time and news

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some teaching news and below more news from here:

 in June i'll be teaching botanical contact (boco) prints for the NEGBW.

boco prints in Idaho earlier in the spring is not quite, but almost, confirmed

august will find me TAing for the amazing Christine Mauersburger at Haystack.

and next fall a book arts class at SLU.

may 2020 i'll be teaching north country shifu at the amazing Maiwa in Vancouver.

found buffalo jasper fetish

isn't she sweet?

some wonderful colors on paper recently

as i prep for:

(drum roll) 

CODEX

wake robin is traveling west in february for CODEX.

yep, 

it's the big time for this country mouse.

San Francisco!

prints and sampling

it's an early winter

so far ❅ who knows these days ❅

and my birthday tomorrow.

my sweetie bought me a gift:

just look at the box!

and i've oiled her up and been making some marks on paper

creamy arches text wove, 

grassy green cave paper,

and helen heibert's crinkly magenta abaca long beat

thanksgiving

birthday

gratitude

gifts from the land--

the last of the calendula

and still it remains

beyond beautiful.

when the sun shines

and the little ones go for a watery frolic

and we wait

for the winter's ease and reflection

snowy and sunny, but mostly overcast so far.

thanksgiving everyday inventory

thankful: 

backyard bounty and beauty

bleak and verdant

backporch hiding

 backporch assemblage

 backporch uprootedupsidedown

 backporch harvest:

 birds' nests, mouse nest and feather

backporch road find

homework:

 work clothes

 homework: 

inadvertent advertising

thanksgiving.

 gather, bundle, cook, rinse, dry, use

i woke to gray

which means snow.

the showers turn up and down

but not much snow is expected today.

recent inadvertent sitings:

a bald eagle lifting into the sky 

an ermine making crazy running around over and across the road

a gathering of ruffed grouse hensin one of the grandmother maples

budding (eating maple buds).

despite all the hoopla all over the place

it's a time to say thank you

to my children

family, friends, blog readers and internet friends

the folks who have purchased my work

papers and shifu and books.

as the season darkens

into winter,

 there is still light

 a flash of white in sunlit grasses

 and tess appears!

 not far from the place where i spotted a kingfisher 

several times, but

didn't see this day, probably gone south.

 we see ducks here, too.

 which tess ignores. 

i mean, there could be grouse close by so--off she goes.

 in the corner closest to my little garden between the granite ledges

 paper wasps were practicing their craft.

this is BIG.

 raccoon activity along the road

 and i've taken to talking back to these ravens

who gather nearby and quark loudly, 

as teenagers do.

there were seven yesterday.

i'd rather embarrass myself by quarking,
 trying out conversation

than take photos, 

so i didn't get all seven.

 popple/aspen and a trace.

 and it's gotten very very cold. 

in the single digits yesterday morning.

 neighborhood barn

 in front of which 

a plenty of high bush cranberries.

quite a crop.

but they're my neighbor's, 

not mine.

before the snow

it was clear and very cold.

and then it came

freezing everyone right up into little balls or broken pieces

but i love the cold

love how it makes me attend to its demands.

even though i do whine about it from time to time.

snow is expected again.

and the last of the sumac leaves here are gone. 

one branch broke completely

showing sumac's fragile heart.

stay warm and well and creative.

and the sumac?

it was in the pot today and the prints are drying.