whoops

Well I did not mean to publish that post without more writing. Burgess published it for me.
He cannot stay off the key board.
Silly little thing.

New Years Eve

Gloriously beautiful day today, so cold the snow crunches and squeaks when walked on, almost like it's complaining about having to move in the cold.
The skies here in the mountain west are intensely blue. Today with the new snow fall, the sunshine and the crispness of the air, it was nearly eye-popping. I loved the snow and the color of this quaking aspen by the front porch.

Had to post this picture of my sisters little dogs opening their Christmas stockings. They know it's for them and they get soooo excited, worse that little kids.

And like little kids, cats prefer the empty box rather than the gift itself. Lynx was in the box within seconds.

Little Yoda is very pleased about being an inside cat and never having to go outside, and rarely leaving my desk chair. No wonder I can't get anything done, Ihave to perch on the edge of the chair or risk getting my behind slapped, she does not hesitate to use claws either.

I am very content tonight. My family is together, the dogs are settled with new bones, the cats are in my bed, all is warm and cozy. I am so very grateful.

It is ten below so far, it will get worse tonight. We are all comfortable and safe. The ducks and chickens are probably not very amused, the ducks are bedded in the snow, their insulated down coats don't even let their body heat melt the snow beneath them.

Hmmmm

I think I deserve a Wallaby.
I wonder if they can be housetrained.

Dec 25

Happy birthday.

Christmas day

The last week has been stressful at best.

Sitting here with a valium on board and sniffing my anti-stress aromatherapy, whew, Burgess is picking around on my desk, everything is pretty good.

We had a great day with family, all of whom I love very much. Soooo wish I had the money to spoil everyone I know with whatever they wanted.

Burgess has been saying "Ti-gger, Ti-gger" the last two days. It's very funny.

Just a quick not to God;

Hey thanks for everything. I really appreciate it, you are so good to me and mine. You always take care of us, sure do love you.

Sure am trying to love your children, all of them rich and poor, regardless. Hate to point this out but sometimes you kids can be a bit stupid. Me too. Sorry about that.

You know I'm trying, right?

Love you,

Your incorrigible daughter,

Maren

Christmas

After two years spent serving an LDS mission in California, my second son is home. He and his older brother overlapped in their missions so they have not seen each other in over three years.
It is wonderful beyond words to have them all home.

Oddly enough, I feel sort of confused like I don't know what to do, guess I'll go make toffee or something.


Anyway this year we have the prettiest Christmas tree we have ever had.

And Burgess thinks we did it all for him.

" Don't you touch my ornaments!!! you want a beak stabbin?"

addendum

Hey dad,

Seventeen years ago today, you died.
I know you just moved on. I know I will see you again but I really do miss you.

Wish you could see these boys. Let me change that statement, I know you can see them, I wish they could see you, wish we all could. They would have loved having you in their lives longer.

Brother Bill has the greatest little family. Mom must be crazy over his little kids, bet you are too.

Love you. Thanks for all you did. Tell mom I love her too.

Someday later,

Maren

slap up the side of the head

Sometimes I really need a serious slap up the side of the head, but you can't fix stupid.

Its a bit sad the Lord needs to remind me as often as he does, it is not the "stuff" that matters but the people.

In fact I can picture him right now, "its the people stupid, the people!" I added the stupid bit, pretty sure he doesn't say that, as much as he needs too I'm guessing he refrains so I said it for him.

The other day my 17 year old son had an assignment in class, his group was supposed to make a poster about the most important things in life. He said the most important thing was giving and receiving love. I guess some of the kids started to make fun of him saying it was a pansy thing to say and he was "emotional". The teacher became angry and supported him.
My young son is wise beyond his years.

He recently read "Tuesdays with Morrie" and was deeply touched by it. My son is right, more right I think than even he knows.

Love is everything.

It's not the Christmas presents, the buying, the getting, the accumulating.
It is not status or stuff, not cars, not clothes, not cellphones or TVs.

It is Love, not the love you get, but the love you give, and with the giving you receive.

So glad the Lord gives me quiet reminders and not the slap I really need. That would hurt, sort of lightning-boltish don't you think?

December stuff

Here is the Billy cat box I made, paperclay and wood....

And here is the snowman box.....

This is the cashmere lace scarf I FINALLY finished for sis-in-laws Christmas pressie.

The cashmere is incredibly light and delicate, soooooo soft.

And of course, Burgess in winter plumage, each little feather is tipped with a white triangle, so cool and very striking. In spring he will molt back to a brackish brown but for now he is very dressy.

Burgess

Okay, now he is singing the first notes of Frosty the snow man and Rudolph.

If I could only get a video of him, it is just so ephemeral, it's not like he does it on cue, only when he feels like it.
He is going to flip over the Christmas tree.

My son says he loves the way you can look into Burgess's eyes and there is someone there looking back.

dream

So I have had this dream for a long time now, pretty damn sure it is never going to come true, not that fate doesn't like me or anything ( it does not by the way), it is just a time issue.

You see, I want a lilac forest, at least an acre planted in lilacs and grasses. Since it takes sooooo long for lilacs to grow, like fifty years, I am pretty sure I won't live long enough to see it in fruition even if I started planting tomorrow and that is not going to happen.

So here is the dream, a lilac forest, with little sheep grazing around, knee deep in clover so to speak, and an orchard on the other side of a picturesque stone fence. A giant pig named Booger lives in the orchard, I stand on the back veranda of the old farm house and yell, BOOGER and she comes running (trundling cause she's so huge) up from the orchard to get her beer. Though I don't drink I'll keep a case around for her.
We'll go for long walks down our own lane with the goats, a few dogs, couple of cats and a miniature Jersey cow.
The lilacs will be in full bloom, the scent intoxicating, tiny new lambs frolic in the sweet grasses with fat newly shorn mommas keeping watch.
There is a forest with pathways, stone outcroppings for the goats to play on, a small creek and pond.
By the farm house there is a great vegetable garden, weedless of course , and fields of corn and alfalfa and a grand view.
By the old white house, there are hedges, massive falls of David Austin roses, all my favorites, Getrude Jekyll, Graham Thomas and Mary Rose, and of course one of the roses I love the most, Wald Fee will be in abundance all around the house.
Obviously I will need "help" to keep up the place while I fart around and do whatever I want to. do, mostly art work, in the loft of the gigantic post and beam barn.
I even have a name for it, FoxEarth Farm.
Or maybe I could call it My Happy Place.

black friday

For those of you who brave the cold, dark of night and nasty cross people to get a deal, good for you, you have more guts and determination than I do. Personally I have never done it, there just does not seem to be anything I want that badly.

So I slept in, and I slept in for a very long time too.

And this is how I woke up.....

Tigger.

Tigger with a question.

"What are you doing?"

"Wanna play?"

"When are we going to eat?"

"What are you doing?"

"Can we play now?"

"Where is Mr. Tinky?"

"Why are the blankets growling?"

"Is Mr. Tinky under there?"

"What are you doing?"

"Can we play now?"

"What are you doing?"

"Can we play now?"

Etc. etc.etc......

Gratitude

Well I just wrote a wise, wonderful and very long post about gratitude, and lost it.

So now I am just going to post pictures of Mr. Tinky in the snow.

He hates it, it is horrible, it freezes his toes and other bits and he is extremely grateful for his blankies and his little blast-furnace friend Miss Piggy.

Now if someone would just pick -him -the -hell -up -and -stop -taking -pictures -when -he -is -freezing -his -little -arse -off, all would be well.

Starling Burgess

Burgess has learned to say his name, sing it really. He says "Burgey burgey burgey burgess" and the first few notes of La Cucaracha.
I love that little pest.

just plain wierd.

I watch people.
I catch myself staring at them. I'm weird that way.
Usually it because I find them so beautiful, not in the magazine cover, model, Hollywood way, but how sometimes, you can see their soul, or I watch how the light falls on their face, or how it shifts through their hair.


I stare at children. In the grocery store as I wander the aisle babies and toddlers catch my eye and they stare back at me, for a few seconds there is a connection and I smile and they smile. I love it. I find the beauty of them stunning. The freshness of their little faces delights my soul.

I stare at the elderly. I feel such compassion for them. I do try to be a little discrete but I watch all the time. Weird.

I love people but then someone will piss me off and I'll hate them all and then five minutes later feel compassion again.

It's what happens when you are not only ADD but a Gemini, you can't stay the same for more than a few minutes....

bedroom

Every morning this room makes me happy.
I am so glad I changed it even though it has been a bit of a job. The color of the wall is exactly the color of Hersheys syrup right out of the bottle.

I love this room. Love, love, love it.

As soon as I get everything settled around here and ready for my son to come home in a month, I'll make a quilt for this room. Right now I am finishing distressing the wood for the bed frame I am making. After the kid comes home I want to do a large oil painting of lavendar fields to hang over the bed.

This really has been a big job. I am getting more than a little tired of it, being as ADD as I am. It is worth it every morning though.

I love this room.

Burgess

Funny little bird really likes milk. You have to watch him though, he wants to bathe in it too.

grey ghost

Watercolor painting of great grey owl, size 2.5 x 3.5 inches.

frozen

The other day it rained, the water filled the vase like interior of the Datura blooms and later that night it froze. As I touched the frozen blooms they peeled away, friable and delicate, leaving the stamens incased in ice.
I found it fascinating and imagined what it would look like in blown glass.
Can you see it? A clear glass vase with glass flowers?
I don't know, maybe it was the Ambien, but it seemed very cool at the time.

awwwwwsome

Just finished painted and distressed old, probably seventies cabinet, and THE coolest vintage find ever.....
incredibly cute, totally awesome little kids horse.
It is just under 17 inches tall.
Soooo cute! I love it.

Shower

Starling Burgess took a shower with me this morning.
He clings to my hair, flutters and gets himself soaked.
He loves it.
Then he plopped down on my shoulder and leaned against my ear.
We stood there for a very long time and let the hot water run.

There is something weird and wonderful about a wild bird trusting so much as to get soaking wet right there on your head, they are so vulnerable when they are too wet to fly.

I loved it, but of course there are no pictures.

minor obsession: wool

Wool and paint.
I am obsessed. There is never enough of either.
This is icelandic wool on a hand spindle and a large ceramic bowl of watercolor paint.
I spun the icelandic in a fairly light and loft yarn, plied double and then I spun a dark brown icelandic wool plied it with the off white wool for a two tone look. This was knit into a hat for my son for Christmas. Part of the hat was brown and part of the hat was white. Needle point wool.
I have two vintage chairs I want to re-cover in needlepoint but I have to come up with something wild and wonderful NOT the traditional circle of flowers.

Plain white wool.

Delicious. Sheepy. Wonderful. I just love wool. My favorite fiber! although I have had a fixation on cashmere yarn lately too.

Funny how the goats who wear the cashmere don't seem to realize they are wearing a luxury fiber. It is stinky and disgusting when they wear it. They don't mind at all. Goats are the best. My goat-girls have gone to heaven but they were great girls. I adored them. Rosie was a bit dense and Lily was a stinker, but they made me very happy.

And then there is Burgess......

Here he is prying into some cotton yarn I stared making a dish cloth with, he is HORRIBLE with knitting. HORRIBLE! And even worse when I am trying to paint something....he insists on hauling off with the paint brush.

Sometimes he gets so naughty he has to go in his cage just so I can get something done.

He is an opinionated bird, never seen anything like it, he gets, well, pissy. Seriously. He gets really bent out of shape if he does not get his own way. It is very funny. The feathers on top of his head stand up like a little crew cut and he starts squawking and pecking with that needle sharp beak of his.

He is getting his new winter feathers in, they are quite striking with delicate white tips. Very pretty.

Funny little thing.

Quite the prodigious pooper though.

what a slacker...

The last of the summer Datura or moon flower.....

The blooms are a good five inches across, they are my favorite, gorgeous and have such interesting buds and funky prickly seed pods.

So why have I been such a slacker and not been updating my blog regularily?

Well I have sort of a good excuse.

I tore up my bedroom completely, ripped the carpet out and put in hard wood flooring re-painted everything, the bottom 2/3 of the the wall is creamy white, the top third is exactly the color of hershey's syrup right out of the bottle. It is the most wonderful color I adore it. I started installing the trim work but by then I was hurting terribly because I have fibromyalgia and installing the floor nearly killed me so the going was slowing down.

BUT and here is the kicker, I was talking on the phone to my friend and jumping on the bed, lost my balance and took a header into the closet.

Okay, now you are done laughing your arse off....I really messed up my hand. My supposedly opposable thumb was no longer opposing. Hurt like hell to be real honest with you.

So you are asking yourself "what is a fifty year old woman doing jumping on the bed?"

Well for your information I am thirty-nine (yeah thats it, thirty-nine) and jumping on the bed seemed fun at least it started out that way.

So I have not been blogging, hand in a brace, all the stuff from the bedroom crammed in my office and not able to get to the computer, let alone write, that's my excuse.

Things are getting better, it will be done soon, just a few more things to do and everything can be moved back. Hopefully as I get things organized I will find my brain and a little maturity.

I'll post pictures.

Blog give away

" Behold, this is my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have glorified My name."

What love and joy the Father must have felt for his son, how great the love Mary must have felt for her Miracle.

This birth was and is one of the most profound examples of love the universe have ever known, next in comparison only to the death and resurrection of Christ.

The birth of the Beloved Son into mortality is the manifestation of the very love that created the universe and by which it continues to expand.

I love the phrase, "the condescension of God", Christ, born of Mary the chosen vessel, condescended to be a human baby, to poop his pants, to cry with hunger, to toddle, to fall and get up again. To die.
Then there is Mary. The most beautiful virgin. So intelligent, virtuous, decent and faithful she was chosen to bear the Beloved Son and raise him, to help him fulfill his destiny of the cross, to help him get there.

I think her love for this child and her suffering as she watched him grow up and die must have been unimaginable.

What I do like to imagine and what I believe with all my heart is that he as the resurrected Christ returned to love and comfort his mother. Wouldn't it be wonderful to know what he said to her? His Mommy.

The most noble title given to the Mother of God?

Momma.



Heather on the excellent blog www.womeninthescriptures.blogspot.com is having a give away.

I have made a print of the painting of The Beloved Son available for her to give away on her blog.
Go make a comment on her blog and enter to win this and several other great prizes.

I hope you enjoy this painting, it took forever to do.

The original is done in colored pencil and gold leaf.

If you do not win her give away and want a print they are available in my etsy shop, flyingfox.etsy.com


Blessings.....

Oh No! another one.

Oh no, not again. This little one, just learning to fly ended up in a dog yard where a golden retriever mistook it for a squeaky toy. Its injury was minor by most standards but these tiny ones are so frail. It would rally and then fail, rally and fail until it simply stopped. Who knows what was going on in it's tiny body. I hate it when this happens, just hate it. Poor little thing managed to hang on for about 48 hours is all.

It is rare when they survive, it is just so difficult to care for them. Burgess is a miracle really, kind of a pest but a miracle.
Speaking of Burgess, this is darling Yoda watching him flutter around my office. She would like to have a go at him but she is too pudgy to make the effort, she thinks about it though. She is sitting on my knitting, it is a bright blue baby shrug, so cute! It's not very big so her butt covers nearly the whole thing.

Recently I purchased some handspun Icelandic yarn from a lovely little girl who had cleaned and spun the wool herself. She is not very old, a teenager, and she has done a wonderful job. I am quite impressed. Anyway, it is a natural warm grey color and I have started a lace shawl with it. Icelandic sheep can have a fairly coarse wool and this is not very soft, but it will be a great shawl to throw over the jeans jacket I wear so often in the winter.

I do have some white Icelandic that is very soft, from a great old ram named Hammer, and nearly seven pounds of roving from my Icelandic ewes named Marilyn and Berry. I've been saving Hammers yarn for something special but I have not decided what to do with it yet. Marilyn had a very soft creamy fleece, almost a vanilla ice-cream color. It will be wonderful yarn if I ever get it spun. Berry was a chocolate color and not as soft but it will still be gorgeous yarn. Someday.

This lace is going to need a very serious blocking when it is done.

She also spun a deliciously bouncy white wool and I am so in love with the squishy-ness of it, I don't know what I am going to do with it. It is very soft and, well, sproinky.

Shall I keep it natural white? shall I hand dye it? Will it make a small shawl? Socks would be luxurious with it.... Hmmm I don't know, though I am leaning toward a small lace shawl.

Gotta go clean my studio, its a disaster.

After lunch...

Today I picked up a friend from her chemo treatments. We went to lunch at a favorite Mexican place and had a long talk.

Once again I am reminded how very, very blessed I am, blessed with wonderful, insightful intelligent friends, reminded again of the power of prayer and how faith can make even the most wounded person more whole than those without faith can possibly imagine and reminded again of the nobility of the human soul.

There are no depths to great for a human being to sink, no limits to mans ability to degrade himself or herself. On the other hand there is also no limit to the greatness of a human being determined to continue in the course of refining oneself, with self-restraint, kindness, prayer, humility, grace and a commitment to being Christ-like. This is a daily process and a difficult one.
Perhaps that is where the commitment comes in, you make the decision and determine to stay with it, never falter always trying, the decision to simply be good. Just be good.

Commitment and then obedience.

I am reminded that prayer is not just a quick post to the Lord as you go about your day but a cherished conversation with a Father and friend.

I am reminded my grand and handsome sons are worth every sacrifice I have ever made.

I am deeply and profoundly grateful.

After lunch I ran downstairs to check on those sons, One was asleep on the couch, one was playing x-box and shushed me so I would not wake his brother and then he pointed out that Burgess was also asleep on the open door of the TV cabinet, his little head tucked under his wing. his tiny chest feathers falling up and down with each breath.

I love this weird household.

Negligent

Well I have been just terrible about updating this blog. There has been allot going on too.

I put the "Fall into Winter" quilt in the county fair and it won a Sweepstakes ribbon, I did not get to see it hanging because I had gall-bladder surgery at the same time.
Jacob had four teeth pulled and he was super miserable then there was school to get ready for.... a million different things going on it seems. Blogging was just not high on the list.

Anyway here is a picture of Mr. Tinky. Isn't he adorable.



Tigger...pretty stinkin adorable too.

Mr. Tinky and Miss Piggy. She is doing so much better, not anywhere near as frightened and miserable.

Here is Burgess driving me crazy. He loves to "help" with my knitting.

This is a silk shawl in the most wonderful silvery grey, for my friend for Christmas.

Lace scarf done in Baby Alpaca, it needs to be blocked.

Collage backgrounds done and ready for painting.

another background ready, and some small bird paintings.

I have been working on re-painting my bedroom too. The top part is the most delicious chocolate color, exactly the color of Hersheys syrup right from the bottle. The bottom2/3 of the wall is a creamy antique white with trim work and the ceiling is the palest blue.

I LOVE it. Hopefully this week I can start putting in the new hardwood floor.

So even though I have not been writing, I have actually been doing stuff.

Have to admit though, I get a bit crazy trying to do everything all at the same time.

The yard has been suffering all summer. It looks terrible. This time of year I keep hoping for a hard frost so there is an excuse for my yard to look the way it does.

Burgess is driving me nuts as I type. He keeps running across the keyboard. What a funny little bird.

Okay, he is going to keep this up until he mangages to delete my whole post.

Signing off now......