mumma yaga

 Mar. 9 Dragon in the sky.  I asked for a sign. We had a thaw on Sunday and Monday. The temperature rose to 12 degrees and the creeks and springs began to run. Here is the swamp by the split rock and the plinth: later: Rocky is a good companion.  "She was there in the meadow, where the creek used to rise..." * Places where water collects melt first, as if there are small springs in the hollows.  From the top of the meadow, on our morning walk, with the west ridge on the right. Monday night it turned cold again. Snow and wind blew, and we lost power sometime around six in the morning. We started the fire and put water on the woodstove to make coffee. We had all we needed for such an emergency, so it was a good adventure. Rock and I went up the camp road in the fresh snow for our morning walk.      From the top of the meadow again: Blackie came with us up the camp road and down the meadow.  Just after I took this picture, Rocky went up over the rock...

 Mar. 2  seasons how impossible (implausible) when the snow falls around you  the sun is a pale star fields are cloaked  in white and trees are  black naked limbs reaching and it is cold and you hold to your breast the coat and wrap to protect  yourself, to remember the summer hot and the sky too bright to look at the field green and lush the trees thick with leaves you could go outside naked in the sun and close your eyes  open your arms free of the clutch in your breast. conversely how impossible when you are hot and bare lying in the grass and the forest is green and crowded on the hill, to remember the winter the cold naked trees and the world hidden under the blind blanket of snow. how impossible absolutely when you are living in the swamp with the cackling witch  where the dead logs are shrouded in a fur of moss  and nothing looks the same where the light itself is fermented and green where depression is the air you breathe damp fecund ...

 Mar. 1 Rocky and I have had our morning walk. A dog, and a human too, I guess, need some physical exercise outside, to be happy through the day, and healthy. A walk calms a dog, tires him and he is content afterwards to relax and enjoy quiet time while you get on with your day. My mental and physical health are improving too, from our daily walks. We went as far as the corner, today, and past the chicken woman's barns. ***** The Commission Near the end of January, Elf asked me to help her make a gift for her friend. A shrine, she wanted, to be a centre for meditating and other spiritual work. She had a handful of "relics" as we came to call them: items she had, or found in second-hand haunts. The challenge to create a shrine, artifact of magic, grabbed me. Elf and I began to consult; she ventured out in covid disguise to search her neighbourhood second-hand market and I searched through my mosaic stock, treasures and jewelry for things to use in the shrine.  I stopped at...

 Feb. 26 I am grateful for our home, safe and warm, as we watch war erupting so near. I am ashamed, because, though I have watched refugees around the world escaping war-torn countries, abandoning their homes, carrying their children in their arms, and imagined what that must be like, I haven't felt the deep fear and sadness that I feel now, as I watch what is happening in Ukraine. This feels nearer, in long-stable Europe; it is gut-wrenching, very frightening. May our prayers be heard. ***** the creaking trees the fallen trees the creek in its small snowy gorge running dark and cold ***** The dogs at play: "Wait, what's that?", they stop and look. "What's there?" I am so happy that they are friends. Blackie has been lonely, patrolling his mountain all by himself. Rocky whines eagerly to go out when Blackie shows up. Rocky went out by himself, to play with his friend who lives up the road, just as I did when I was five. I was struck by the visceral memor...

 Feb. 19 Snowing, this morning. We are small and insignificant creatures on our hill tonight. We have had intermittent snow all day and the wind that has been hounding us has taken on new strength as night has fallen. It is howling at the windows and heaping the snow in waves and crests around the doors. Our driveway is impassable by car for the drifting. It is minus thirteen and will drop to minus nineteen by early morning. The fire is blazing however, and the kettle boiled for tea. We are safe and warm. I am grateful, and very happy.  Snow spirits on the meadow: My day was good. The mosaic project is coming along splendidly, exceeding my expectations. I washed the spring jackets; and put away clothes dislodged from their home by Rocky's bed (!), in a new place. I cooked chickpeas and made a curry soup, with Thai red curry paste, coconut milk, carrots, garlic, onions and a large can of mixed vegetables. Black pepper, turmeric, ginger, cardamom, and a teaspoon of lime juice fi...