RavenWood Forest

"Distant View", watercolor from last year. Inspired by the view from the end of the road looking towards the Berkshires.

Mud season has come, a bit early. Today the town put gravel on our dirt road so we wouldn't be sucked into earth. Even so one has to learn how to navigate through the ruts that heave the car to and fro. Its no secret when out in the world doing errands that I live somewhere out there- the brown spray all over my silver car says hilltowner all over it!

It seems as though my wood will last through the spring - I hope. At this time of year, I am always concerned that I might not have enough wood stacked in the shed to get me through the damp days of spring. A small fire kindled in the stove is so appreciated on those cold and rainy April days. Last year we had so many days of rain that I was burning wood into June. I will surely run out if that is the case this year.... I will have to make do with small fires from branches collected in the forest that Grandmother Winter left in her snowy wake.

And so it begins. A new incarnation of this blog. It has been a kind of pre-web site endeavor, a place for messages and a place to have a presence on the web. Soon there will be a web site for both RavenWood Forest and for my artwork. Soon, but not quite yet, still a few things to tidy up and bundle before I send myself out to the world. This blog will be a real blog now. A place where I will share - stories from the forest - of the bears and owls and foxes that I glimpse on their journeys through my little clearing.

I look forward to sharing with you, and have much gratitude for all the people who's worlds I have glimpsed in blog form and who have inspired me to dive into blogland myself.

Sending you spring birdsong blessings from the forest, even as the snow is still piled high around the house......

The maple behind my house iced and beautiful from the brutal yet mesmerizing ice storm of December 2008.