Bird-brained thoughts

Driving home from a meeting this afternoon, I saw a flock of wild turkeys along side the road. They are a lot like families at Christmastime ... huddled together, pecking through the dried grass for seeds. I love seeing them in the sunlight when their feathers glisten, but it was cloudy today.
I read Hilary's post a couple days ago about photographing the red-tailed hawk and was drawn to the symbolism ...
I'm probably giving myself too much credit, but I really feel like I'm doing my best to help Mother Earth with my recycling.
When I rescued the young hawk after the storm in August, I wondered what it meant ... why the hawk was trying to get my attention ... and now I am glad I didn't just ignore his cries. As it turned out, he was able to be released in October to migrate with other Broad-Winged Hawks. So he's probably down on the beach in Florida by now ...
The runner I was working on is finished and ready to be a Christmas present. It's 15 feet long. Here's a bad picture of how it turned out:
It's a gift for a man ... think he'll like it?

The busiest month

For lots of people ... not so much for me. By the time early December comes around, most of my work is done for the year. Earlier in 2009, I've experienced two studio tours (one a month long), a vacation by car to visit our daughter in Minnesota, an assortment of first-time weaving students, a magazine interview, a television interview. I've sold rugs and clothing through my studio, the craft gallery, and to my wholesale accounts, done a handful of art shows, and taken some "special" orders for people needing certain sizes or colors that I didn't have available.

So today, one week into December, I'm trying to finish up these specials. I'm finally closing in on them ... an extra long shaggy runner in autumn colors:
A red rayon chenille wrap:(this is NOT the special order, but it plays one on this blog)
There are a few others small jobs that don't have to be done for Christmas so I'm feeling rather relaxed because these two should be done this week.

So, now, I can start Christmas shopping!

Shorter days, but more to do

I thought when we turned the clocks back last week that I would have some more time to get caught up on stuff ... didn't happen.
I make myself crazy in October and November anyway. The month-long studio tour sounds like a great idea ... it forces me to be at the studio every day, supposedly creating rugs and clothing. But this year I had about 400 visitors for the month and that's a lot of talking, demonstrating, and, yes, selling. Mind you, I'm not complaining, but I did get a little behind in the weaving.
About mid-October, I got a call from a reporter for the local PBS station ... would I like to be on TV, talking about my Recycled Rugs? That was a hard one, seriously. It meant extra effort to make the studio look nice (thanks, Stephanie!), thought about what I should say for the interview (how can you plan ahead for that?), and just having to finally admit that I am now a senior citizen and look the part. But, of course, I ended up saying yes, and here's how it turned out:


You'll love the scene at the end with Pike, the studio cat.
More later ...

Critters

Nature fascinates me. Birds, cats, deer, even insects.
My latest encounter was with some praying mantises (manti?). I went to fetch something from the pole barn and noticed one inside the building. I held out my hand and she climbed on and I took her up to the garden. I put her down in what's left of the day lillies and she stuck around ... and then I noticed another one, larger and darker. They must be getting ready to make their egg cases before the weather turns cold.
Driving to town last week I noticed something that made me smile ...
a flock of gold finches were gathered beside the road. I've never seen so many in one place. They took flight as I drove past and their gold and black feathers caught the morning sun.
Take some time today to notice the little things. You might smile, too.

Still creative at 106 - my inspiration!

A couple months ago, I received an order for some rug warp from a woman in Illinois. She said it was for her mother, Ethel Christian, who made braided chair pads. She needed the strong string to lace the braiding together. Not too unusual ... until she told me her mother was 106 years old. I sent her the warp, free of charge, but asked for a chair pad in return ... they graciously sent two, along with the picture of Mom and her nice work.
Are you inspired, too?

Stormy, the broad-winged hawk

Last Tuesday, we had a horrible storm here in parts of Indiana. At our place, it rained about 5 inches in 6 hours. Our driveway washed out, our water went out, tree limbs blew down across the drive, and then the power went out. And we had it better than a lot of people. In the town of Nashville, power was out for a day or more, restaurants and shops stayed closed, the main grocery store lost a lot of their inventory and on and on ...
But I was going to talk about a bird ...
So, I was sitting on the front porch, trying to finish up a custom spinning job while the power was out, and I kept hearing a bird squawking in the trees in front of the house. I couldn't see him, but I thought it sounded like a hawk's call. After a couple hours, I finally spotted him and grabbed the camera. I wasn't sure what kind of bird he was, but he was larger than I expected.
The next morning, I heard him again, out in front of the house. I took a walk into the woods and he was on the ground ... back for the camera and here are some pictures of this beautiful creature ...

Stormy is showing Pike, the studio cat, what you can do with WINGS!

I have no experience in caring for raptors, but there's a wonderful rescue organization here in Brown County called Return to the Wild and Patti graciously came and picked up Stormy and took him to be cared for until he's mature enough to live on his own (he's about 6 weeks old now) ... and then they will bring him back to be released here.

Three new rug weavers~

Three women came to the studio today for a "day weaving" class to make a rug. None of them had ever woven before but they all caught on very quickly.
Above is Emiko and Miho. Miho will start college in the fall and she and her roommate are doing their dorm room in pinks so she wanted her own special rug.
I was very pleased with their rugs and they were thrilled ... here's a picture of the finished projects:
Konomi, left, is Miho's mom.