ai = love

i worked all day saturday
and then on sunday
i thought
i will just pop in and do a few stitches
and then i will go out and wander somewhere
take a look at Portland

the Dogs had other plans
when i looked outside
it looked like this

that window is my studio

i think it may be
that i am in love with blue
it is a colour that takes me to a quite specific place and time
James Tate wrote beautifully about it
[click on the audio icon to hear the poem being read aloud]
there's a good reason why the Japanese word for blue is the same as the Japanese word for love 

or so i have been told.

today i was thinking about our blue planet
and how the maps we have available are always too small
especially for someone has left footprints on four of the seven continents [gazing at Egypt from the deck of a boat on the Suez Canal as a toddler sadly doesn't count as stepping in Africa]; who keeps a bicycle in New Orleans, a cat in South Australia, her heart in San Francisco and "einen Koffer in Berlin"       ##
 
so
i played around in Photoshop
and made a map that is really useful for planning trips
because
it allows you to compare distance easily with a piece of string [well, except for the curly bits around the poles] and goodness me, what a lot of blue!!!!

got any good maps you'd care to share?



## i plant trees to make up for all this wanton wandering...

musing on indigo and iceflowers

i don't often share my private correspondence
but
because it's nearing the end of the indigo season
and
i know some people are wondering how to deal with the remains of their harvest
indigrowingblue  has good tips

but
here's another
that blossomed when
a kind student came in yesterday with a big bag of late-season leaves...

on chowder...and organisms

yesterday i had a hankering for chowder
not the restaurant kind
[although the Distillery does do a good one...and besides
it would have been a helluva long bus trip from here]

i like cooking chowder
it is a nourishing activity, metaphorically and otherwise
when i visit with friends they often let me play in their kitchens
and cook chowder, because they know that being allowed to do so
makes me a nicer bear to have around

this one turned out to be in the top 9 that i've cooked
so
in the spirit of whirled peas and general happiness
i thought i would share what i did
[even though some key ingredients were not available]

i browned some butter in a big and heavy based pot.
then i tossed in a generous quantity of finely minced garlic
[i'm a dab hand with a knife, though not nearly as dabby as my Precious]

when the garlic was golden and fragrant
i gave it company
in the form of chopped carrot, sliced celery and two carefully cubed Yukon Gold murphies

i stirred all these volunteers in the butter until they were nicely caramelized [i have a thing about caramel, as my students today observed]
then i sprinkled in a goodly handful of

which happened to be in the selection of supplies that OCAC - through the good offices of Arthur de Bow, manager of residencies - had provided on my arrival

this made an excellent wheat-free roux [i'll let you know some time how it performs in gumbo]

i stirred the mixture over a reduced heat for as long as it takes to sing "summertime" though once

then i poured in
a brew i had been making on the side
which contained

more celery
a good handful of dill stalks
a similarly good handful of basil stalks
two bay leaves
some peppercorns
sea salt
the carrot trimmings
and
the skin of the piece of hot smoked salmon i was planning to add to the chowder

i strained the brew but fished out the bay leaves and transferred them to the main cauldron

then

i simmered it all together for about half an hour
[that was as long as i could stretch my cocktail* for]
then i added sweetcorn. usually i would slice this fresh from the cob but there was no cob lurking in my icebox so i opened a can.
"needs must when the devil drives"

then i crumbled in the smoked fish
added a pint of cream
+ a big handful of chopped dill
another of chopped chives
and
another of chopped green onions [that's spring onions for Aussies]

and then
at long last
i poured some into a bowl

seasoned it with two old friends
garnished with more green stuff

eat
savour
swoon

luckily
there was a scrape left for today's lunch
[i was teaching today]

i'm sure it made for a better class

and now you're thinking. ok. she's discussed the chowder. what about the organism?

well,
the story goes like this.
i have a friend, Y whose mother V
was out to dinner with her husband and another married couple
V was enjoying her food so much that she put down her fork
sighed and said
"i am so happy i am going to have organism"

that chowder, honeys, was organismic.
even if some of the usual suspects [bourbon, red pepper, maple syrup, rainwater] were missing.




and the class here today at the Oregon College of Art + Craft? sweeties, the lot of them.







*the cocktail was fabulous. Junipero gin + fresh sliced ginger + Fevertree ginger beer + lime + truckload of ice. now i just have to work out what to call it.

telling stories

if you happen to live in Portland, Oregon

and

you're at a loose end on November 11 this year

you may like to swing by the Centrum Space

at the Portland College of Art + Craft

i'll be telling stories there from 12.45pm

showing a few pictures

and

maybe

pulling a metaphorical bunny out of my sleeve

[depends how wet and cold that bunny is]

that said

it won't necessarily be this bunny

i'm not sure i can wait until then

finding my feet

it has dawned on me that it is the first time since 1985

that i am living in a dwelling on my ownsome

[note ownsome, not lonesome]

the faculty here at the Oregon College of Art and Craft

have been so kind and welcoming that i feel as if i have been here for more than five days

but that's all it is, so far

even so

the studio walls are filling.

i shall have to grow taller

or find a ladder

in order to make the most of the space

i have been wandering and gathering surface textures

as well as a few words

marvelling at the wonder of the leaves

gathering

and then bundling them up

with happy results

and i had a somewhat larger bundle going

a little ambitious for the pot

but a quick flip solved the spatial issue

then

later today

 a kindly former student

took me to the Japanese Garden

afterward

i felt as though someone had taken my soul out

given it a good scrubbing in a hot bath

fed it a lovely warm bowl of chowder

and tucked it in again between freshly pressed sheets

that had been dried in the sun

then read it the most beautiful bedtime story in the whirled

NB the chowder [mentioned above] did not have any koi in it

so now i am back in my wee cottage

reading this splendid book

which i found at Gold Beach

where i called in on my journey because the nice woman at the coffee shop down by the cannery dock makes the best ever double shot moccha frappes, except that it was Sunday and her day off [and who shall blame her, it was a glorious day] and the coffee shop was closed

anyway

on pages 14 + 15 there is good advice

i'm glad i bought it even if i did pay rather more over the counter 

than i would have from the Book Depository

if you live in the North-West Pacific and like food 

it's essential reading

and

the philosophy applies to dye gathering.

except that windfalls don't get much of a mention.

north by north west

i didn't take many pictures in San Francisco this time

too busy

listening to the sounds of the city

the glory of foghorns

parrots around t-hill

the whirr of humming birds' wings

the slow drift of the fog

the espresso machine as it unleashes my Africano into the glass

at Cafe Trieste

where

two older men address each other lovingly in Italian

i sipped my coffee

and

thought about friendship

and how much certain friendships mean to me

while reading "World enough and Time"

a book i was introduced to by my friends John + Patsy Sangster

on Lopez Island.

i think

i may make this book compulsory reading

for all workshop attendees.

after coffee i headed north.

i could simply have driven up the Interstate 5

but

it doesn't go anywhere near the edge.

i love the edge

so

i took the 101

which took me through Fortuna

and past this magical old cinema

i took this photo for my friend Shelley

i wanted to build a fort for her

but

it was really really cold.

so i went wandering instead

while wandering

i began to fill my pockets with stones

having a vague plan in my mind

to use them in Portland

+

looking down at my pinny

with its bulging pockets

i remembered that somebody

[contemporary of Virginia Woolf ? or other rejected lover somewhere?]

sewed stones into her dress

and then walked into a river

it would be so easy to do in a place like this

in the fog

where

footprints would soon be awash

and

the continental shelf drops away in moments

however

that was not something i was about to do

the water was far too cold

and i am enjoying the wild ride of this adventure we call 'life'

far too much

 

+

 

then a figure emerged from the fog

wandered over, making greeting noises

showed me a handful of exquisite polished stones 

pulled from a pocket

fished one out

and gave it to me saying

"take this one, it's a lovely amber colour and have a good day"

 

the stone looked like a piece of cold honey

reminding me of the eyes of a friend

[they are like those of a wolf]

honey coloured unless sparkling with excitement

when they suddenly turn green

 

 i was already having a good day

but that reminder made it even better

+

later i saw mollis azaleas

growing right beside the ocean

in Australia these plants are mollycoddled

and protected. otherwise they shrivel in the hot north winds.

here they grow like weeds. sigh.

wandering further north

i found evidence of my people

so

i left a mark of my own

 

and now i am in Portland

for six weeks.

bliss.

at the tin thimble

here at the Tin Thimble in Loomis

we have been gathering windfall in the main street

devising marks to identify each piece of cloth

stringing a story [thank you Sandra for letting me adopt the clothesline to hang clues]

cooking bundles in a fabulous copper pot

eating delicious lunches made by Violette

and sharing a big table

on which to reveal the magic

and again i've had the chance to meet people

with whom i have corresponded in the past

as well as

catch up with some folk

i've encountered before

onesies

wouldn't it be so comfy to loll about in a pair of onesies all day, like the ones that Izzie wears?

[why are onesies referred to as a pair? that's ridiculous]

if lovely people like Sheri

continue to give me treats for the road

like this

then a pair of onesies

will become an absolute necessity

thank you Sheri, for that massive dose of endorphins :)

and Sidnee for the gin and Liz for my tiny silver heart

and

the sweetie much earlier in the week

whose name i regret presently escapes me

but who brought me a sustaining chunk of organic ginger root

to feed my tiny teapot

blessings upon you all