My Picture Of The Day
Maria Wulf Full Moon Fiber Art
A Walk In The Back Pasture
I stood by the pond looking, no frogs, no salamanders, no fish. No herons either, I’ve only seen a few of them all summer.
But there are loads of insects everywhere.
Braeden didn’t come to the farm today, so after brushing Fanny and Lulu I went to the back pasture for a visit.
A row of orange umbrella mushrooms were popping up beside the footpath I walked on. The path the animals have made over the years.
There were still apples on the trees in the back pasture. And a few pears high in the pear tree. I can only imagine all the animals who come to feast on them.
The pasture is alive with insects.
They hop and fly
bouncing the flowers
as they leave and
land on them.
Grasshoppers parted the way as I walked and little yellow butterflies danced around each other above it all.
Only two of the ten white pines that I planted a few years ago survived. And one just barely. The chicken wire I had around it got knocked over and the needles were eaten down to the ground.
But it came back this summer and is thriving.
Most of the thistle has gone to seed, so silky, soft and delicate, the opposite of the sticky plant itself. It’s well protected except from the donkeys who love to munch on them, and the goldfinches who eat the seeds and so help to spend them.
The Misfit Scraps…
I had no idea what I’d be doing when I went to my studio this morning. Once there I looked at my worktable loaded with fabric from making Potholders and Nature Spirits and started sorting.
I folded all the large pieces of fabric an put them in a pile. Then I worked my way through the smaller pieces.
I put them in piles according to size and color. But some didn’t seem to fit anywhere. Those I randomly laid out on my worktable.
When I was done, I liked what I saw so I started sewing together the misfit pieces.
The only trouble I got into was when I thought about what I was doing too much. When I finished sewing what I had laid out, I added on a few more pieces that were left over on the table.
Then I put what I had sewn together on my studio floor and looked at it.
I looked and looked,
I asked the piece what it wanted
and looked some until I thought
“big flower“.
After I found the big flowers and sewed them on,
I looked some more until I thought “blue.”
As soon as I sewed the batik elephants on, I told myself “bold and unpredictable,” that’s what I want for this quilt. As I worked I reminded myself to resist traditional balance and symmetry, (like when I through of removing the elephants and putting the flowers and pineapple on both sides).
I want to feel this quilt, not think it.
My Picture Of The Day
Bud
Afternoon Pasture
I went out with my canon camera this afternoon and took some pictures in the pasture. Above is Kim eating and apple. That’s Issachar, as he often is, next to her.
I wasn’t surprised when Zip hopped up on the fence post in front of Asters.
It rained again this weekend, a soaking rain that helps keep the grass green and still growing. We could get a frost any night, but I have a feeling the animals will be eating grass into October. That’s Asher up front.
The hens are still molting, but they’re wandering a bit more than they were. This morning I saw them way out in the north pasture. By the afternoon they were back, resting under cover of the dahlias.
Soon it will be time for the fall shearing.
Along with green grass, the wildflowers continue to bloom while others are going to seed. Many of those seeds are hitching a ride in the sheep’s wool. Good for the seeds, but not for me. I have a feeling I’ll be pulling a lot of those little sticky seeds (Agrimonia for one) form the sheep’s fleeces when it’s time to skirt them.
You can see the little seeds in the wool around Merricat’s face.
“Nature Spirits”, My Dragonfly Meditation Quilt, All Done
I have to thank DawnMarie who gave me the name for my latest Meditation Mat when she sent me the meaning of dragonflies written by Jamie Sams in Medicine cards. Part of the message was…”In essence, the world is full of nature spirits.”
But I also have to thank PFL who called the Meditation Mat Nature Spirits when she wrote to let me know she would like to buy it. I was simply referring to as Dragonfly on my blog as I was making it,
It’s not the first Meditation Mat that PFL has bought.
She is getting a few as Christmas gifts. “I plan to match each mat with the person I’m gifting it to,” she wrote me, then I’ll write a haiku using the name of the mat in it.”
PFL sent me a haiku she wrote for my Meditation Mat Sitting With The Sun. It goes like this….
“Warm days beckon me.
Peace, love, light, ease can find me
Sitting with the sun.”
As I was making Nature Spirits, I kept thinking of dragonfly wings, how they shimmer with shifting colors when touched by the sun. Another sign of “the winds of change…and enlightenment” attributed to the dragonfly.
My Morning Meditation, The Day Before Me
Nothing dramatic,
just the gradual seeping of light
into darkness,
until there was the day before me.
Good Monday Morning From Bedlam Farm 9/21/26
My Picture Of The Day
