How good this is.  to just go.  

IMG_5637
a volunteer seedling of Doris's snake tree…a locust…here where some of the tomatoe plants will go soon.  it will need to be "pulled out",  or, maybe transplanted?  it looks like a handpuppet.

IMG_5638f
this year i WILL see about dyeing with the blooms.  soon as they begin to shrivel

IMG_5640f
Goats ate her mother in the Back.  she is by the front porch and will need to Carry On.

IMG_5641f
a good rot has begun.  i didn't fall to the temptation to see what the cloth was doing.  just looked.

IMG_5636f
and another RELIEF….looking at Suzanna's blog, MostlyThreads.Blogspot,  i read of her vacation at the ocean.  She showed me the beach there, a bird at her table, her wonderful room, AND some Jellyfish.

THE JELLYFISH!  and i rummaged and put together this.  FINALLY!!!!!!  SOMETHING

WHITE

and it is a very good good feeling.

so.  finally.  a day.  no imminent angst.  just a very plain good day.   So happy.

Posted in

29 responses to “Day 43 the bless~ed act of Just Going”

  1. patricia Avatar

    tell me what you’re rotting in the pot there? got my own dye table set up this evening and ready to go.

    Like

  2. grace Forrest Avatar

    in this first pot of spring…pretty simple. the
    leaves from the Mexican Elderberry. water. a clamped
    piece of muslin on the saradine can top and bottom.
    it’s the rotting that matters. i refill the water for
    so many days, until the leaves have dis~integrated for
    the most part. then, let it evaporate and oxidize.
    sometimes, before it’s complete, different parts of the
    cloth stick up into the air and oxidize. this is good too.
    this is an aluminum pot. there are 2 others…copper
    and cast iron.
    SUN does it all. but this year, i might make a fire and heat in the beginning? we’ll see.
    and i need to get up into the mountains and get some
    juniper root. i want that color.
    and…i think i can say this now, Marti IS COMING to New
    Mex. she is the forage dye goddess. i will learn from
    her. Soon.
    AND maybe
    i will make notes.

    Like

  3. Elizabeth Avatar

    Love the sky-fying jelly fish!

    Like

  4. Nance Avatar
    Nance

    Oh how I love the blue and white. Angelic. It is just how jellyfish are. Floating . I just came up for air myself…. Looking at white and maybe some have a tiny blush of color. Photos that ii took just after the rain and some white camellias down the road. Joan said choose two but I have it narrowed down to twenty. How can I pick just two?

    Like

  5. Nance Avatar
    Nance

    Oh… And the puppet is saying “save me!”

    Like

  6. suzanna Avatar

    :)…xoxo, s.

    Like

  7. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    And I will learn from you how to do more than the one stitch that I know and I will also learn to overcome my aversion to anything having to do with snakes because snakeweed, some say, gives a greenish color, others say yellow. Cota gives a golden yellow and orange and Hopi sunflower seeds give a gray or black color…

    Like

  8. patricia Avatar

    it’s the processing that amazes me. the results so unexpected. and your sardine can. loved the shape it yielded.

    Like

  9. jude Avatar

    seems a she jellyfish

    Like

  10. Valerianna Avatar

    Love the wind-lik tentacles.

    Like

  11. grace Forrest Avatar

    i just happen to have here……
    a beautiful little packet of….HOPI BLACK SUNFLOWER
    that Patricia sent a few weeks ago.
    !!!!!!!
    perfect, huh.
    AND
    Ulrika sent: Navajo Native Dyes Their preparation and use
    a while back too. Nonabah G. Bryan and Stella Young
    The botanical gardens in Albuquerque BRIM with native plants
    to learn from.
    oh lordy, and hey ho.

    Like

  12. grace Forrest Avatar

    i had had the one side of that saradine tin for years…all
    rusted. the OVAL shape…
    and when the can dyeing came up i hunted down a new can
    of saradines at the grocery to get a matching piece. the
    dogs and cat got the saradines….
    and re: unexpected results…i am pretty sure that
    leaves etc. at different times of year differ in result too.
    again…need to make notes.

    Like

  13. grace Forrest Avatar

    yes. probably none in Ballarat, i think…like none
    here.

    Like

  14. grace Forrest Avatar

    you would say that. ok. and so it will go.
    but they are like hollyhocks…inclined to only plant
    themselves as they see fit. but i’ll try. soon as
    it gets its secondary leaves.
    i moved the little chewed up Native Plum last week…
    over near the Raft from where it was right at the
    beginning of the Goats ThroughWay to the Way Back where
    each would grab a mouthfull in passing. and although
    it wasn’t much of a surgical proceedure, more of me
    groping with my hands to clear roots from earth and Pull
    it seems to be doing fine.

    Like

  15. grace Forrest Avatar

    we never can know what miracles we inspire…..
    you gave me an honorable pathway through White

    Like

  16. grace Forrest Avatar

    do you think? the lace????
    how about that. lace silk and white, all in one
    little cloth.

    Like

  17. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    Hey Ho and “Andale”. This is wonderful, the seeds from Patricia, the book from Ulrike. This is uncanny because this morning I was making a list of native NM dye plants and found info on Nonabah G. Bryan. As soon as we made the decision to move from TN to NM, even before we started searching for rental homes, I searched for botanical gardens, wanting to know about the native plants and grasses. I’ve never lived in the high desert and my head and heart need to know these things first, before even considering a house to rent !

    Like

  18. grace Forrest Avatar

    the Bio Park is really FINE, marti. you will love it.
    and i will love YOU loving it because of the way your
    mind works….capturing detail…whereas i am more of
    a Blur person.
    and then there is all just the Rio Grande bosque area,
    where you can forage to your hearts delight.
    and funny. i had never seen the “call out”..”Andale”…
    written. just have heard it…the ” OK! Hey Ho,
    Forward Ho! word that i spell phonetically in my mind,
    on da lay!!!
    and..oh. we are going to have to think ahead. so much
    to do…. i just realized that you and Rich can actually
    COME for the Festival of the Cranes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    OH and OH! you can talk to that really great man who
    discusses native dye and making twine and rope from yucca and EVERYTHING! …

    Like

  19. Nance Avatar
    Nance

    Martin and grace, you are lucky duckies!

    Like

  20. saskia Avatar

    just now it struck me as Really Funny how you in the desert find a way to do white through a jellyfish, a jellyfish who is in constant need of water; yes s-he looks like a she to me too.

    Like

  21. saskia Avatar

    ah, what I would give to be dyeing with the two of you!!

    Like

  22. Kristin McNamara Freeman Avatar
    Kristin McNamara Freeman

    Grace….I can feel your joy in having Marti come to live within a range that will allow for experimenting with dye and stitch and gardens shared in real time, real space…not cyber. Must indeed be a great looking forward to time…So much to love and enjoy in New Mexico.
    Cranes are beginning to appear here abouts…some snow coming today, but I have seen them overhead twice now in the past week…so a trip to the bitterroot to take some photos very soon…also the trumpeter swans are beginning to show…
    Love your experimentation in white…a wind is surely wrapping around and giving such movement..

    Like

  23. grace Forrest Avatar

    i wish
    you
    could

    Like

  24. grace Forrest Avatar

    Kristin…SO GLAD to hear from you.
    yes. in person. in real time. yes.
    someone who is in synch.
    what a real and excellent Gift.

    Like

  25. grace Forrest Avatar

    yes. i thought that too.
    jellyfish.
    how amazing

    Like

  26. grace Forrest Avatar

    Kristin…ohhhhh it really really is Joy. and not just
    any someone, but Some One who has the same love of
    clothmaking. and i hope this comes across right, but also
    we are very similar in needing so much independence with
    our singular lives. we will not disappoint eachother but so
    enjoy what time we DO spend together to the fullest
    oh..SWANS…we don’t have swans, really. some seem to
    accidentally winter now and then at the Bosque
    so i love that you have Swans.
    and WHERE is your blog in the moment?????
    how is all that going?????
    xoxo

    Like

  27. Nancy Avatar

    This is indeed a gift for ya’ll. Enjoy!

    Like

Leave a reply to patricia Cancel reply