still working out on the porch

here's a bit of very recent 

contact printing

for me

(not for the HP project)

 here

the top is a silk cloth

the bottom is three long papers and a book

 long paper detail

 wolseley's book snuck in

and i couldn't help taking a photo

of my little prints hanging out with a page from landmarks 3. 

while doing this i'm pulling together my summer journal

trying to complete it.

working on the porch in very sweet weather.

it's called daylilies and songbirds 

and

 it's got bird prints and contact prints

shifu and kami-ito,

and even some kitikata and cotton,

and day lily prints and maybe a snake print, too.

and i'm beginning to put in my summer notes.

next time the book should/might come first

so the notes can live in there

day by day.

i am pretty excited about this one.

and may even finish sewing up the shiny book.

i'm learning an honesty i didn't know before

while dealing with local color 

trees and folks

(greed neighbors not being neighborly)

on this lovely lovely day.

simple

simple gifts,

simple things:

a honey

house warming.

clair van vleit

who runs janus press taught this

simple structure tome in a class 

she taught at the paper trail in ottawa. 

a LONG time ago.

 using it with amazing paper deepens the experience of simple

this paper is rhubarb with abaca

a paper i have only once been able to duplicate.

simple old rhubarb

 hides its fiber

 and then the season for papermaking is past.

 like these little squares, 

also simple

 truly good work 

can be woven on the simplest of looms.

 i had thought to make a simple booklet

to explain a bit about shifu

and contact printing on papers,

 i wrote about it,

 and so a dummy appeared in my mail,

my designer, printer, and dear friend carol

and i have been cooking up a project

for me to share

with students and friends.

i'm heading to australia in a month.

teaching and traveling and being in

that

wonderful

place

for a short while.

 ~~~

i've been swamped and forgetting things

simple things that made me happy:

a new year greeting

from the cave

 and another

from jennifer

 with

a message i am loving, 

good madness.

 and i will continue

to make little things

 and bigger things.

simply.

sharing

 i will admit my chagrin

when i opened the work table drawer

amidst the measuring tools, the binding threads

the plastic bags saved for reuse

a little mouse had made ready for winter.

 the seed cache was lovely

but the mice in this old farmhouse

keep me constantly on my toes.

 and the rabbits at the new place

helped themselves to the garden

less than 24 hours before we picked 

for a special supper for visiting children...

 stems left, mostly.

last night

i had one tiny bite

of wild woodcock

eating from the land.
returning later to add this:
ticks.
my first known bite was not a connect
and i took three more off my body.
after the first frost
is apparently the worst time for ticks.

 i was shocked today to see this daylily

and took home the spent blossom

for bundling into the latest batch of contact prints.

while working away this afternoon, 

more tooth broke.

dentist tomorrow.