walk about and waves

I finally got out to the woods. It was wonderful and breezy and just so grounding, and I realized just how terribly I needed to be wandering. 

So many of the plants are suffering from our drought conditions this year, and yet they still whispered to me of their beauty.

Petals clinging tenaciously to stems

thistle and cockle burr sharp as much as they are beautiful

Broad leaves sunning themselves, catching what sun filtered through the thinning canopy

Dead wood giving way, breaking and falling to decay so that new life might find way to surface

Make a wish and blow the milk thistle fluff to the breeze.

I also spent some time with my Elm Tree. When I visited last, I was worried because his canopy was not filling out as I thought it should, and his energy did not feel right. There was a sadness surrounding him.  This visit did not leave me feeling as concerned, but things still were not as they had been when I first found him in 2009. 

It makes my heart heavy, but perhaps it is just the lack of rain that has my friend suffering this year.  I will continue to visit, far more regularly than I have, and hopefully after his long winter's sleep, next spring will find him healthy and thriving again. 

I have been searching for some direction in my textile art work. As I've been working with silk and surface design,  some interesting  things have been developing.  I am finding  a lot of my pieces floating, very liquid and ever-changing. Water.  I am going to explore this further. This idea of waves and what happens each time I lay the fabric out. It's never the same surface twice.

Camping this weekend, and I hope to return with a sketchbook full of this, that and the other thing. Nothing like charcoal from the campfire to sketch landscapes.