another birthday

today is my daughter hannah's birthday.

and my second day of teaching this papermaking class.

drew and peace paper will be there

and it's hot and humid

after my 7:00 walk

and it's the day before i go to vancouver.

and i have many loose ends to tie up,

but not too many.

this morning's walk had so many road incidents, 

including a buggy with five amish neighbors and one toiling horse.

road kills: bird's egg, raccoon, bird, frog, monarch

road event: bird's egg, coyote scat, bones

blue jays and cardinals and white shafted flickers.

so many flickers this year.

i couldn't get this brilliant cardinal flower into focus

 my mill and bette the beater behind the buckets

 the aardvark in use

this was the second aardvark produced by carriage house

 when it's not raining in the evening, this:

 road sign coming true

 i'm glad i've seen so many of these, 
but still...

 the turning started a little later than usual
and has just barely begun.

 heavily pigmented rock papers
another rock book
in process
as well as the woven landscape edition.

 learning new pigments from heidi gustafson.

 and what the georgia ochre looks like with flax

 andrea's poppy seed soap is superb

really!
(and so is her amazing paper and so are the other things her farm family makes)

 this morning

sky

cloud

 turing

 a late starter.

or perhaps, not.

i am so excited about seeing vancouver and maiwa and friends and the big other ocean.

and i'm grateful to my school for financial help

and to the friends who i hope to see.

very soon.

when i return, 

will the goldenrod still be blossoming?
the funny thing is,
i return on a redeye flight,
find my car and drive back to canton and my papermaking class.
if all goes to plan. 
ha!