this is a pic of one of the pages in a catalog for Fencing...Premier 1, Fences that Work that somehow arrived in my mailbox addressed to my daughter a couple weeks ago. It's just the Greatest catalog, full of kinds of fencing, but also just a lot of practical information about livestock, about deer and gardens, chickens and predators. On and on. But i love this pic. It's sheep. not Goats, but my imagination can shift it. And it's a hillside. very similar to the Hill. in the open space of the Hill. How the fencing meanders. not square, but meandering, like how browsing and foraging moves. And there is a RedBud tree....there are Native California Red Buds. OK.
Something we are finding, as a Difficult Surprise, to factor in to our imaginings is that there is a TON of Poison Oak on this land. As there is on most land there that is "abandoned". The most convenient way to rid land of Poison Oak is to Clear it. PO likes shaded areas, not sun. But the original thinking was to leave the Hill As IS. Wooded. Lots of bramble. Wild. But ok. for humans, not such a challenge...you learn what it looks like and stay away. For our animal family, different. Dogs can run and chase rabbits through the bramble and return with the oils from the PO on their fur. Goats, which will happily browse on PO with no harm to them, will carry those oils on their coats.
eeeeee
touching those dogs and Goats then is exposure. So. we need new and different thinking. We work on it. daily. lots of emails with links.
wild rose and Golden Current
there is Spring Cleaning of the Shelter side of the Albatross. Many. Many wheelbarrows full.
the Treasures of Travis and Everett. the beginning of that in the unused half of the Albatross. I looked at these today and there was a great tenderness. How all of us love what we love. They love these old and broken things. They have such an imagination for how things might go. To be a part of that....to offer and give that.......
Liz A commented about staying faithful to daily practice. and it struck a cord.
I went back in the Archives of this blog...seeing that it was April of 2010 and really, just before that but it was on blogspot and the entries there didn't all cross over, but close enough. Seven 7 years and i think yes. Of course. 7. My number. Seven. ok.
i remember in the beginning i wanted to document the Cloth Making with Jude and Spirit Cloth. I felt i needed to limit things to Cloth Making to be a legitimate blogger. I didn't know what being a legitimate blogger meant. New...i was new but so so enthusiastic. So sure of stuff.
Over time i know it's changed. Sometimes it's boring. Sometimes it's sad. A lot of it ISN"T about cloth, but Cloth is ALWAYS about what it is. ALWAYS. ALWAYS.
the daily practice. Like my buddhist practice. A going. It's all a Going. Life is a Going. day to day.
and i saw, on the April 7th, 2010 post, a pic of some of the "dolls". It was good. really good to see them there. Where i came FROM.