some books

 i finally got to putting together some of my samples

from my february trip

i made three books
and a few samples, too,

while (or in australian, whilst) teaching

 the bottom book

was completed at

my wee residency at beautiful silks

and provided enormous entertainment for me

one long night

 this stationers bound sample book

filled with silk and paper contact prints

and shifu and eucalyptus blooms,

in a fit of experimentation i dunked it into the wife.

well,

the wife is a wise and enormous vat of indigo

and my book came up gasping for air

going from sludge to blue

quickly

but also starting to sag and would have torn itself to bits

from the wife's good juice.

so i supported the thing 

as she completed the color magic

then set up a drying system, which was no mean feat 

considering the dry book weighs only an ounce or two, 

but wet,

well she sagged under her own weight.

iowa flax case paper cover and various handmade and machine made papers,

and shifu

hold a lot of liquid.

so, once the color stabilized i began

the tedious blotting dry 

and using a fan and a drying rack and many towels

 all night long

she dried, stabilizing the spine and then the pages. 

yesterday i sewed in all the loose bits and have a finished book

thanks to beautiful silks and the wife

also as i sorted out the work table
 i unearthed a little book i made 

years ago from scraps

from the trash at pbi

 oh, and a feather and someone's measuring notes.

and took a picture

 i, like jude, have been thinking

~of weave~

overexposed

 in motion

 focusing

 and finally focused

spun paper, kami-ito,

and canada thistle paper

of course it is!

weave holds the universe together.

here in melbourne

 before i left the north country

 we were waiting for

 or just enduring more

winter.

today, my second day in melbourne

i am wearing shorts and sandals

my legs protesting and very pinky pale

and my mind a bit weird

from jetlag.

 leaving ottawa

 and the great white north

 i traveled

 to the big chicago

 over lake michigan

 and again into the air to the city

las angeles

for a ridiculous nine hour layover

 i did find a spot of grass and some trees

(amidst dreadful cacaphony)

 and a plane headed to china

 this is my first siting some 15 plus hours later

of australia

 enveloped in a haze of smoke

 from extensive wildfires.

when we landed i could smell it--

 and in melbourne there was

the little shop of horrors

 or flowers

 meanwhile,

back at the ranch

 the indigo was beaten

 by the strong arms of

naomi

 who cares for this stew 

of blue

and, incidentally, me, too!

 outside beautiful silks

where i'm teaching

 are some things i like very much

old texts, and in the sky

today

rain.