i now walk a different route, almost daily, and there is this always to look at. from our dirt road looking back onto our place, this is the stream outlet from trout lake, close by. it runs through our land, bisecting and defining between the granite ledges that run away to the southeast. the soil is poor for farming, and the woods is not the robust great northern woods, it’s marginal, with trees seldom growing very large unless their roots find a pocket of rich soil. but this land, marginal, edgy, rocky, is a delight to get to know. coyote leaves frequent reminders on the dirt road, the shit matted with deer hair, berry seeds, bones. this is rough country.

there was a time when i’d try every fungus for dye color, now i’m often content to imagine. there have been other things to tend to. my seven papermakers at slu motivate me to challenge them with possibilities. we went over to the sustainabilty farm to forage ‘weeds’ and garden waste. i found these in the big shed:

the sustainability programs farmer sam stores his remay as crocheted chains over the rafters. i don’t think he knows this is crochet, which pleases me. at the farm we gathered: cattail leaves, thistle seed heads, cattail seed heads (tails), milkweed, milkweed seed pods, corn husks, and i harvested the indigo sam grew from my seed (ricketts) and we made dye samples on silk.

off i went to maine for the common ground fair, staying with hannah again.

both hannah and ty ran in a race—5 K— hannah’s first win. after the race we went to the coomon ground fair, where i took no photos. making a fast 10 hour (one way) in trip in 4 days had my whole body vibrating, but it was great to get away and see an event i’d long heard about. it was also fine to see hannah and ty race, they are so motivated and had a good time.

at the new house things have been a struggle, my partner’s had several bouts of eye surgery, many trips to a med center 2.5 hours away, and i’m way behind on all the day to day stuff. but i have been experimenting with a stash of washi from linda marshall (washi arts) making samples of how each paper behaves spun on my little jenkins lark, a tool that is such a pleasure to use!

so as i move into october i am still: spinning, sorting out my studio, trying to find books, teaching my delightful group of seven, making trips to the med center, anticipating a visit from traveling australian friends, foraging, and planning my maiwa class coming next may in which we will make flax paper, spin kami-ito, make books, weave shifu, make some color and marks and stitch, and see where the fibers lead us. the flax paper for my class will be pulled on small beautiful moulds made by my first sustainable papermaking students, eli allman.

i found a large bag of dried indigo. i’ve been stripping the leaves in preparation for using them, once i find john marshall’s book (with the recipe for this) in my disaster of a studio.

round the place i’ll know that fall is here.

and how could you not, when it looks like this, and tastes even better, add it to a blog addendum?

my new class got their feet wet and made lots of interesting papers using farm ‘waste’, and foraged plants. the really loved working with the peace paper project, and these seven returned (after making and then sharing their papers) to the sustainability farm to forage for ‘weeds’ a concept given to me by my late friend doctor john green. john taught me that a weed was only a species in the wrong place, or what one determines is the wrong place.

always a trickster, always curious, coyote explores the new-mown meadow path

looking out the window a couple nights ago this one sauntered down the new-mown path.

john studied coyotes early in their eastward migration. once on a hike with him, i spotted a pile of coyote dung, a coup carefully collected and returned to the lab for research analysis. and boy did that fridge smell! on my road here, frequent reminders from the coyote clan fragrance this woods road.

when i first spotted this one i had that ‘i don’t believe it reaction’. first thinking it was a great blue heron dazzled in the sun. but no, it was one solitary egret, the second time i’ve seen them here.

stopping the car and gawking usually disturbes animals, and this one took off, circled and returned to the same marsh, a little further out. there were also herons here this morning, three in fact, but, oh, that egret!

these small things mark my september days. i am blessed to be teaching a wonderful class of seven and looking and walking some, too, finding snapping turtles restlessly crossing roads, changing winds and weather, little birds flocking together, and not one hummingbird around. between all these wonders, i have some news i believe i haven’t written about yet:

i’ll be teaching next May 6-10 at Maiwa School of Textiles in beautiful Vancouver, BC. a class called: THE BOOK OF NORTH COUNTRY SHIFU. am i excited?! and, one of my slu students from last year just completed building 17 sets of moulds and deckles, perfect for pages for commonplace books for next may. i would love to meet you there.