Wild Dresses...

Wild Dresses

 I loved making this journal page.  Deb Lacativa's fabrics are such fun.  I really wouldn't mind having a dress like this for my very own.  Millie wouldn't mind if I dressed a bit wild when we walked our trails.

 "The sky appears broader now than it did.  The day has opened its eyelids wider.  The lengthening of the days commenced a good while ago, is a kind of forerunner of spring. ~ Thoreau from his journal Feb. 19, 1852

 "Once in his life a man ought to concentrate his mind upon the remembered earth.  He ought to give himself up to a particular landscape in his experience; to look at it from as many angles as he can, to wonder upon it, to dwell upon it.  He ought to imagine that he touches it with his hands at every season and listens to the sounds that are made upon it.  He ought to imagine the creatures there and all the faintest motions of the wind.  He ought to recollect the glare of the moon and the colors of the dawn and dusk." 

~Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams

I love this quote.  I can never quite get enough of this "particular landscape" where Millie and I tread every day.  Even though I photograph the same old spots over and over they are never the same.  Maybe it's the light or the angle or...  I just don't know.

February's First Walk...

 

"Be careful!  It's slicker than owl poop out there."  Those were the words of warning I heard as I stepped out the door this morning.  I nodded, wondering where that old expression originated.  Who has ever stepped in owl poop?  Heck, if I knew where there was some, I would immediately head that way in hopes of seeing an owl.

Well, it was slick.  The ground was/is covered in a layer of ice and sleet.  Dan ended up driving in his Gator ahead of me.  His rough terrain tires broke up the ice some which gave me a better toe hold as I walked in his tracks.  Neither Millie nor I fell and busted our tails.  Thank goodness!  We really want to get to that 365-day walk.

January was pretty much the "same ole'bench, same ole' squirrel, same ole giant bowl of spaghetti"*  kind of month. ("from the Oswald cartoon which I used to watch with my little grandson)  

But I did...

Walk the trail with Millie 31 days*** Cook from scratch a zillion meals*** Balance farm accounts and complete tax records***nurse maid a much too cold newborn calf***Paint yard furniture one fine spring like day*** Write in my journal*** Read a couple of books *** Continue with cleaning and rearranging in the house*** start a new doll ***draft a jacket pattern using my favorite old hundred year old one (well almost that old) as inspiration (more on that later).  

Reflections from the kitchen...

"Few people know how to take a walk.  The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence, and nothing too much."  

                   ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am proud to say that I have all those qualifications, and my walking partner never utters a word (or a bark).