Friday, January 26, 2018

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. 
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.

Thursday, January 25, 2018

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.

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

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.

Sunday, January 14, 2018

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.

Saturday, January 13, 2018

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.

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

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.

Sunday, January 7, 2018

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.

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