Timeless Beauty

this comes to mind

Sure on this shining night

Of star-made shadows round

Kindness must watch for me

This side the ground

The late year lies down the north,
All is healed, all is health
High summer holds the earth,
Hearts all whole
Sure on this shining night
I weep for wonder
Wandr’ing far alone
Of shadows on the stars.

James Agee (1909-1955) - “Description of Elysium”, from Permit Me Voyage, stanzas 6-8, 1934.

I learned this as music, and now cannot speak the words without the choral cadences.

...for a dear friend, G

Through the Music

It started with the critical intellect and
progressed through visuals, but as our
silences became as comfortable as being
with myself again, the quiet gave way
to sounds: a tonality tolerated because
you sat through it too; and years of listening
to early, Baroque, Romantic, and modern.
It was heard through halted breathing
or tears silently flowing or a lilting sashay.

Recordings are played now and my mind
tries to conjure your amplification.
No critiques, no visuals, no silence.

Sleepless

Again.

Shattered

There is no equal. Croissants' veneer breaks into a thousand pieces with a flakey interior. These are ripped open over, not beside, your coffee. Confiture et buerre are superfluous. Baguettes are exquisite with their thin glassy crust and chewy interior. One does not bite into them, one rips them apart - again, over the meal.  I leave nothing for the birds.

A friend remembered my description of the Parisian baguette and actually brought one back and left it on my doorstep.  It was used as a bat on an apple and shattered everywhere.

11.12.13

Feeling compelled to provide an entry to mark this date. How do I choose among events attended, events performed, people who have come forward and the notable absence of those who have not, tasks done, and things that are constantly being made? Maybe a few pictures will help narrate a subset.

An unexpected encounter with a small blended sample of cotton, silk tussah fiber and threads. A spinning challenge rewarded with hands learning how to handle short staple length, and eyes catching fibers glinting in the sun, which resulted in a few yards of very fine gauge 2-ply.

Pioneer Spring met Sally Fox, local grower of wool and cotton, at AVFKW's 3rd anniversary celebration.

"I haven't seen you for awhile, since your last news. So how are you, really?" was asked with the glance that cut through layers. "What happened makes no sense. But the word on the street is that you took the bullet. No adverse reflection on you, more on them. You can always have the informal discussions with _x_ so that we can try to help you."

Rocking to power guitar and great music from the Roger Steen Band and Miles Schon Band.

Picked the last harvest of the summer garden.

Will let dogs continue to lie. Let their caretakers handle them.

Successfully made dried persimmons / 곶감 / hoshigaki.

Bricks and mortar beat online hands-down for exploration. 매달 도서관에서 책들을 찾아요.

And I took a little time on the loom. I learn something new with each project: warping back to front, observing weave structure, tying on, adjusting to differences in tension and beating for wool and cotton.

Spent some time on the road as well. Travels will continue - by thousands of miles and by a few feet.

View

Have you ever seen stars so many colors?

No I don't believe I have. Are those galaxies, those smudges over there?

Perspective

When the machines are unplugged, when the noise stops, I do the slow work that needs to get done. It is likely that no one will know it has been done, but it would be noticeable to many if the work is not done. It seems to take so long. But when I look at the clock after doing the task, less time has elapsed than I imagined. This is time used well.

What did you do?
...not much...some people would call it "work" of some sort.

What did you get from it?
A new skirt - I added features that will enable me to wear and use it well: lining and pockets. Don't think that these don't make a difference. They make a huge difference. Hand sewing in key areas also makes a big difference with drape and fit.

In the quiet slowness of time, a few stories also came to me.

Māhealani

달을 봤다.

백자 달항아리

봤다, 다시 보고 싶다.

Eat

Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)

I have begun to think of life as a series of ripples widening out from an original center. In a way, no matter how wide the circumference gets, no matter how far you have rippled out from the first point, that original pulse of your being is still traveling in you and through you, so although you can talk about this period of your life and that period of it, your first self and your last self are by no means distinct.

"Seamus Heaney, The Art of Poetry No. 75", The Paris Review, 1997.

Cyrus Cylinder

The Cyrus Cylinder is in San Francisco, and its story is fascinating.

Summer for Winter

4 pounds organic California peaches.

1-1/2 C raw honey, juice and rind of 1 meyer lemon.

9 cups preserves for the winter.

Grant me this

1. Thank goodness for those who make proposals and consider the time to follow through.
2. They're baa-ack on campus.
3. Taking a break with Demy.

Pioneer Spring

Niiice. Bring it on.

Not Athena

Learning a new thing has given me the opportunity to rediscover the process that I need to make something.  Each step is required and is laden with opportunities to improve the piece.

A thought arises.  Why?  Would anyone else be interested?  2-3 reasons or points are noted with key words.  Maybe there's an ending sentence to the thought, or maybe the thought is an ending to another thought that will precede it.  What perspective or point of view would be most compelling?  There are usually several points of view with their own compelling perspectives.

*Compose a few lines of thought.  Compose series of lines of a particular thought.  Look and re-read, re-arrange and edit for spelling, grammar, sentence and compositional structure, then recopy.**

Repeat * to ** at least twice, deleting and adding more content as required.  Each iteration reveals areas to improve spelling, sentence structure, and reinforce ideas.  Sometimes the initial thesis gives rise to another thesis and the original thought moves to the background or offstage.

Handwriting leaves the physical writing and most of the notes on paper, rather than the frequent disappearing act that often occurs on a word processor.  A messy draft is liberating because the paper holds scripted ideas that I can choose to pick up later - or not.  Whereas if I obliterated them with a word processor, even with changes "tracked", my tendency would be to try to remember those initial thoughts, and trying to retain information, for me, hinders my ability to develop new thoughts.  Seeing physical overwrites also allows me to be direct (some might say "brutal") with corrections - if something is not correct or does not work, strikeouts and re-arrangements are scripted without removing the initial thought.

Yes it all looks clean and organized on a word processor as thoughts are recorded, however the handwritten process works for me despite the apparent chaos of diagrams, strikeouts and skewed lines of text.  Furthermore the tactile nature of putting pencil (HB) or pen (fountain) to paper engages a part of me that stimulates thoughts to flow.  It seems that the time needed to hand-write is what I need to allow my thoughts to develop.  The tempo of my thoughts and hands are connected and complementary.

In the end, the finished piece has arisen from of the initial drafts and diagrams that appear chaotic but are essential in the refinement needed to complete the piece.

13

Heartbreaking news of a very young one's death.

A young adult child does not feel well and the parent-infant roles instantly re-engage.
Roiling gut accompanies not having completed earlier tasks.
News that another assignment is due earlier than I realized.
And a cheerful patient person suddenly becomes pale and cannot continue her presentation.
I help. I worry and hope she is okay.

I want to prepare for a wedding and celebration.
I grieve
I will get my tasks done and meet commitments.
I worry.

I will help.

Picnic

Come sit with me in the clearing and see the world illuminated by tonight's moon.

TdF 2013

...ended yesterday, apparently.  I'll gather the bits that were generated this year.  Not a huge production because my time was spent on other endeavors. 

This year I tried carding fiber as well as spinning it.  In the photo below, on the left are handfuls of Navajo Churro fleece in brown and white (natural colors), in the middle are rolags carded from brown fleece, and on the right are spindle-spun 2-ply yarns.  In all, there will be 29g of finished RUSTIC yarn.

안녕하세요!

woohoo, learning something new!
"uh oh," said the people around her, "where's this going to go now?"

매일 월요일점심에 도서관에서 책을 읽어요.

I'm still looking for the Hawaiian keyboard.  Let me know if you find it.

Bastille Day

Big Fun at the Cal Expo State Fair again this year!  of all the things I saw this weekend,  I am especially taken by two pieces. Lynn Dau's "Endless Possibilities" (left) and Faye Schoolcraft's "Jackson Pollack's Ideal Woman" (right).

And I spent a bit of time in the kitchen making lemon marmalade (27C) and salted lemons (4 tall jars on the left in the photo).  Many thanks to the homegrown source and conversation that came with it.

TdF update:  another 12g carded and spun for the RUSTIC series.

Also - another installment of a written piece drafted.  I now look forward to first drafts.

And the Zimmerman acquittal disturbs me greatly.  Young ones of color are not safe.  Trayvon Martin could have been my son.  In conflict,  the presence of guns throws off any sense of balance. Maybe it's Florida which generally seems off-kilter to me, but I don't understand this verdict at all.

TdF 2013 - Rustic

Hey! it's day 14!

This is what I have to show for it: 3g was carded, spun and plied on a spindle yesterday. Another 8g was carded, spun and plied on a spindle today.

The fiber is Navajo Churro, and it was acquired at Santa Fe, New Mexico, in September 2012.  It has been in my fumigating bucket, and it reeks of mothballs.

This is my first foray into carding fleece before spinning, and the result is very lumpy yarn.  Carding occurs only outdoors because all kinds of non-fiber matter needs to get blown away, and thus is too messy to do indoors.

I will call this my RUSTIC series.

8H

The end of one piece is nearly complete, so another is designed and tied on.

The second one is tied on, and it reminds me of the shoreline.

When we destroy our brain cells, why do the unpleasant memories still remain?

This one was warped with songs of love, understanding, companionship, and support.

Sun and Moon

Today the sun is with me for the longest day. We will celebrate with The Rite of Spring.  Sunday pre-dawn the moon will be closest to me than it will be all year. That celebration is being determined.

Alt

Something about this format that goes against me, does not sit well with me. There has been much appropriated from me without attribution - I feel as though I've been stolen from, taken advantage of. I have found other outlets of sharing and expression. I'll post here occasionally. If you want to know more you can contact me at the gmail account noted on the right-hand margin. Cheers!

Been there

But asking you is THE might have been for me, the one towering change, the other life that might have been had.

- Robert Lowell

Well it was asked, answered, and everyone moves on.

Deep Sty

Here's a story synopsis of how a partner worked to keep things together and running for years. The other partner was on the road, in the public limelight. The working partner became ill and died within a year. The surviving partner dismissed any notion of recognition or compensation because "there was no written agreement." Whoa, shame on the working internal partner! The surviving partner will get sued, but because of his public profile he will have his blind supporters. It helped that he and his publicist bonded. He gets good press, she perpetuates the myth and generates her means of support. Mutual benefit plays out well in society. Glamorous lives they lead! They are so attractive! Everyone loves them both.

Cliques are so inbred that as outsiders are brought into the mix they slip into the altered reality, which to any observer would be a horror story.

Month 1: May-king

From the end of the month to the beginning, des images avec les mots suffisant:

Les batons de lavande.  Pour le coeur doucement.

An 8H loom is set up after a sample is produced, and aperitifs are decanted.

Spring is memorialized and knitted with intention, using Pioneer from the California Wool Project.

Salad Days are completed and gifted.

Some coastal action and adornment where the earth meets the sea.

A few performances are taken in classical venues. It's been a long time. Live performances are the best.

...and it began with germination.

Week 2

gardening - sprouts
salad days
conversations - changed circumstances open doors to info not revealed a month ago.
slow down - accelerated process
relationships anew - observations from a different perspective
look at something new - adornments where earth meets sea.

Week 1

The daily ritual this past week consists of working in the garden for 2-3 hours in the morning before the sun gets too warm overhead, then come in for a good lunch and a glass of wine. I'll go out for a walk. Or I'll drive and run several errands. Then I'll get some work done. These days that consists of looking at financials and getting some spreadsheets set up. While I'm doing that I'll run a load or two of laundry and hang them outside to dry (does anyone do that anymore?).

The garden slowly gets cleaned up. Weeds were cleared in two large beds and 6 planter pots, all were amended with compost that was turned, and drip irrigation was fixed.

Planting was done: 4 tomatoes, 12 marigolds, 4 coreopsis, and a madder clipping. Mexican oregano, lemon thyme, and a lavender plant orphaned for over a year. Seeds for bush beans, shiso, and alyssum were sown.

Very glad that the alpine strawberries from last year are thriving this spring - I had the pleasure of grazing on a few as I weeded and watched butterflies and ladybugs.


My back and legs are getting stronger.

Something good

It started with a very bad April Fool's. My reactions included disbelief, dismay, betrayal, and disbelief (did I already mention disbelief?). So what do I do but stay with what's real. Hunker down and get things done. No point in wondering about what happened - I find that others are doing that for me. Maybe it will hit me later.

For now, though, I finished these. The yarn, "Soft Green Seas," has a little history. The socks were started in late March and had a deadline.  They missed the deadline (just a few days late) because when I picked them up in-progress I just started knitting and totally screwed up the heels - I guess I was discombobulated at the time.

I gave them a bath and they dried in a warm afternoon. They are softer than lamb's ears and more rugged than iron.

I make good things.