HUMMERS

We are experiencing a respite from the hummingbirds. May was a heavy traffic month, but as is typical with other years, this first batch leaves around June 1st, and we expect to see the next crew during the month of July. For now, I only have to fill my feeders once a week, and I'm watching for the increase of our high-speed, flying visitors.
The numbers around the feeder was a frequent topic of conversation in June. We figure there were up to 50 at a time, within a 15 ft. range from the feeder. One night, after filling the feeder, I decided to just sit and hold it to see if the birds would come to me, and they did. Out of 6 holes, I had all but one filled. The beating of their wings was cooler than a high speed fan. It was an intense experience!

Speaking of migratory creatures, I am hoping to see me migratory husband soon. With reference to the previous post of his inadmissability into Canada, his situation is looking promising but certainly has been an extreme amount of hoop-jumping, information gathering, and craziness. He is working with a Vancouver immigration lawyer, living in Anacortes with computer access 30 minutes away in Mount Vernon (both good friends!) and is totally immersed in the incredible task of gaining access to his life in Refuge Cove. After an FBI check, police checks, fingerprinting, a complete residential and employment history since the age of 18, letters of reference from 8 individuals, and time for the lawyer to compile it all and summarize the situation, he hopefully will then be able to present it to the border officers (along with a payment for a temporary permit) to enter Canada. This has been such an incredible story and experience! Not a good experience, but incredible in the sense that it has been life-changing and so shockingly sudden.

Let's see who gets here first, Tom or the hummingbirds?

LOCKED OUT OF LIFE

My quilt journal assignment for June is "sometimes a great notion"...so I went to my sewing box and pulled out some oddball notions that I could use to interpret something of interest or going on in my life. Our current situation is so powerful that it all just flowed out onto the cloth....a heavy-duty zipper as the border, an old emblem for the Canadian side, and some cloth tapes to represent the U.S. side...I know, stars would help, but I couldn't find any. Then the safety pin just had to go onto the wrist of the "southern" wrist, as that is my husband, Tom, who was turned back at the border last week as inadmissable into Canada.

We have been traveling to Canada (as U.S. citizens) for many years, first as boaters, enjoying the waters of the Gulf Islands and Desolation Sound, then in 2000 purchased a share at Refuge Cove and have since been spending our summers here. It is heaven on earth here for us. We respect the laws that say we have a 6 month limit per year, so annually migrate between Canada and Mexico (via the U.S.)...two countries we have grown to love, and thank our lucky stars that we are retired and able to live the lifestyle we do.

BUT, last week something came up on their computer screen that caught the Canadians' attention. In 2004, Tom and I went to a hockey game for our beloved UAF Nanooks in our hometown of Fairbanks, Alaska. We were avid fans, and we were at every home game. At this one very exciting game, the fans were up and down in their seats, but this one very tall man in front of me failed to sit down. In my polite, reasonable, non-confrontational way, I asked him to sit down. From that he began to verbally abuse me. My husband got into some verbal discourse with him which I thought might have ended everything, but no, he had to turn one more time and go at me. At that, Tom punched the guy, then the police came, which followed with a court case....and now we are separated by the forces of Homeland Security that are dominant in our world today. (Thanks to George Bush!) Even though the judge reduced the case from a felony to a misdemeanor with a $50 fine (maybe like a traffic ticket), it is that word ASSAULT that Canadians don't like. I just keep thinking there should be a different category for assault at a hockey game...like maybe making him an honorary citizen with a parade and such! But no...that is not our lot.

So he is in the land of lawyers and fbi checks and fingerprinting and fighting this battle which the Canadian consulate says may take 3 years, and I am up at our cabin, managing the garden and the boat, and keeping up with all the little maintenance issues we have here. I have custody of the dog and he has the truck. Phone calls and emails keep us connected. Once the family visitors come and go in August, I will join him south of the border in his fight for re-entry. Unless the immigration lawyer from Vancouver happens to have the middle name of God.

Again, we wait.

EARLY RISER

My days (and nights) here at Refuge Cove are full and abundant. There is always a corner or a task or an inspiration calling me. It's a bit like farm life...morning chores, planting, feeding the animals (and humans), an occasional trip to town (the dock) for socializing or the mail, heading out to the open waters to pull our prawn traps, a squeezed in session on the sewing machine, finding time for reading and spanish practice, and etc. etc. etc.! And of course the evening crib match with opponent Tom, one of my delicious dinner concoctions, and a movie in the new dvd player to entertain while I do handwork or the like. Phew!...I drop into bed and plummet into dreamland, only to cycle back into another day of early rising.

Roosters are not what wakes me. Chickens are not a part of my animal lot, but many friends and locals have them and we are the lucky recipients of the eggs. Lately I have been on a rooster/chicken (chickster!) focus for my fabric subjects becuase they are one of the ties that bind my Mexican and Canadian lives together. Perhaps chicksters are just one of those beings that take us back to our roots, back to the good old days, back to simplicity and earthiness. Also, I was so impressed and inspired by Linda's beautiful rooster, that I had to try one myself. First one, the "early riser", then the other - "on the run".

The animals I am responsible for feeding are numerous: 1 husband, 1 small dog, 10 goldfish, and about 500 hummingbirds! Now you may wonder how I have calculated this amazing number of buzzing, electric little avian generators. Julie told me one cup of syrup feeds 50, so yesterdays consumption of 2.5 quarts works out to about 500. The feeder is in my kitchen window, in front of me as I work away at the dirty dishes that pile up. They hover and watch as I fill an empty feeder at the sink, and when I hang it, I like to linger a moment or two with my hand at the base. With stillness I can attract them back to the feeder and my fingers just become another perch for them to get their sustenance. An awesome moment!

I bet you can't guess the subject of my next piece!

MOTHER NATURE RULES

It has been a long journey north. All went relatively well and in a timely fashion, but my most unfavorite time of the year (transitioning) stretched through latitudes and time and people and shifts of consciousness, culminating in the place we truly call home, where our spirits feel so connected with our natural surroundings.
It seems as though with each transition, some of my thoughts and ponderings focus on how things have changed. In Mazatlan, its a little like a detective game...putting the picture you remember in your head next to what you see in front of your eyes after being away for 6 months. Didn't that restaurant change names? Do you remember that building? I think there's a new store on the corner.
But coming north, to our tiny berg of Refuge Cove (with all of 17 people here at the moment), changes are a blatant force. They don't happen often, but when they do, everyone notices.
For me, each springtime return has a different feel to it. Last year it was a social thing....different dynamics cast an uncomfortable aura on the place and I felt disconnected for a few weeks. With the tourist season bringing hundreds of visitors, that feeling didn't last long. But this year, its the change of our environment. Mother Nature seems really pissed! Our arrival day of May 1st was dry to the bone, with the ground underfoot crunching along as I climbed the path to our home. My lovely garden was parched, flattened low to the ground from heavy snowfalls, and now, no water. My house was happily NOT littered with mouse poop, but did have a resident group of winged ants living in the roof. Water, typically dancing down the hillside creek, trickled along midst frequent "dock talk" of water shortages and fire danger. There are closures for rockfish, once thought of as a lowly "bottom fish" but now protected because of diminishing supply.
Now, a week later, we've had some rain, our water tank has been filled, and we've caught prawns rather than fish. We'll survive and life goes on. But the feeling that Mother Nature is one amazing and powerful spirit is lingering in my heart these days, and I certainly wish we all could figure out how to turn the tide for our planet....or at the very least, not piss her off anymore.

THE JOY OF JOURNALING

Throughout this winter I have blogged off and on about different quilt journal pieces I have completed. These once a month 8.5"x11" assignments from fellow journalers are usually one of the last items to be completed on my "to-do" list, so when the end of March arrived, my classes ended and projects slowed considerably, I finally got around to the two assigned themes - "song title" and "in silhouette".

And so, for my March journal piece....I went through song titles on the web and settled on the obvious...Margaritaville! And because two themes came through at once, I thought I'd maybe kill two birds with one stone, or at least try my hand at silhouette work. After I got started and had quite a bit put together, I decided I DID NOT like it, BUT, because I give myself a 3 hour limit on journal pieces, just went ahead anyway and finished. And now, I have to say I'm okay with the end result.

On to April for the real sihouette piece. The silhouette idea was a bit of a challenge for me as I've never thought of doing one before and had to get some inspiration from google images. (www.kamaladolphinkingsley.com was where I eventually landed.) I wanted to try using my thickened black dye (which came out gray) alongside some discharging, so that's what I did. I put the dye into one of my fine tipped bottles and filled within the stitching lines I created and was pretty happy with how that turned out. Whether or not the silhouette effect is achieved, I now have another technique/tool to add to my repertoire.

I am now up to ten pieces in MY journal and I continue to receive 7 other beauties (truly! - each fabulous and unique!) each month on the internet. This group and monthly ritual has become a true joy in my fiber filled life.

And now to May..."signs of spring". Shall I do Mexican spring or BC spring?

SHOW AND TELL

My friend Mary, a.k.a. Mary Orange, brought over her recent aquisition of traditional shirts purchased at an open air market that was in town for the month of February. We believe the shirts were made in either Oaxaca or Chiapas as the work is so representative of other beautiful work we have seen from those areas.

I love these shirts! Unfortunately they can begin to unravel before you want them to. I recommend checking out the seams at purchase time and reinforcing if need be. It's called preventative care!

I just noticed that each of these shirts has orange in it...Mary loves orange, thus her name which helps my husband remember her. She recently dyed up a batch of osnaburg cloth pieces in all deep and beautiful earth shades....oranges, rusts, red, maroons, browns, golds, olives, violets. She is going to make a shade cloth for an area in her northern home...can't wait to see it!

Thanks for sharing your fantastic finds, Mary!

DESIDERATA

In 1927, Max Ehrmann wrote "Desiderata" about things desired to achieve happiness. It has always been one of my favorites. My first attempt at using parts of this piece in my fabric work was for a pillow for our granddaughter, Ariel, when she graduated from middle school.

I knew then that someday I was going to put the entire text to cloth.

My palette appeared in whole cloth form last summer when I tried to fit as much clamping and tying onto a 1.5 meter piece of cotton as possible, then dipped it into a bath of black to let it sit and brew. The result was a catastrophic city scene, conjuring up images similar to those from 9/11 within me. I knew I had the perfect background for my Desiderata.

Go placidly amid the noise and haste and remember what peace may be found in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others you may become vain and bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself.

Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imagings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive him or her to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.