finish line

 the week that was winter break

flew and plodded along 

 with icy marvels 

and deep cold.

the birches drooped

and the fence lines made new patterns.

 just over a week until i leave for australia!

more about that in a day or so.

good news graced the inbox

my two books available above on this site

(see the bar with the shop label?)

Poor (Wo)man's Asparagus and November, A Map

were just purchased for the poetry collection

at the University of Buffalo (Lockwood Library).

i am dancing to think that my poem/books are there.

 i loved the woven ice as the sun began to sink

 and saw scarlet and purple and greens in the dazzle

as i get my stuff together for the trip

to australia

i've spotted above this summer prunus print on arches

 and below 

four hosta papers

colored with north country ochres

i also realized this terrible headache

and weariness is

a sinus infection

so i got myself to the after hours clinic today

and am taking a killer antibiotic.

the wonderful doctor had an auspicious name: wendy.

there was a wonderful visit from hannah this week

who modeled a unicorn head

at brewer bookstore.

i had a wonderful and wonderfully long chat with an artist 

about some new teaching locally.

and more news is coming,

i promise.

accumulating

as i prepare myself

for the wonderful inevitability of teaching

in

australia

this march,

i'm spinning and weaving and dyeing and

writing

and getting this brain

(so often addled by teenaged emotional turmoil

 and the fallout

present in public school)

i return to my heart work

and of course, keep reading.

 how in photographs these things look like the skin

that paper makes

flax and milkweed, for example,

to work on,

to wear for protection.

 and walking slows this mind down

to consider these things

 to see

 up close how beautiful these skins are

here, the blue skin of atmosphere

the red skin of berry

the hidden sinews

of milkweed

twined into threads to weave 

weave a skin to keep warm and safe.

frustration

ok, i know i've been spoiled rotten by summertime in australia.

but geesh!

snow and snow and cold and cold.

you should see the end of my driveway!

and the kitchen cold water is frozen.

and i still don't have a camera replacement.

i got one--too big--

returned.

i got a second--

too fancy--

returned

and today i ordered one almost just like my old

plain old

powershot.

the kicker?

it's cheaper! and RED!!!

 so here, trace, is my photo

taken by YOU!

which proves that i do not always break cameras and 

that my good friends put up with me

 as i look at the melbourne now exhibit.

i can say 

in all honesty

that australians are among

the finest, friendliest people i've met.

and the north country, dear place,

it's time to warm up

just a tiny bit.

please.

guess where…

i will be in february, over winter break?

Austalia!

i will be teaching three classes.

the first will be at amazing and wonderful

BEAUTIFUL SILKS

in Melbourne.

we will be working on paper as/on/in textile

in BOOK format.

a codex will be made by every participant

'twill be a medieval style

with very contemporary implications.

your very personal marks

maybe not words, though, but you'll be making

the stationer's binding.

a medieval version of a three ring binder,

only with tackets and hideyholes.

my amazing friend

and proprietor of Beautiful Silks

Marion Gorr says there will be

a couple of surprises, too

a dyepot or more,

imagine: indigo, cochineal, ecoprints…

making paper sing.

making paper string.

making paper speak and listen.

 ~~~

and then after Melbourne,

i will be in a more faraway place called

Grampians Texture

where i will teach first a two, 

then a four day workshop!

shifu

enough time to delve lightly, 2 days,

or deeply, 4 days, into shifu making

shifu Shifu SHIFU!

we will spin and weave and color up our

paper/thread/books. the four days

will be enough time to go very deeply 

into a formal book presentation of your shifu.

you will reach a bit,

work hard,

and expect some amazing work.

 i am very excited

and i am hoping like mad

that the weather gods smile on this winter traveler!

september

a brief visit to the ocean

where i spied 

a ship and a known landscape in the distance

 these tapestries turn up 

now and then

 once in a blue...er...

goose? moon?

it has begun...even though

i felt summer turn her head 

towards fall a while ago

it is here, the feeling of changes

not a rush, yet,

but the birds have been toning 

up their muscles in preparation

the days are shorter, 

lingering, arguing with darkness on either end

wait wait

but winter is traveling 

inevitably.

 i got a "free" photo book

from shutterfly

and orbitz

 a photo chronicle 

of my trip to australia

for the nature's colours in the city

symposium

the biggest error was the cover text color

sigh.

and in johnson, vermont

on my way to bar harbor,

i found ebenezer books.

a REAL bookstore

the kind with wonderful books

and i bought this new jane yolen poetry collection.

time to get some chores done, 

make some "stuff"

and enjoy the sunshine and breeze.

l.a. to melbourne

goodbye hacienda hotel and marvelous trees

hello australia!

i first saw...eucalyptus

but the camera was elsewhere.

 and hello australia

and beautiful silks

 first impressions

 things that move me

 beautiful, beautiful and so wonderful 

 i just want to burrow into these lovelies and go to sleep

but i instead got to sleep 

in a stack of comfort

marion and her elephant have made me happily at home

and there's a wonderful lift

that i took a ride in.

more to come--