Remembering

Remembering Dad who passed on this day in 2011
it was a complicated relationship for me, I am unsure if it was for him. I suspect so.
We did our best and it will have to do.
A small amount of his ashes are in the pendant/urn tucked into the nest collection.
For remembering.

ready to fly

wild lettuce in seed

I let the wild lettuce grow as it wanted to in the garden this year. When it finds a spot it likes it grows TALL some of the plants around here are 12'  maybe more. Now it has begun to set seed and prepare for next season. I think the geometry of it is pretty.

Traveling Stones

Mother and Child

 Mother and Child will begin the next leg of their journey, on to FL and from there who knows?
The bigger of the two came to me from Nova Scotia, the smaller from Narragansett RI
I have no idea where they were before that.
Stones seem so stationary and yet they aren't at all. They move around over the course of their lives we just don't notice since they exist on such a different time scale.
Here are some thoughts on their migration habits that I found interesting

wrapping stones

Day Off

stabilizing stitches

Called in "too well to work" today.
I don't do it often and it was a lovely, lazy day.
I spent time poking along on the Magpie this afternoon
Stabilizing stitches and moon work.
Work was done on tribe 3 as well, I am learning the signifiers of this particular group and have had to backtrack a bit. Each tribe has an identity that is adhered to.. for the most part.

progress tribe 3

the starting point

tribe 3 progress

I start with the stone, Tribe 3 is composed of dark smooth slate
I looked it up...

Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. 

 also....

slate: a dense fine-grained metamorphic rock produced by the compression of various sediments (such as clay or shale) so as to develop a characteristic cleavage

and then...

metamorphism

1. :  a change in the constitution of rock; specifically :  a pronounced change effected by pressure, heat, and water that results in a more compact and more highly crystalline condition

I had thought that slate was simply sedimentary I didn't remember the rest.

A transformation is a part of its history too.

both of these qualities suggest a part of the identity of this tribe.

The core of it/them 

A bright spot or two

Some seeds I scattered back in June have bloomed, I hadn't even noticed them growing so it was a nice surprise. Another nice surprise has been hearing some Katydids! It may not be as many as usual and far later in the year but they are still out there and that makes my heart glad.

Boston Resists

Resistance 8-19-17

It has been a busy weekend. I found some people to march with in Boston, and some friends helped me get there*
The march was very powerful. To see that many people come out to say "Not in my city!" in response to Charlottesville gives me hope.
I am trying to process everything that is going on in our country,
I need to think about how we can find a way to knit ourselves back into one people again,
what are the common threads and how do we make the necessary reparations/changes to address the very real problems that continue to tear us apart.
People have good hearts when they can see each other and don't feel hopeless.
I guess that is as good a place to start as any.


* I will not drive in Boston. Some of you may have had the experience and may understand why I do not have the stomach for it. The combo of a  street layout that resembles a plate of spaghetti , my extreme performance anxiety, not knowing my way around and a big dollop of the famous Boston rudeness made me realize there are other ways to get there if I need to go.

Joys of summer

CSA Yay!

There are joys too! Fresh tomatoes, herbed bread and basil are a part of this weeks CSA bounty.
These are the first big tomatoes of the summer (we've had plenty of the little 'uns)
So its tomato and cheddar sandwiches tonight for dinner, and Blade Runner is on the TV
That is a good way to end the day.

growth so far

tribe three-progress

Ripples

ripples

the force of one event traveling through space and time
changing the world in large or small ways
our words and songs ripple through the air
the lights of our world ripple through space to arrive on other planets eons after we are gone
I wonder if we would throw different stones if we could see all those ripples clearly
just thoughts....

Say her name

Heather Heyer
I don't twitter (I have enough to be going on with as it is)
yet sometimes a portal opens and I see something
in this case from George Wallace

I can feel the ripples of her passing through the world.

a good way to build

learning

a good job over at thekitchensgarden lead me to consider how we build things, like people and society, how we teach ourselves how to be...

Tribe 3 begins

How we learn those lessons and reapply them later in life.
I find a great deal to relate to in the story and her pictures are always captivating

yow!

today I progressed on weeding and trimming the Bird Garden. It is decidedly overgrown, the springtime rain and cooler temps have created good conditions for growth this year. I will be transplanting some of the overgrowth to other beds in the fall

keeping it together

Last year (?) the sedum fountain tipped over and shattered, I reset the bits, replanted it  and gave it a spiffy bird nest hat.

Hat

Our nearby neighbors have cut down many of the large trees in their yard so the garden gets much more evening light in the summer than it used to, more dramatic now as it shines though the leaves. I'm considering how to use that to build something

Looking for leaders

things out there are bad
there is a lack of leadership
I went out to look in the garden, for lack of anything better to do
and I found this.

I'm not sure what to make of it...

Zora Neale Hurston

balloon flower in purple

The springing of the yellow line of morning out of the misty deep of dawn, is glory enough for me. I know that nothing is destructible; things merely change forms. When the consciousness we know as life ceases, I know that I shall still be part and parcel of the world. I was a part before the sun rolled into shape and burst forth in the glory of change. I was, when the earth was hurled out from its fiery rim. I shall return with the earth to Father Sun, and still exist in substance when the sun has lost its fire, and disintegrated into infinity to perhaps become a part of the whirling rubble of space. Why fear? The stuff of my being is matter, ever changing, ever moving, but never lost; so what need of denominations and creeds to deny myself the comfort of all my fellow men? The wide belt of the universe has no need for finger-rings. I am one with the infinite and need no other assurance.”
—Zora Neale Hurston, "Religion," from Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hurston (1942), anthologized in African-American Humanism: An Anthology edited by Norm R. Allen Jr. (1991)

I keep this quote where I can see it often
I find comfort in it, because as much as we destroy this earth, we can never take it all apart can we?
we are connected to the world, the cosmos and each other in ways that are indestructible 
ways that defy our own perception and our own egos. 
I will still fight for and mourn for this world yet the cosmos is beyond our comprehension and it will go on no matter what and in one form or another I will be a part of it and so will everything else.

Little Griefs

Katydid nymphs?

Over at Grace's Windthread someone left the thought "little griefs"
I feel them deeply
There are no katydids singing this year, and very few crickets.
Very quiet
I found these tiny bodies on the porch and I expect I won't be hearing any at all this year.
I don't know why it has happened
I miss them
I'll keep listening, maybe next year.

pieces

Family#1  2012ish

I don't think I have posted this group here before.
I looked back and found that I first began wrapping stones in 2009
At some point they developed into icons, families and tribes.
Sometimes they are all three
Sometimes they have secret identities.
often they have stories for me
I slowly piece it together
like an archaeological dig

the third and a triad

polishing and thinking

The other 2 tribes are resting in baskets, while I figure out what their stories are and how to best tell them. In the meantime a third group is gathering and 3 new icons are unfolding.

triad 

Done

Mother and Child

mother and child

in process

Summer sweet

sweet with bee

This wildflower grows in the marshy areas and near ponds like the one we live next to. This time of year the entire neighborhood is filled with the perfume. The bees that remain, mostly bumblebees, are drunk on them, this one barely moved even when I was quite close to it.
We have a guest for a few days Bri is passing through before he heads on to Arizona for a new job. So I'm off to visit with him.