clearing space

it pains me to confess that
in order to reach my bed
i was having to develop the agility of a mountain goat

while looking for the floor
i piled some of the books on my bed
here they are

that delicious cloth in the background
was stitched by my good friend Roz
who blessed me with it as a surprise
last year

'Sternenmelodie' is a feel-good romantic novel set in the Vienna of the Austro-Hungarian empire. i reach for it when i am too tired to think

'the Curly Pyjama letters' by Michael Leunig are [to quote the dust jacket] " a small fragment of the vast correspondence known to have taken place between lone voyager Vasco Pyjama and his friend and mentor Mr Curly of Curly Flat"

Stephen Fry writes deliciously. the "Ode Less Travelled" is both entertaining and instructive.

'Pilgrimage' by Stuart Kestenbaum, poet and also Director of Haystack Mountain School of Craft. it's the current "morning dip" book

'The Devil's Horn'- a history of my favourite instrument, the saxophone. Nancy Zeller kindly alerted me to the existence of this book

'Here & There'....A.A.Gill is a marvellous writer and this is full of bite-size stories about wandering. [note to self : there goes a suitable title for the autobiography. sigh.]

i discovered 'Finding your Way in a Wild New World' after Roz [see above] kindly sent me an article about 'making" and while i can't locate the original at the moment here's a link to a related quote
Robyn of Art Propelled asked me if i'd come across it [the book]. Beck talks about mindfulness, wordlessness, stillness, oneness - all practices fundamental to the way i cope with the whirled - i'll be reading and re-reading, i think

'One Day' - heartily recommended for a trans-Pacific flight!

i'm studying 'Some Plants are Poisonous' [along with the thumping great volume on diseases of animals written by Hungerford...the on-farm bible] because i have been given the task of preparing a talk on [surprise] Poisonous Plants [with specific relevance to dyeing, because we don't wish to be dying....just yet] and i have learned that indigofera species are poisonous. which leads me to wonder if it is really safe to be standing in a concrete pit full of water and indigo leaves as part of the extraction process

so 'Indigo' is feeding my need for more knowledge of blue

'Centering'  helps me with my inner balance and is a much-treasured gift from my friend Desiree Fitzgibbon . suspect it helps me in my stone-stacking too.

'The Hare with Amber Eyes' was recommended to me by Jenni Worth.

and lastly 'Slow' magazine. i rarely buy magazines but this one has lots of interesting reading, gorgeous pictures and interesting things to follow up in it


...now to get the pile off the bed
so i have somewhere to sleep tonight.
meanwhile
a thought for today

"that which knows doesn't speak, that which speaks doesn't know" 
Lao Tzu [from Martha Beck's book, see above]