Fun in the Snow

The best sunset in a while

Subject: Lovely Town & Good Company 
Monday the 10th of March, 2014
Walking and running down the street with my sister, the sun setting gloriously brilliant in the West as we anticipated walking the chocolate chip dog.

A Greeting and an Anecdote

Hullo Little one. How be thee?
It would seem I was more eloquent in years gone past, 2011, to be exact in my thinking. How strange is that?

Yesterday I was witness to a hilarious happening, a sort of classic movie moment. My brother was testing out my longboard on the hallway floor as my sister had said it was turning rather strangely and stiffly. I think it's a bit stiff too, but I turn all right on the road with enough speed.
My brother coasted slowly up and down the cracked and chipped laminate until we heard a faint clunk. "What was that?", we all wondered and looked around to identify the cause of sound. A large bolt appeared on the floor in front of my board. We all looked at it for a few seconds, and once more wondered out loud, "Where did that come from?". My brother peered at the bolt inquisitively. He picked up my board, and we watched in astonishment as the front truck and wheels fell from the board piece by piece, like some enchanted creature ceasing to be held together with magic. Clink clunk clank.
And that is the story of how I almost died long boarding yesterday, as one of my trucks was, apparently, missing a nut. (Not really, my other brother scoffs whenever I make this announcement, as he says his truck actually fell off when he was riding once and it was fine, he didn't crash spectacularly or anything.)

Paste Paper

So yesterday I learned how to make paste papers with a few of my siblings at a friend's house. It was a lot of fun, there's next to no limit to what you can do with this medium creatively, even if some people refer to it as "glorified fingerpainting", haha :)

My first paper

I created this pattern with a wad of plastic wrap

Handprints 

The last paper I designed.

I have no idea what happened to the color when I photographed this thing. The feathery splotches are white, not blue.

(Click to see them full size and all that.)

Happy Box Thoughts

Subject: Night Walk 1/5/14
Running and walking and talking with Torthadiel, my best friend sister.
We hugged trees and tried to solve the mystery of the footprints spaced far apart in the sidewalk.

1.23.14
Hanging out on Torthadiel's bed all afternoon. Talking and laughing and sitting next to each other all over each other. Reading and surfing Tumblr. My sister makes me happy!

Sledding in all sorts of different light, shadow, and brightness. Afternoon yellow, then sunset orange slashing across the hills. Then deep and deeper blue. At the cabin with C. and all of my family.
  Playing and just worshipping on the walk up, laughing and yelling, eyes wide open, hair blowing in the wind on the way down. Exhilaration. 1.26.14

Subject: a movie night 1.24.14
Watching Red Dog with my family for the second time.
                                                                     So happy
          Beautiful soundtrack

Subject: beauty 1/12/14
Sledding with Yo under a grey cloudy sky.

Free-form Crochet in Digital Ink

Hello, it is me, come to visit this place of home.

There is a child hiding in my closet. I have no idea how there is room even for her small form in there, stuffed full as it is, as everything in my room is. I suppose I shall look back on all of this fondly someday, and indeed, I do not hate it terribly right now.
There is another child struggling to hide behind a dresser, but he has been found. The child in the closet is smiling at me from between the folds of a few dark dresses, and the child who was found is back again, hiding under my blankets and rocking my bed.
Apparently this is a game of hide and seek, based upon some sort of prison system.
The closet child has been found, a white arm and mess of hair were visible and the "warden" called her out. The child hiding in my bed has also been recovered and led to the next room, to return to "prison" once again. Now there is no one in here but me, and my sister who is actually in dream land still, so she doesn't really count.
I sit cross-legged amid mountainous folds of purple afghan and floral bed sheet, the corners of my laptop resting on my legs below my knees.
I'm kinda sorta lost. And I don't really know how to find my way back.

Never alone for long, a child darts into my room and onto my sister's bed pursued by the "warden" and is hauled off once again. My sister is sitting up, looking at me blankly, says "I hate getting up". And she lays back down, all yellow shirt and hair, sits up, blinks. I look at her, she looks at me, and says "what? what are you doing? what are you doing? Smiling so sneakysly."


I rather miss my school-time schedule. It's easier to write and remember to nap and exercise. I've given up on all else during vacation, but writing is life and nap-time, haha, makes life easier. I really am quite the four year old.
Never did it occur to me that I would be comforted by schedule and regularly ordered days, but I am, silly girl who thinks she's so very random. But ha, balance... Because yes, I can get very, very bored by too tight of a regimen.


How does this all fit together, I wonder? I followed the thread, but I also wound it. It is my making, so do I have the key to pulling it all tight and tying it neatly, or having been made by me, is there no answer nor key at all? 

The minute patterns in nature

Split wood again today, we found another anomaly and I finally photographed snow crystals like I've been planning to on the walk back home. (I have no idea how this font materialized...)

Chopping Wood and What We Found

Just kinda cool, Torthadiel pointed it out to me when we were chopping wood for a friend. It looks like a heart and now when I look at the photos it's got a scary face right in the middle, bwaha :) 

Follow the numbers

Looks like somebody got a hold of some chalk... (Not me, I just followed the numbers)

Character Sketch

He smokes smarties and swears like a sailor.
Dark, dark eyes under a mop of blond hair,
insolent swagger even though he's not yet old enough for a learner's permit.
Thinks he knows all the girls, but they haven't even started looking at him.

Takes pride in petty, childish theft; silly boy, don't you know you won't ever have to grow up?


Even under all of this crustiness, he says please and thank you
with sincere gratitude,
Pure heart under pretentious bluster,
pretty song flowing from a clogged stream bed. 

Liebster Award

A while back I got a lovely comment from from Mary at Cogitational Counterpoints nominating me for the Liebster award, which is kinda fun and totally unexpected :) Thank you Mary, for reading and the nomination :)
If you've been nominated or would like to nominate somebody, all you have to do is follow the below set of rules:

1. Link back to the blogger who nominated you.
2. Give 11 random facts about yourself.
3. Answer the 11 questions set by the person who nominated you.
4. Nominate 11 other bloggers who have a small following.
5. Create 11 questions for your nominees to answer.
6. Tell your nominees, on their own blog, that you have nominated them.

11 Random Facts About Me:

1. I dislike long sleeves, and nearly always roll or push them up.
2. I miss my dog terribly since he died last January.
3. Lately, I enjoy doing things that terrify me, I've been able to push past fear in the past couple of years, and I've found that I enjoy the things that are difficult for me all the more fiercely once I've somewhat mastered them. Take guitar tuning, for example, once a vast unknowable unknown, now one of my favorite things about practicing the guitar. 
4. I love writing and receiving letters, though I'm not very good at actually writing and sending them in a timely manner. 
5. The San Rafael Swell is my happy place.
6. I have no idea how to go about getting ready for Christmas this year, I haven't got a thing done and it's not much longer until December arrives.
7. The movie Inception was quite the spiritual and enlightening experience for me.
8. Right now I'm wearing my favorite blue sweater which will quite soon probably fall apart, as it is getting fairly threadbare in places. 
9. I say I have no expectations, I think I have no expectations, but I'm quite open to the possibility that I might. I still maintain that relationship is organic and a thing of space rather than just bonds. 
10. I love deep and thoughtful documentaries like Kumare, I Am, and The Nature Of Existence. 
11. Life is terribly interesting to me, adventure, people, discovery. This outlook does tend to ebb and flow though, as all things do. I'm not sure balance is stillness so much as wave, pattern and resonance.

The 11 Questions That The Person Who Nominated Me Asked:

1. What is your favorite past time?

I don't really have any one favorite past time, I'm kinda scattered all over the place. I love hanging out with my friends and family, reading, writing, playing guitar. Hiking, whatever. I love doing everything, and it is all my favorite :)

        
        2. Does art imitate life, or does life imitate art?

Both, yin and yang. Not opposite, but intertwined.

        3. What's your ultimate goal in life?

Enlightenment and deep relationship.

        4. What is the last thing you bought via online shopping?

Light Martin acoustic guitar strings. I'm awesome because I can break a string tuning down...

        5. How did you get started using blogspot?

I got sick of how much I was on facebook in 2009, so I created this blog with the help of my dad to sort of experiment with for a week of abstinence from fb. 

        6. Do you have a favorite film, and if so, what is it?

Far too many favorites, and perhaps all because I have learned or can learn something from them.

          7. What's your preferred fall outfit?

Jeans and a sweater over a t shirt, maybe a hat.

        8. What's your biggest accomplishment to date?

I don't really believe in that. I just live. 

        

        9. Who inspires you the most?

Yo

        10. The best show on television right now is:

Doctor Who :) (That's basically the only thing I watch right now that's ongoing and current, though.)

I don't think I shall nominate anyone else, if someone wants to nominate themselves from me, that'd be great, haha :) Just let me know and I'll come up with some questions :]

Thanks again Mary, you're a sweetheart.

Further Adventures in Tuning

So yeah, I'm totally cheating on how I tune the guitar now... But at least I know what I'm doing! And dad said to... He's right of course, and my ear for it has gotten a lot better since I started using the chromatic tuner app dad showed me. It's a lot of fun :) 

Mushroom Hike Pt II

In which mushrooms are again a good thing

Remember when I promised you happy mushrooms? Well, here they are! Or at least, here are some of them. This'll have to be posted in a couple more installments.