Ancestors, Roots & Branches

"Gnarled Oak", 4x4" scratchbord panel

A gnarled, old oak dreamed itself into being

yesterday. With life at home so busy, its been 

weeks since images floating around in my imagination 

have come out on paper. In a quiet moment as my 

afternoon class worked, I found a piece of 

scratchbord panel and eagerly communed with

 the visual stories brewing inside me. 

For many years I lived on land that had once been 

a gathering place for Native Americans. It was said that 

a great oak near our house was a meeting tree for 

the local Eastern Woodland tribes. I spent many a day 

wandering in the forest there, and sitting under the huge, 

old oaks with their branches touching the Earth. 

I saw my first coyotes while sitting under 

one such oak, at the time that they were just beginning to 

re-inhabit the area. No one believed me, saying that what I saw 

was just dogs, until finally one day, others began to see coyotes 

also, and hear them singing in the night. 

I loved going to the Trailside Museum to see the Great Horned Owl 

who lived there and the little model of the Native village 

with its tiny dwellings and humans going about their daily lives, 

frozen in a story-tale of old. 

Yesterday, when this oak became my drawing, 

I remembered the amazingly huge oaks that I grew up 

with on that land of my youth. 

"Moon and Tree", 4x4" scratchboard panel

I love this bare-branch time.... a time of dark 

and ancestors, and the raw, undressed beauty of the land.

A few years ago, while meditating in a small, stone cave in 

a town not far from here, an image of "Reindeer Grandmother"

came to me. I was meditating on my ancestors, especially 

the branch from the Celtic lands, when a beautiful 

image of an ancient, wise and protective spirit came to me. 

I'm a tad protective of this image, its powerful for me, 

even with its awkward proportion (that arm!) and strange 

space. It came out quickly once I came home from my 

journey, and feels truly like a spirit watching over me. 

As the fall finds itself leaning towards winter, 

things are changing in my life. My parents have now 

packed the last of the house and moved to Florida! 

Its amazing to me, that they are soooo far away. I used

to be able to drive to see them in a couple of hours, 

now, its a plane ride. Oh my..... change... 

Speaking of change, my house has changed, too. 

A new window went in, and a few pieces of furniture 

that didn't go to Florida came to me. Below is 

my living room before the window, sofa and chest. 

And after:

Strange that my barometer for feeling more adult was the 

transition from a futon in the living room to a sofa!

The sofa is a hit with Pasha cat, or rather, the blanket 

on the sofa.  On cool and damp days, I am a 

cat door opener. Pasha stands at the door, staring 

at the knob. If I don't see him there, he whacks 

the heck out of the wind chimes on the knob

so I get the message loud and clear!

A few moment later he's back looking through the 

French doors with a desperate look, remembering the 

warmth of the wood stove and the cozy new blanket 

that has just come to live here.  

Its his favorite new bed, the "car blanket" that also didn't 

go to Florida. It was my grandfather's, and I think it 

was from a time when cars were open air. Yes, its 

really THAT old!

Today I hung a bird feeder from an old post outside the 

window, chancing a visit from the big, old bear. It was 

such a joy to sit in my living room, looking out the new 

window, watching the birds flitting about from 

hemlock to feeder. I'll wait to hang my new best 

hand-me-down feeder until I'm more sure that old 

bear has gone into dreaming.