i’m just wanting to say “hey!” while i’m still in the old farmhouse.

the last real work i did before the crushing job of packing for the move was all around the several clumps of ostrich ferns in my front yard. and now i see this species everywhere. also, the trees in blossom this year have been amazing. i gathered up spent maple flowers from tidelines on the driveway and made some dye. not interesting color, but the scent was amazing!

fiddlehead: ostrich fern from my farmyard

there have been so many crazinesses around this time, many days on the road dealing with doctors and surgeries (not myself) and other days of huge weariness…this is damned hard work, especially so if you are not particularly interested in organization. packing up book projects, papermaking projects, fiber stuff is in a sense rather frightening. will i ever see them again, or finish them? and does it matter?

there have been balms, dear friends keeping a supportive, kind quietness in the ethers, nearby, on the phone. and hannah was here for a glorious time, she worked so hard to help me get this together.

aimee sent this, some of her wild paper that reflects how we both are right now.

and yesterday the maiwa catalog came for this fall. imagine taking every single class, grad school, maiwa style.

but for now, i’m here struggling to make this move. downsizing is absolutely NOT something i ever imagined i could do but i am doing it. it’s hard, impossible work, but good and right and appropriate work to do.

outside songbirds are happily singing, does are huge with their fawns, goslings are everywhere with their firece parents, and turkey vultures have taken to sitting on my fallingdownbarn. though they are ugly, stinky, big birds, they do their job well and they fly with exquisite grace. they’re welcome. i hope spring-turning-to-summer sustains you.