Sparkling Lotus-land

yesterday: busy outside

as opposed to today: lurking in pajamas.  Am currently feeling like this shell full of elecampane fluff

the rain is accentuating all variety of aches & pains but at least it's not too cold.  And I'm really not of a mind to complain because I've managed to have a productive and creatively satisfying week.   Today isn't a crash so much as it's a logical conclusion.  Even in extreme snail mode I've done some laundry and changed the bed linens.  Anything else will be gravy.*

Here's yesterday's close up view of the Angelica gigas  The deep cranberry red of its leaves and stems is a real treat.  As the plant matures the top of the leaves mottle brown and very dark green.  The underside veining and the stems retain a deep red coloration.  I remain thrilled this one has successfully winter-over in a pot.  It was dug from the ground in a rather quick and dirty maneuver that it clearly didn't appreciate.  But apparently now all has been forgiven.

Here's one of its A. archangelica cousins growing by leaps and bounds.  I took this picture mid-morning.  By dusk the plant was noticeably bigger.   Not the difference between a bungalow and the empire state building sort of bigger but definitely with the makings of a new farmer's porch on the side of the bungalow.

Here's the main bed.  It hasn't been tidied yet.  Yesterday I focused on the main garden path that leads to the front of the house.  I also picked up some trash and spent time admiring the miniature jonquil that are blooming along the edges of the secondary path.

*  Huh.  at a certain point I intended to publish this post but apparently forgot to take it out of draft mode first.  Then I spent a ponderous forty five minutes cleaning out the over-sized catch-all drawer in my desk.  Do you know how long it's been since I did that?   No.  No, you really don't want to know.  But that's one example of the day's 'gravy' that gives me a sense of ongoing accomplishment ...

...plenty of ideas...

This week seems to be passing at lightning speed.  Yesterday was such gorgeous weather that I made a point of soaking it in as much as I possibly could.  Today was a bit of a rude awakening - "spring" by only the most new england of definitions for the season.  Despite the raw edge to the chilly dampness I did take a late morning walk over to the creek.  Have been hearing the rush of the water there and wanted to get a bit closer to Source in that particular form.

While I was there I heard quite a few woodpeckers.  Also saw two dozing hawks in trees on opposite sides of the water.  Would like to have walked around to the far side of the creek but I knew my leg and back would not appreciate me hitting my internal over-ride switch.  So I was sensible unless you count the cookies I ate when I got back home!

Last night I had a detailed and seemingly endless dream that we had moved to an old Federal farmhouse with an atrium just off the kitchen.  It held some enormous blueberry bushes full of ripe fruit.   I woke up with a sense of longing for the bushes.  Since then, amidst & around household chores and business related tasks, I've been working on a variety of visual journal pages and my ongoing project of organizing ALL my creative raw materials.  Have decided the effort is a multi-dimensional form of autobiography building.  More on that later once my thoughts have gelled a bit more cohesively. 

The flower pictures in this post are from a scented (lemon balm) pelargonium I brought home mainly because it was loaded with flower heads.  Now that several of them have opened I've become quietly enthralled with their energy.  I also brought home a silver leaf rose companion.  Now I need to select a container that can comfortably hold them both over the coming months.

Have learned through varied experiences that these plants grow a lot bigger and faster if they're planted directly in the ground but I have not been able to figure out where I might have room for them within the crammed-full garden beds.   Have also learned that pelargoniums grow quite well in containers - just not as quickly or dramatically as they grow in the ground.  Would LOVE to visit the parts of Africa where they grow as perennial hedges!

What can you "do" with these plants besides love them for their gentle presence?  Throughout the growing season I pick and dry the leaves for inclusion in drawer sachets, hair rinses and dreams pillows.  I also like to add some of the sharply spiced varieties to homemade bay rum.  A handful of leaves in the brewing jar is quite a nice variation on the standard recipe.  For that purpose I especially like a nutmeg variety or clove. 

If you would be interested in reading more about the wonderful varieties of this aromatic plant, you might visit this link.  It's a nursery catalog containing lots of info about this particular plant species.   At the top of the page you can click on the variation type (e.g. floral, fruit, rose, etc.) that's most appealing.  Here's an informative article, with lovely photographs, from Fine Gardening magazine.  And this is an absolutely wonderful book on the subject.

I've been growing at least a few varieties every year since my early twenties.  Another favorite use for the leaves is as the scenting agent for homemade dusting powder.*  Simply fill a wide-mouthed glass container with alternating layers of corn starch and fresh leaves.  Shake on a daily basis for a few weeks - or longer if you tend to forget about shaking the jar.  This is a really nice refresher for the skin (and psyche) on super hot summer days and evenings.

Note:  make sure the leaves are perfectly dry before using.   When you have sifted the spent leaves from the cornstarch, you can re-layer with a new batch of freshly harvested leaves for a stronger scent. 

A classic use for rose scented varieties involves layering fresh leaves with sugar.  This makes a wonderful sweetening agent for hot tea - especially in mid-winter.  Combine a handful of dried leaves from your favorite variety with some dried lemon verbena for a luxurious revivifying soak in the tub or a foot bath.

*  My all time hands-down favorite homemade powder combines honeysuckle flowers, rose petals and some clove buds as the scenting agents.

P.S.  sorry I am lagging behind on my emails right now.  Your patience, as always, is deeply appreciated.

fresh growth

It's that amaryllis growing time of year again - here's the first sign of a bud stem making itself known at the edges of my writing desk.   Its quiet simple presence is a very cheerful diversion from the grey sky and chilly dampness outside.

Speaking of diversions - earlier today I posted some impressions of Julia Caprara's masterful book Exploring Colour.  She has arranged the chapters to support a series of practical exercises.  These prompts offer opportunities for readers to develop an individualized Color School curriculum.   The first exercise has been embraced by me and the very first steps of resulting process are included in the linked post.  The second practical exercise involved making a storyboard of visual inspiration which provides cues for color scheme and any useful rules of working/style that can help to focus both eye and the manifested results/resolution.

I chose this vivid photograph from an old calendar as my visual focal point.  Julia also suggested getting started on building the storyboard by selecting a quote.  I went to sleep last night with two problems to solve uppermost in mind:**  how to construct the storyboard and where to look for a relevant quote.

When I woke up I had a !BAM! brainstorm concerning the board construction.  Scooped an oversized three-fold cardboard book mailer from the recycling bin and prepared to take possession of the dining room table.  Out came the paint-spattered plastic table cloth I use to protect the regular dining cloth and everything else that normally lives on the table.  For super-large projects I have to clear everything off before I begin working.  But the cardboard, open to its full size, is just 20 x 35.  Perfect for my intended project if a bit unwieldy for managing this phase of messy work at my usual worktable. And also just right for simply pushing regular table stuff to one side and throwing the protective cloth over the pile as well as my work space.

Supplies needed:  oversized patchwork/denim workshirt that I use as a 'messy smock'.*  Gesso.  Pliers and screwdriver to straighten and remove industrial size staples that were still embedded in the cardboard.  An old plastic library card to spread the gesso evenly.  Background music - the Quincy Jones version of Handel's Messiah.  Latex gloves.   Two bottles of on-hand acrylic paint.  One is hot apricot.  The other started life as lilac but it's become so old and congealed that the pigment has morphed into a surreal violet very close to the stamens on my inspirational photo.

As I was working an appropriate quotation found me.  I'm going to focus on a favorite portion of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: From the unreal lead me to the real!  I will collect further materials with this quote in mind as well as the next few lines of the prayer -

 From darkness lead me to light!
From death lead me to immortality!
  
Right now I am waiting for the second side of the gesso'd cardboard to dry so I can get some color applied before I need to relinquish my hold on the table.  I put some duct tape around the edges to seal the huge holes the staples created and also mend the corner that I impatiently ripped apart during my eagerness to get to what the packing contained as quickly as I possibly could.  I will post some updates of how things evolve either here or at nichobella.

* Found years ago at good will and, considering how many times I've used it, this might be one of my best (if less than glamorous) thrifting finds, ever.

** in larger truth I had any number of other problems to be solved roaming all through my sleepy brain but that just goes without saying in these relentlessly interesting times.  All the more reason to cultivate a good number of happy and creatively nourishing distractions ...

the midnight hour & beyond

Have mentioned before that my son shares my insomniac tendencies...for the past few nights he's been out & about taking photographs and then editing them as the clock creeps into the early morning hours.  Although we're both often frustrated to find ourselves unable to sleep, his current project is a lot of vicarious fun for me.  For the past two nights I've been up when he's come home.  The creative energy buzzing around him is quite potent and I really enjoy the snippets of experience he chooses to share.  Also like looking at the pictures once he's reviewed them and started editing.  It's fun to hear details of the experimentation involved and feel the energy looping back through me.

Last night I really liked the picture he took of our yard and adjacent house.  He highlighted the birdbath with a flashlight during the long exposure.  I like the implication that the birds' energy is so vibrant that the area stays illuminated even at night.  It's also fun (and instructive) to see the daily landscape from someone else's eyes.  While he was working on his photography project, I completed a couple of samples for my studio journal.  This was a very satisfying way of focusing my mind.  Then I read for awhile. Finally there was sleep and now a whole new day

This is the center of a Tropicana rose that's living on my desk.  The first flower on the plant bloomed very low to the ground in a shaded, secret location.  This is the third rosebush to begin its flowering in a sort of stealth mode.  Seems like a theme and so I'll be doing some automatic writing on the subject over the next week or so.

Trysomic stocks are a big favorite of mine for their delicate appearance, soft pink-to-violet-to-magenta color range, and lovely spicy-clove scent.  They also make beautiful cut flowers, especially for a bedside bouquet.  This is the first time I've grown these quiet beauties in a number of years.  I planted them in the northernmost bed and a container along the front walkway so that we could enjoy the scent while relaxing on the screen porch.

Clusterhead pinks are also blooming.  The colonies were started from seed during the second year of the garden's life.  They are a nice choice for an "easy" garden because they are care free and not at all prone to disease.   The little (half inch) flowers open on 1.5 to 2 foot stems; as their name suggests, they bloom in little groups two or three at a time.  The length of the stems gives the flowers a bit of a disembodied look.  They appear to be zooming all over the place under their own steam - tiny hot pink constellations showering blessings on other nearby plants.  Their scent is sweet with a hint of spice.

Valerian is also in bloom although not quite as prolifically as usual.  I suspect this has a lot to do with the fact that I didn't have an opportunity to thin the patch where they grow.  Valerian is often considered an undesirable plant because it self-seeds so prolifically.  And, of course, if the plants are too densely packed they will not produce as many flowers.  On the upside, this means there will be fewer seedlings to thin.  The cats "help" with this project in the fall because they love to dig up the roots.  While the pretty white valerian flowers have a sweet cherry pie-like scent the roots smell fairly rank to the human nose.  Cats, however, really enjoy it.  So the roots can be placed in pillows that are intended as kitty dreaming thrones.  Put them in an out of the spot where your cats enjoy lurking so the smell is not as overpowering to human family members.

Since we have not yet gotten the predicted rain I was able to start harvesting calendula flowers.  These two were so pretty that I propped them up with some thread spools and took their picture.  Jim's running errands right now and I asked him to bring me a gallon of olive oil.  It's arrival will give me a chance to harvest some lemon balm for a cold oil infusion.  Am also harvesting spearmint to dry for teas; maybe if I get super ambitious I can harvest enough to start a hot infusion of comfrey and spearmint leaves in the crock pot...

meeting goals/making new ones

Today I had my first gym appointment to begin working on core strengthening.   Was unable to rest properly last night because I was so afraid I was going to humiliate myself with a poor performance.  Consequently I woke up with a stress-induced migraine.  Fabulous.   Drove to the gym; once I actually got immersed in doing the various exercises I managed to block-out everything else.  My ego feels the session was a success because I never once had to say I can't or this is too hard.  My body feels it was a positive experience for other reasons detailed below.  The trainer kept remarking on how tight my various thigh muscles are.  Finally, he embellished his comments with the observation that I must be doing 'crappy yoga' and working all the wrong muscles or else my legs wouldn't be anywhere near  as tight.  I spoke up immediately, making sure to stress that my thighs and many other muscles were quite a bit tighter before I healed enough to re-institute some daily restorative stretches.  I think he could tell (maybe it was the apache death stare I couldn't help shooting him ...) that I'm the serious type rather than a chronic bullshitter because he laid off with the comments after that. 

 

I was there for about forty minutes.  Left with a few sheets worth of instructions for the exercise drills, a sneaker prescription (fortunately, I've been wearing the right type of shoes for my foot type but they are old enough to warrant getting a new pair in the near future), a thera-band for some of the exercises, and much less tension in my legs.  My knee felt better than it's felt since this whole thing began.  I also have a clearer idea of the precise physiology involved and what needs to works how in order to get back in decent shape.  When I got outside of the building I suddenly realized the migraine was gone as well.  And so I was a very happy customer despite how difficult some of the "simple" beginning exercises felt for me. 



I have never been a gym person - it's always been about ballet or yoga or just plain hiking around here & there.   So this is the first time I've ever inter-acted with a trainer.  Jim has been trying to prepare me all week for the 'no pain no gain' mentality.  Well I am no stranger, by a long shot, to that attitude in other arenas so I thought I would be okay provided I wasn't too intimidated to talk up and back if necessary.  The trainer was actually quite a nice fellow - uncompromising to the hilt but that's his job and, once again, I'm no stranger to that attitude in other aspects of life, either.  Once I was home and had relaxed for awhile, I got the second wind that always comes when you have worked your body properly enough to open/stretch the energy passageways.  Was gridlocked on what to do with it; since I took the downtime to create this Flickr photo set I had an urge to return to the OSV herb garden and see what a few days worth of sunshine had done for the various plants.

On instinct I realized this was too much and that Jim would be completely unsympathetic if I pushed myself too hard after already promising him by phone that I would do no such thing.  So I waffled between working in my own garden, going to the nature sanctuary, or heading for Snow Pond.  I calculated that the Hawthorne flowers would be in bloom.  Recall this was one of my goals set last month; to be able to walk through the woods by the pond in order to view the flowering trees.  Hence the pictures in this post are from my trip to the pond.  Not only did I spend some quality time with the hawthorne flowers, I also spotted the great blue heron.  Can you see it through the trees?



Here is another look, zoomed and cropped:



Here's a look at the group of Hawthornes



And some close-ups of the flowers.  The energy around these trees was SUPER charged; I spent several long moments taking it in and letting it surge through my muscles and bones.





I prepared a flower remedy from these particular trees back in the summer of '05.  Hawthorne essence stimulates and unclogs the primary and secondary heart chakras.  It also brightens our emotional outlook and general frame of mind.  As I was standing with the trees I understood it would be a good essence for me to take before I go to the gym.  Think I'll have some directly under the tongue on gym mornings and also take some along in a tiny spray bottle full of charged water.   I can spray it liberally right before I have the appointment and also spray when I'm back in the car if I've had a difficult time and feel overwhelmed or disheartened as a result.  I know this next leg of the recovery process won't be easy but I'm relatively certain I'll meet the challenge effectively ...

life line stitching

Yesterday I worked on the first layer of quilting for the crinkle quilt.  This step serves the purpose of creating texture and form from the crinkles.  Then I will do a bit of painting before adding batting and another layer of quilting.  The stitches will include a bit of beading, I think.



This mountain will really come to life during later stages.  For now it was important to form basic textures.  Enjoyed working with the Valdani variegated grey thread.  Was glad to test it before I plan how I'll work with it in the context of the project that actually lead to the thread's purchase.



This mountain fabric is printed with shadowy cayenne peppers.  I'm exploiting the black stems and quilting stitches to form longer and more overt lines.  I think that will help it look more like rocks and less like a whimsical landscape collage.  Paint should take this goal the rest of the way home.  Note that this collage inspiration was taken from a very vivid dream.  It seemed so important to me that I continued to explore its landscape in waking meditation.  The collage shows a fragment of something I "discovered" in the course of those meditations.



A large still lake choked with lotus plants.  On the far side of the lake I could see miles worth of beaches that were sacred to unknown People.  The way to the beach was perilous and in many ways impassable.  The beachfront foothills were painted and carved with layers of sacred symbols.  There was a singular pyramid made of polished marble.



The surest way to access the beach from the far side of the lake was over these vast pinnacles.  Many trails show that people came here on a regular if secretive basis.



My goal for today is to quilt the moon and sky beyond the mountains.  Am really enjoying the time I spend with this piece.  The finicky and time-consuming aspects are perfect for my left brain's problem solving mode.  It does help me to work through problems metaphorically; with images and colors that relate to the nature of whatever that work might involve on any given day.

Working with the crinkled fabric is quite satisfying at the Cool Project level, as well.  Am considering a small sample set of shiva paintsticks but think I can get the effects I seek by layering oil pastel with some lumiere.   Both things already exist in this workroom so perhaps I'll collect what's available and create a couple of samples ...   

Crinkle Experiment Cont'd

First off, I'd like to say how happy I am to understand what's always made some of my near and dear so happy about this day - TRUCK DAY - from a Red Sox point of view.  Also happy I feel an ability to BE happy.  Am appreciative of all the good thoughts, prayers, etc. sent my way based on the last entry.  Yesterday I didn't stitch so much as I shifted projects and set up everything I need to make next-step progress with them.  I focused on things of an I should really nature - specifically a few should-reallys that hadn't manifested. 


Have been neglecting my first Crinkle Quilt experiment.  It was fully dry a few weeks back.  Yesterday I got as far as pin-basting this piece to some flannel.  I'm going to need to quilt it for a while, and then see if what I'm envisioning is going to be viable, or if I'll have to switch some visionary tracks.  Am anxious to try another Crinkler but next time I'll definitely go with a single layer of fabric.  This piece was always two and sometime three or four layers.  That really lengthened the drying time and also caused uneven degrees of crinkling. 



I'll need to find ways to exploit or minimize that factor during the next stage of quilting.  I really enjoyed working with this piece yesterday.    Don't know when I'll have a chance to get on with the quilting but I think it can use some days of relaxing into the pinned structure I created.  Am glad to have chosen this piece for crinkle-tizing even if it was a bit of a problem child along the way.   Have already selected my next crinkle candidate as this is a process well worth serial exploration.

still motion

Photos on this post show detail of my first Take It Further challenge project.  Yesterday as I worked I developed a creative backstory.  It relates to the ideas I had when I worked on this page for the Fabric Art Journal anthology project.  I am making this piece as if it were constructed by the goddess Persephone with the same thoughts for how she'd always work with what was on hand and held the greatest symbolic meaning to her.  Everything she expressed would be codified and layered upon itself ... yes.  This is better than trying to express the same story with words.  Persephone would spend her time learning from many other female goddesses and mortals.  Her stitching would be a form of documentation that changed as she grew into stronger meaning and resolve.  At some point she would stop keeping track of her spheres of being influenced and switch focus to the aspects where she herself held so much sway and counsel ...


But I do also want this piece to serve as a viable wall organizer for the side of my dresser.   The other night I had a super-vivid dream of meeting in the open air - grouped with other females at the edges of a medicine wheel.  We were talking about the simplest possible stitches we could take without compromising durability.  Purpose is becoming as important to me as form - a somewhat startling development but it does seem in line with larger shifts of consciousness & opportunity ...



All along I have had a polarized response to raw edges.  A part of me was aesthetically attracted but their great prevalence over the past few years have made me instinctively reluctant to embrace A Trend.  Then I got to thinking about the limitation of that thinking - the rejection of taking the trend's visual language and learning from it at the level of collective [un]consciousness.  I thought there was a reason the rough hewn edges were appealing to me.  I can further pinpoint the time at which things first clarified themselves for me, back in the mid-90's.



Finding connections in the tangle of creative synapses is always rewarding on some level or another.  This particular project is helping me maintain strong fine motor control.  I would like to see what it's like to work Kantha quilting stitches in a hoop, or at least layers that had been securely basted.  I do like the textural quality of the stitches but would like to be able to compare the working rhythm, etc.   I think a smoother tension would be preferable for cotton and linen fabrics.  Spent this morning sewing in the sun and must now  move on to other things.  Unfortunately!

okay, I'm hooked

 Yesterday I had some unexpected Female Trouble.  Let's let it go at that and focus on the fact that I literally had nothing better or more compelling to do than loaf around reading.  It's been awhile since I read hour upon hour; not really stopping until I'd finished the book.  What a story this woman is telling!

The book was compelling on a few levels.  For one thing, all the maps are fairly identical to the ones we've been seeing in relation to world news and That War.   Paine was in Afghanistan during 90-92.  So it's also compelling from the perspective of her ethnographic insights related to all the warring tribes and religious factions of the region.   Most of all, I was gripped by the tale because I kept asking myself two important questions:  Have I ever been even HALF as obsessed about something in my entire life?  Maybe somebody else actually needs to answer that one - somebody that's a little less subjective and skewed.  I also kept asking myself: Exactly how far is this woman going to go to find her answer?  I already know that one in terms of miles but now I am more frustrated than ever that I'll (temporarily) skip over the second volume and pick up the trek with The Linen Goddess.

It's weird about the actual writing.  This isn't literary genius but it IS compelling in a turn-the-page Stephen King kind of way.  And the subject matter is a good deal more engaging - not sure how Paine (or, for that matter, King) would feel about the implicit parallel I'm drawing.  Not sure, either, how you could be female and read this work without feeling a fresh rise of horror and revulsion for the ways in which some women & girls are forced to live and somehow keep their sanity and wits about them.  Paine also shares engaging and frank descriptions of her personal struggles with a variety of restrictive wardrobe mandates.   

Everywhere she goes (as a 62 year old widow traveling alone) - and I do mean absolutely EVERYWHERE SHE GOES -  she is accosted by questions and admonishments.   Where is her man?  The fact that she hasn't got one is beyond perplexing; a variety of self-appointmented male guardians frequently get her from one leg of things to the next.   There's a fair amount of screamed threats and gunshots ring out on a nightly basis.  Rooms in which she's being kept, hotels where she hopes to stay, and borders for countries she hopes to visit are often padlocked.   Hatred for America and its people is so unmistakable (it does bear note that the level of Hussein hatred is even more palpable and omnipresent) that I was frequently glad Paine is British.  She is also far more interested in amuletic intricacies and derivations than any sort of political statement.   She is, in fact, so disinterested in anything beyond the province of her mysterious little tasseled triangle - so relentlessly unwilling to be deterred - that I can understand why an online reviewer made an Indiana Jones comparison.

In other news we have snow predicted for this afternoon and storm clouds are already moving in to cover the sun.  Came online this morning primarily so I could read Sharon b's thoughts for the first month of the Take It Further challenge. Got a pretty clear immediate idea of what I wanted to create based on the theme of a person I admire.   It's working in my brain but I haven't found a way to draw it yet.  Did, however, open my sketchbook and make a few notes.  Did a preliminary search of images available online.   Tried to talk myself out of the idea since what I'm envisioning is quite different from my usual aesthetic.  It could look derivative of somebody else's Different Thing and that would only be cool if it happened to be somebody else whom I admire.

For now the challenge is to get what I'm seeing in my head into a sketch form that seems like it will be viable to translate as a design cartoon.   If I can do that I will probably automatically bring the mind's eye vision into a stronger alignment with established aesthetics, etc.   Maybe it will not be as impossible or derivative (impossibly derivative?) as it seems ...

Leila's Contribution

One evening last week Tony called to say he'd be his household's holiday dog-sitter.  We quickly abandoned the idea of bringing the dog here for Christmas dinner.   Jim decided we'd bring the cooked food to the farmhouse.  Leila wouldn't have additional stress, we'd get to spice up our routine, and Tony could come home for a holiday visit once other housemates returned.  Within these plans I was thrilled to realize the changes would give me some fresh visiting time with the Beech Tree I've come to love.   Plus (obviously! this part's hard to beat as the parent of a young adult...) spend a little time with my kid in his first fully chosen environment.  This seemed like an auspicious shift in the celebratory dynamics and one that I can remember meaning quite a lot at a similar age and life station.  Tony was good natured about the picture taking, which was a nice little plus from my perspective.  Have been wanting to document some details of the kitchen since I first saw this room in late August!

Leila truly seemed to understand her place of importance in the basic "unusual" configuration of the day.  She pretty much did everything that's possible to show canine companionship in its most appealing light.  By the end of our visit she'd adopted Jim into the pack.  Throughout the afternoon I tried several times to take a clear photo of her beautiful markings but she is a young lady in serious motion more often than not. 



When we first arrived Leila was kept in the front part of the house until the turkey could be unpacked and whisked to the oven for re-heating.  The next few hours were spent visiting in the kids' kitchen and eating at the dining room table.  I was working on a second helping of Jim's amazing vegan lasagna before the guys sat down with their first plate of traditional fare!  Couldn't help it.  Food was much too good to stand on any kind of ceremony. Plus now I know that a secret of successful christmas travel involves a bit of pre-meal noshing before you hit the road.


On the 23rd we visited Tony while there was still someone else in the house to keep the dog company. That gave us a chance to shift some of the favorite activities we've built, over time, as family traditions for Christmas Eve.  We enjoyed a delicious Dinner Out together and indulged in our yearly bookstore buying binge on each other's behalf.   We also shopped for the holiday feast.  It all occurred at a very natural and fairly relaxed pace but I was still overwhelmed with sensory input.  Christmas Eve was a quiet day and evening in terms of physical activities but it was also QUITE active in terms of loving connections re-affirmed in all sorts of surprising and hugely pleasant ways.   And I ate too much chocolate.  Seriously too much.   Sleep was difficult and then ...


...Jim started cooking at 5:30 in the morning.  A big home cooked Christmas dinner is the one filament of secular/collective celebration that we've maintained.  It was so much fun to feel the family's energy slip into the skin of the farmhouse.  Jim really outdid himself with his cooking efforts.  The visit was a bit of powerful stop-time:  Leila pranced every which way and we talked & ate ourselves silly.



I love this wooden grinding table as well as the view through the windows.  It was indeed relaxing and pleasant in the house but I kept looking out towards the Beech Tree.  Finally Tony announced himself ready for the vigorous challenge of walking Leila.  She pulled him right along and Jim joined them for a brisk trot through the woods.  I headed towards the Beech by way of the winter garden.  Isn't it lovely in its solitude & slumber!



I brought a mixture of offering tobacco and yellow cornmeal to feed the Beech. Had dreamed of doing this for a few weeks before our holiday plans embraced this specific change.  On Christmas morning while Jim packed the food for travel I mixed the two offering elements.   The tree appeared to be poised in anticipation of the feeding.



On the walk to the tree I noticed that many fallen beech leaves remained pliable with snow and general humidity.  I rubbed the offering into the trunk as I searched for its returning gift.  On the far side of the trunk I saw a modest cache of leaves.  This would be more than enough to learn and print from...I also collected a small branch that had fallen from the tree.  All in all it amazed me how much the trunk's form looked and acted like a self-sufficient shrine space.



In dreams before this visit, I had imagined the trunk formed a living elephant's foot that suddenly mobilized.  The rest of the elephant was not visible.  I have collected the modest branch with awareness that the Beech's medicine spirit has long been associated with the birth of Word and its power.  I will incorporate parts of the branch for some art/stitching projects and perhaps an official writing talisman.  So many possibilities!



Leila's centrifugal influence has been a blessing of expansion for our family legends and tradition.  I wish she had stood still long enough for me to properly photograph her beauty and luminous spirit.  Maybe next time.  For now my favorite image of the day is this picture in which NOTHING IS BROKEN.  Loved the detail too much to let it go undocumented...