I am going...

to start posting over at every-single-day! Check it out.

My goodness!

You've got to know how difficult it is to move so far from home and create a new life. Emotionally things are a roller coaster, up is down and down, up. So in moments of clarity, it is good to follow through on what I can do.
Last week I was given a card about a raptor rescue program that needs or encourages volunteers.
Now to back track, I am working with an impressive young woman who finds great joy in volunteering. She looks for the next idea in volunteerism. I have always thought of volunteering as a means to give away valuable time for free. But right now qwesting outward is better than experiencing the depths of the mind and its woes and worries.
Anyway! An idea was sparked.
So I called the number on the card and left a message. They of course called back saying that today was a volunteer training day, they would be flying birds! I went.
There were 6 birds, some of which, I cannot remember the name. There was this one funny bird, a hawk who is primarily a ground dwelling bird. Watching him run around was just, plain, funny. There were two Harris's Hawks, A Eurasian Eagle Owl and a Barn Owl.
The woman who ran the program gloved me up and I was able to hold the Barn Owl! When she let me know that that was the bird she would have me hold, I nearly cried! Deb L and many of my friends back east must remember how addicted I was to watching the Barn Owl Nest Cam last spring. Eggs, roosting, birth, death and survival of two out of three eggs, I watched right up until the day they left the box.
They are WAAaaaay prettier in person.
And all of this after getting to see Saturn for the first time in my life from the Clark Telescope just the night before. I saw 4 moons, Titan brightest among them.

Still here

This will be a short post to let you know I am still here.
I got my hair trimmed today. I couldn't get any of the styles that I clipped and saved from the pages of the magazines because my hair isn't long enough. Instead she took off the mullet like back portion, trimmed the razor edges and sent me home with a bunch of bobby pins to help me ignore the pain. This hairstyle will lead into the next, which I will keep tucked into my wallet for the next trim up.
This is good because I was feeling like my hair was making my head look large. I wish I could jump to the next style without all the growing, though.
Oh! I bought skirts one and two! I waited long enough that they went on sale.
So even though I have not 'felt' the sewing vibe for too long for comfort, I am going to make myself go sew. I have to fake it till I make it.
Goodbye.

A Good Day

Yesterday, I had Patty over to finish making some covers for her RV seats. She is a neat person, didn't hesitate to sew, helped in every way possible, even cooked some left over pasta and spruced it up for lunch.
So at one point she was sitting at the machine and yelled over to me, "There are birds at your feeder." I rushed into the room. And started to cry.
My dad bought me this set up over the Christmas holiday. I mounted and filled it over the week of February 14. I was beginning to think that I wouldn't get any birds at this feeder because it was mounted onto the house, and that the birds did not want to come so close to a human structure. Wrong.
This is a Pygmy Huthatch, the first bird we saw. Pretty little stubby tail. Then came a White Breasted Huthatch and a Dark-eyed Junco (scroll down the page to see the Arizona form). They didn't stay for long, had a few seeds, checked out the digs and went away. I tried to capture my own photos to no avail. So I was pretty happy. YEAH!
I have been researching bird friendly plants, berry plants that will attract birds and give them special treats. I would like to make this a backyard habitat for birds using native plants. Or should I call it a side yard?
David and I are going to take a beginning birding class given by some folks at the local Audubon Society. We will have four classes indoors and three field trips. It ought to be fun and will be nice to see the birding spots they choose for field trips.
OPS!! I was able to take a photo!

A job found me and then they flood in.

Well. I have taken a job. Part time. As an educator at the Lowell Observatory. They were also talking about my helping them out with their installations. I will get to learn about the telescopes, astronomy. I look forward to meeting intelligent, passionate people.
My Mom got me a gift certificate to J. Jill for Christmas. I haven't used it yet and it is burning a hole in my pocket (so to speak).
Because I won't be leaning over and crawling on tables, coloring or painting at this new job and because I want to start wearing more skirts, I have been trolling the pages of the J. Jill web site. These are the skirts that I have been dreaming about. And because I cannot afford all of them, I have to choose. I would like to get two and like the skirts in the order I have uploaded the photos. what do you think? There have not been too many comments to my posts lately...
anyone? They are basically the same skirt just slightly different. All are A-Line, all below the knee. I can picture them with my keen sandals. Dressing up here in Flag is very informal. Fleece has a special flair here, though honestly, I don't know that I will ever be sold on it.
Maybe I should choose an entire outfit.
I have to say, J. Jill presents their stuff better in the actual catalog than on the web. I can feel the situation and my part in it when I leaf through the catalog. Not so much over the web. They take different photos for the web than the print version. hm.
So. I have been putting this post together over the day. I have not gotten out of my P.J's to be honest. We were eating garlic popcorn, drinking wine and watching videos earlier when another call for a hob interview came through. Hm. That job would not call for the wearing of skirts or cater to my will to wear them.
Damn it.
This other job is full time, and working for a nursery. The job might have broader application in this job market but would not entail learning about telescopes or astronomy. Both would pay the same. I would like to go on the interview just the same.
And this, the third and still well liked skirt but bottom on the list. Who knows.
I have been shopping for my next haircut. I am not quite there, needing a bit more growth but I have not figured out what the cut is called or at least can't find it on the web. I asked a woman who had it and she said it was an asymmetrical wedge. I saw the perfect version of it last night but was not able to ask the woman what it was called and where she got it cut. Damn it again.
To venture away from simple fashion I am listening to Cordero, because JJ just sent me a bunch of music. She got to see them in person recently. I really like them. They started out here in Arizona.

Time

We are doing well. Some days it feels difficult some days we know everything is just right. It is a day to day thing. In some ways I feel like I have it easier than David. I have been networking, reaching out, meeting new folk and building a support system. David has been settling into his new job.
On other days I fall apart. I forget to have faith that THE correct job for me will come through. On these days the old habit of beating myself up comes easily. I had one of those on Monday. Then I stepped back and began taking care of myself. A walk outdoors, coffee with my friends Harry and Patty. Self care.
We both knew this first year would be the toughest and it is.
But driving home the clouds were huge, the light great. When we got out the the car the light on the Aspens and Ponderosa Pines were spectacular. We stood looking at our home, the light, the trees and knew everything was OK. I verbalized that this community is just what we wanted. We have never had community like this and it really is supportive, open and amazing.
We know we made the right choice. No matter how much every now and again, the childhood voice creeps into our minds saying, "I want to go home." The feeling of knowing a place is gained only with time and three months isn't enough to obtain that feeling.

I am still here...

I have been drawing and painting in my journal almost daily. I haven't been able to sew much and my dye studio is not yet functioning. It irks me and I wish I could feel satisfied sewing but there you have it. I am in transition and soo is my art making. I drew these folks this morning. The bearded man on the left made me long for my own bearded father.
Patty gave me Birds of America by JJ Audubon. The book is amazing. I wonder if his painting style was affected by his methods.
Here is what Wikipedia says, "In order to draw or paint the birds, he had to shoot them first, using fine shot to prevent them from being shot to pieces. He then used fixed wires to prop them up, restoring a natural position. His birds are set true-to-life in their natural habitat. This was in stark contrast with the stiff representations of birds by his contemporaries, such as Alexander Wilson. Audubon once wrote: "I call birds few when I shoot less than one hundred per day". One of his biographers, Duff Hart-Davis, reveals: "The rarer the bird, the more eagerly he pursued it, never apparently worrying that by killing it he might hasten the extinction of its kind."
Anyway. This is a drawing taken from the book, done in my own hand, not traced, and painted.
This page is inspired by a book of marks that Dorothy Caldwell did. I got to see photographs of her visual journal last weekend while taking an indigo dyeing workshop from her. I was really taken by her idea of marks and bet these will be percolating within me for quite some time.
So anyway. I am still here, we both are actually. I look forward to settling into sewing and making cloth again but until then...