capturing

November 14, 6 a.m., looking out the window toward the west, it was 16 degrees Fahrenheit.  

There have been winters here where we don't get that low all winter long and here it is mid November.  Winter.  Here we go.

Back to this cloth.  I really like what Dana (Raven and Sparrow) said in her comment about "a lost or unacknowledged emotion, surfacing suddenly and quick to fade".  This has been pulling at me.  

I haven't had a lot of time to stitch, but here is where I am at.

 I especially like this.

When I hung it up to look at it for a while, I suddenly saw a new shadow there just above the center of the cloth.  I need to look at it for a while, but it seems want some more stitch there.  Maybe…  And then perhaps I will try to heat set the dark marks and give the cloth a swish in cool water to remove the surface dirt.  Where it goes from there I don't know yet.

It is snowing today and cold.  But there is this unexpected gift…  

A friend has a potted tree she calls a lemon eucalyptus.  She moves it outside in the summer and into her greenhouse for the winter.  To get it back inside she had to trim some branches.  And she thought of me.  Plucked the leaves off the trimmed branches, bagged them, and popped them in the freezer.  Did I want them?  Uh--Yes, please!  I probably wouldn't have frozen them.  I probably would have pressed them between newspapers until I could get to them.  But here they are.  Eucalyptus?  They smell lemony and wonderful.  I'm pouring over India Flint's "Eco Colour" book and hoping I can do something with them this week.

November full moon

Full moon in an indigo sky at 5 a.m. when the two black cats wanted to go outside.

on the surface

This cloth... 

...from this casual mixture of windfall.  Pecan hulls, leaves, a handful of acorns, a bit of tree bark, with hot water poured over it, left to sit for a couple weeks, leaves drifting on to the surface.

Nothing much really.  A pale tea or walnut color…  

But this eye shape stops me in my tracks.  It is a surface mark.  I could probably brush it off.  It will surely rinse out.  But what if I stitch the outline of it before I rinse the cloth…  Could I capture that fierceness?  That determination?