squeaky up the road, there*

mysterious canine prints going up my driveway

probably coyote

looking out the early morning kitchen window

seeing four new boulders

become

deer

yep, later on i found evidence:

feet

bed and there were other things...

using shanna weights to hold down the silk for my book

thousands of stitches

see the bottom leather, that turquoise?

colors on the back-of-the-house-fix.

hemlock board.

great soft color

the dummy 

and two more books in the works

have you ever tried to get colors to behave with a stupid camera?

the hemstitched borders are all taupe/grey. 

not lavender.

no matter how much i tweaked the color, hue, brightness, tone, value... 

i couldn't come close.

but this book is coming along.

there should and edition of three when I'm all done.

this is the original triple woven silk.

you can see where the three layers are snagged together.

see the pattern dimples?

keeping it all straight:

dye on the back burner,

'soupper' on the front. 

bookish came to my house.

 these little stitched images are judith's iconography

and todd brought me his wild grape (fox grape) ink in the world's best bottle.

since these photos we have had real winter settle in.

a foot of snow and deep cold, under zero, but not below minus 10.

it is pretty 'sharp', 

and breathing outside hurt this morning.

~~~

* a friend quoted, referring to one of my neighbors.

thanksgiving

so after i returned from toronto

 a little snow fell.

 in the woods at the place i call home

 the snow has been little and not long staying

so far this winter

i have heard owls, but no coyotes,

and a strange murmuring of bird voices, coming ever so slowly

waxing and waning and 

ever louder until

overhead i heard a honk, like a sneeze at a soft concert moment

then another but still the murmuring.

and then they were above me.

canada geese, locals, going over to trout lake

with no need to make much ruckus.

 we joined gracious friends for thanksgiving 

and ate delicious food, 

our ages from a college freshman to an elder of 99. 

hannah brought tyler home to see the north country and us.

despite headcolds, they requested to make paper,

hannah knows how, but tyler was new to the vat.

 above they are using square moulds made by britt quinlin the paperwright

from ottawa,

and below hannah uses a lee macdonald mould.

 hannah and elder dog gwen share some caring

gwen loves being with hannah.

 and after they left 

i felt so empty.

neki sent me her failed linen warp

(to make into paper)

 and carol sent me this beautiful card

for my birthday.

 here's the edition of blue jean paper 

(i couldn't get the color right, but it's very blue jeansy)

it's flying by means of jet plane

to bar harbor.

by the way, the little animals all,

except for the selkie, are spoken for.

perhaps selkie will find you?!

a weariness

i'm feeling a huge weariness.

it irritates me.

spring is really coming

 but i am feeling this great

heavy blanket of weary.

it will leave

  as the snow finally leaves for the season.

the land will absorb heat.

 the long days

increase the thaw

 and the punky snow 

 will completely decay,

leaving behind piles of road salty-sand

the crews will shovel up and away.

 this little doe had an entire field.

i wish you could have seen her shake her head

as she found a nice morsel,

corn to chew off the cob,

the leaf went flying, 

but my camera wasn't quick enough!

 there are reminders of flowers in the garden

and the meadows,

if no blossoms yet.

i've been using these black eyed susan seeds

to print with.

that and hosta seed pods

and many more plants,

goldenrod and sensitive fern and aster skeletons

arbor vitae 

there is so very much out there, 

even when thigh high snow kept me on the edges.

who knew i needed to break and maintain trails this year

so that job got away from me.

i have almost enough perfect prints,

for the edition.

and a few not-so-perfect.

rime or reason

the gentlest curve of snowfall

looks to my eye like a curve of bone

salvaged from the woods

at the site of coyote kill.

way off in the corn field

the ladies line dance

to the tippy frigid cold

keeping balance precariously.

or is that me,

balancing sanity and foolishness

in this gray?

they seem to come closer

but my camera is playing the trick

and the lack of light 

and the snowfall

turn it into another kind of grain

the next day

still gray

but less airborne snow

and more earthbound snow

and corn ladies deeply bound.

i can get a little more personal

say a howdy

and shiver.

(my neck shivering despite the silk)

the weirdest snowfall left

rime

icing in the bitter cold.

a rain freezing

left another kind of trace

a powdery gray

on the grandmother maple.

rime.

umber gray on blue gray

gray and gray and then this afternoon

 late,

the sun shone

dancing on the weird snow carvings.

bringing out some colors 

through my window.
next week is winter break.
i'm grateful.

snow and writing

...and it's SNOWING still!

i'm loving all the snow, but loving more

the slightly milder temperatures.
i rejoice that the temp is above zero
it means 
eyeballs don't feel like they're freezing into your brain.
but

it's not THIS mild~

more like this:

and this

(i ate the tiny one)

~~~
i have a few newsy bits:

the bonefolder extras blog

run by peter verheyen of the book arts list serv 

is featuring my book review of THE SPIRIT BOOKS by susan gaylord.

it was hard to finish this
but not hard to enjoy susan's 

rich gem of a book.
go over to her place for a visit.

i'm trying to finish some obligations i'd taken on

without realizing how consuming this school year would be.
writing is hard with a haphazard mind
teased by the energies of
teenagers.

it's been mostly fun having more snow this winter

and finding how lovely one of my neighbors has been

plowing me out several times

without charge

and making my life so much easier.

*thank*you*fred*

a snow day or delayed start to school,

and in a week will be winter break.

maybe i will get to work on 

the books i owe folks

and the two editions i have planned.