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in between Work (like in away from here) this week

it happens like this Every year.  all these amazing blossoms.  and beeeeeeeeees, SO many bees and this year, wouldn't you know it,  orange and black butterflies.  MANY.  the first time for this.

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and a few dark ones

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every year.  and then, most years, there will be WIND.  sometimes Wind and a last freeze.  and all this to no avail…except for the joy and sustenance of the butterflies and bees.  Somewhere there will be apricot blossom honey.   Beginning tomorrow afternoon, they say there will be 4 days of Wind.  40mph sustained flat line and 70-80mph gusts.  there will be no apricots for the Indigo vat.

and clearing the porch in anticipation of the WIND,  Look!…can you see, down behind the rock?019

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too soon, i'm afraid.  unless she finds a very sheltered place.  by the end of the day,  this was empty.  she'd left. 

and this is Good020

stitching along the edges of the Spirit tree, the Ghost tree.  defining it more.    more stitching tomorrow and through the days of Wind.   also,  i am finally ready to start the Indigo Vat in the morning.  everything is in place and waiting.  i'm nervous.

 

 

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28 responses to “in between Work (like in away from here) this week”

  1. Valerianna Avatar
    Valerianna

    Hi Grace.. missed you! What beautiful blossoms, a shame they will all blow away, or so it seems from what you are saying about the wind? Seems to me that your big cloth has been dreaming in the winged beauties. I think I have had that same winged thing that was on your porch. Happy stitching in the wind, I do hope the sand doesn’t blow through your house again.
    Here, mud and mists… but mud means bit ruts in the road, pulling the car this way and that. Today they came and dumped gravel in the huge holes. That made it better, for a while, but the ruts are coming back as the gravel embeds in the mud. This is when a landrover would be useful around here.

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  2. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    yes. a landrover.
    i have been thinking more than ever this year about
    cycles, seasonal events. what is pulling this way and
    that in one season is not even noticed in another.
    it’s all really STRONG right now.
    maybe thinking about this Indigo. how IF i can grow it,
    it would be a seasonal undertaking. to grow, to dye.
    and seasonal tomorrow, a guy coming to help put up
    24ft of fencing, 4×4 posts in concrete…maybe……unless
    WIND is already settled in….then,
    later in the season.
    seasons. cycles. circles.
    i remember reading something in a Louise Erdich book
    about how lives require seasonal work…Every Year, our
    homes, our selves. over and over. Every Year.
    where did we get the idea that we do it once and it’s
    done? not.

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  3. handstories Avatar
    handstories

    the butterflies heard about your cloth, and came to see and be a part of it. x

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  4. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    maybe
    but Every year here there has been something different.
    it might be that a certain “weed” is overwhelming while
    another is non existant
    and then the other way around
    or something totally new appears…a plant person….
    or trees die
    or
    or
    or
    so…who knows? and it could be good or not, too, as
    far as human enterprise in the Diorama. all those
    butterflies will lay their eggs, which will all become
    caterpillars which will all have food preference for
    something that i have NO idea…
    itsn’t it GRAND?????????????????????????
    no answers.
    NO ANSWERS.
    JUST LIFE.
    i’m finally, after all this time, getting Into it…….!!

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  5. Nancy Avatar
    Nancy

    Your apricot tree is amazing! Mine is scraps in comparison! But, I do have flowers too. Love to see the butterflies all the way out by you after seeing them on the west coast…Connected!

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  6. Jeannie Avatar
    Jeannie

    As I hope around the country reading blogs, I feel like I am seeing the future – hydrangeas blooming in SC, your apricots, irises and daisies in San Diego – and in a couple of months the flowers and butterflies will find their way here. I love the butterflies in your tree. I find the Sphinx moths fascinating. They are so large and really do fool me into thinking they are hummingbirds. The wind has been here. It seems like all it has done since the holidays is blow and gust. It makes us all cranky. I am sure it is something about negative ions in the atmosphere or something. All I know is the irritation. Tonight we have rain. The first rain since January. It sounds so beautiful. I hope the wind passes without harming your beautiful petals or flowered friends. Your stitching is beyond wonderful. xo

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  7. KaiteM. Avatar
    KaiteM.

    beautiful blossoms and what looks to me like a hawk moth. your stitching looks like wind, stitching the wind~~~~~

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  8. Valerianna Avatar
    Valerianna

    Oh yes… like doing the dishes, always, always more! If we can sink deeply into the mindfulness of each act, surrender to what is required of us, it could all be fulfilling. But the trouble for me is, I can love working on the land, making art, even dishes and vacuuming, but I resist and so far CAN:T love things like taxes, paperwork, bill paying. If I could embrace it all….. and then there’s the feeling sometimes that “the car broke and I’m mad, it shouldn’t have” – truth is, things do this, its just what is. I’ve been getting better at embracing all this (well the car thing, not yet the paperwork), I think, oh, well, if I had sufficient money to cover all the broken things in need, then they wouldn’t bother me, but maybe that isn’t so. Working to Embrace all these things feels important thing for me this year – a maturation of sorts, important.

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  9. Henrietta (aka ani or zani) Avatar
    Henrietta (aka ani or zani)

    grace the name of the butterfly is the painted lady butterfly. ani

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  10. jude Avatar
    jude

    wings. somethings just fly away.

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  11. jude Avatar
    jude

    wind is like wings

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  12. Yvonne Avatar
    Yvonne

    Butterflies about indigo, eh? Looking forward to hearing how it goes once you dip in.

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  13. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    this is a BIG THING.
    i’m not sure it’s embracing. How can we embrace
    certain things…
    BUT
    for me, it’s something about understanding that the
    FEELINGS i put into things don’t make one iota of
    difference.
    car repair is car repair.
    tax is tax.
    just is.
    if
    i let go
    of
    feelings about it, it doesn’t make it better or worse.
    it doesn’t change it at all.
    but what it does change is the comotion INSIDE me.
    comotion~energy. fix the car. pay the bill and save
    the energy for something else.
    COMPLEX. but i like working it through. i actually LIKE
    working it through…………

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  14. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    they are not your monarchs. sometimes some will come
    through, but that is later in the year. these are
    different…….

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  15. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    Jeannie…WIND is a real entity here. it is really, our
    weather. there will be no rain, no snow, no nothing, but
    WIND. when it’s a straight line for days at a time it
    does make you feel crazy. but then, suddenly
    it stops
    just like that.
    stops.
    and it’s gone
    and you forget, so easy.

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  16. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    yup. or Pandora Spinx

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  17. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    yes…it is. Painted Lady.
    isn’t that just so beauty Full????????

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  18. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    it is. and flying, riding the wind is something.
    and there is no control………….

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  19. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    well…now i’ve dipped.
    i’m not sure what i’m thinking. i’m tired.
    i did it after a whole early part of the day working
    with the fence guy to do what we could in the face of
    the Wind. i almost said…not today, but i didn’t and
    i’m glad. i went ahead. fixed the vat. set pieces in.
    and now…i’m just sitting, staring at it.

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  20. Deb G Avatar
    Deb G

    I hope my apricot tree grows to look like that…time, just takes time and the right conditions. 🙂

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  21. Robyn Ayaz Avatar
    Robyn Ayaz

    Hey Grace, missed you! I wish I could get to that stage of acceptance, I am way too familiar with that commotion inside especially when I cannot influence whatever is causing it! I loved the blossoms against that blue blue sky and the butterfly is wonderful! They are quite miraculous and I hope that one survived. I was looking at shots of a cyclone in Western Australia, winds over 200mph and everything that wasn’t bolted down in this small community was just gone. Your wind was not as ffierce but because it is relentless I guess it just pushes and pushes and wears down any resistance.

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  22. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    yes…not at all a cyclone, tornado.
    but you are right, it’s the relentlessness. it’s still
    going and probably will into tomorrow. but compared
    to a cyclone, it’s ok.
    all i could think of today was things to cook and all
    the things i thought of, i didn’t have the ingredients.
    it was a day i would have watched TV if i had one.
    couldn’t concentrate, focus.

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  23. Nancy Avatar
    Nancy

    I actually like paying bills, especially when there is enough to do so. But, even when there isn’t enough…it’s a challenge to me, and a stress reliever. Weird huh?!!

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  24. Nancy Avatar
    Nancy

    Ah, I did not know this.

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  25. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    OH!…I do too! i just like it. always have.
    it’s one of the things that always makes sense to me.
    “I give this, and They give that”. one thing equals
    the other. even in times when it has taken some real
    effort. how funny.

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  26. Nancy Avatar
    Nancy

    Yes there is that exchange aspect, but also it’s like it is something I can control, even when other life elements are not in my control…how and when and who…and how Much I give my hard earned money to IS in my control. Sometimes those little minutes help! 🙂 People in my life sometimes think I’m nuts! If I’m stressed, I take out the bill book! Haha

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  27. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest~Maestas

    my granddaughter does that. for stress.
    interesting…”for control”…i’d never thought of that.
    her mother and i just think she’s nuts.

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  28. ali Avatar
    ali

    such a thrill, to see that blue sky and those lovely blossoms–thank you for sharing these!

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