Happy Thanksgiving!

Traveling Days

Last glimmers of summer, caught a few weeks ago while strolling through Longwood gardens. I love the symmetry of these flowers. Today, driving up to Pennsylvania all the trees were an orange red and some so yellow that they almost glowed. Most of the fields are empty now with one here and there still having some dried corn. In one field I saw about a hundred black birds which took flight just as we were passing by. It looked as if someone had flung a shawl of black lace into the sky. Which reminds me of the black cows I saw standing in an orange field while a pure white cat was creeping about the bushes.



Did another watercolor this time of a sunset over a lake. It reminds me of the Once and Future King in some ways. Like a white horse should just come strolling through the frame at any moment. I really love watercolor there is something so airy about this medium, it is as if one were painting with light.

Morning Glory

I actually did this watercolor (6x9) sitting on the grass under a huge morning glory bush. I got some wierd looks but hey it was worth it. Working outside was really great, you really can't beat the autumn light around PA. Its beautiful! Again if interested in this painting just contact me by leaving a comment or email.

Two Worlds

Just finished! This is a watercolor still life on tinted paper. This might appear on my etsy page later, still thinking about the logistics of selling online, but please let me know if you are interested.

Autumn

Hello and how in the world did it get to be October without me posting a single thing? Its very awful, and I am sorry. But not all is lost, I've been painting a lot and knitting, oh and going to college. Having Eric in another state, a lot of time has been dedicated to traveling during the weekends but this also comes as a welcome change from campus life. Travel has always made me happy, the long stretches of road and the trees passing by effortlessly. Its like a silent parade, especially with this autumn light that seems to bring a new sharpness to the world, as though it were fall and not spring that harkened the beginning of new life. It is this time of year that I find the most distracting and yet it is also the time where I create the most.



During this writing break I have changed my mind about going into psychology, there was always something unnatural in it for me, and a certain desperation surrounded the field in my mind. So, no more of that and on to brighter and more natural things. For now I've made up my mind to go into literature and perhaps write someday but most likely teach as a professor. Stories come naturally to me and writing seems the completion of all the images that fly through my head on a daily basis. It complements the visual side of my mind, to the point that after writing I see the world fresh again, full again, of meaning and brilliance. Which reminds me, if you have not read The Flowers of Evil by Baudelaire, you must. It is stunning!



I will end with a quick note about the pictures, the second is me playing with my watercolors on an old envelope and the third is a pumpkin growing in Eric's yard. When the sun has been on it all day I just want to lay on it, the heat makes it feel as though it is teeming with life under its hard glowing shell. But enough about my strange pumpkin fixation, I hope to have many more posts in the future, see you soon!

College

Summer is still fresh in my mind all the the meadows and their smells seem to stay in my hair for months after. Pennsylvania especially has wonderful meadows, filled with flowers and long grasses. My whole stay there was beautiful, besides going on many hikes I also did some baking, knitting, beading, and lots of reading. I finished War and Peace with time to spare, and now I'm settling in to another year of college. The room I'm in this year is very nice, its a good shape (which believe me is rare in these old buildings) and I think all my stuff fits in quite pleasantly. My window is right next to an oak tree, which means that the more daring squirrels will sometimes peak in. In the winter I will be able to see front campus and the houses across the way. I like to be able to see the lights in other people's windows not really to spy on them but just to know that they are there and awake.

Hydrangea

I bought a white hydrangea today on a whim and right now its peaking over my computer, making me smile with its hundreds of petals and its dark green leaves. I also ran into a black and white great dane named Duke who came up past my hip, I don't think I've ever seen a dog that big before but his owner assured me that he was just a lap dog (not on my lap!). He stretched out his tongue to lick me and I realized that it was as big as my hand! I stood there petting him for a while, fascinated at his sheer size. I would consider buying one if I ever have lots of land. These dogs almost look otherworldly.
The weather here in Maryland went from strangely cold to sticky hot, there is even a haze in the air from all the humidity. Its dark out now and a chorus of cicadas and crickets are chirping away, no stars yet just passing headlights and a vague outline of trees, there leaves still in full summer green.

Going

Summer is now officially dwindling away, and my stay in Pennsylvania can no longer be counted in weeks or even days. Its afternoon and the sky gives the vague impression of impending rain, the shetland tea shawl is off the needles but yet to be blocked, War and Peace is very close to being done but I seem to have lost all energy and taste for it. So it seems a strange time of half endings and near beginnings for me.
Some sort bush full of white flowers is leaning into the windows and the sounds of work and sleep are all around me. I'm not packed and feel a sort of loathing for Flordia and its constant reapperance in my life. I want it put away in a neat box marked "past" but this is not likely to happen. Nothing, it seems, is so easy to put away.
Tired and restless is the best way to describe me these days. Yet I seem to get things done, and to at least appear active.

Dusk

Oysters lay opened.
soft pale cadavers,
Pillow like corpses,
Pale in their discovered weakness.
No pearls, only flesh
Mortality exposed.
Yet the coffins
Of their shells
Seem to dream on,
In milky white reflections

-Kristina

Almost

I've been working on the edging of my shetland tea shawl and I'm getting really excited about how its turning out. So I thought I would post some progress pictures. Enjoy!



I have also made some progress on my embroidery.

Time and Eternity

MY cocoon tightens, colors tease,
I ’m feeling for the air;
A dim capacity for wings
Degrades the dress I wear.

A power of butterfly must be
The aptitude to fly,
Meadows of majesty concedes
And easy sweeps of sky.

So I must baffle at the hint
And cipher at the sign,
And make much blunder, if at last
I take the clew divine.

- Emily Dickinson

With the Coming Rain

Poppies are growing all over the garden. Along with a ton of other little flowers and pumpkins, tomatoes, sunflowers, squash, beans and gourds. All thats missing is a few chickens and maybe a sheep or two :).
Its been a sort of sleepy day today, mostly going around and doing errands. A storm seems to be coming and I'm planning on cuddling up with a good book (War and Peace) and drinking some sort of spicy indian tea.
Its been a very hectic week, and relaxing seems somewhat hard to do after all the unrest and anxiety. This anxiety seems to stay with one, like an echo, fading slowly, but nevertheless present. I don't quite remember a time when all of these little echoes have completely left me. However they fade, and what are they but memories?

I told you in my last post that I have been painting a bit, this is an unfinished watercolor that I have been working on. I'm also getting ready to do some embroidery, and hopefully work some more on my shetland tea shawl. And with that I will leave you with a picture of the sky at dusk as seen from Pennsylvania.

And the Days Go By

Its strange how time flies, how quickly the hours pass, not to mention the days. The corn outside my window has gotten huge, it seems like yesterday I could just barely see it sprouting up. I have been feeling very creative recently and drawing a few things here and there. Also I've managed to start the edging on my Shetland tea shawl, and decided to delude myself into thinking that it will be done soon.
On another note entirely I've fumbled upon the many delights of etsy recently and have begun to daydream of selling stuff through it. But this would require A)stuff B) time to make stuff C) mailing stuff on time (this, I'm sure my friend Natalie will agree, is not my strong point). So for now I will keep to my daydreams.... which also include making a quilt (that I can manage, hopefully).

A Moment

WILL there really be a morning?
Is there such a thing as day?
Could I see it from the mountains
If I were as tall as they?

Has it feet like water-lilies?
Has it feathers like a bird?
Is it brought from famous countries
Of which I have never heard?

Oh, some scholar! Oh, some sailor!
Oh, some wise man from the skies!
Please to tell a little pilgrim
Where the place called morning lies!

-Emily Dickinson

Unexpected

There is a softness all through the house today, everything seems lulled or wrapped up in an invisible down blanket. Even the air seems somehow smoother or quieter. It is an unexpected stillness after lots of rushing about and doing. And it seems I have a huge swath of time to myself which is always comforting.
I've been thinking about psychology, as it is the field I'm thinking of getting into, and wondering what purpose it serves. It, at least outwardly claims to help people, but does it? Is there too much distance between client and doctor for any sort of real connection? It also seems strange to me that one must wade through six years of what seems like psychology history to be allowed to work with people.
This seems to be the summer of big projects. Both fun and exciting but also frustrating at times.

June

Its June...more importantly nearing far to fast upon the end of June, which means I've been a very bad blogger. But rest assure I've been plodding along on my shetland tea shawl which still has a non-existant edge, but someday it will be finished. My internship, however, is happily drinking up all my time (not that I'm complaining or anything like that).




Its been hot here in PA so the drive to and from work is extra taxing, but the early mornings and dusk are magical. The fire files are out and twinkling all around the trees and today it seems that a thunderstorm will come in with the night. There is even a little groundhog living in the backyard, who comes out every morning and grazes among the flowers.



Its with summers like this that I feel drawn to a quiet life of painting, writing, and knitting. I want to take all the intricate plans laid out in front of me and throw them away, with one long and dramatic stroke. But it somehow does not seem right to retreat from the world so quickly and so decidedly.



Eric and I went hiking the other day around a national state park that is close to his house. The grass was high and they had a beautiful meadow (I personally love meadows and fantasize about spinning round and round in the middle of one, that or having a tea party on an old quilt while the bees buzz around me). One day I will do these things ( the day I get over my paranoia of deer ticks and lime disease ).



(found these lovely pigeons nesting in the nook of a front porch)

Blueberry Fields

I went blueberry picking recently with my parents and aunt. We left home very early in the morning and when we arrived there was still a soft fog all around the fields. It was wonderfully cool and the ground still had dew on it. Each of us was handed a bucket and away we went. I got lost along the forest line, far away from the others, just picking blueberry after blueberry. It was wonderful and so relaxing. The only thing you could here was a crow and I thought I heard a peacock or maybe it was a hoarse rooster.



I even saw a baby raccoon crawl out of his den and snack on some blueberries and then quickly crawl back (very cute). There was also a lot of grasshoppers flying about, rushing for new cover when you disturbed their particular bush. I have to say that its a lot easier to pick blueberries than it is to pick strawberries. The bushes are so much higher and more accessible, bending down in the summer sun is not my cup of tea. But then again the strawberries that are fresh picked are out of this world.



Three hours went by and our buckets were mostly full. All of us went to get our blueberries weighed to pay the owners, but more importantly to see who won (aka picked the most). I was the clear winner with 5.35 pounds of berries! Go me! It turned out that in all we had picked 18 something pounds of blueberries. Clearly more than enough.



We then packed up the car and proceeded to a yummy sushi dinner in town.



Oh and here is a picture of my shetland tea shawl progress (hehe...so close but so far)!

Different Perspectives

I love experimenting with different visual perspectives and materials. Its such a rush finding new things to work with, its still amazing to me what you can make with a ball of yarn. Lace especially fascinates me, its so delicate and ethereal. I'm always amazed that it doesn't just fall apart in my hands, and the intricate patters are breath taking.
But I feel like painting and drawing are my first loves and sometimes there isn't enough time in the day to do everything and while I love knitting sometimes I feel like I should be painting. Since going to college I feel as though I've had painting block. I mean I do a few things during the year but not nearly as much as I used to. One of my friends from college has a similar experience of not being able to sit down and draw. Its strange and sort of depressing but I know that I will get back into it. In fact next year I'm planning on setting up a painting corner in my tiny dorm room. Sure it'll take up lots of space but its worth it.

Stitches

Embroidery and knitting. Baking and dreaming. Oh my free time goes by so strangely like sand pouring through a large sieve, it sweeps through me all at once and I can almost hear the rush. So its nice to make things to see solid evidence of time passing. Soon I'll be out of Florida and starting my internship at a psychology lab in Delaware, I'm really excited. I love the woods up there and the deer and fireflies, its beautiful. I'm hoping to get some hiking and camping done out there.

Home

Home again and its surprisingly nice to be in a warm place. I left Maryland during a huge rain storm, and during most of the day I was in between being soaked and slightly moist. But I had my knitting to keep me company at the airport, which always seems to draw a lot of attention. So now I'm just relaxing at home and fantasizing about spinning and quilting as well as making some ultra healthy blue berry pancakes.

Graduation

Today was Eric's graduation, it was overcast for most of the day and now its raining. My hands smell faintly of cardboard and dust from packing away the last of my things. I walked around town some to forget how much I will miss this place over the summer and how strange it will feel to be alone here next year. I wonder how senior year will feel, will it be mystical like freshman year when the campus felt as though it was under a spell and everything had a glow to it, even the night seemed to shine then. Or will it just be the same, a shuffle of seasons, lots of reading and then the end. And when it is over, will I long for it again? Will I always come back to this place that changed me, that lives in me; the place of my youth where I found a part of myself? I don't want to think of it, but seeing graduation seeing what is before me makes me remember that this place is passing too. The freshman year illusion that this would last a good while is gone and four years does not seem long enough. Oh but I'm feeling dramatic, and part of me does not feel this at all and craves the future.
I'm flying home tomorrow night, with a lot of knitting to keep me busy. The shetland tea shawl is coming along nicely and I'm excited to wear it. Hope all of you are well!

Rainy Days

Its been raining a lot around here recently. The ground is wet and everything seems to be green and lush. Knitting is fast and the shetland tea shawl is coming along, although I have one of the ferns colliding into another (but I'm not going to fix it) and probably live to regret it. But its fun to knit and thats all I ask of it, besides the center while seemingly important really can't be seen when worn (or at least thats what I tell myself).

I'm excited for summer break, which will hopefully be filled with hiking, camping, floating down rivers, along with an internship and lots of application writing. Of course much painting and knitting will be done!

Spring and Summer

My poor poor blog. Neglected, starved and alone. Life got a bit hectic around here recently, my father was very ill and Eric is graduating soon, all the while I'm trying to figure out what life beyond college holds for me. So logging on seemed near impossible, but spring seems to have lifted me up. The petals, falling down like rain, make you forget. And the trees with their new leaves, seem to remind you not to live in tomorrow but rather now, not in years but in moments.
There are flocks of red bellied robins hopping all over campus and little yellow birds that are very shy and seem to climb trees rather than fly up into them. Yesterday I sat outside in a secluded garden and saw a rabbit laying down in the shade, there was so much stillness and yet so much movement as the wind moved the branches, a hushed pulse to everything. Summer is here, and spring a new memory.

Sunny day Babbles

Sitting up in bed, looking at all the construction stuff outside and drinking my coffee. They are digging up selected parts of campus to "fix" the heating pipes (they do this every two years it seems). I'm willing to give up a bit of the esthetic for water that doesn't burn off a few layers of skin, or at least I would be willing to if I thought that their little dig would actually amount to any change in the hot-cold fluctuations. On an up note the birds seem unaffected by said digging and are twittering their little heads off (I love it) I suspect its because of all the worms that feel the need to sacrifice themselves on our sidewalks. I try to save as many as I can by throwing them into the grass, but I'm not sure this actually works, seeing so many robins around I imagine it just makes them a little harder to find.
Part of me wants to go live in the woods and forget that I ever heard of graduate school...maybe someone could pay me to draw twigs and leaves, I could even sell overpriced- handmade quilts to yuppies and a painting or two on the side. I could own a herd of cats and dye wool on the weekends and and....the artsy-craftsy madness goes on and on. So I find it particularly strange that when I have a semi-viable way of actually doing all this I spurn it, and drive towards a "real" career.
I still need to re-start that lace project. Blah. Not much knitting is being done recently.
P.S Check out Library Thing if you haven't all ready...its like Ravelry for book addicts!

Almost Spring

These pretties were waiting for us when we arrived back to Maryland after spring break. Some trees also have buds on them...I know I'm excited. The big winter coat is starting to feel stuffy.
I started the Shetland tea shawl, which after a few rows I had to frog because it was doing that ugly ladder thing. I think I ran into the problem using magic loop, and just have to restart and try to pull harder at the joints.
Anyway its pouring out and I'm going to make myself some tea and get some editing done.

Strange Days

Please give me some good advice in your next letter. I promise not to follow it.

-Edna St. Vincent Millay, Letters

Sleep

It is far too late to be up, but here I am in a cosy chair by a lamp and the house is stilled with the sounds of sleep filling it. I am aware of only the present and do not remember the past nor do I dream of the future.
Looking out the window, I see a car driving by, its headlights cut through the night and I wonder who they are and where they are going and whether they have someone by their side.

Pennsylvania

I'm in Pennsylvania again. Its beautiful here, even though March is generally an awkward in-between month. The light in the early evening is stunning and the farmer which lives across the way has begun to work on his field in preparation for the coming summer. We have fires most of the day, and basically try to remain under blankets when reading. Tea is perpetually being prepared and the dog is always ready to cuddle. So its an ideal place to hide away and knit, read, write, or draw. We go on late night rides through the countryside, which might be my favorite part. The trees and the hills by the moon light are stunning and the deer and foxes are everywhere.



Today Eric and I made chili and cornbread, it was fantastic. One of my friends gave me the recipe, thanks Molly! I have been drawing and reading a lot recently, taking a break from my Middlemarch paper. I really want to get started on my Shetland tea shawl but I find it very frustrating so I may not attempt it for a while yet.

Writing and Reading

My portrait of an old man, done with pencil on standard sketch paper. I'm hoping to enter this in our yearly art show at the college. Very happy with the way it turned out, I like that the skin looks like cloth.
Hope everyone is well. I've been reading Pride and Prejudice and Little Women. I love Little Women and highly recommend it. I've also been writing a monster of an essay on Middlemarch, which still needs loads more work, so wish me luck.