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Madder

 


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Indigo!!!!!!

I had started both of these inside,  care FULL y   following instructions.  Peat pots.   They sat in the window.  And grew.  And the rain didn't stop when expected.  So they grew inside longer.  Their stems became spindly and leaned and leaned toward the available sunlight.  There were days when it was so dim.  But they grew.  And then there was that Glorious week when the Rain stopped.  It was warm and the sunlight was like honey.  I hadn't hardened them off,  but  their leaning to the light had become precarious so…i put them Out.   Where they sat,  quietly in the dye garden place.  Were just quietly there.  and then

Rain again.  and Rain.   I quit going to look.  What would be would be.  The nights of the downpours,  heavy rain.   Hard rain.  But today i looked and here they are.  Growing.  Their stems,  particularly the Indigo are sideways but their leaves are leafing.  The Madder is taking hold.  Madder being a perennial.  3 years at minimum before any harvest for Dye.  But they are Good.  I thought about how 3 years is a long time.  I thought about years being components of someone's last years.  Not so much before,  but when of a certain age,  a year becomes a significant component…like in Cloth.  I sat with them and fed them water with a cup.  They drank.  But their soil was good and moist and alive.  The  B gardens are well placed and more gentled than the Wall Garden that receives much more intense Sun as the season goes on.    The B gardens,  a horizontal sweep of SUN.  Perfect.

 

 


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the Grass People are seeding.  These Purple grasses…i don't know their names,  but their Beauty is elegant and so just the Purples is enough.  The Rattlesnake Grass that Emrie likes to eat…all now in their Glory.  Double click this for sure.

 


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and I FOUND IT!!!!  I'd been so forlorn.  It was nowhere but then today,  it was Right There.  The hand made Spoon which is perfect to dip deep into the walnut or oak gall vats to retrieve a bundle of cloth.    I remember when i found it at the shop in Magdalena, New Mex.  Loving it's perfect Beauty and that it had been made BY HAND but thinking that i didn't know what use it might have.. ..did i NEED it?     And here,  those pots deep all winter,  so much sludge at the bottom.  A hand can do,  but the spoon,  oh,  the spoon.  

What a day.  There was more.  but this is enough.  I am so glad to be Alive.  Here.   As Is.

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20 responses to “As Is.”

  1. Nanette Avatar

    All this, so much, answers lots of my questions Grace. Contentment, equanimty…..x

    Like

  2. Mo Crow Avatar

    so good to see these little madder & indigo plants looking so happy and that spoon is a treasure!

    Like

  3. Liz A Avatar

    how things will grow … and that spoon! I imagine stitching its lines … and now I think, I could add this (and the ubuntu symbol over at Paper Ponderings) to the What if … journal I am keeping as I read back through Jude’s blogs …

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  4. Patty Avatar

    Oh, yes, that spoon is a keeper! Beautiful lines. A stem is
    a line and a line is a reaching.

    Like

  5. Jill Lee-Jones Avatar
    Jill Lee-Jones

    Hi Grace, it’s purple needle grass. We have it here too! Jill

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  6. hermosa Avatar
    hermosa

    Hello Grace,
    Your first photo is actually of Indigo and the second picture is Madder. Madder grows sideways sort of…and has smaller leaves.
    They’ll love your Chico environment.
    well wishes,
    Beth

    Like

  7. Tina Avatar
    Tina

    Grace how delightful to see your dye garden growing into what will bring such joy to you and cloth. Oh and your spoon .. a magical find in all it represents and will hold. The years they do fly .. way to fast but what an AMAZING ride we are able to share .. I feel happily Blessed.

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  8. Judy Martin Avatar

    I am glad to be alive too xo

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  9. dee Avatar

    Gardens making for glad well being in the northeast, too. Where was the spoon?

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  10. Peggy McG Avatar
    Peggy McG

    Everything looks so healthy despite the rain… and what a spoon! so fun to re-find things isn’t it…

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  11. grace Forrest Avatar

    equanimity. yes. it’s there…to go slow and let it
    find Us

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  12. grace Forrest Avatar

    i was so …..so…..well, relieved…
    i’d thought of them all during such HEAVY rain, their
    delicate selves

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  13. grace Forrest Avatar

    the spoon is just magnificant. So clearly hand made but
    excellent and perfect. The feeling of it.

    Like

  14. grace Forrest Avatar

    yes…a stem is a line. it is. and it strengthens if
    it has a chance. I am so looking forward to watching
    them Grow

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  15. grace Forrest Avatar

    JILL!!!!!!!!!!! OH!, hey! it’s just stunning, isn’t it?
    I am so touched by its arrival

    Like

  16. grace Forrest Avatar

    i went back and looked and sure enough…how funny. When i down loaded or up loaded which ever it is from Google pics on my phone, i thought i’d remember but obviously didn’t!
    Thank you for noting this!!!!!
    I so hope they love it.

    Like

  17. grace Forrest Avatar

    am so glad to be able to share here. That there’s US and we share

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  18. grace Forrest Avatar

    Judy…smile…yes. the most basic Gladness.

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  19. grace Forrest Avatar

    over in the grey milk crate. I’d gone there for pieces of
    baling rope to shore up the fence…they (Goats) were
    about to break in and i remembered rope being in there and it was and down at the way bottom, the spoon. I have no memory of putting it there

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  20. grace Forrest Avatar

    re~finding is like the First Time. really, even better
    cause you have missed it.

    Like

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