on the water...again

Willsboro Bay on the New York state side of Lake Champlain is a pretty spot for paddling. In the mornings, the breeze is offshore, from the south. During the day, it blows from the northwest. It changes in the evening, quietly, slowly, at about 6:30. The ducks don't seem to mind. The scoters were here, doing their diving acts. And the hummingbirds are all around, noisy little helicopters. Oh, and the pesky millefoile is sticking its heads out of the water.

a funky little piece

This is a detail of a little piece that I did called "When I Die and Go to Heaven, It Will Not Look Like This." I must have heard some news about Florida and someone I knew was thinking of retiring there, and this image came to mind.



Here is the whole thing:


And this is another detail:

Bayeux Tapestry

This is a remarkable use of modern technology to allow us to see the story that this tapestry is telling.

travels on oswego canal in new york

The Oswego River, north of Syracuse, NY, is part of the Erie Canal System. Lock #1 is in the little village of Phoenix, which burned almost into extinction in an industrial fire gone out of control in 1916. It has never really recovered, despite its name, which came from one Alexander Phoenix, an early landowner here.

travels in pennsylvania

Last week, I drove around the southwest corner of Pennsylvania, the area south of Pittsburgh known as the Laurel Highlands. This photo is of Cucumber Falls and will be used as inspiration for another fabric piece. The light is what makes the image work, isn't it?

another little quilt

I made this sometime last year as an exercise in machine-quilting (of course—I have to get better at that) and in using materials other than fabric and thread to tell a story. The title of this piece is "Fall into Winter, Spring into Summer." It's little, about 6 inches x 18 inches or something like that. I had to think about what colors reminded me of each season and then how each season related to the others—where to start, how to connect to the next, and how to make it circular without a circle.

quiet water

Today I went out in my decked canoe on the West River for a quiet paddle. This image is from several weeks ago when I was up in the Adirondacks on another quiet body of water. Paddling is less about the going than it is about the being there. I pack up a sandwich, water, something sweet, and a book. Then I find a shady spot on the water, someplace under a tree where the birds are feeding on the insects and the water lilies have leaves that are 15 inches across. I pull out the book and disappear into this other world of words and water, sun and breeze.

52.5 years ago

It's a prime number birthday today. I'm not usually sentimental, but I found this photo of myself when I was about six months old and realized that we don't really change all that much in all the living that we do, eh?. Still curious and open-mouthed.