learning reflection

 in salida

there wee hints of rains

that swept over

 there were rooftops

 a reminder "we are here" on the hill

across the river from town

and how really dry this high desert is

 this place, richard's old shop

 i went into every day

and worked

 and i just made samples

and samples

 and journaled

 i would see this early

and be reminded

 and cook up a few plants

in roberta's pots

 tragically stained

 origami book

rice grass

more samples

shop door

another shop door

habu paper and silk

moroshifu

i made a new stump loom

or two

susan's yard/garden

terraphilia guesthouse

and here.

~~~

i'm settling back into the north

at first my skin was grateful

and i have also

packed my classroom and my office for a move.

mowed the grass twice!

caught up on sleep

rejoiced in the lightning bugs

have been tickless (so far)

seen friends and heard the news

that diary page above

is now thread

waiting to be woven.

i was without my macbook

for three days,

so i've been a little quiet here.

but i'm back!

bluer

ian's evening sky

winds all day yesterday

smoke seems to have blown out for a bit

(or maybe not, i don't know this place much)

and i don't smell it now, anyway.

but the morning sky is bluer and the mountains

are black/deep green/tan

(is that snow on a ridge?)

smoke in the air, maybe

dust on my shoes

removed by the door.

the longing for water.

a creek cantering by

willows drought dead, now revive

hug the edges and hide.

different than home

so beautiful and i want to say

vital, tenacious, fragile and gifted to me

for a fortnight.

 proto paper!

 one of two big tables

portals 

 lokta

for india 

a benign face in the posts and beams

blogger won't let me upload todays pictures. 

no matter, yesterday's will do.

we're getting to know each other

this brick place and me.

here in colorado

i put this little book together 

on saturday night,

 to remind me that i do make things.

 the pages are my papers, 

all roughed up and sewn up, too

the cover comes from melissa

 and then,

suddenly, i'm in another place

where the landscape goes all sideways

 but at terraphilia

 there's just a jumble of good 

 stuff

 an early morning visitor

 stuff

 stuff

 on the mountain

 in the garden

this, THIS, i love.

wrapping things up to home

that's north country language

i'll be on my way to salida and susan

and terraphilia

 on 

sunday

 nigel peake has a new book

 there's a new story somewhere else, too

 with a funny, scary grin

 three men working

job boss in the middle

 building and unbuilding

 the view through my studio

american elm

grows here till it gets thigh thick

and dies

dutch elm disease

and it has a stringy tenacity that 

displeases loggers, but not us.

the woodshed is very full now,

we'll make it through 

winter.

stash/edges

all winter i have been ecoprinting.

on flax, 

milkweed,

hosta,

abaca,

 arches text wove, 

and on lokta

PAPERS

and

on shifu, textiles, and threads.

i've bound up a few books

and have the covers ready for an edition of 

HORTUS SICCUS

my

dry garden.

i hope that while i travel out to colorado

for the terraphilia residency

to bring along my hortus siccus,

to explore what is a very dry garden, indeed.

i leave a week from today.

~~~

last night i visited the county jail

and a young man i know

and have new thoughts about how

we treat

those on the edges.

i wonder about edges, how rich they are

until you slip over

and get lost.
~~~
after terraphilia,
i will drive north to estes park
to visit my heart school
eagle rock school and professional development center
and teach a little workshop.
ian and hannah graduated from ers.
it's a place
for teenagers to get found,
not lost.
~~~

the last of the eucalyptus