Spirit Cloth

In Between This and That

Just time for Noticing...

How this place seems more at home with me. 

I feel more welcomed now that I have connected with the soil. The Old Earth here.

I have heard that Celosia is edible, the leaves, anyone had any experience with that? I had a hard time starting these, slugs and things, but ok, yay! They are everywhere.

Mullein. Wild. But a couple in the garden.  I could sleep here.

I imagined a moon roof. And this beast, a loose drawn patch, more about that later...

A moon roof and a different sense of Home.

Packing for another short road trip this morning. Mostly things that need to get done that involve going somewhere. But the air is clear the sun is out and the season is high. And we are just going. I will be back to a normal schedule in a week or so. 

Getting Back

 

So here I am we are, today...

So many thoughts went through my mind as I stitched.

Yet, I was not prepared to catch them. I long to really get through it, making a cloth with a true sense of how it happened, openly shared. Even if for my own curiosity, because it's as much of a mystery to me. It is quite a challenge to remember to let it flow. How interruptions are just as much a part of it. The forming.

I am calling this The Uphill Climb. There is no figure yet. I am not sure it is needed.

I (the man has been a little bit low energy lately) began the clear marking of paths that will span this hill.  Only the birds will see the spiraled plan.  I am using some of the wood, split before we came here and left under the non protected part of the porch. I was clearing under there, too damp and moldy, and the wood too rotted or full of bugs, but ok to line the paths, to define them and later we will lay wood chips to keep the undergrowth at bay. And that redbud, nice in spring, but doesn't really get enough sun. It might have to go, for a longer view.

just Being Part of It

 

 

Mostly I planted perennials this year. They will return. And reseed, populate.

But I also did a lot of dead heading and trimming, I brought the spent blooms in to make pretty and and consider the in between. And then they dry.

Soul-O likes to sit near them. Likes the way they smell.

Likes them so much sometimes he butts them with his nose. Seeds fall out, if they are ready, I collect them.  I lump them all together  and store them in jars, put them downstairs in the cool basement. So many from one flower. I will plant them before deep winter, spread them around at wood's edge. And along the outside and inside the garden fence. Some down at the end of the road in by the mailbox. The deer will eat some of them. Hey ho. 

And what has happened here? Playing with vertical and horizontal stitch lines, which is taking like forever, but then poof!, this old self has begun to have the feel of being woven in. I'm not done considering this and I will talk eventually. 

Live and Learn

Hickory.

New to me.  There are 2 kinds of hickory trees here.

Three have tiny bitter fruit, further in the woods.

But the big one by the road in...

Edible and delicious.  Have you ever tried to shell a hickory nut? Now I know why they are not sold in stores.  Gotta pick the fruit out mostly. 

Still, thousands from one tree and still falling. So worth the work.  Kind of a cross between a hazelnut and a walnut. The hull breaks open when they fall.  After some research and advice. Gather, put in a bucket of water, discard those that float, dry for about 2 weeks (drying, the tree guys says, will make the fruit come out easier, but still...), enjoy. The slow snack then.  I have some hulls soaking, not much color I don't think but tannin, for sure.

The forest here is also a garden, I never felt exactly like that before.

These old eyes on the Magic Cloth keep showing up. Like new eyes.

New eyes are my symbol for learning. This patch started out as a sampler. 9 eyes. I love making them. 

The weather has cooled.  Preparing for winter in these weeks leading up to Halloween... Always a season's marker. You know, frost, pumpkins.  I ordered some bulbs that need to go in the ground before then.  Was hoping for porch roof repair, we'll see. Dave, the local fix it guy is real busy and that's something we can't do ourselves. 

Once things settle down, weaving. For now, finishing up some small works here. Letting them go. The walls are clearing.  Feels good.

the garden