the fields around denver had all of these loopy patterns carved into them that were visible from the air. i love the accidental beauty.

sean and i went to montana last weekend, and i got to visit to yellowstone national park for the first time. we had a fantastic day visiting hot springs and viewing wildlife, mostly bison and elk. i'm so glad to have seen it in the winter. the covering of snow was gorgeous and there were very few visitors - we had the park practically to ourselves.

today i went to work with sean. the task was to climb trees and record data about old fisher dens in tree cavities. we hiked in and used a GPS locater to find the specific trees sean and his coworkers had identified. sean climbed and measured (top photo), i recorded data. then i got to try a bit of climbing myself, which was fun and HARD! in this case, you don't actually climb the tree as much as shimmy up the ropes using a variety of carabiners and specialized contraptions. i think i need to do more pull-ups.

California: Year one

last year on february 17th, i left nyc with my cats and moved out here to eureka. its kind of hard to believe so much time has passed. there have certainly been rocky bits, but overall i'm glad to have had the experience of living out west, living the laid back lifestyle that is such a contrast to new york. this picture was taken shortly after i moved, when sean and i went cross country skiing in the mountains about 40 minutes from our house, in four feet of fresh powder snow. we were totally unprepared! i have found that is one thing that defines life here - proximity to all sorts of natural wonders.

the plum blossoms are appearing - the first blossoms of spring!

Today I was featured in a local newspaper, the Arcata Eye. Reporter Jennifer Savage came over to my house last week to interview me about Raeburn Ink. It was really fun, I've never been interviewed before. One of my pillows even made the front page - Thanks, Jennifer!

an impressionistic view of recent walk with the dogs - so much for no more blurry photos.

i've been working on a project with soap suds today - so luminous!

winter in california = growth.
the wildflowers are starting to bloom, and i am starting an informal catalogue of all of the ones that grow in my immediate area. these are the first ones i've seen - tiny white bell shapes with fuzzy green foliage. i suppose i ought to get a book to try to identify them!

in the era of digital photography, i rarely take blurry photographs anymore. i used to do it on purpose. today i got this one by accident while i was photographing some tee shirts - i love the colors and hazy patterns!

this beach is about a seven minute drive from the house. this morning the waves were pounding, tossing around huge logs of driftwood as if they were nothing. i am constantly in awe of the pacific...

i've been a little obsessed with dots lately, and collecting many pictures of them. lots of dots made dominoes with joanna and chris especially fun.

winter in humboldt is rainy, damp and cold, so we have lots of fires in the woodstove to heat the house and ward off molds of all kinds. as a city dweller i never needed to learn how to start a proper fire, but that's all changed now. i've learned to use a hatchet to split wood for kindling, and fortunately we have gloves which have protected me from some serious bruising. today sean used a maul, which i haven't tried yet, but it is strangely satisfying to watch as the wood cleanly falls apart.

i've had these small squares of origami paper from muji for a couple of years, never wanting to give them up but never knowing what to do with them either. the other day i taped them up to our messy corkboard, adding a bit of color to things...