Summer in the Studio and Stalking Chipmunks

I wandered around the garden with my camera a bit today, realizing that I 

was speaking to you. So it seemed that I might need to write a post, as 

the many stories of my days are piling up and some are too old to want to tell here. 

Its been a very full month. I can say with confidence that I was more social these 

few weeks than during the years I spent dreaming and manifesting the new 

studio. Gatherings, my dear friend Katja's wedding, the Daughters of the Earth Gathering, and genrally making a point to see friends filled me up while 

the heat, humidity and mold spores flattened me. I even found time to 

work in the studio where I explored the continuing theme of light and branching 

in the forest. I worked with a bit more layering of branching over the atmospheric 

washes and bleeding this time which I especially like in the top drawing. 

Full days in the studio began with writing in my journal, sinking into the space 

and listening to the sounds of the forest. Often I shift into drawing spirals. I 

now have a sketchbook dedicated to them, and recently words have been 

spilling out onto the bottom of the page. 

The words above are:

Listening to the wind today....

So many stories float by in the infinite. 

I am called to presence

watching the dance of tall grasses.  

Here the words are: 

It can't be long, can it be? 

Until hearts are shattered into a million pieces 

and the shining 

can begin. 

( I wonder about the punctuation here, but left it as that is how I wrote it)

I framed two of the drawings and hung them. They are some of the

first things I have committed to hanging on the pristine walls. 

Pasha has figured out how to come in through the bug screens,

and must check in throughout the day on breaks from stalking chipmunks

nearby.  Stalking is an exhausting pursuit, he tells me, and short naps on the 

studio chair are needed to keep going. 

A dear student, Sarah Pollock, sent me a sample of some of the 

ecodyeing she has been continuing with after I introduced her 

to all of you amazing fiber folks out there. She learned so 

much from all of you and especially India Flint, of course, 

who inspired her to no end! Below is her cloth which is 

now hanging in the studio... I know only that that one 

wonderful stripe is a rusty pipe. I think it relates quite well 

to the forest theme here!

With more expansiveness to my days recently, I decided to finally 

re-organize my upstairs, and especially my bedroom. I'm not sure 

how it happend that I hadn't completely settled in there even though 

I moved here in 2003. I found a wonderful old, wicker rocking chair on 

Craigs List - an online listing of all kinds of stuff for sale, trade or sometimes even 

for free! The rocker wasn't free, but it was a very good bargain at 

$40. Better still, I love it and so does Pasha. 

I framed a couple of older forest drawings and hung them, 

Found a table, finished it and now have a nice place at 

the foot of my bed for important things like sticks and stones.

 I think I am close to a decision about wall color - a light ochre...  

 My constant companion has been very relieved that my travels 

of late last only a few days. He very much enjoys when Boo or Kessie come 

to visit him while I'm away, but he would much rather visit outside than 

in. I'm starting to get the message, too, that he isn't always fond 

of the camera pointing at him.  

Lastly, I've been watching the slow transformation of a lovely 

spider web on a downstairs window. I can't help notice the 

relationship to my spiral drawings. The last image is quite 

a magical doorway to travel through, I think....