Thursday, May 9, 2013

fleeting






 










We have spring here, but it has been painfully slow to arrive.  At last, many of the song
birds are back, and the flowers, called ephemerals:  Spring Beauty (small pink clusters),
Dutchmen's Breeches, or Gentlemen's Pants, as my kids called them,  look like little white silk bloomers hanging along a fragile stem.

Blood Root, the stem bleeds on your hand when you pick it, Wild Ginger,  Trout Lilies, and others. Delicate, they soon disappear. I have seen no violets, yet.

This slow spring has been good weaving weather, no snow shoveling, no grass mowing. My paper
weaves are inspired by the suspended blossoms of wild cherry in the mostly gray trunked and leafless
understory of the hillside woods. There is moss, many shades of beautiful green, fresh moss. The scent is wonderful and earthy. 

 The wild hen-turkey has made her nest behind my store, on the other side of the creek. She has feathering the color and pattern of twigs, dead leaves, shadow, and earth. It's almost impossible to see her on her nest, even if you look directly at her. Her neck is so slender, it seems it would snap if she turns her head too quickly. Otherwise, she is big, like a goose. She sits motionless, undetected until  she rises to eat sunflower seeds at the birdfeeder.









3 comments:

Velma Bolyard said...

this fleeting time is my favorite part of the whole spring thing. i can still see into the woods, and here a week of very warm made that time very brief this year as the trees put on their leaves. your woven paper flowers are so much a part of this!

Saskia said...

oh I agree with Velma, how your paper flowers are so much a part of your place there, it is one of the things I admire and love in your work, that it 'belongs' is awesome and inspiring

Susan said...

Ha,ha. It snowed again! Luckily paper flowers on the loom keep blooming no matter what