Hakone Gardens

Peering down...

Gazing upward...

Billy Goats on the Bridge

One can hear Tillie in the background issuing warnings to the billy goats on the bridge at Bachman Park.

Spring Blooms and Shadows

Spring flowers are still going strong, and I may miss some bounty when I am off again, two weeks away from here. My flower garden is well fertilized, weeded and the peonies are supported. The Phoebe family is back under the eaves above my workspace, my refuge, my garden.

Harwichport, MA

After...


Before...

Looking...

for natty roo.
These guys are available at etsy in Gramily's shop.

Unraveled and Resurrected Anew

I can't believe I didn't record the unraveling of a sweater which consisted of yarn I adored. I had to give up on the wear-ability of the sweater, but it dawned on me (duh!) that I could unravel the sweater and reuse the yarn.

The sweater was purchased at Garnet Hill and exorbitantly expensive, even at half price. It's claim was hand painted, hand spun yarn. After machine washing, the arm holes became tight and I hadn't worn it in years. So.... I unraveled it, which was quite a chore since it had matted and "grown" together.

Now I'm excited about making it into a capelet (yet another one) of my own design. It's to be an all over ribbed pattern, funnel neck, and shoulders that grow out from the center rather than raglan style. In other words, it will mimic, but not duplicate, the Shadow Dance Capelet I made in the brioche pattern some years back. It should be much easier. I'm keeping track of how it's done so I can repeat it. People have asked me to help them make the Shadow Dance capelet and I always have to disappoint them by telling them it is deceptively difficult. Which it WAS! Now I can help them make a simpler style, once I fine tune this one.

Marilynne Robinson

My favorite quote lately comes from an interview with Marilynne Robinson in The Paris Review, Fall 2008:

People are frightened of themselves. It’s like Freud saying that the best thing is to have no sensation at all, as if we’re supposed to live painlessly and unconsciously in the world. I have a much different view. The ancients are right: the dear old human experience is a singular, difficult, shadowed, brilliant experience that does not resolve into being comfortable in the world. The valley of the shadow is part of that, and you are depriving yourself if you do not experience what humankind has experienced, including doubt and sorrow. We experience pain and difficulty as failure instead of saying, I will pass through this, everyone I have ever admired has passed through this, music has come out of this, literature has come out of it. We should think of our humanity as a privilege.

at POD

The grandboys and I took the mifflettes to POD the other day. You can buy owl or bear on line through POD's on-line store. Diane let them rearrange the window, though Dex thought he was taking the rubber duckies home. I love collaborating with Julie, owner of POD!