slow morning

it is a wet grey morning in virginia.

this is my last week at my current job, and i've been going in on a somewhat sporadic schedule since tashi is out of school. today i am going in at noon, but instead seizing the opportunity to sleep in, i was up at 6:30am. dan and tashi are still snoozing while i lounge on the couch net surfing.

i've added several new links to my blog, all moms and/or makers that inspire with their work, their aesthetic, their surround and their spirit.

speaking of blogs, mine needs a facelift. i want to have my own picture/banner/logo on here and once i figure out how to do it, it will be done.

there are a lot of things that will be done.

i start my part time job next week while tashi is in a day camp. we booked her into two day camps not knowing whether i'd land a part time job before summer commenced. she's very excited about them, so even though i'll miss her tremendously, i'm glad she'll be having fun with children. one is at the quaker school where she'll be creating and singing and writing. the other is at the uva art museum where she'll be learning and imitating and making. so while i work part time and she is in camp i hope to get a great deal accomplished so that when she is not in camp i can focus fully on her.

here is a list of some goals, in no particular order:

reorganize, reclaim, revamp my work room
write (in the blog, but mostly, not in the blog)
have business cards printed for doula practice
refinish thrifted wooden bookshelf
strip and paint salvaged table
embroider some designs on things
make a couple of curtains
collage
purge house of clutter
re-establish clutter by thrifting a little
work with dan on a doula website
take knitting lesson with molly
read (if i can ever get off the computer)

certainly there's more. but given my propensity to procrastinate and/or bumble a day away dreaming and puttering when i have time on my hands, that list is pretty ambitious.

yes two more days of the current job, and then, a new leaf.



does anyone know what that is by the way?

women in art

this is fantastic!!!

what a trooper

i am not a motorhead. but recently we donated our isuzu trooper to habitat for humanity and so i thought it deserved a little write up. we purchased the trooper in corvallis, oregon, in the summer of 2001, after we'd returned from our year in india. it was so cute and red and boxy and reasonable, and we needed a vehicle. it wasn't until we arrived at a wedding a month or two later and a friend said, "you guys have an suv?!?!" that it donned on me, yes, indeed, it was an suv. i never really got over it.

but the trooper (as well as the used subaru we purchased that summer) pulled us and our load across country to michigan that dark september of 2001, while bush gave a post 9/11 state of union and so many cars on the road had little flags flapping. freaky times. still are.

dan drove the trooper, packed to the gills, and also pulling a uhaul trailer. myself and a three year old tashi followed in the subaru, also packed to the gills. dan and i used little walkie talkies to communicate. i gave tashi 50 mile treats, little coloring books and wooden toys and puzzles. it was a happy day when we finally pulled into ann arbor. and another happy day when it delivered us safely to charlottesville several years later.

for five years the subaru and trooper took turns breaking down in major ways. and last year the trooper failed inspection for a lot of minor details that added up to too much money. like a good hillbilly family, we just couldn't let it go, so it sat in our driveway engulfed in greenery. i used it as a shed and stored a table in it that i still need to strip and paint. finally, a few days ago, we donated big red. it seemed the most respectable thing to do.

i guess i'll paint that table now. . .

first swim of summer

today after work i packed up a quick picnic and tashi and i headed to walnut creek park, a new place for us. we were pleasantly surprised by this beautiful park, and after eating lunch, eagerly pulled on our swimsuits to take a dip in the pretty lake. just as i applied the last bits of sunscreen on tashi i noticed a huge cloud that had appeared out of nowhere and then, thunder.



the lifeguards cleared the beach. tashi was not pleased.



after a period of pouting and several games of hangman, i convinced tashi to join me for a walk on a nearby trail. we saw many pretty things.

lily pads that look like easter eggs.



a charming butterfly.



fresh rain on a leaf.



blessed bee.



and then we walked the path back to the beach, and were able to have a very pleasant swim in a lake all to ourselves.



something nibbled on my thigh though. it didn't do any damage, but gave me a little fright!

strawberry fields

there has been way too much of this lately!



but it sure is goooood!

rubbing shoulders with stars

yesterday i checked out some of the festival of the photograph in downtown charlottesville. first i went to a special screening of a documentary about
sally mann called what remains. it was quite excellent. she is so brave and committed to her process, so down to earth and eloquent, so poetic and visionary. she showed up for a q & a session after the film and was very respectful and tolerant of the questions being asked of her.

afterwards i checked out the three main festival photography exhibits, mann's, william allard's, and eugene richard's. while staring at allard's magnificent photograph of a red headed girl braiding a bright swath of her hair, i heard someone utter astonished comments next to me. it was sissy spacek.

i tried not to start thinking about some of the awesome movies i've seen her in

. . . north country, the straight story. . .

on my way to the next exhbit i found myself walking behind her on the crosswalk

. . . coalminer's daughter, badlands. . .

she is able to walk around charlottesville like any nobody precisely because people aren't falling at her feet and blathering praises

. . . carrie, 3 women. . .

but it's certainly an exercise to push away all those amazing acting images and just see the real, normal person.

charlottesville certainly has its surprises!

delightful dishes

i was having a pretty unsuccessful salvation army visit this morning until i checked out the dish section. if ever you're having a bad day at the thrift store, just start looking at dishes. surely you will find something.

i thought this would make a nice cheese & crackers plate:



this one is my favorite. a totally charming bowl for tashi.



bless my camera, but it can't handle close ups:



and another sweet little bowl.



tashi loves herbal tea and it is a pleasure i like to encourage with cute little cups:



i knew tashi would enjoy having this little pitcher in her play kitchen:




i tried to resist, but in the end i just couldn't pass this one up. dan is from wisconsin.



there are a few others, more practical, less aesthetic, not worth picturing, and really, that's enough dishes for a day isn't it?

oh, and i found an awesome solid wood bookshelf. but it needs to be cleaned and refinished. so it's in the basement for now.

that's the saturday thrift stop update!

sky seeds

yesterday was tashi's last day of school. there was a big ceremony at the school, as it was the last day in that particular location, after 16 years. the charlottesville waldorf school is moving out of its sweet perch at the foot of the blue ridge, into a new building on a beautiful parcel of land in town.



the balloons are bio-degradable and have native virginia wildflower seeds in them. each child tied a tag to the balloon with their name, grade and school contact info. the hope is that recipients of the balloons will notify the school and we'll find out how far some of them traveled.



it was a nice touch and quite spectacular to see all those shiny green wishes float off toward the blue ridge. bon voyage!

summer storm love

after a day of temperatures in the mid nineties we had the mother of all storms. it rolled in with a bank of deep dramatic blue-grey clouds extending jagged claws of lightening. the rain came down in torrents and the world filled with rumble and flash. i happened to be driving my car home from the video store in the thick of it, and was screaming with laughter at the drama of it all. i felt like i was driving a speed boat so thick and tall was my wake.

once things slowed down tashi and i went out on the deck to marvel at a purple sky. the lightening carried on for a good long while, streaks shimmering across the sky dome from all directions. we were mesmerized.

i love a good summer storm. when i was a small child i used to beg my mother to wake me if there was a storm in the middle of the night. alas, she never did. but tonight i could enjoy a good storm with my daughter as we spun around in the great outdoors under a bright cobweb of majesty and command. i wish i could have captured that lacy lightening, but i will have to leave you with the pinky purple backdrop.

the joys of june

eating outside. lemonade. guacamole. grilled turkey burgers. fresh baby greens. bells amber ale.

loki wishes he could join us.

china cat sunflower

today i came home to a sunflower. it's not huge, but it's happy.

loki is not so happy though. we had to take him to the vet yesterday for an infected wound. he is such a fighter. so now he is not allowed outside until he's healed.

here's our handsome loki, on the other side of the screen.



by the way, tashi has started a blog. she begged me to let her start one last night. she is not a computer kid and i have a lot of concerns about kids and computers. but how could i resist a blog!

new job!

oh how i have been waiting for the moment i could share this news! i got a new job! i've been hired as a development assistant at uva's women's center. the women's center is a very exciting place that offers counseling, referrals and advocacy to women at the university and in the charlottesville community. the women's center publishes a great magazine called iris. and it is staffed by an eclectic, creative, socially conscious group of younger and older women.

i am full of glee!

a short while ago it became very clear to me that i needed to find a part time job so that i could be more involved in tashi's day, so that i could be more involved in my day, and so that i could spend more time and energy developing a doula practice. right around the time i made that decision, my first doula client in charlottesville came to me. i knew i was on the right path.

while i have learned a ton as an administrative assistant and i have been warmly received by the religious studies department, i knew that my long term goals didn't include taking on more and more fiscal and administrative responsibilities for the department. i started to resent my job, mourn the loss of my time with tashi and feel a huge creative deficit in my life.

long ago i changed my life so that i could walk my path. i took poetry workshops with famous poets. i took classes in herbalism and massage. i gave birth to a child. i trained as a doula. if i could work this hard at academic administration, couldn't i work this hard on being a writer, an herbalist, a doula, a mother? the answer is yes.

so i started to seek a part time job. and the perfect opportunity appeared at the women's center. a more appropriate place for me at uva i cannot at this time imagine. the job will be flexible, i will learn new applicable business skills, and i will be working on networks of support for women in a place that is meaningful and good. i am so grateful to the universe, to dan for being understanding and supportive, and to the friends and advisers who have encouraged me along the way.

this summer i will turn 40. here i come!

(i have to add, i was offered the job two weeks ago. sort of. i was called by human resources and told the women's center wanted to hire me, but first, per uva policy, a criminal background check had to be conducted. even though i already worked at uva? yes, even though.

because i lived in india for a year, they chose to do a background check on me in india!!!! how crazy is that? post 9-11 paranoia, or what???? guilty until proven innocent is what it is. so two weeks later, which was today, i was called and told my background check was clear, and the job offer was official!)

flower fairy

this is a little flower fairy tashi made from bees wax. she seems to like the calendula.



speaking of fairies, i saw "pan's labyrinth" this weekend. wow. it was painful and amazing. do not watch this film with your children!

dress up

warrior queen



egyptian princess



notice the little fairy on her garland

tea time test towel

now that i've completed my embroidery test run, can someone please tell me what you are actually supposed to do with a tea towel!!!

i'm looking forward to embellishing some of tashi's t-shirts next. it's a nice meditative activity (i really should learn to knit). i enjoyed completing it this morning while listening to this.

summer

well, not quite yet, but very, very close.

i tried to order this t-shirt titled "summer" from threadless about a year ago, but it was out of print. recently i received an email saying it was back and so ordered it right away. if you like uniquely crafted t-shirts, threadless is the place for you. and they are having a sale right now!

embroidered beginnings

tea hee!

wednesday wind down

dan called me from tashi's school to let me know they were going to stick around for a talent show, an unexpected evening of solitude for me.

so i puttered around.

i am falling more and more in love with our yard. it is so lush and green and full of tall trees.



it has a fire ring.



and with each little addition of plant and whimsy, it becomes more and more our own.



this is what i did after work.




and then i had some dinner.



i buy this organic greens mix from the farmer's market on saturdays and it is just awesome. here i've added some red onions, toasted pine nuts and goat cheese.



even luna likes greens (she likes popcorn too)



months ago i found this embroidery kit for 40% off. i've never embroidered.



but i think now i'll give it a try.




happy evening!

hotel california roll

it's a lunchblog update. today's lunch:



dan and i went to sakura. mmmmmm. we had miso soup too.

end of holiday

we scored a pair of speakers from freecycle. our last set of speakers blew and so we've been using computer speakers to listen to all of our music. these speakers work well and make a nice support for plants!



and tashi added some nice props to her tent. prayer flags, some fire in the hearth, carpet and jugs.





now we're ready for the week ahead.