All by way of learning more about cup-and-ring marks and other rock art in the British Isles …
while making my own meaning out of the marks I am stitching (meantime trying to unsee the dots as Girl Scout badges 😉) …
I do love making up stories … as I did with Moon Myth …
which Don and I, aka NanaPopPop, read to Parker’s Kindergarten class this morning …
As the latest of the weekly Mystery Readers, we sent clues to be read to the students each day so they could try to guess who was coming. I can’t imagine how Parker figured out it was going to be us …
I’m not sure I can make total sense of it in this post, but I had an amazing “Aha!” realization that has led to some preliminary research into cup-and-rings rock art in Scotland …
It’s also led to a bit of a sheepish realization of how I’ve always felt a bit “guilty” about appropriating Native American rock art images, when all along my own Scottish ancestry would have served every bit as well. Better late than never, eh?
So expect lots more to come, but for now, know that I am happily reading an eye-opening book by Susan Cross (who was one of the guides on our Ghost Ranch hike last October) A Fleeting Presence: Fieldnotes from a Crone references both the British Isles and New Mexico from the viewpoint of a woman of a certain age in a beautifully written series of essays.
It also pairs very well with another book I’m reading, If Women Rose Rootedby Sharon Blackie (with thanks to Marti and Deb G).
And as a result, I’m starting to stitch cups-and-rings onto My Heart’s Compass using Deb’s threads …
It’s a good thing she’s making more … I’ve got a lot of ground to cover!
I should have known better, but last October when we were on an art tour of Georgia O’Keeffe’s Ghost Ranch …
I made the mistake of trying to text and walk at the same time. My foot went off the shoulder to the right of the road and skidded out from under me. A split second later I was scrambling back to my feet whilst surveying the damage.
I ended up with my dignity wounded, my cell phone screen cracked, and the left knee of my jeans torn. At that point there was no visible bleeding, but later I discovered that my knee was barked and bruised. I counted myself lucky it wasn’t worse.
Today I finally got around to mending the holes in my jeans (and no, darn it, I didn’t take a before picture) using a couple of Instagram videos as starting points (this and that) …
I stitched the repairs with variegated Valdani #12 perle cotton and yes, I should have practiced first, but was pleased enough with the results that I’ll probably try using these techniques again. For now, though, I’ll just keep an eye on how they how they stand up to normal wear and laundering (no more road testing … ha!)
I can’t even begin to describe how incredible Ghost Ranch was (and is) … which probably explains why I’ve put off trying to write about it. So I’ll just load some of the many pictures I took and let them tell their own story …
ending with this video of a crow that called out to us after we had just heard about Georgia’s painting A Black Bird with Snow Covered Red Hills, which I later described for Mo on her blog …
And now I’m off to read a book that Don and I gifted to each otherat Christmas … Georgia O’Keeffe and her houses: Ghost Ranch and Abiquiu …
I'm Going to Texas (version 2.0) 