Almost 6 months in.... More or less.
He wants to go out. I ordered a tick collar. The porch door will be fixed soon. We'll start with porch time. 
I gathered dandelion stems yesterday. Here they grow so tall, reaching through the tall grass and ferns I guess. Toward the light. The longest was 23"!!! And so many, enough for the woodchucks and me. What if I make a huge basket? Adding to it each season I am here. Until I am not. Maybe then I can get carried away in it. Unless of course I don't get that far. And I need to find some willow. I don't have much experience making baskets, but learning is good medicine.
My sewing light has a flexible neck, It makes a moon on the wall if I turn it that way. I'll play with that idea on darker days. No rain but thick cloud cover this morning. I revived the indigo vat. And the walnut brew is all bubbly. Smells delicious. If you like that sort of thing,
The first journal, about the time I began blogging. What if I publish my journals as talking pages? Not a new idea but something I never got too far with. I only browsed through a few of them. It's not like they are a record of how it went. Instead they are filled with thoughts and ideas, most of which seem useful for other journeys. I think sharing them in a different way might be interesting. Setting them free.
Willow trees grow fast. I’ve made pine needle baskets; do you have any pine trees?
I haven’t been able to journal since my mother read mine when I was 15.
Yes there are pines and cedars.
My journals aren’t those kind …
You could grow some willow…they’re so easy, and cutting them yourself for your baskets is very satisfying. They smell gorgeous too…like Meadowsweet….same medicinal constituent. Looking forward to seeing your dandelion basket, and your talking pages. 🧺 🎶🧾
I could!
Ugh, just wrote a long comment, but it didn’t seem to stick. Anyway, one thing I said was that I studies anthropology in college and my professor hooked me and a friend up with a Micmac woman in Presque Isle, Maine, right at the border with Canada. We went up for a weekend and learned basket weaving with her, from splitting the ash to weaving the baskets. At the time I was also weaving wool on a loom. One flat form or weaving and one 3D form. I’ve been thinking I should get back into both of those in case everything collapses, as then I’ll have something useful to trade with.
ha, it was there, sometime there is a glitch here, comments don’t show up until you come back in…
Oh dear, yes I found it again. Oh well 🤷🏻♀️
Happens all the time, even to me!
Love your basket idea – love how you are inquisitive about your space and ‘what’ could you do; creatively.
what-iffing is a sign that my joy has returned…
Rhu is feeling it, too, the need to be outside. Will I decide to let him out even though his vet is worried about bird flu? It’s getting hard not to. Those are long stems. I’ll have to see how long mine are, maybe I’ll try a basket. When I was in college I was studying anthropology. A friend and I organized a basket-making project with a Micmac woman in Presque Isle Maine, right at the border with Canada. We went up for a day and she taught us basket weaving and showed us the process from splitting the ash to making the baskets. I still have the basket I made with her. That got me going on making them. At the time I was also weaving wool. One flat kind of weaving and one 3D. Good skills. I’ve been thinking that I should get back into basket weaving so if everything collapses, I’d have something useful to trade with.
baskets are so useful, I’ve only made very small ones. Might be nice to combine the two kinds of weaving, you have me thinking.
I haven’t considered bird flu… eeek.
I have a shelf of lined paper notebooks…I called them the washing machine pages after reading your thoughts on journals. I watched the washing machine as it was old and tended to dump water all over the floor……….id left unattended….if I sat there I could stop the overflow before it hit the wood floor in the bedroom. Which it did…a few times. There are nearly ten of them with my words in black ink……endless. As was the Clothes Washing.
clothes washing is a journal in itself, ha!
Joanne~ I am smiling at the image of this story!
I have been in my own world for a while now and have not kept up with your posts. The last few weeks, I read most and found you are still a great source of inspiration. Your bane is often mentioned on YouTube channels for slow stitching: ‘I learned this from Jude Hill’. or ‘When I first started hand stitching, I watched Jude Hill – she is my inspiration’. You have done so much for so many. Thank you. So, I am off to my world but will try to check in more often, especially when I need a calm and thoughtful voice.
It’s nice that there is a trail left behind me. I have begun to realize my presence here and there. It’s a nice feeling. Thank you for your comment.
Putting out my baby indigo plants this afternoon. Some of my old journal pages have been turning into paper boats, separating what I want to hold on to and what I need to let go off…
Planted japanese Indigo seed yesterday. Hope it will winter over here but it might bee too cold, we’ll see.
I want to let it all go in it’s current physical form…it might just be an experiment in transformation.
I’ve always grown my indigo in pots and never been able to have it winter over. I might try putting some in the ground this year… Also, looking forward to seeing what kind of basket you’d make! 🙂
the japanese indigo seemed to be the best for reseeding, we’ll see, grew like a weed back in putnam valley.
I like that the basket thing will emerge simply by experimenting.
I sense another fairy tale coming on…about the Olde Woman (but much more than that!) living in a round house in the Wood, and crafting a basket from all the wild things in her green Wood, the basket growing and growing until she takes to sleeping in it at nights, as it rocks her and her Cat to sleep, to the tune of the Crickets, the croaking Frogs, and the plaintive call of the Whippoorwill…
Well that was like a lullaby!
Love this! 🧡
Beautiful Nancy!
Good morning Jude! Crazy amount of lightning and heavy rain this morning 😬
And yes to your journals! 💙
✌🏼
Weather the storm!!!
Today I have turned 77 years of age and follow you regularly – especially focused on the life you live the beautiful art you create and your very special partner lying on the blanket here.. so sweet! great pal! Thinking of you and the days that will come… we are OK, and living in the world where WE chose to be and learn from..and will live with peace! Bring on the Blog!
We can help others be ok too, i live for that.
Yes to the journals! In whatever way.
I need to remember that “learning is good medicine.”
Yes, working on a form that will make them into now.
Learning saves us from arrogance in some way.
journal pages … yes please. xox
Ok
Hello, Jude. 🍀
👋
old journals and all…so odd to read about that me then. wondering if you find it to be a weird thing.
Mine aren’t really journals, just loose thoughts. I guess, yes, some of it will feel weird. But let’s see.