postcard: captain hastings

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postcard: sambucus

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update

The wild ginger is beginning to unfold!

So.
It's been 10 days of internetting on a wing and a prayer...reading blogs and sometimes managing to leave a comment, but not blogging. Using twitter because it's short and fast, but rarely succeeding at posting even low-resolution images - which I don't much enjoy posting, anyway.

Raindrops on new columbine.
Nearly every photograph I've taken lately has been during, or just after. a rainstorm.
It's been...wet.

Short repair recap: after two visits - the second today - from a very nice Tech person, and five new parts, HP says I now must send the laptop in. The good news is, I'm still under warranty. The bad news is, I will now be internetting on my small, non-fancy cellphone, for who knows how long.

In the past week I’ve already begun to feel sort of isolated and with the prospect of sending the laptop to sleep-away camp, I can almost imagine myself drifting right out of the internet and vanishing.

I guess we’ll see!

The maples began flowering on Saturday!
Even in the rain, there is a reddish tinge to the canopy.

MEANWHILE...

I want to tell you about a fundraiser to get an MRI scanner on Shetland. I’ve been following this community effort for a while, and was especially impressed by a woman who went out and gathered seeds from native Shetland wildflowers to sell in little packets for the MRI fund. Unfortunately for me, she couldn’t send them to the US.
But what a great idea!

And now...a lovely woman has handknit a Fair Isle pullover and is selling it on eBay with all the money going to the MRI fund. If you’ve ever wanted a genuine Fair Isle sweater, here’s your chance to bid on a beauty. It’s got soft colors and is made of vintage Patons Moorland pure Shetland wool. Did I mention hand-knitted?

Please pass this info along if you can –  I'm not sure how much "reach" the knitter has, and it’s such a good cause. And it's such a generous gesture on the part of the knitter. I am in awe! Please share my awe!

Here is what I hope is a working link to the eBay page

I wish I could post a picture here. Even if you are not interested in acquiring a wooly sweater, it’s worth a click just to look at the pictures. Check out the view of the inside!

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Well, I just dropped it to say hello, spend a couple of hours trying to upload photographs, and then go back out in the rain to move goats for the night. The photographs loaded slooooowly but they seem to be here - huzzah! Maybe I'll try to load some drawings and schedule them to post while my laptop is away. Like sending postcards. Just so you don't forget me :)

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remain calm

breathe in, breathe out

Remain calm. That's what I'm telling myself.

Part of the reason I've been blogging so little lately is that my laptop has been struggling to function. Yesterday I got a diagnosis: the hard drive is failing. Now I'm scrambling to salvage everything possible while random things appear and disappear, expand and shrink, and jump around the screen. Not a lot of fun, but I'm glad to have a chance to save whatever I can. I really cannot overstate how much of a communication lifeline and general world-connection tool my laptop is for me.

Replacement of the hard drive is already scheduled for the 17th, which will mean starting from scratch: reloading applications and restoring files. I saved 140,020 images last night, if the files haven't been damaged in any way by the state of the current hard drive. Time will tell.

Today I want to attempt to post this quick message to tell you one important thing:

the kids are named Hazel (the girl) and Bud (the boy).

I just tried to upload new pictures of them but the blog screen vanished twice - yikes. So please refer back to the earlier pictures, and apply additional cuteness. Thank you.

See you on the other side!

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artsy tuesday

Despite the increase in daily chore-rigmarole and time happily spent admiring young cashmere goats, the Daily Markmaking has continued without interruption. Though the markmaking has often been quite rapid:

newborn

In recent weeks, as you might imagine, most of my sketches have been done in the paddocks or the barns...lots of paintings of rocks, trees, and mud. I haven't actually been painting mud, it has appeared in the form of snoot smudges.

pencil sketch of maple 

rare surviving white pine sapling
(beyond reach of goats)

standing dead and deadfalls
(within reach of goats)

For a long time I've been pondering the possibility of having some of my botanical paintings or drawings made into fabric.

It's very hard to make the leap for two practical reasons: first, because I no longer have software for graphics editing which would help immeasurably with the design and layout, and second, because fabric is not inexpensive.

Which is why, although I received a box of sample fabrics from Spoonflower weeks ago, I've hesitated to open it.

But today I did.

May be in some trouble now.

We'll see.

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