Birch, from Indo-European bherja, or “bright.”  Shining, blazing, burning, shimmering.  The Lady of the Forest.  Cousin to Beech and Oak–the three trees I need most in my landscape.  Oak galls for ink,  beech and birch for paper, two for mast, and all three for inspiration.  The trio was seen as a family in Ireland: Father […]

A is for antler. Antler knife handles, and knitting needles, and spindles, and buttons, and baskets.  Most made by friends who have similar antler fixations.  I particularly love finding shed antlers in the woods, often obscured in the leaf litter.  The marks left by bucks scraping the fuzz off their growing antlers are surely the […]

So, I finished copying all of our music to my new ipod this weekend, after more than a week of slavish tending.  Sheesh, what a pain.   I discovered that a few of our discs grew wings, which wasn’t much of a surprise.   Still, losing four out of 800 or so isn’t so bad.  And none […]