The Shepherd

November 4, 2013 by

He spoke sparse and terribly broken English, I speak sparse and terribly broken Spanish, but we still managed to have a twenty minute long conversation while standing on the edge of the flock he was tending with the help of his three dogs.  This will be his tenth year shepherding in Idaho.  He’ll travel home to Chile in the new year.  I fell in love, just a little, with his Great Pyrenees who has a sweet heart and a proud, hard working spirit.  Shepherds have one of the oldest occupations in the world and I was glad to meet this one personally.  I hope he’s warm in his shepherd caravan tonight, out there in the cold hills above the South Fork of the Snake River where the the grip of the wind can rip steel.  And I hope the coyotes keep their distance while they sing their feral lullabies to all the gentle lambs.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

To Jackson And Back Again

November 3, 2013 by

[please click on this image to see it larger so you can fully gaze upon the texture of snowflakes falling on horses…beautiful]

Oh man.

The world is such a beautiful place.  The people I love are extraordinary, in every way.  The animals I keep are true lovebugs.  The mountains I know, the plains I adore, are pure, wild, ancient gifts from the Father Of Lights.

I am home from Jackson.  Rob is home from elk hunting.  We are cooking pizza and then we are going to lay on the couch together in the crackling warmth of candlelight, snuggle and tell each other the stories from the past few days of our lives that we spent apart.

I have a broad heart that reaches high and deep, eyes full of snowflakes, and arms that were made for hugging.

X

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,
November 1, 2013 by

[Belly Of The Beast Necklace — Autumn Bear — sterling silver, copper, coral, chrysoprase, silk and Oregon beach stone in ochre and striped plum]

Holy Coyote.  I know that today is the first of November but I have one final thing to do before I officially summit the mountain of October.  What a month it has been!  A very good month of very good work, indeed.  I am headed for Jackson Hole, Wyoming tomorrow on a business trip (with a bit of pleasure mixed in, to boot).  I can’t wait to see those snowy Tetons, hug my friends, pet a buffalo and have a couple of rambles with the dogs in the woods there.

A handful of random informations for you:

  1.  For the last two weeks of my life I have suffered a total body poison ivy (or poison oak — we aren’t sure which…) attack!  I had, at one point, a total of 21 patches of rash on my body (including the palm of one hand and the crease of one of my eyelids).  It was awful.  By nature, I am an itchy person, however, this is the itchiest I have ever been in the history of my life.  I’m almost over it now.  Yeesh.  I thought I might perish.  We don’t know how I came down with it or what the heck happened.  I have washed all the clothing and bedding in the house TWICE now.  Lord preserve me.

2.  I made this soup yesterday and my golly, it is the best pumpkin soup recipe I have ever tried and let me inform you of the fact that I am a mighty fan of the pumpkin soup.  Most pumpkin soup concoctions call for a vat of heavy whipping cream — not this one!  It’s quite light, spicy and whole.  PLEASE NOTE: I used an extra half an onion, 3 more garlic cloves than required, an extra teaspoon of cumin, a whole bundle of fresh oregano instead of dried oregano and in the future I WILL use two jalapenos instead of one…I may add carrots too.  I have about 12 baking pumpkins I brought home from the smokejumper base in Washington which means I’m pretty much going to make pumpkin soup for the entire universe for all of infinity.

3.  The studio is officially unpacked, fairly tidy, organized and ready for me to get down to business.  Did I tell you I am sharing my building with a girlfriend this winter?  She’s a painter and leather worker — truly talented and individual in her work.  I have much respect for her work but I also love her as a person.  I’m so excited about it.  She’ll be in Nicaragua for a little while but once she is home in Idaho again, she’ll be working alongside me in the studio most days.  I know we are both going to benefit from the creative energy and hum and thrum of each other.  We’re not the neatest pair of people, the studio may burst at the seams from creative chaos.  It’s still going to be awesome though.  I can’t wait.

I really like my building.  Working in the small space of the Airstream in the summer months helps me to deeply appreciate my workspace here in Idaho.  It’s expansive, lit with huge windows and the ceilings are high enough that I can really wing my way around without feeling cramped.  It’s good to be back.

4.  I had my hair cut.  It.  Felt.  So.  Good.  I think the last time I had it trimmed was April.  Now I look like a demure lady wolf without split ends.

5.  There’s a baby boom happening in Pocatello.  I mean, some of our friends are having babies.  It’s exciting.  It’s also terrifying because everyone sits around and talks about how Rob and I don’t have a baby yet and how we’re going to have a baby any moment now…just pop one out…it’s all rather disconcerting.  I stay cool as a cucumber when they all start talking like that.  Babies are contagious.  These will be the first babies in our circle of friends here which is why it’s exciting.  It feels like a big life shift for us all.  I’m going to host all the baby showers.  No one asked me to, I demanded the honor.  Which leads me to my next point:

6.  I love our Idaho clan.  Seriously.  Everyone is just exactly who they are.  It’s glorious.  I thrive in the circle of our friends here.  Thrive.  And the girls are all so awesome, unique, confident and straightforward.  I love ’em.

7.  Stop motion with PAPER!!!  Love that Laura Marling.

8.  The weather lately:

Wild and awful.  Lovely and dark.

9.  I made this little lady…more on her later.

10.  Have you checked in on Jonathan lately?  Gosh.  I think he is officially one of my very favorite photographers of all time.  Brilliance, color, emotion, texture, honesty…everything I always strive for with a camera.  Take your time looking.  You will be moved.

I hope you are all better than fine.  As always, thanks for being here.

X

https://www.thenoisyplume.com/blog/2013/11/01/6985/

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,
October 26, 2013 by

[Woke up at 5:08AM…have been working ever since.  Feels so right and good.]

https://www.thenoisyplume.com/blog/2013/10/26/6980/

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

Idaho Crush

October 23, 2013 by

Oh man.  I’m crushing so hard on Idaho right now.  I feel myself tightening my heart tethers even more, double knotting my soul strings to the land here, the sky, the wind, the spring creeks, the rivers wild, the timber (pungent douglas fir, subalpine fir, pondi pine, aspen, scrub maple), the sage.  Bless it all.  It is sweet tincture against the shadows of this world.

We went out yesterday afternoon, hunting grouse for our dinner table, of course, but also to walk up into a high place and survey our beautiful little pocket of the world.  To place the delicate, wild wafer of nature on our tongues and drink the breeze in holy communion.  There was Idaho, unfurling like a banner beneath our feet, rolling out like a royal rug in hues of tawny gold and silver sage.  I am not sure there’s a place more rumpled, more eaten by wind, mule deer and river water.  I think, time and time again, that the very hands of God reached out and crumpled the skin of the earth here into a ball, as one would a sheet of pure white paper, before unfolding it loosely and draping it over the bones of our planet.  I see stone spines rising up as far as my eyes can see, and then beyond, out across the Snake River Plain and the Buttes into the wide crowns of the Lemhi and Beaverhead Ranges that lay pulsing with wilderness North of our little town.

I forgot about the wind here.  We’ve reacquainted.  It has cold claws.  I missed the savage nature of the air here, as though it too has to survive by tooth and nail in order to scrub the high places clean and devour the dust between the sagebrush.  It has a big job, exfoliating the interior West.  Someone has to keep it clean, I suppose.

When the sun began to set and the golden hour dawned I stopped breathing.  It was surreal, almost like a summer sunset polluted by wildfire smoke — bright orange and pink lighting up the forest floors between strands of timber on the mountain slopes.  I fell far behind the boys, stopping to point my camera at every little detail that rose up to meet me, breathing in the scent of the wild spaces here and pausing, every other step, to sniff the sage.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »