shifu and healing

the summer 2017 issue is out

 and i am so happy to be part of it.

paper as textile,

paper as practicing empathy.

seldom have i been so proud of my work

not because it's so grand but to be part of this issue

in the papermaking community

astonishes

and delights me, too.

 my article is about my observations of how shifu

facilitates healing

 and there's a sweet sample of humble lokta

paper and kami-ito.

which Mina and friends put together for the issue.

 there's work here that is new to me

 and my dear friend aimee's work as well

 a lace bark cap here

 and julie's work 

(which I have seen, yes, but have never met her)

 two samples in this issue

plus full color!

 when i finally climb down off cloud nine

 i will take some time

read this one in depth.

and enjoy.

 in other news here

i had a lovely mile or so walk last night

 and i felt terrific.

 i saw my first goldenrod in bloom

which means the summer really has turned

 and sunset creeps into the long days now.

change is coming.

weather change

the wind is whistling through some autumn weather right now. 

i can see the rain go sideways.

and in between

the sun shimmers hard.

autumn reminds me of each old autumn

and is entirely new 

every time. 

 sky and ochre and soil

it's serious about change.

new and new

i have spent delicious time

inside a new book

reading and waiting

terry tempest williams has published this:

when women were birds

fifty four variations on voice

it is beautiful, hard, confusing

compelling, comforting, solid

and light as a feather.

(the physical book is also beautiful)

 the rock there

it connects me to what i've been seeing

birds birds birds birds birds birds birds

~~~

i watch the heron nest,

there are three fledgelings now

with wind sounding like ocean.

~~~

and at home i watch my place here

and the new place i will inhabit

in a year or so

a new ecotone

all ecotone in fact

an old farm

structures

long in decay

now a private place open to sky and dreams

and land. old geography, new to me.

we will honor a dream begun by a young family

but reshape it into

a place to grow old in

it will change

it will be the same.

~~~

little fiber, except yet more shifu

but spring and change is here.

winter color

i have been complaining

of the winter

and the dreary.

this morning

 just past sunrise

 my driveway

swathed in 

 the inside of a shell

or a cecropia

swimming in blushing air

until it changed

this afternoon

 these clouds

like tapestry

ushered in the

weather change

 there was a bit of ice 

on the drainage

and one calf.

i asked where is the other?

in the freezer, he replied.