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......