windthread

Collard Trees…2 of them. Re stablized,  Leggy Beings as they are

 

 

emptying the buckets of Goat Earth into the far right of the Wall Garden,  there…atop things,  this small beet.   ????  

Maybe a reminder of how much we loved the beets and should plant many, and plant in succession this time.  Now's the time for these thoughts.  

Today being the one SUNNY day of some before and some coming after.  Taking advantage of that,  hauling the buckets of Goat Earth.  The great feeling of Goodness about that.  Watching it fill,  that far right end.  Earth.  Then Rain will soften it In to be ready for the tomatoes that will grow there.    Growing.  My way to Love.  My way to Hope.  My Way.

 Dee Mallon,  Pattern and Outrage  deemallon.wordpress.com.    ou thA post today entitled  The light it speaks.

"Even before we've tinkered with our clocks,  the light speaks of spring.  Soft and democratic,  it offers its glow wherever it falls, instilling a sense of hope."

…….soft and democratic, it offers its glow wherever it falls, instilling a sense of hope.

i could repeat that line many times here,  because i love it so much and it says so much of what i find so hard to say.

she asks:  Where does hope reside for you these days?  Is it something you have to work at?  If so, how do you do that?

What questions.  Direct and un adorned.   All day i have entertained these questions as Emrie and i spent the day.  Emrie,  the so totally NEW HUMAN BEING,  just here on this plane,  18 months.  Think of that.  Just here,  on planet Earth,  in human form for only one and a half years.  Think of it.

sit a little while, and think of it.  You were just recently born.  Showed up in a kind of funny as in odd family on a Hill in California.  Stuff goes on there.  But it's where you ARE and where you will begin to form yourSELF.  Where you will learn how to Live.  and then,  you spend days with an old woman,  who says she is your granma,  actually,  great granma,  who reads Dee's blog and wonders things.  Hangs out with you all day while you choose to play with these 5 things…the magnifying glass is plastic and from the Dollar Store.  The measuring spoon,  you bring back and forth,  like a Begging Bowl,  and she puts stuff in it.  small cubes of cheese,  chips of saltine crackers,  pieces of green pea snack crisps.  The stones are from the window sill next to where she sews and writes.  You are allowed to take them off that window sill and do things with them,  but have to put them back.  They are understood to be of importance by this requirement to put them back.

Hope.  

Hope.  I don't know.  I am not sure what to say.  I think it might help me to think about what it is i might Hope FOR.

This child will spend most of her life after i am gone.  Gone like dead.  I will be dead for most of Emrie's life.  

So this adds some weight to my thinking…Hope.  What do i hope for?   in terms of her…growing up,  graduating from school, being a viable and free female human being,  maybe having children,  living a life,  and if she's lucky, growing old.  Hope.  hope first is that there is a Planet that can Hold that living.  Beyond that…there's so much to hope for,  so much that is fragile in the moment,  so much that is close to overwhelming to think about,  so much i want to pass along to her,  so much i HOPE she will be willing to hear,  will Want to hear.  Everything, i guess is about Hope.  Hmmm.  Surprise, grace,  Everything seems to be about Hope……..

 

 

 

more of the blade of grass

am way better at them than last year,  this time,  but still….

and stitching the blade of grass.  Not a lot to photograph about that.    I watch the light in the world outside the window here for signs of lightening,  first to make a run to feed the buck Goats and also,  on these kinds of days,  to throw some feed for the Doe s.   They do run out,  in the inbetween moments to forage,  but those moments are short.  So they get alfalfa too.  Then,  i watch,  estimating the change in Light,  and make a run to Lakeside Market.  I have this potato from the Wall Garden.  French Fries,  but i have no oil.   There's some tension in the day.  Tomorrow  morning.  French Fries.  Melted cheese and ketchup.  One more day of all day Rain,  then reprieve for a while.  I learn to  accomodate  the Ways of this Place.

Deb Lacativa's thread….what Pleasure to stitch with,  how alive it makes things…just as i see things  in my mind,  the Cloth receives and holds

working with the dreams…i wake last night to remembering Country Joe and the Fish,  Porpoise Mouth….UTube.  me,  72 or 73 yrs,    3:00 something AM     listening,  remembering.   He's still alive,  living in Berkley.  Maybe i can go find him.

we call what is around us, above us,  Air.  That's such a small word for it.  Air.  as it extends UP from us,  we call it Sky.  A bigger word.   But what it is is so much more,  is so much.   It's what we breathe in and out, what we exchange with all Beings,  that breath and with our living,  also the energetic vibrations of our lives,  blending, mingling with the energetic vibrations of trees,  plant people,  even buildings and in cities, so much more.   Air.  touches our bodies,  goes into our lungs,  feeding our blood.  

So i like Kantha stitch to represent that,  the Energetic Beingness of Air.  

Alyssia to the VA in Sacramento for some kind of radio active scan.   Me and Emrie.  and today….the first time,  we were a little independent.  She had a good long nap and woke to her own particular interests of building towers with her blocks,  playing with the flash lights,   putting small things in and out of an egg carton,  things like that and would call loud,  MA! and i would have to get up and look and comment….but then i was able to go back to stitching stones.   A first.  A milestone.  Stuff will just get better and better from here.  I need to go to the storage house and get the tins of buttons that will be perfect for the Egg Carton work,  for counting.  She likes counting.  There are a lot of really Great buttons.  Art Deco.                                        And the stones,  i am loving the stones and also have forgotten a lot about stitching stones, but will remember as i go now,  there is great satisfaction  with stitching stones and i     saw   a blade of grass rising from these stones.  Tomorrow for that.

I'd forgotten to close the two remaining sacks of compost down at the Wall Garden and went early to do that.  There were lizards…tiny ones on the wood walls in the early Sun.  After that Forecast of RAIN,  deluge,  there was almost no rain,  moments of it but sprinkle and i will go back.  Will read those forecasts and prepare but also count most on looking out the window.  Out the window,  it was fine.  Overcast, but fine.  OK.

i finished.  The Wall Garden.  All the compost has been spread,  smoothed.  Except for the Broccoli, Cauliflower and Cabbage.  Alyssia is still engaged with them.  I'll leave that to her.  And the onions.  same.  Leave that to her.  But otherwise,  it's

Ready.

now,  just behind the top of the Wall.  where the vine plants will go….squash,  watermelon  but that can wait.

 

they came at the end of the day,  to pick up Julian from his school bus drop off.  Alyssia changed the outside batteries that provide the electricity for the ignition of the propane heat.  Emrie had to wait.

We washed Sunny Ray and Jack Flash's water bucket and filled.  Checked their Tent Shelter.  It's Good.  Washed and filled Talkie's water jug.  Checked her rice straw bed.  Good.  Alyssia brought up the large bag of dog food from the Honda car,  also the cat litter.  After they left,  i changed that…the cat litter.  Good.

We are all seeming to be paying attention to Weather.  I receive updates from California Weather Blog.  Next 4 days,  RAIN,  sometimes deluge.  WIND.  Gusts.  We pay attention.  And we just go.

around strawberry plants.   We planted two single plants….they are Many .  They "winter" well.

 

 

finished about a third of the whole.  There are

MANY WORMS in the new compost,  but also in the garden…when i'd move a rock….worm.  JOY for me,  these friends

 

 

and a volunteer Storks Bill,  Crane's Bill.  probably 16 or more inches diameter…blooming a little and already some seed pods.

 it's surprising really,  that there's only one….maybe more will start from seed.  

it was maybe 62 degrees,  passing clouds in a Sky Blue Sky.  Tay lounged at the edge of the hill there.  Puppy napped at the base of the Young Fig.  There were now and again bees.  The tree frogs have begun their 24/7 singing.  Goats were doing something else.  PeaceFULL.   Friday begins big Wind/Rain for some days.

Wendy Golden Levitt sent a link to a Utube… Toshiko Takaezu  Portrait of an Artist.  

 

partway through the stones,  this happened.   

almost finished with the kantha,   and suddenly…Stones.  Not these particular pieces,  but stones.  There will be stones.  I'd not thought of stones at all,  but here they will be.  It's been a long long time since i've stitched down stones.  I think of Karen Ruane's work,  so long ago in Jude's Online.  How so Beauty Full that all these threads remain,  waiting for a particular moment to appear again.  I think how i use that word Beauty Full so much,  but i try to think of some word or way that is better,  or at least,  not over done,  and then   just say

Beauty Full.  because that's how it is.  Beauty.  FULL.