bee creative

growth rings

The "On Being" podcast is one of my favorite things to listen to while working on projects.  This weekend I listened to an episode with Sandra Cisneros that is being added to my favorites list.

"You know how you look at a tree, and there are some rings that had a lot of rain, and it gets really bigger, and they shrink. Well, we can say that about our own years and what defined us or what happened to us in those years."  Sandra Cisneros

I tried to draw a ring for each year of my life in my journal but ran out of space.

I made a stitched ring too, although not as big.

This is the front side.

I love the soft edge where the two pieces of fabric joined.

Coupville, part one

I was there to meet Hazel and for a class with with Christine Mauersberger, at the Pacific Northwest Art School.

Wish I had more time to make post cards but it was back to work quickly for me.

In the morning before class I would go down to the pier.

It was two blocks away from where I was staying

I find my most true self when I am down by the water.

 

One evening Hazel and I watched the sunset and the moon rise.

It was magical time.

 

Worlds blended and resorted and came together differently.

A little alteration made a heron that would have blended in more visible.

Perhaps that is what considering does....

 

y is for yellow, yes, and yarn

From the garden.

Yummy yellow beans and lemon cucumber.

Goldenrod from the garden at work.

I brought some home to do some dyeing with, but really need to transplant some of it in my garden.

It's on the endangered list at work...Goldenrod looks a bit weedy and it's in the front entry way.

Cleaning up the yarn stash.

Saying yes to play.

The babies are growing up.

 

random edges

 

Three layers + one filter.

1. The mama and baby deer that have been in the neighborhood are doing fine. It's risky though, they graze in yards along a very busy road.

2. I am currently reading Seaweed Chronicles, A World at the Water's Edge by Susan Hand Shetterly.  Right now my imagination has been particularly captured by the idea of the seaweed equivalent of roots, a holdfast.

3.

While knitting or stitching I'm listening to H is For Hawk by Helen Macdonald. 

Current bus project, shawl for dye pot in progress:

Mostly sewing this:

Robe started in Jude's (Spirit Cloth) second Contemporary Boro class.

 

life happens

"You can tell a lot about a garden and about its gardeners by monitoring how weeds are attended to."

This week I have been revisiting a garden book I like...Gardening at the Dragon's Gate by Wendy Johnson.

Layers.

Inspiration gathered from many sources.

A myth in the making. Once there was a dragon that lived in a cold dark sea and dreamed of warmth...

Study. 

Absorb. 

Growing.

We have a garden party coming up next week where I work. Families are invited to come, plant something with their children and spend time with us.  We will grow all sorts of vegetables, herbs and flowers for cutting.  There is a little forest area we are trying to reclaim.  It is being planted with natives. 

Nourish.

Paneer + cauliflower + raisins + rhubarb + spices (cumin, chipotle, ginger, pepper)

pulling a green thread

From Teju Cole’s book, Known and Strange Things:

“There is another possible book that contains all that is not in this one.”

I put myself on the wait list for a few of Teju Cole's books after listening to his interview on On Being.

I've read a few of the essay's, enough to know I want to find a copy to keep, to take time with.

Counting stitches for a sleeve.

Stitching with plant dyed fabric, some printed silk that I've had for a long time.   

It's May and the first rose is blooming and I may be absorbed into the garden...

random moments

1. This is Lightning. He lives at the childcare where I work. On Friday one of my co-workers gave him a hair cut.  I combed some of the fur into some sheep's wool and then showed the preschoolers how it could be spun into yarn with my drop spindle. And then how that could be knit into fabric. 

2. Multiple photos and projects, layered. It's been windy and it's raining cherry blossoms.

3.  Salad made of fried potatoes, radishes, lettuce, walnuts, avocado, bread, cheese. Tonight's version was asparagus, toasted bread, cheese, lettuce, spring onions (cooked), lettuce. 

4.  Yesterday I was looking at some wooden spoons and pottery at the farmer's market. The vendor greeted me and then asked me a question I thought was a bit odd for starting a conversation...had I ever tried making pottery? (The answer is yes but not much.)

 

 

assignment #2 March, reading list

Assignment #2 is to finish 12 books that were picked out at the beginning of January.

Book number one finished:  Wanderlust, A History of Walking by Rebecca Solnit.

Where my mind wandered...walking puts us directly into the world in a way that encourages, among other things, wonder. We look closer, we see more.

Walking encourages community and conversation. Community helps builds resilience. We need that.

Having a safe place to walk is a privilege.  There are limits and boundaries in our world. Where do I fell safe walking and why? How are we shaped when we live in places where it is unsafe to walk? Considering vulnerability.

I spent a lot of time thinking about Solnit's writing about streets as part of city as part of forming citizenship. About the act of having space to gather, spaces to walk and space to protest.

We have a growing problem of homelessness where I live and they walk. They walk to stay warm, walk so that they won't be labeled as loitering, walk so that they don't take up space.

Considering what it means to be out of step.

 

 

stitches create lines

A place to write, a place to read. 

goodbye summer

"Everyone is an artist. Each person brings sound out of silence and coaxes the invisible to become visible." John O'Donohue, Anam Cara

Sometimes it's easy to get lost in silence but really there are still things to say.