![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
pine needles
Alongside the road and in the woods, the pine needles have dropped. Where the woods path goes through a stand of white pine, I met a grandmother and granddaughter raking up the fallen needles with small bamboo rakes. They were putting them in a long bag, like a cotton picker's sack. Remarkably, they were both wearing coats of exactly the same shade of copper-orange as the pine needles.
"Are you going to put the needles around blueberry bushes to make the soil more acid?" I asked. "Or are you making baskets? Or maybe you're planning a fragrant bonfire?"
"None of those: we're gathering these for felting," the grandmother said. "I didn't realize how much Bethie'd grown this past year--show the lady, Bethie."
Bethie stuck out an arm and I saw the skin on her bare wrist between the end of her coat sleeve and her hand.
"We're going to make you a bigger one, aren't we?"
Bethie nodded.
"Wow--I didn't know you could make felt out of pine needles," I said.
"Oh no? Well, you can, if you have the knack," the old woman said.
I looked more closely at her coat, and at Bethie's, and saw now that the rich, fuzzy orange fabric was decorated with geometric starbursts of pine needle embroidery--a marvel. The grandmother caught my admiring eye and smiled.
A red-tailed hawk screamed, and for some reason that put me in mind of time passing. Work called.
"Well, good luck with the gathering and the project," I said. "The coats are amazing."
"Thank you," the grandmother said, returning to raking. "You have a nice day now." Bethie waved goodbye, and I continued on the woods path. I looked back once, but they were lost from sight.
Photo: "Carpet of Needles, Delamere, Cheshire," by Ian Helsby on Flickr
"Are you going to put the needles around blueberry bushes to make the soil more acid?" I asked. "Or are you making baskets? Or maybe you're planning a fragrant bonfire?"
"None of those: we're gathering these for felting," the grandmother said. "I didn't realize how much Bethie'd grown this past year--show the lady, Bethie."
Bethie stuck out an arm and I saw the skin on her bare wrist between the end of her coat sleeve and her hand.
"We're going to make you a bigger one, aren't we?"
Bethie nodded.
"Wow--I didn't know you could make felt out of pine needles," I said.
"Oh no? Well, you can, if you have the knack," the old woman said.
I looked more closely at her coat, and at Bethie's, and saw now that the rich, fuzzy orange fabric was decorated with geometric starbursts of pine needle embroidery--a marvel. The grandmother caught my admiring eye and smiled.
A red-tailed hawk screamed, and for some reason that put me in mind of time passing. Work called.
"Well, good luck with the gathering and the project," I said. "The coats are amazing."
"Thank you," the grandmother said, returning to raking. "You have a nice day now." Bethie waved goodbye, and I continued on the woods path. I looked back once, but they were lost from sight.
Photo: "Carpet of Needles, Delamere, Cheshire," by Ian Helsby on Flickr
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
here (http://asakiyume.tumblr.com/post/102956618133/pine-needle-headdress-by-katie-groves), by the way, is a lovely pine-needle crown.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
I'm hoping to find a few minutes to draw a picture...
no subject
Prrrt.
If this isn't part of something longer, it should be. Or possibly just published as itself.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
What happens when you read while distracted
I read (understood) this as the girl growing out of her felting and needing to add more to disguise what she truly is. I imagined a woodsy creature made of bough and bark, coated in felted pine to make her look more human. Ah, the joys of trying to concentrate while being constantly solicited by wee ones.
The above was a "false" image I had, but I love all the "true" images this evoked for me.
Re: What happens when you read while distracted
What happens when you read while distracted, redux
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
Missed the clue but suspected fiction, like the suspended gender in Ancillary J!
Just finished Ancil. Sword, also very good.
Best witches, always, ca-madre!
no subject
Did you like Ancillary Sword as much as Ancillary Justice?
no subject
If you haven't read THAT (Mor. Tr), I recc it MOST highly; if you don't have time for extended reading, buy the old copies, Gate of Ivrel 1st, (with the hilarious covers [M. commandeering:] "so this is how you keep my liegeman?") one by one from Amazon, and digest them piecemeal, fairly short works, instead of buying the more recent volume. Poor Vanye is so troubled by circumstance, but Morgaine is troubled equally, so the emotional balance is better than some of C's other works.
I would say it is about the equal of Justice, just some of the interesting ambiguous ambience is dispelled...
no subject
no subject
no subject