bee creative

in a way these are all field notes

Yesterday's lunch break...cloud watching.

It feels like fall. 

It feels good, cooler. Just a little rain this morning.

The yellow shirt went into the walnut vat.  Yellow from the home garden, walnuts from the work garden.

A more wearable color. 

I am stitching up the sides now and considering a touch of the yellow somewhere.

Two new books:  Lab Girl by Hope Jahren and Wild Textiles by Alice Fox.

(How many books can I read at one time?)

Feedback Friday's presentation today was by Alice Fox.  For the first time I decided to watch it in "real time."  It was a great presentation and I have plans!  Tomorrow I am going to gather bindweed to save for a basket.  For today, I twined a flyer that was in the mail into paper yarn. Twined paper makes a great cat toy.

And then there was this, late afternoon...

There isn't supposed to be rain for the next 10 days.  The crocus will be beautiful as long as there isn't a downpour. I need to water.

Sunrise: 6:49 AM  Sunset: 7:20  

 

maybe

Three yards or so of hemp/cotton knit soaking in Buddleia. It's been there overnight.

This is the second soaking, the first in soy milk.

I will wring it out and hang it to dry today.

And then, perhaps, a dip in my almost exhausted indigo vat? Or maybe iron water?  I have some made but have yet to try it. Or maybe a bit of both for comparison? Or maybe a stencil with the iron?

I want to make a dress with this but it will need some mending or strategic cutting.  I was using it on my bed as a sheet. 

Knit is not a great choice for kneading kittens.

And, shared before but coming to me often right now:

Crepuscular midnight stands by the road,

Where the stars have spilled from it's purse.

You can not go over the road past the fence

Without trampling on the universe.

Boris Pasternak, "The Steppe"

naming things

Not even finished with chapter two and I am loving Maria Mudd Ruth's book A Sideways Look at Clouds. This book is beautiful not just for the information it holds, but also for how it is written and as an example of someone researching a topic that fascinates them.  Thinking a lot about that. 

One sentence that I feel transcends clouds is this one:

"Through language, strange and nameless clouds can be recognized, discussed, and understood.  Through language, once-distant relationships to clouds can become familiar, intimate, enduring."

Thinking about how a name is something different than a label.  We name things so that we can talk about them. Labels are more for identifying and categorizing.

We need more names and less labels.

 

Still in progress.

Testing out a Threadcrumb moon for a sail.

Now reading: A Sideways Look at Clouds by Maria Mudd Ruth.  Another rabbit hole for me...  It's been on my shelf for awhile; something in Orwell's Roses made me think it needed to be next.

A long time favorite song of mine came to mind too, Kate Bush, Cloudbusting. Probably reminded by the fact that Running Up the Hill is in the news...

Today's clouds will not be tomorrow's.

It's supposed to rain.

 

 

 

not just about

Up early this morning, reading Orwell's Roses.  I am almost finished.

It is not just about roses or about George Orwell. 

The chapters read this morning consider beauty. 

That led me to listening to Jane Hirshfield (On Being).

More layers of paper mache on the cat and boat I am making while listening. 

This boat will not be big enough for the cat to fit in, maybe that's another project to come. 

Now I am watching the sun rise high enough to come in through the windows, glad that I can stay home today.

something to do when it's hot

Spent most of yesterday sitting on the front porch stitching and reading Orwell's Roses.  

The brown material (walnut) and blue (fresh indigo) thread I dyed.  The blue and brown was done by someone my mom knows. 

Drank lots of water with lemon and mint.

unseasonable

The weather report said unseasonable highs for this weekend. Yesterday was 82 F, today and tomorrow heading for upper 80's.

At 4:30 AM, with windows and door open to cool the house, I am cooking new potatoes for salad and carrots for a cold soup and dreaming of the strawberry milkshake I made on Friday with a few precious strawberries from the garden.  There might be a few more today.

I will weed for a few hours while it's cooler this morning and then read, set up a few dye experiments, make some solar prints and sew. 

Just finished The Electricity of Every Living Thing by Katherine May and am now reading Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit. 

There will probably be a nap.

things fall down

Widget as the instigator.

And ironic that the book she would choose to paw at would be The Principles of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman.

So of course I go back and read again.

 

 

just playing

Morning stitching.

Spring cleaning means the freezer too.

Roasted grapes in olive oil + oatmeal + maple syrup + walnuts.

Practice, practice, practice... 

Something to consider for the day:

"It's so much easier to blame the grownups than to be one."

Ursula K. Le Guin

 

nourishing

Even before the "thread incident" Gibson was my "needy" one.  Widget (since the arrival of the kittens) and Timber are way more independent, just wanting to be close when they are in the mood and occasionally held or on me.

This morning went something like this. First there was the snuggle in while I was reading.  Then there was the need to supervise scone making from my shoulder. Timber arrived shortly after...on the counter where he isn't supposed to be.  Of course my hands are covered in dough. I angled my body so that he couldn't stick his nose in the bowl until I could move him.  Yes, Gibson was still on my shoulder....

And now as I type, Gibson is back insisting that he be on my lap.  Timber right beside us asking for just a little love please.  Widget is hiding somewhere upstairs. 

Still reading essays by Ursula Le Guin.  One of my favorite sentences:  "The whole thing is like a giant cauldron of ever-replenished food you can dive your fork into and come out with whatever you need most to nourish you just then.  But next time it may taste quite different." 

She is referring to the Mahabharata.

I am imagining this.

Yesterday I stirred the walnut vat, it's happily fermenting away on the back porch. 

Today I will heat some of it up and dye a pair of pants I made a couple months ago.

It's 28 F at the moment, almost daylight and it's supposed to be partly sunny today (yesterday was glorious).

After it warms up a bit I'll be out to finish pruning the quince.  Some of the branches will be used for another dye vat.

Will I get pink?