0n the way down to town.
The bluest of blues.
Across the road from the Meeting House.
Along the stone wall, at the edge of our property.
At the top of Rolling Rock Rd, looking down toward home.
Our neighbors’ cattle, with rose hips in the foreground.
Birches in the light of the full Hunter’s Moon.
The full moon and a bird at dawn last week.
Christopher’s trees, bearing witness.
The leaves have been drifting down from the trees for days, and last night such a wind arose that we all knew what we would wake up to…bare trees and carpets of leaves. This time, as the foliage winds down and “stick season” eases in, feels so very poignant. The pagan in me senses the thinning of the veil between this world and the one that hovers just beyond.
I’m reading Thin Places by Kerri ní Dochartaigh (I found it via The Traveling Bookbinder, you can read Rachel’s review here.) Snuggled in with my first cup of tea in the morning, this book fits right in with the season…
Our brave and resilient fuchsia is still blooming, despite a few hard frosts.
Our sweet girls were entertained by a chipmunk who found its way all the way to the top of the crabapple. The apples are fermenting as the frost changes their chemistry. All sorts of birds are gorging on the last of the crabapples, rose hips, and rowan berries.
Batman caught this robust neighbor on his game camera the other night. Helping itself to apples from our trees, this hungry bear was waaaaay too close to our house. Seems like all the critters are fattening up for the winter ahead.
I stitched another “origami pouch” but changed up the lining fabric. What a difference it makes! If you are looking for the free template, read this through and look for the link provided. Click on the link to be directed to the template.
When the first hard frost was forecast, Batman ran out and covered the last of the indigo. The next day I tried some more tataki-zomé or flower pounding. These are in a stash of supplies for my studio sew-a-thon I have scheduled for myself on November 5th.
Svetlana Sotak’s book That Handmade Touch is full of fun and easy projects. I’ve made a bunch of these fold over pouches and decided I needed one for on-the-go projects. The birch fabric is from Ink and Spindle, long tucked away in my favorite fabric stash. (You can read about our daughter Gretta’s internship at Ink and Spindle here.)
According to the Oxford dictionary, liminal is an adjective… “occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold”.
SO! The season here in Vermont, with its changing landscape and feasting animals, is certainly liminal.
And on the almost-eve of the elections, the times are most certainly liminal for these United States.
I continue to navigate the days with stitching, reading, staying in touch with friends, appreciating this gorgeous neighborhood, doing volunteer work, taking the news in very small doses, hanging with Corazón and Wilma and Batman. Yesterday, I strung beads with Maggie via Zoom and heard all about how first grade is going. Our book group has gotten into learning to play mahjong (thinking of you, Martha!) as a distraction from politics and in anticipation of the long winter ahead.
So friends, I am with you in spirit. I hold my breath with you. I try so hard not to feed the fear. It does not deserve our attention. Let us go outside tonight and look up at the sky and get some perspective. And be fully present to the liminal times we are navigating.
xo
(FYI…I’ve been answering your comments on the day I post a new blog entry. )