buckthorn/staghorn sumac/milkweed

i sometimes think i could study botany in order to understand plants better.

but i also know myself, 
i'd be going off on tangents and would rebel against thorough scholarship.

this is only to say that i'm not particularly interested in doing this, 
not really, 
really.

but then i go outside and look around and know that i don't know the names, 
let alone the personalities 
and properties 
of many of my neighborwood plants.  

i had a shepherd visiting for a long weekend, 
and his 2 year old intensity, energy and ability to focus

were such a joy to be around. 
frances knows how to pay attention. 

especially to the snow in the new yard.

if i was still for a while

i found that he would do his best to keep me company.

intermittent sunshine and much rain 
and now, 
now these leaves are mostly down.

the fruit crops, 
wild and domestic apples, 
invasive and magical buckthorn, 
raspberries, blackberries, crabapples, haws, 

gray dogwood, wild grapes, staghorn sumac, and many others are everywhere.

oh, and paper wasps' summer home
fell out of the tree.

i did try once to pulp this paper to make pulp, 
but it was more like sludge.

milkweed constellations

my favorite paper plant (except all the others)

beautiful.

some late goldenrod, highbush cranberries (i think), yarrow,

all went into the contact print bundles 
and the dye liquor.

we've had only bits of sun and one sunny day all autumn.

it's locking up into winter now.

my neighbors have these for sale on friday and saturday

i'm told they're delicious.

sumac against the autumn sky

working in my kitchen to make prints involves 
buckets of metals and the occasional appropriated weight.

and a lot of vegetation spread out on a cloth.

my biggest round pot with some copper pipe 
and apple twigs
and aluminum and steel.

the fierce, diagonal autumn light 

all around my fallingdownbarn

made of recycled barn

and giving way to age and weather

i have staghorn sumac moving onto my place

giving me lovely leaves and stems

but not yet one horn,

but i can find them 
on the roadside, 
instead.
did you vote yet? DO!

sleet in the weather report

and winter approaches.

i hauled in milkweed

and chopped each stick into three or four pieces so they'd fit into my big pot

 for steaming. then began the interminable stripping

 and scraping

 the next morning a few tiny bits appeared in the sunshine.

there was a lot of pulp in my big pot.

and the leftover stalks which are slick and clean and so lovely.

i've now hand beaten all that pulp 

over 3 or 4 days, 3 or 4 hours daily 

Yes the hands were sore)

 and will make glorious paper soon.

upon coming home the other day i found

evidence.

a narsty squirrel invaded my black walnut stash

ripped my screen door when pushing through a too small tear.

blacl walnuts were lined up in a row across my driveway 

and up the steps, where s/he stopped for snacks.

under the other big dyepot, 

a surprise

goldenrod

in the morning yard today

the light breaks through clouds

the old maples are shedding their varicolored leaves

pileated woodpecker, 

cock of the woods, 

called and flew over

and continued calling while scouting for a good place to feed

in the back meadow

where last week i harvested that huge bagfull of milkweed

light dances.