at my new old house there are plantings, crocus, hyacinths, daffodils, tulips, and someone’s breeches…

so tiny I almost missed them in the leaf duff (but ticks enjoyed the ride from duff to me)

the joy in learning that the ogress who lived here for a year didn’t destroy everything. she lopped down swathes of lilacs, but they are reviving. the piles of stuff she burned, including metal, glass, plastic and god knows what else, are slowing giving way since the ice is out and shoveling is possible. this old place was loved by a family and I keep hearing stories about them, the last from the auction house where I got my new/old table, desk, and chairs.

we’ve had weather in the 70’s and then this surprise, it’s spring.

i’m done teaching, a relief because it was SO DAMNED FRUSTRATING. my inability to navigate computers is really really horrific. mostly I feel like i let these students down. there were several really interested and engaged students (there are always ones i can’t quite motivate) but that’s not the problem, pandemic, is. moving out of this into a possibly safer world is also going to be difficult. but it’s spring, plants are growing, animals are busy, insects, those pollinators were out exploring that small perennial border as soon as crocuses and hyacinths appeared!.

jessica spring’s tiny broadside on beautiful kozo

it feels like i’m recording my winter count, a spring count. dusk a couple nights ago i heard a gobbler, quite close. out i went and rounding the house up flushed an enormous flurry of tom. off he flew into the poplars behind the house, and i looked, sure enough i saw not only one big bird settling high on a branch, but two. at bedtime my window was wide so I could hear them in the morning, and at 5:45 calling began, lasting through to 6:15. later at breakfast i saw two toms and four hens all harvesting ticks for breakfast (yay). they stayed around then walked down towards little river and then off and away. the toms had magnificent tail displays, but those hens were not noticing.

three ticks have found their way onto me, one was at my hairline when i interfered. ugh. turkeys, ruffed grouse, robins, little grey and brown birds, yellow bellied sap suckers and pileated and the other wood pecker family members, two garter snakes, squirrels and chipmunks. life is rich in spring when nest are being built and animals are food and sex hungry.

stopped me in my tracks, until I realized that all the trees were circled. they’ll be getting some mulch.

you’ve seen these if you follow this blog

recently found: my first tussock moth cocoon spinning. forgot to cook out the seracin!

one in a more traditional housing location

wonderful to continue ‘researching’ these cocoons. iive had a second opinion from a ‘moth guy’ that these are tussock moths and that second guy also has cecropias and some other giant silk moth cocoons that he will ship to me in june or so after this year’s moths hatch! so excited, now there may be more than my four cecropia cocoons to work with. but more, he may be able to send me cocoons next fall to winter over in my moth hotel.

for me there’s been a lightening of spirit, and perhaps this is happening elsewhere. for me, perhaps not for you, it feels like there are things possible, making books is coming back to me, all this paper, these prints, these samples are maybe going to bear fruit again. dandelions are growing in the yard, so it must be so.

that winter count? two turtles last Sunday, one snapper and this one, both so beautiful. I assisted both across the road to ‘greener pastures’. turtles fill me with hope and wonder. after posting her photo online a friend wrote that she found a large snapping turtle crossing from my yard to the south side of the road last year. there’s a steep hill there, she wondered about her fate. I'll be keeping an eye out for her.

and in paper news, aimee (www.aimeelee.net) is in korea having amazing hanji adventures. go over and take a look! and count your blessings: turtles, insects, bears and fishers, brook trout. it’s spring in the northern hemisphere! and there’s a wintery mix, meaning possibly snow, in the forecast. yay! I love this weather.

beaver working close to the road about a week ago, and since then we’ve had warmer weather, and then cooler, then snow, then wind, then rain. it’s spring, when the world is puddlewonderful as e e cummings said. in the north country it might be called puddlefloodluscious. yes, there have been flood warnings, I think sometimes the weather, which is noticeably changing, gallops ahead.

I continue with the wild silk project, sometimes i just don’t know why.

another small Shifu Book is happening, with inclusions of indigo milkweed and blue cottolin, making exchanges with other makers, sarah and kerstin, memory geometry.

early last week I walked on my side of the river. it was finally easy to get down there, the snow was almost gone here and I could really get a sense of the land. also, it was easy to see my footing, on land that’s been let go back to wild only a little while there are lots of snags underfoot, in the deep leafy litter, between the rocks both earth brought and human introduced. this is the site of an old bridge repaired a few years back, making the crossing quite high off the river surface. it was also, perhaps (i’ve seen one mention of it so far) the site of an old mill, who knows what kind.

I clamored about the rough walking looking for signs and clues, mostly what i found was evidence i can’t yet make sense of. one day i’ll go to town and look up the records about this place. for now, the river called little, well it sings like a hallelujah chorus, not like song birds. it’s really roaring and it means business. while you could probably walk across in waders if you knew the holes to avoid, you would really fight the current and maybe take a tumble because it’s just wild now. I wouldn’t do it, maybe not even when i was young. but I’;ve heard there are trout in this place, but that may be, as they say, a fish story.

there have been some experiments now, i’ve done a little dyeing here, shown my students how to make an eco print, and messed around with wooden board books once again. it’s been good to just make mistakes and take risks, feeling like an artist again after this long while of not making. i notice that the pandemic, despite me being fully vaccinated, and never having a positive test in the months i’ve been getting tests, still is a huge concern, i’ve adjusted some to living with the presence. i have a couple of things coming up, one show i’ll send work for, a couple writing projects done or almost done, co-teaching papermaking in september, but i am still feeling old (i know am older every day) old like i’ve lived through hard things. health issues, the health of family and friends, the sadness of the world, and thank god for the absence of a bat-shit crazy leader. now it feels lie we’re trying to re-group and re-learn and re-make things. can we do a better job?

my son works as one of those carpenters, you know, those guys you call and hope they’re available to build your porch or shed or sauna. a recently completed project was a close collaboration with a 10 year old. there were consults and drawings and continual discussions of how this place would be. ian and his workmate completed it for the boy and his younger brother (also in on the consults). as a mom i’m allowed to be proud and pleased, right? ian’s drawings and his buildings are becoming one in an organic and beautiful process.

there was also this, a give away that I took to my partner and the upshot is that it works beautifully, despite being a bit loud. using old tools is so good.

as i excavate both here and at school i find fiber…there were a couple of the dandelion stems that i picked last year that still had bits of their flower heads. these two were soaked then twined to make a small string, so much stronger than dandelion stems are when fresh. this transformation through drying, aging and rehydrating is amazing. i better pay close attention to this lesson.

i keep taking down the no trespassing signs the former crazy owner put up everywhere (hers were yellow, this one is from down the road) and i think of how it is to belong to a place, somehow in all of this moving lately I feel less known by a place. however, moving to this house has brought more visitors welcoming me with bread and preserves and masked smiles and that feels very very good. happy march.

ps go over and see Rebecca goodale’s latest video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEWK0u9drrI