To Do List

So much to do! Runa has a nice little den under my desk.  But her expression is not one of enjoyment...looks more like she is resigned to her fate of waiting.  Waiting for me to do something more interesting (like snowshoe or play with her).  I am behind on bookkeeping and Etsy listings.  I am in the midst of constructing a forest.  I have an order for 75 of my upcycled balsam fir trees.  They are going to be favors for a Maine wedding!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/97799265/tree-upcycled-wool-balsam-fir-tree-eco?

It is time, this week, to get my seedlings really going.  

I need to tidy up the space and start warming soil that has been in the cold room.

I am ready for a Etsy photo shoot whenever the light is right and I make the time. 

 Better do this before my next Reiki Client!

Of course, there is the usual cooking, cleaning, laundry....another load needs to go in right now.  I have soup on the cookstove...don't look too close at my photos if dust bothers you.  And as I mentioned...paper work.  I put my paper work basket in the extra chair so I would "see" it better.  Well, this is what Vern thinks of my list of things to do.  Or is he trying to get on my list!?  

Beautiful Busy-ness!

How is your list going? 

 I would love to hear about your time management ideas or quandaries.

Pause & See

On my snowshoe today I nearly left the camera behind.  But then I thought, "What if I can get that photo of the Raven?"  I have been trying for a long time to snap a picture of the Raven that lives around this land.  There used to be a family of 3 for many years.  But for that last couple of years there has only been one.  I have a relationship with this bird.  Ravens are highly intelligent.  Sometimes we talk to each other...I mimic the Raven's croaks...I hope I am saying something nice!?  Once this Raven flew right next to me when I was running in the back field.  That was an amazing moment!  

Today I was focusing on this lovely beech tree when I heard that familiar croak.  I turned my camera skyward and snapped these 2 photos!  I am grateful I pause at this tree.  It is "loud" snow in the woods today.  I may not have heard the croak while walking.  But I really feel the Raven was "listening" to my desire.  Raven gave me a gift, as good friends often do.

a flying raven

turns her head and croaks at me

YES! I love you too

orah

If you would like to know more about these fascinating birds I would recommend:

In the Company of Crows and Ravens, by John Marzluff & Tony Angell

This a regular feature I plan to include in this blog.  I try to see something new each day.  It is part of my practice in "seeing".  The art of seeing is essential to any creative work in my humble opinion.  My favorites are the ones that stop me in my tracks!  Like so many folks I have a very busy mind that I struggle to quiet.  But by creating this practice it has given me many opportunities to pause and be with a new wonder.  I love to wonder about wonders.  These little seeings can be just the jolt my creative process needs to get out of a rut.  But mostly they provide a pause which is that moment of peace I need to heal from a frustration. These seeings are grounding for me and bring me to the present.  I will admit to laughing out loud with joy over some of these discoveries. They are a moment of childlike wonder!  

"When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky"             ~~~Buddha

Black & White

                              black             white             black             white

                              black             white             black             white

                              white             white            white              black

                              white             white                                  black

                              black              black            black             white

                              black              black            black

                             white                                  white

                             white

                                                  

 Robert Lax, “Three Concrete Poems,” Love Had a Compass, pp. 15-17.

Sunday morning the world was black and white.  My wanderings reminded me of Robert Lax's Abstract Color Poems.  There are 3 poems in the series.  I am working on a mobile for each poem.  Here is a photo of the first ~ handwoven squares from handspun yarn suspended from wire.  Now a series of beauty from my "backyard".  It was a splendid morning walk!

My sweet little garden shed.

~~~Gratitude~~~

The Charm of Grey

We are having a grey week here in Maine.  I am a bit tired of the weather folks on TV and the Radio calling the gray weather gloomy, dreary, bad...it IS grey or gray which ever way you like it.  It almost feels like brainwashing.  If we hear it enough we will feel glum when it is grey.  So as I wandered in the woods this week under the WONDERFUL gray skies my mind meandered back to my teen years and the color grey. (I like it with and e...but guess it is more commonly spelled with and a in the USA vs the UK)

Anyways, my story, when I was a teen in the often times grey Pacific Northwest my folks decided my 4 sisters and I should go to charm classes.  YES, I went to a mini charm school.  I was then, and still am, a bit of a feminist tomboy (how do you like those labels!?)  I had to learn how to walk with a book on my head while swishing my calves together.  The book balancing was a little fun but there was no way I was going to swish my calves or put on high heels!  I was not a cooperative student.  We were tutored in aspects of hygiene...body hair was a major subject!  I, distinctly, remember being ask how often a girl should wash her hair...I answered when it was dirty...guess that was the wrong answer....still don't know the "right" answer! 

Finally, we came to the subject of fashion.  The grey skirt was stressed as a mainstay in any girls wardrobe.  Grey goes with everything.  I stopped listening and I spent the rest of the classes day dreaming about grey wool.  So the only charm I received was the grace of grey.  Every time I hear or think of the word grey images of grey A-line skirts come to mind.  

Grey the non color...the shadowy place in dreams..yet grey days produce no shadows.  Grey a word that sort of growls followed by a breath when you say it.  Growling feels energizing.  Grey is calm.  ~~~Grrrr-hay~~~ 

I am grateful for grey.

~~~

Here are some photos from my shadow-less grey day snowshoe.  Even came across some canine tracks...could they be from a grey wolf?!  Probably, a coyote..but you never know!

It is my intention, each Sunday, to share something that fills me with Gratitude. 

I write ~~~Gratitude~~~ with the wavy lines to represent the gratitude ENERGY~~~~~! 

I hope you will join me and share your gratitude moments. 

~~~Amen, Blessed Be, Namaste'~~~

Gardens Start!

March 1st Onion and Leek Planting day!

This is my Method

I use window boxes.  2 for onions and 1 for leeks

I start with a layer of newspaper and perlite.

Then I add my planting mix (will blog about my "dirt" soon!)

Soak the soil thoroughly with several waterings and let sit.

Dry the planters & set on the window sills.

 Now Plant!

 I sprinkle a generous amount of seeds on the soil.  I will thin and eat some of the babies.  Also, I will have extra seedlings to give away.  Onion seeds do not keep well.  I buy the smallest packet and plant the lot & then share! 

I like Prince and Copra Onions.  They have a wonderful flavor and keep very well in my cold room. 

 I VERY much prefer seedlings to sets.  So much nicer onions.

 My leeks are older seed this year...want to use them up...I am leaving it to fate...if they germinate we will have leeks...if not more time for something else!

 Sprinkle a little more dirt and water a bit.

 Not a big fan of using plastic...but... it does keep the seeds moist and the cat off the planter!

Finally a blessing.  I take the time to send Reiki and Gratitude.

And Finally, Finally...

A poem by Pablo Neruda

Ode To The Onion

Onion,

luminous flask,
your beauty formed
petal by petal,
crystal scales expanded you
and in the secrecy of the dark earth
your belly grew round with dew.
Under the earth
the miracle
happened
and when your clumsy
green stem appeared,
and your leaves were born
like swords
in the garden,
the earth heaped up her power
showing your naked transparency,
and as the remote sea
in lifting the breasts of Aphrodite
duplicating the magnolia,
so did the earth
make you,
onion
clear as a planet
and destined
to shine,
constant constellation,
round rose of water,
upon
the table
of the poor.

You make us cry without hurting us.
I have praised everything that exists,
but to me, onion, you are
more beautiful than a bird
of dazzling feathers,
heavenly globe, platinum goblet,
unmoving dance
of the snowy anemone

and the fragrance of the earth lives
in your crystalline nature.

Winter Art Show

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”

― Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island

Monday was sunny and I looked around with an artist eye.  I enjoyed shadows. I captured snow falling from trees in the sunshine.  Here are a few of my seeings. (I am listening to an audio book No Man is an Island by Thomas Merton while I sew and create...9 hours read by Jonathan Montaldo...it is wonderful!!)

Looks Like a Sculpture Now! ;)

Everything is Just Duckie!

The Girls Always Give Me a Smile

Just a little bitty blog while I recover from my cold.  Here are some photos of the flock enjoying  a thawed puddle in their pond.   Their hardiness really amazes me.  No eggs right now but plenty of joy!