In the hay field on East hill,
above the farmer's house,
we lay on our backs
where in the daylight
if the weather was fortuitous
and the grass was high enough to cut and dry enough for baling,the farmers and their helpers would bale hay:
On the ruts of the road where the tractors wheels had left the grass flattened
so it did not scratch and poke into your exposed skin,
there we lay in the field at night, in September,
when there was no moon and gazed up at the stars .

You could feel the slow silent turning of the earth, relative to them,
as you lay there
cradled in the soft curve of the ancient mountains
formed in a distant glacial meltdown,
feel the turning of the earth, relative to the stars.

We silently watched the stars and felt the rotation of the earth
-and there were so many-
who could have known,
as a child of the city,
where you could not see the stars, living as we did, beneath a halo of city lights,
where you could never lay upon your back in a cold dark beautiful field in Vermont on an autumn night as the temperature dropped
enough to make your toes and fingers numb

Who could have imagined that there were so many of them
and that if you kept your gaze in any quadrant of the September sky in Vermont at night for a period of about fifteen minutes you would see a shooting star

This I kept with me
this and the implicit pact of old souls to remember that night in a field in Vermont-
East hill- where the stars were bright enough to make shadows in the sharp cut grass and we felt our exquisite smallness in the multitudinous rapture of the galaxy

friends and alex

aren't they stunning?
Joy is my friend
Hedy is my friend also
alex is my son
I ate breakfast at one diner, lunch in another
and this is what alex looks like on ichat:)

old love leans this way
over a table
toward its mirror image and sinks comfortably into a familiarly indented nest...
if you have been lucky and found one to last and last
and last
new love bends inward hugging the wildness of its own galloping runaway mount.
bends forward
chasing old love
but cannot see it through the ether of time
strewn with the detritus of unbidden memories
cannot see past its own reflection.
cannot hear beyond the strains of its own riotous joyful cacophonous noise

Quilted for the show!

Quilted by Catherine T. in Canada, facilitated by and bound by Val C., co ordinator of the Quilt Show to Benefit theRankin Rec Center. Click the title for more information. Val asked me if I wanted to have the quilt in her show and whoooa of course how cool is that? She is also selling raffle tickets for a Dear Jane made by Tracy C. of the Dear Jane group. I have bought tickets and I am feeling lucky! If you want to buy raffle tickets for the Dear Jane quilt, contact Val at quiltshow@nrtco.net.
the link for info on the quilt show is
www.rankincentre.ca


This quilt is an international collaboration. Me here in Ny and Tilde in Copenhagen. Val and Catherine in Canada. The border blocks are from Susan McKelvey's Baltimores Country Cousins and the Center blocks are from Dear Jane and Dear Hannah by Brenda Papadakis. I am so happy with it . I will treasure it always.

I am midnight-I like that:)

You Are Midnight

You are more than a little eccentric, and you're apt to keep very unusual habits. Whether you're a nightowl, living in a commune, or taking a vow of silence - you like to experiment with your lifestyle. Expressing your individuality is important to you, and you often lie awake in bed thinking about the world and your place in it. You enjoy staying home, but that doesn't mean you're a hermit. You also appreciate quality time with family and close friends.

What Time Of Day Are You?

Lunch Date/Day off update

I had a lovely lunch date with my husband this week. We shared a delicious platter of Mexican appetizers at a restaurant in Huntington called Pancho Villa's. There was a huge picture of him staring down from the wall at us. I asked Mike, who is a history sponge, if he was a good guy or a bad guy, and he said it depends on who side you were on. Ain't it the truth?
We also stopped into our favorite paper Stationery, also in Huntington and bought treats for ourselves to celebrate my promotion! I bought a beautiful glass tipped pen made of Murano blown glass. I have one made of marblized green glass and I could not remember the color and I bought another green one but this one has clear green glass and is beautiful in a different way.And of couse if you buy a new glass tipped pen you must also buy turquois ink for it. Mike got some fat hardwoord pen, which felt solid and had a hefty feel. Not to my taste at all, but he is happy.

We also found a perfect bithday gift for my sil, who is a Very Hard Person for whom to shop. Anyway, I am hoping she likes her gift cuz I am not telling her where I got it. She is a coupon snipper, so I gave here a pretty embossed-to -look-like alligator leather pouch, with a silver bee clasp for to store her collections of coupons.
Knitting is progressing. I have a huge to be felted bag bottom on my needles. It will be the size of a small valise and I hope to have it finished before I go away but I doubt it will be... and Ping blocks to be finished. I have recieved the border kit from Pinwheels, so I need to get busy on it. I may even finish the shrug I began to knit for Katy last year. Guilt is a good motivator and I did promise it to her last December. The good news is I have not started any new big projects. Can I hold off till after Ping is done?
Here is the Alex Denim Seminole Stripped piece I made for Alex' little boy captain's bed when he was five. He still uses it.It would have been about 1988ish.
Tomorrow I have to get a root canal.
Note to self: Shouldn't bite on pebbles. Not good for the molars.
Happy Holidays to all who are celebrating!

more seminole piecing

A couple more little quilt tops. I have no idea when I will finish but the tops of the series are done. The photos are rather dull but the actual fabrics are vibrant.
I have been making little drawings lately. They are responses to prompts on a blog which does writing prompts but these guys jumped into my head so I let them out.

My nest

As the summer comes to a close I begin to enjoy my nest. I plan to paint, to add some bookshelves, to reinvent my inner sanctum. I will paint warm colors, create a place to read and think and write and maybe even do some water colors. I think I will move my desk into this room also. Presently it sits in my bedroom and it is not being used as a writing desk, but as a storage place for bills. I am not happy about that. I don't like to see the bills in a pile, and it is not its intended purpose. So there you have it. A plan is born.

Me and my shadow

Another lovely ride on the boardwalk. The breeze was pleasant but, the sun was strong and the heat was reflected from the buildings and the boardwalk itself. I consumed plenty of water before, during and after.
Post Labor Day the beach is officially closed. It doesn't stop the sun worshippers, even tho there are no life guards. They are back in school. It doesn't stop the swimmers either, and there is grave danger in swimming with no life guard. The locals always know when someone is in trouble in the water. The rescuers race to the beach at breakneck speed and you had better get out of the way.
The last two pics are taken from the east end of the board walk. We live on the other end. A good ride. Four and a half miles round trip, I try to go twice, on a good day, which is not hard unless there is wind. The bike lane in the middle is great-except when walkers forget to look and you almost run into them:) At least we don't have to dodge the cars in the road.And it is flat!
I am trying to ride as much as I can and still have time to make things. I figure "use it or lose it" applies to bike riding along with most other thing in life. It also gives me energy. I have been riding here since I moved here in '92. I had an old schwinn which I put a baby seat on and I used to put Katy in the back in a helmet, and off we would go. She would drink a bottle of juice and go to sleep. Blissful! Bailey did not like to ride as much. She used to put up a fuss so I did not ride with her as a passenger as much. When I had the two little kids, I bought one of those two seated joggers but they used to fight and squabble so I gave it up and found time to ride by myself. Tried to. Mike and I used to ride alot more and I hope to pick it up again. Cooler weather is great for cruising along the beach.

bike ride

Took a ride on our boardwalk this morning. The boardwalk is two point two miles long. I rode it back and forth once, then took a break, sat on a bench, and wound my ball of yarn so I can cast on my Noni bag. (brown cascade for felting, knitted with two strands) This one will be for me. More about that later. (I think I will put fuscia stripe in it-o be still my heart.)
A couple of old guys thought I was cute, winding my yarn. I rode to the end of the boardwalk again and then home. What a gorgeous day for the beach. My yarn agrees.