Winter Greens
The last week f January I went to Blairsville, Georgia to be with my family. My brother, Bill, his son Chuck, daughter, Bretta and I did courses at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC. Bill and Chuck did a wood turning course in making "hollow form" vessels. Bretta and I did a course called "Botanical Books". For a week we were able to learn from a botanical illustrator, Redenta Soprano, and a calligrapher and book artist, Annie Cicale. Using Redenta's techniques I did the above drawing when I got home. Being around my family is such a creative stimulus. They sing, they dance, they write music and blog; they turn wood, work with fiber,are excellent photographers, cook, sew, paint and draw. I love to be in their midst and always come home inspired and motivated. We have 2 new bloggers in our family: my great nephew, Reece who blogs at www.wannabejesusrocker.blogspot.com and my great niece who is doing a blog project of called Blogject365 (www.blogject365.blogspot.com). Their mother, Bretta blogs at Creativity Unleashed (www.brettaogburn.blogspot.com). These are talented people!! Bretta hasn't blogged in a while but perhaps this little rant will shame her into offering up some of her projects! Christa is a wonderful writer and artist and Reece writes music with great lyrics. As for me...well I can continue to offer up some poetry and pictures of life here in the laurel thickets of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Life has been great since retirement and as I sit here in the sunshine of a beautiful Valentine's Day I realize how incredibly lovely life is. I decorated my Christmas tree for Valentine's Day this morning. I moved it out onto the back deck after Christmas and it is still green and fresh (let's hear it for those Allegheny County Christmas tree growers!). It was cut from a local Christmas tree farm on the 20th of December and decorated with mostly "bird friendly ornaments". Every now and again I put peanut butter and bird seed on the dried orange slices so the birdies have a treat. I cut some suet up for them and put it on the branches and it was popular!
I can't promise a post every day but I will make a commitment to continue to let you all know about life here at 111 Ivy Lane. Here is a poem I wrote today about a dream I had a couple of nights ago. It feels important.
Severed
It was an old house
built onto a new house.
I saw the chain saw in his hand
as he severed the steps;
cut the house into pieces.
It broke away from itself
and fell mortar and wood;
crumbling dust mixed with sweat
on my father’s brow. I wanted the pieces;
to save them, cherish them, immortalize them.
What did I need from the pieces? Who
was the house? What fell; and why am I
hanging curtains on the windows that remain?
Here's the picture of the sock I am currently knitting. The yellow at the top is just the sun coming in the window...the yarn is truly RED! I have worn black so much over the past years that I decided to dive right into color! The top picture is the back of the sock and the one under it is the front. The white line is a row of "waste yarn" which comes out when I add the heel. So, this has been quite a learning project: learning to cast on a seamless toe, magic loop knitting and the "afterthought heel." I haven't done cables in a long time although these cables are pretty simple. I just don't need to tell you how many times I started over on this one...suffice it to say that I am now quite good at the seamless toe cast on!!! 
