living in between

this is one of my home altars, a little collage.

tea tag fortune:

let your heart guide you.

antique sugar pack:

ilovermont

and this quote from thoreau 

is beginning to feel like this year's challenge:

our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.

Batman and I are working on pulling our dreams and our reality closer together. Some of this work is within our control, and some is not. I am trying to put my energies into the right camp. And it requires patience. I really did appreciate your comments and e-mails on that post!

I also loved reading all of your comments about internet access and doing without the web as well. I found this good read about a juxtaposition of technologies and thought you might enjoy it too. This is another example of why I love Vermont as much as I do. 

what do you think?

up here, at our "bit of earth" we do not have access to the internet.

if i want to get online, i have to drive down to town
 to use the wi-fi at the library.

for you, would this be a blessing or a curse?
(just wondering)

noticing summer

henry and a daisy chain

A solstice snapshot, here at our "bit of earth"... 

• fishing poles sticking out of the back of pick-up trucks driving on our dirt road.
• inner tubes stashed in the back of pick-ups, too.
• wildflowers, casually plunked in a ball jar, perched on the windowsill in the kitchen.
• a solo dear, grazing way down in the meadow, illuminated in the last slants of the evening sun.
• sun brewed tea, iced and spiked with mint from the gardens.
• blueberries, still green and reddish, waiting to become sun-kissed blue.
• hammock temptation.
• hay...round bales scattered in the neighbor's fields...the scent...its dust filtering over the stone wall that marks our boundaries.
• a stack of books, summer reading just waiting for the right moment.
• local strawberries, rinsed and ready to eat. plain. 
• supper at the picnic table, perched at the edge of heaven on earth.
• dirt under my fingernails.
• worn leather gloves and a straw hat, resting on the arm of the adirondack chair.
• sitting up late, glass of wine in hand, waiting for the very last slip of light to drop over the green mountains.

What are you noticing today, as summer kicks into full swing?

quiet stitching

last evening, i sat in the gathering dusk and watched 

the barn swallows swoop and listened to

their twittering.

the shy bluebirds, brilliant goldfinches, saucy robins,

haunting owls and fabulous crows

are my constant companions 

up here on the hill.

it seems quite fitting to have their company

for a sashiko project.

the mental quiet of this simple stitching

allows the brain to both settle and wander.

may you have space in your weekend to 

settle and wander.

sew simple

i started with a yard and a quarter of this fabulous coleus fabric, 

trimmed the selvedges off, and then squared off the piece.

then i turned the edges under about a half and inch and pressed,

turned the edges under another half inch and pressed.

i hemmed around all four sides with a fun wavey stitch.

i popped it into the mail to my mumsie.

she has a lovely wardrobe of these simple tablecloths 

to cover the card table on her front porch.

she has her morning coffee out there

and corresponds with her many pen pals

as the world wakes up and the morning air is cool.

card tables are humble and multi purposed.

• a card table at the end of a dining table can add a few more place settings.
• how can you do a decent sized jigsaw puzzle without the added space a card table can provide?
• displaying your wares at a yard sale is impossible without card tables.
• a card table can become any kind of abode a rainy day requires...with blankets, it's a tent in the desert, a cabin in the woods, a castle with a moat...
• i guess you could play cards at a card table.

how about you?

any clever card table ideas?

happy friday!

magic

dew spangled spider lace...

...could be fairy trampolines.

last night the meadow was sparkling with

lightning bugs.

mother nature is rehearsing for the summer solstice. 

pop on over to gretta's blog for some more fun. 

escape!

the power sanding has driven us out.

and we would not want wee henry footprints 

on the newly finished floors.

so gretta, henry and i have escaped

to our "bit of earth".

this handsome devil's paintbrush,

standing next to its neighbor,

has created beautiful drifts of color here in vermont.

we also saw spectacular masses of lupine in the rocky medians

of interstate 89.

 clusters of daisies and buttercups

are also in bloom.

what a relief!