Setting out with Beryl for a New Year afternoon stroll, I wasn’t looking for Milkweed. I wasn’t even thinking about it. That season is over, right? Have I not said so several times? I was after sun and cold air, ready to admire the silhouettes of trees against fleeting patches of blue sky. But what do I know about what is going to catch my eye?
Sarah. Photos!. You are a brave rule-breaker. I thought those were supposed to be the hardest and therefore the last items to sort. Tho I love how your dogs and human family get equal footing. Happy New Year!
I think, at this point, you have some sort of internal dowsing thing for milkweed going on. Like maybe you can smell it while not being consciously aware of it so it just seems like "I just found milkweed!" when really your body-sense was leading you straight to it. Super handy!
Not that you're lacking for things to do but I can't help but point out that all those organized photos are a natural segue into writing your biography... I'll just let that idea simmer. :-D
I’m not sure but I seem to have missed something...is milkweed really so much easier to process into fiber than flax? Can you just pull it apart with your fingers? What, no retting, flax break, scutching nor hackle? Having been obsessed with flax for a couple years now, and growing a small patch of my own, I can’t wait to go after the milkweed out there lying in the pasture. Your photos make it look lustrous and yummy. Thanks for being quirky enough to write about this.
Oh my, here we all are, riding this endlessly flowing river of life for a while.... You've reminded me of my boxes of photos stacked up in the closet waiting and waiting. They're on my list. Images in this digital age take up less physical space and are more accessible, but the clutter in virtual space is mind boggling. Ah well, time to go out in the woods with the dogs! That's what we've been doing!
How you DO make a girl wanna try to spin milkweed cordage! I was out for a walk in the woods just the other day and saw milkweed pods standing on the tippy tops of long stalks. I chose one end of a stalk with two pods just barely cracked open, with dragon-like seed scales and a sparkly white fluff emanating from inside. I thought perhaps you spun the fluff from inside the pods. But I see here (and should have seen and noted in all other posts about your romance with milkweed, that it is not the pod-fluff, but rather the stuff from the stalks. Once this rain lets up, I plan to head out and see if I can bring a stalk or two home with me, just to give it a try you know...to flirt a little with it and see if I too might want to enter into a relationship with spinning milkweed. 😁 We shall see. But oh how brave you are to tackle the photos of years gone by! Yikes. Bravo and well done and all of the for culling through it all, down to just one box. Whew. Monumental I'd say. And how fun to see these photos of you with the pack mules and with your son and teaching, etc. Thank you for sharing them. I do wonder...with your cleverness in spinning paper, might there be any way at all one could spin or weave all the other photos into yarn? or paper weavings? How lovely they would be...large paper weavings of all the other images. It would be laborious for sure. And probably the wooing of milkweed is far more enchanting than cutting up old photographs into strips, taping them end to end to make them weavable. Anyway...thank you for always being you Sarah, for inspiring, for sharing your creative life!
I’ll track down your earlier writings —I’m on the milkweed trail! Have always loved that plant, it’s been calling me since I was a child. milkweed fluff pillows, hatching Monarch butterflies, it is magical! So glad to have found Gusset and a sister fiber fan!
Well done with the photos! I feel for you.... have just recently asserted my own ability to Throw Photos Out. And Beryl is so right, what's here now and continuing each day is key. And the milkweed's persistence is surely crucial to life in some delicate, wordless way - you are a good listener!
Sarah. Photos!. You are a brave rule-breaker. I thought those were supposed to be the hardest and therefore the last items to sort. Tho I love how your dogs and human family get equal footing. Happy New Year!
Happy new year sarah..so happy you were blessed with the stalks! Enjoy..stay warm
Nice mittens!
I think, at this point, you have some sort of internal dowsing thing for milkweed going on. Like maybe you can smell it while not being consciously aware of it so it just seems like "I just found milkweed!" when really your body-sense was leading you straight to it. Super handy!
Not that you're lacking for things to do but I can't help but point out that all those organized photos are a natural segue into writing your biography... I'll just let that idea simmer. :-D
Happy New Year!!
I love the collage of life and ideas and work in this post. And I can never get enough of your milkweed posts!
I’m not sure but I seem to have missed something...is milkweed really so much easier to process into fiber than flax? Can you just pull it apart with your fingers? What, no retting, flax break, scutching nor hackle? Having been obsessed with flax for a couple years now, and growing a small patch of my own, I can’t wait to go after the milkweed out there lying in the pasture. Your photos make it look lustrous and yummy. Thanks for being quirky enough to write about this.
What a beautiful feeling I get as I read your words. I’m overcome with tears of joy. Thank you
Love that last photo of Beryl on the beach! Thanks for the milkweed journey.
Thank you … especially for the last paragraph.
“past into present and on into unknowable tomorrow.”
A very heartfelt statement as I feel more than ever part of a ribbon of the timeline giving me perspective on this journey.
Thank you dear Sarah and Beryl!!! May the coming year bring fun adventures and creativiy!!!
Oh my, here we all are, riding this endlessly flowing river of life for a while.... You've reminded me of my boxes of photos stacked up in the closet waiting and waiting. They're on my list. Images in this digital age take up less physical space and are more accessible, but the clutter in virtual space is mind boggling. Ah well, time to go out in the woods with the dogs! That's what we've been doing!
How you DO make a girl wanna try to spin milkweed cordage! I was out for a walk in the woods just the other day and saw milkweed pods standing on the tippy tops of long stalks. I chose one end of a stalk with two pods just barely cracked open, with dragon-like seed scales and a sparkly white fluff emanating from inside. I thought perhaps you spun the fluff from inside the pods. But I see here (and should have seen and noted in all other posts about your romance with milkweed, that it is not the pod-fluff, but rather the stuff from the stalks. Once this rain lets up, I plan to head out and see if I can bring a stalk or two home with me, just to give it a try you know...to flirt a little with it and see if I too might want to enter into a relationship with spinning milkweed. 😁 We shall see. But oh how brave you are to tackle the photos of years gone by! Yikes. Bravo and well done and all of the for culling through it all, down to just one box. Whew. Monumental I'd say. And how fun to see these photos of you with the pack mules and with your son and teaching, etc. Thank you for sharing them. I do wonder...with your cleverness in spinning paper, might there be any way at all one could spin or weave all the other photos into yarn? or paper weavings? How lovely they would be...large paper weavings of all the other images. It would be laborious for sure. And probably the wooing of milkweed is far more enchanting than cutting up old photographs into strips, taping them end to end to make them weavable. Anyway...thank you for always being you Sarah, for inspiring, for sharing your creative life!
I’ll track down your earlier writings —I’m on the milkweed trail! Have always loved that plant, it’s been calling me since I was a child. milkweed fluff pillows, hatching Monarch butterflies, it is magical! So glad to have found Gusset and a sister fiber fan!
Happy New Year! Life goes on. I'm in a confused state but reading your words is always helpful. Thanks.
Well done with the photos! I feel for you.... have just recently asserted my own ability to Throw Photos Out. And Beryl is so right, what's here now and continuing each day is key. And the milkweed's persistence is surely crucial to life in some delicate, wordless way - you are a good listener!