a few blossoms

 i brought home 

three blossoms 

not many left

 almost sunset

 all the leaves are gone

 next year's leaves

are bundled up

and sunblushed

 in the distance

 no ice this afternoon

 clouds in the puddle

 beneath

 a touch of palest chartreuse 

 just behind this

 elder maple 

who's endured much abuse from the road crew

home late

so i hastened to walk

remembered the camera

 it's cold 

and it looks it

 these stiff birches support

a few crystals of moisture

evening cold air

 twilight comes on

as we hurry up to keep away the chill

wendy runs,

canters really,

until i turn the camera on video 

 and. she. s.t.o.p.s.

finally, these little bubbles

cling to grass leaves

and one brave dandelion.

by morning they'll be iced up

for sure.

a book and an apron

 carol at warwick press sent me this

her newest book

one of a series 

this one about dyeing

and living, too.

 i LOVE carol's drawings

maybe because i've felt this way

more than once.

this book is very special.

 and i'm proud to be the maker of the endpapers

some daylily and canada thistle papers

flew to warwick press

(do you know how crazy wonderful it is 

to be part of another artists work?)

 i know how silly i am

 to love this new apron

stripey linen with nice criss-cross

straps in the back

that are never going to come untied!

i'm going to try to 

copy the structure,

change the contours a bit,

and see where it takes me.
it doesn't haul on my neck one bit!
~~~
for you who have asked,
here's ian's work at bullseye

weekend

 my weekend involved many moons

exploring shape on daylily paper

one crisp, one leathery

 odd things on roads

(asking them to move)

or moving them about

and trying (not so far)

to remember to collect 

some of these (one source in town)

to make pulp.

where paper travels

 these worlds within worlds

pattern and color

abaca and other fibers

abaca, silk, kozo, cotton 

on the work table

an egg-moon

some strange colors on green daylily paper

all daylily

tiny, crisp when wet

drying like a patternless seersucker 

and i made a bad moon

shifu piece

the lokta shifu is tiny,

but strong

as it dries into a cycle

of november, a sphere

my month, the one i love 

for many reasons, 

perhaps the strongest 

is that now,

now and in march,

i see the bones of the land.

good and bad time

 i hate daylight savings time

a little in the light 

 it seems like there's no day left after work

 but there are mysteries and miracles in the sky

yes

these are small miracles

 every day

every day

when i thought there might be

no more everydays

i'm smiling

and so is this small one.

VOTE, and a walk

~~~
VOTE

yep, i'm affirming that one

~~~

 snowflakes on wendy, 

who moves when i take out the camera

and place it between us.

 a few large round bales

 a few more

these things are massive

 how the kozo takes the dye

circles in places

 more places

and some interesting pattern repeats.

the paper dries so much lighter

it surprises me, even though i know better

after all these years of making paper.

a dozen sheets.

news from n.y.c. and the north country

poems seem to fall out of the murky november sky

along with watery snow

snowy rain

misshapen pod 

for sophie 

and wendy, that little scamp

went on a toot through the brush

before supper yesterday.

this is what she used to do

before she got sick

and today she's coughing, 

symptom of her heart disease.

after school

most days

i've been dyeing

 abaca ecodyed

detritus from the first big dye job

two very long pieces of 

heavy japanese kozo

printmaking papers 

gift from yoyo

about 7 x 42 inches each

several more in the pot

right now.

~~~

jude says two more weeks without electricity

~~~