goldenMoment in Nashville

honey coloured gentleman holding the door

[to me]

"excuse me Ma'am, but which tribe are you from? reason I'm askin is that myself I'm half Cherokee"

being also honey coloured, it made my day.

feltquilts at shakerag

the quiltfelt landskin class very quickly settled into a splendid

sewing circle

many stories and much laughter

we entrusted ourselves entirely to Mother Nature during both this

and the walk in the woods class held the week before

and

[with the exception of kudzu and nepal grass, both noxious weeds]

relied on windfalls from the woods

and a few from the kitchens

to colour our cloth

[although some eucalyptus leaves snukkled in from Florida]

no synthetic mordants were used

only leaves and water

some found metal objects [iron and copper]

and a little milk to assist with dyeing linen and cotton

bio-regional colour...

Shakerag took a gamble

inviting a gypsy from across the Big Puddle

to venture into the Tennessee woods

and teach

and the gypsy is very grateful

shakerag

it's been a pretty intense fortnight here at

Shakerag

in the Tennessee woods

two big classes

some fascinating talks by other faculty members

and interesting lectures by invited speakers

Pam Dorr [Hero Housing in Alabama]

and

Natalie Chanin [Alabama Chanin]

links worth investigating...

and much delight

as we play with

Kudzu

the Scourge of the South

and print brilliant greens...

slip on over to Christine's blog

for more details

in between

yesterday i had a day off

so I went to Memphis

as you do

and here are some things i did for the first time

drove a Chrysler [likely also to be the last]

walked down Beale Street [and back up]

ate catfish

drank a Hurricane

helped count 127 churches along route 64

the visit was short but sweet

but i'll be back sometime...

the wonder of the woods

we wandered the woods

wrote by a cavern

drew images of plants

were told their names

and then went and made more bundles

the oak leaves were magical

as were the maples

and the maple-leaved viburnums

windfall eucalypts wandered in from Florida

and were eagerly consumed

[nil by mouth]

and in the end

we took our books back to the woods

if you go down to the woods today...

if you go down to the woods today

you'd better not go alone

never mind the teddy bears

you'll need a friend to do "tickcheck"

afterwards

insect life aside

the woods around Shakerag are very beautiful

with an amazing flora

but we're not picking

just collecting windfalls

and making delightful bundles

the first windfall walk revealed some spectacular colours

like that oak leaf print at bottom right [in the image above]

and this blue-green magic from a mystery leaf

and what about the Spanish Moss, i hear you mutter

unbundling yesterday

i discovered that what appeared to be silk

on that Japanese apron, was in fact a very clever substitute

[should have realised from the smell]

but the cotton part of the apron has taken on a gentle soft green

which doesn't reproduce well in pix

never mind. Virginia, a kind visitor to the original post

has provided this link

to someone who makes blankets from Spanish Moss

[just like in a fairytale]

and here's Virginia's blog as well

more windfallen treasure

walking back from City Park in New Orleans

i found several pieces of Spanish Moss [ Tillandsia usneoides ]

in the gutter of the road

so of course

it is now in a bundle

with a very special old and mended apron from Japan

and several pieces of metal pocketed

from the railway line near the banks of the Mississippi River

[that's em ei ess ess ei ess ess ei pee pee ei]

how many i's in the Mighty Mississippi?

depends how many fish is lookin up at you

the bundle is rather bigger than my little travelling cauldron

and so is being cooked bit by bit

first from one end and then from the other

time is your friend in the dyebath

[well, i hope so]

we were quite sad to leave New Orleans

but

are now at Shakerag

beginning a new adventure

the good and the sad

it's fun to pootle round New Orleans

shooting from the hip with

the modern equivalent of the box brownie

every so often

something sad finds its way into the frame

these poor mules work 18 hour days

forced to trot on the hard bitumen surface

wearing steel shoes

my feet [clad in wool socks and farm boots]

are killing me after 8 days of pavement walking

[they much prefer paddocks]

so i can imagine how tired those poor mules must feel

how their legs must ache

after working that hard surface all day

how about at least getting them some rubber shoes?

surely there'd be a market for rubber horseboots

perhaps made from recycled tyres

to take some of the banging out of those poor bones

there are horses the whirled over

working long days

pulling fat tourists about

on hard roads

at least these guys seem reasonably well fed

unlike their poor skeletal cousins in India

talkin through neW Orleans

converation in a thrift store on Bienville Street

how ya doin honey?

life's grand

you from these parts?

well, no

where then?

across the Big Puddle

oh. i'm not from here either. i'm from Baton Rouge

but i's lived here 40 years. you enjoying yourself here?

yes, thank you, very much

that's good, it's changed, though

this your first time in N'Orlins?

nah, was here in '83

then you know what it was like before...