squeaky up the road, there*

mysterious canine prints going up my driveway

probably coyote

looking out the early morning kitchen window

seeing four new boulders

become

deer

yep, later on i found evidence:

feet

bed and there were other things...

using shanna weights to hold down the silk for my book

thousands of stitches

see the bottom leather, that turquoise?

colors on the back-of-the-house-fix.

hemlock board.

great soft color

the dummy 

and two more books in the works

have you ever tried to get colors to behave with a stupid camera?

the hemstitched borders are all taupe/grey. 

not lavender.

no matter how much i tweaked the color, hue, brightness, tone, value... 

i couldn't come close.

but this book is coming along.

there should and edition of three when I'm all done.

this is the original triple woven silk.

you can see where the three layers are snagged together.

see the pattern dimples?

keeping it all straight:

dye on the back burner,

'soupper' on the front. 

bookish came to my house.

 these little stitched images are judith's iconography

and todd brought me his wild grape (fox grape) ink in the world's best bottle.

since these photos we have had real winter settle in.

a foot of snow and deep cold, under zero, but not below minus 10.

it is pretty 'sharp', 

and breathing outside hurt this morning.

~~~

* a friend quoted, referring to one of my neighbors.

thanksgiving

so after i returned from toronto

 a little snow fell.

 in the woods at the place i call home

 the snow has been little and not long staying

so far this winter

i have heard owls, but no coyotes,

and a strange murmuring of bird voices, coming ever so slowly

waxing and waning and 

ever louder until

overhead i heard a honk, like a sneeze at a soft concert moment

then another but still the murmuring.

and then they were above me.

canada geese, locals, going over to trout lake

with no need to make much ruckus.

 we joined gracious friends for thanksgiving 

and ate delicious food, 

our ages from a college freshman to an elder of 99. 

hannah brought tyler home to see the north country and us.

despite headcolds, they requested to make paper,

hannah knows how, but tyler was new to the vat.

 above they are using square moulds made by britt quinlin the paperwright

from ottawa,

and below hannah uses a lee macdonald mould.

 hannah and elder dog gwen share some caring

gwen loves being with hannah.

 and after they left 

i felt so empty.

neki sent me her failed linen warp

(to make into paper)

 and carol sent me this beautiful card

for my birthday.

 here's the edition of blue jean paper 

(i couldn't get the color right, but it's very blue jeansy)

it's flying by means of jet plane

to bar harbor.

by the way, the little animals all,

except for the selkie, are spoken for.

perhaps selkie will find you?!