a gift

i am a person who loves to give gifts

(as well as receive them)

i'm also a person who forgets things, special dates, etc.

(dates are numbers, numbers are slippery for me) 

this can be a problem, and i have been known to do odd things:

i have in my school bag a birthday card for a neighbor.

her birthday was around november 8th, more or less. see?

 a gift came to me this week

from pam

 whose shibori on paper astonished

and inspired me last summer

 well, these were wrapped up in cloth, 

walnut-dyed challis

 each one perfect.

 so i started playing

and playing and playing

 the cocoons have an affinity for each another

and hold on, hands-on, like hormonal teens

to one another!

 there is an amiable patterning

dancing across this page

 the brilliant white has been subdued

by pam's dyepots

 none of these photos were taken in good light

because all it does recently is snow

or threaten to snow

and it's winding into solstice. we are sun deprived.

so they began a new game on a morojifu folio,

 page from a book of secrets.

a new paper book

who could imagine one autumn would have

two books about shifu

published and available and perfectly 

complimenting each other?

my teacher, hiroko karuno,

has published her new book

about japanese handmade paper 

and the thread made from paper.

hiroko is a very private woman

whose relationship to japanese handmade paper

is deeply felt, understood; intimate and beautiful.

hiroko gave me permission to write 

about this jewel of a book.

it is a rich how-to book

precise and philosophical

simple yet profound.

here is an example of the precision she insists upon

the standards she sets for herself.

i remember trying hard to spin this intentionally

when i worked with her.

the book includes a wonderful frontispiece

an entire page of koshi-no-kigami-kobo, kadiode-washi.

 your fingers can dance over this amazing paper

perfect for spinning.

i found myself wanting to begin immediately 

working with some of this paper!

this is one of my favorite photographs,

a small group stripping kozo bark.

it brought me back

to sitting on my kitchen floor

stripping milkweed bast from stalks

wet from snow after winter gathering

for my first edition of milkweed paper.

i could hear hiroko's voice

in my head as i read her words.

hiroko came to shifu

from a more traditional weaving background.

so she knows dyeing and weaving thoroughly, and understands paper.

this book will be available soon, she hopes,

from the japanese paper place, sri textiles, the textile museum

in north america. for now it's still in japan, awaiting a january release.

you may find out more here.

hiroko writes: 

strong and beautiful thread comes only from strong and beautiful paper

and 

beauty from necessity lasts forever.

more about paper and weather

 it's darn cold

 brittle

 when i walked today 

(i finally got a walk in)

my nose ached

my legs were shivery

 so little snow

south of here there are many inches

 here it's icy icy

the soil has frost in it, 

i wonder if it will go deep this winter?

 cold

 a cold to numb toes and noses

and my neighbors three dr. seuss trees

charm me and illuminate my sleep this december.

and in my mailbox today

a special book

that i will write about soon

but it IS about paper.

how the week ended

this pond is ever changing

because of the sky

the snow

the meadow grasses

the ridges that trace its edges

rich ecotones

 these are the new energy

 the new windows

 i helped paint primer this weekend

 i did the piddly bits

crevices and curves

 where the sill will live

(i will point out that smear was not my doing-it's "mud")

 the corn ladies

demure behind their fringe of standing corn

(maybe these singletons are now bound)

 they wore gowns of white for over a week

until it thawed enough

 coyote leaves offal scat

in the road every day.

a trickster with nasty manners

(i well remember my outrage

at coyote

when i read giving birth to thunder, sleeping with his daughter

coyote builds north america

by barry lopez 

back when i lived in kentucky)

 fortunately,

the streams run high and fast just now

and no deer parts in plastic bags

have been thrown in.

over at the new place

hopefully, there will be no poaching.

hopefully.

early december

perfect

snow stitchery

 these two

perfect 

tourist kitsch

tickle me

a gift from a friend 

 passed on to me

 something i didn't have time for in toronto, 

but should have

yep

it's where i live

 ice in

oswegatchie river

the light is gray so much now

and so little, each day.

toronto to north russell

we three had a soma hot chocolate

 walking into soma is a heady experience

delicious and seductive

 soma retail store

 factory to the left

 chocolate makes it right

 a home

a business?

in a residential neighborhood.

 the north side of the great lake i grew up near

lake ontario 

who takes in what lake erie can send her

good thing i got my finger at least partially out of the iphone's way!

 and here in the north country

the land is trying on her holiday clothes

 still snow enough to ski,

 i only got in a walk

but a wonderful snowy walk indeed.

 birches

 add in some wild grapevine

and across the road there is a child living

with these dr. seuss like trees

which i just love.

welcome back to winter.