mumma yaga

 April 21 This happened Sunday morning. (It happened last year, one morning.) Sunday at three pm, from the top of the meadow. At four-thirty. At five pm. At seven pm. ***** Today, Thursday, was only the second time I have left Rocky with K. The first time was only for an hour and he whined on and off, Rocky that is. Today was a longer trip, to take Rain to the vet; one of their dogs hurt its paw. I didn't know how to write that sentence without implying that it was Rain who was going to "see" the vet. K says that today, Rocky was relaxed and slept most of the time, while I was gone. I was pleased to see that upon my return he was calm and matter-of-fact, no hysterics or tears of abandonment. (Rocky, that is.) ***** Has anyone else experienced an upheaval in the last ten days? Our little circle, namely ourselves, Rain, Tal and the baby, has been through an Upheaval, upper-case, as if somehow there was a crack or a quake in the universe. Thursday last, it rained and rained

 April 11 forest, bare and brown the meadow runs with water the forest runs with water There is water everywhere. We stand on the porch and hear the loudness of a hundred small tumbling streams pouring down and down the hills.  Though the forest has just shaken off its winter coat, there is green life already awake. This fern, above, polypody, is green all winter and now it is awake and alive already. The Christmas fern, below, is likewise green all winter and awake now.   This tiny fern (below)  is brand-new, already growing: "Brittle bladder fern". Mosses wake up and start being alive as soon as the snow is gone. This is a "delicate fern moss" - that's its name! fronds like tiny ferns. Below, two kinds of ancient plant that were around when the dinosaurs ruled. They stay green all year and are among the first to green the forest floor. ***** I climbed to the top of the mountain and looked north. There was still snow near the top although it is melted and gone

 April 10 In February, my daughter asked me to make her a gift for a friend. It was to be a "shrine": a small object to be a focus for meditation. I talked a bit about its conception and creation in an earlier post, (220301 bread road shrine) and now that the gift is given, I have asked the recipient's permission to share pictures of it. I thank them again, here, for letting me show it. In our first discussions, Elf and I imagined a grotto-shaped ceramic piece and I went to a friperie in the next town that I knew would have some vases that would work. But there I also found the box we eventually used. This is the box, cleaned, and polished with beeswax polish. It was not broken, only worn and a little sun-damaged. It is unusual in its details, very "art deco". The glass rods are to support the lid when open. They are from glass swizzle sticks, cut and smoothed with a diamond dremel end, one and a spare. The green silk box in the front right corner was a contribu