.

porcupine fell. 

plop.

i turned and saw the landing, grabbed the camera, and ran to catch the action.

meanwhile 

stunned porcupine paused and took stock of the situation.

i could see that the fall was small, six feet, perhaps seven.

still, porcupine paused,

 moved carefully, 

turned and 

 walked across to another of the cedar trunks.

and then up porcupine climbed, 

quickly moving to a new place on a cedar branch

to browse.

(have i mentioned those marvelous climbing feet?)

on the omnipresent facebook i was advised 

that porcupines do fall.

evidence is their healed broken bones.

when i was told this, i worried at first 

but

this small one seemed only a little vexed

by the inconvenience of falling.

this is a lesson that

i want to learn.

back to cold

this week has gone by, a rollercoaster

with porcupine visits every day or two.

porcupine has gotten very, very un-cautious.

so has the little deer,

and as we moved back into the deep freeze.

events...

i love my subaru, but our local dealer has not treated me well.

(except two of the sales people and one service guy) over the many years

i've dealt with them (they're the only one around).

this week i'd had it.

 after "having it" and all that that entailed,

i have new back brakes, snow tires on and beautiful, 

and the head gasket completed.

i sat in the waiting room 5 hours this week alone.

also, i've got a little respect.

i begin to feel like porcupine

who persists 

(nevertheless, she persisted)

balances precariously, 

goes where she wants,

gets a tummyful

and isn't too concerned what they think of her.

tippy top and precarious

with a teenager down below

symbiotic relationship

being at the edge of the trees is not scary

i've learned to adore edges.

taking risks

porcupine made a house call

while my hair gets more uninteresting with age and hormones

this one has some real excitement going on.

riding down low yesterday and almost falling it seemed,

but not at all.

tail works like a rudder and strong hands/feet do good work

the box elder that grows with this cedar

was cracking like breaks

repeatedly with the other trees

in this frigid weather.

more leavings for the teenaged whitetail

as temperatures plummeted and my toes froze up.

i'm happy that i can navigate the driveway now

observeed by eyes doing porcupine things

eating, watching, not very worried about me, but aware.

not worried 

just being porcupine eating arbor vitae.

so the hot and cold water froze in the kitchen

again and

i made cookies today,

watched silly british tv shows on the mac.

the dark comes later and later and YOU CAN SEE and FEEL it.

there were things i wanted to write about,

but it's all about cold and porcupines and cookies and 

arbor vitae.

not a bad week, after all.