Starting to hunker down....

Summer is officially gone, and autumn hasn't been looking that robust, either. It's been COLD the last few days-- in the 20s F at night and in the 40s F during the day. It's even been gray and cloudy, and on Saturday we actually had RAIN. (First time since August.) The high peaks are decidedly white with snow.

I've been managing with just a space heater in the studio, loathe to turn on the heat in the house, but today the radiators clanged to life for the first time since we moved in last May.

The lamp in the living room is on a timer. Lately it hasn't been coming on early enough to beat the darkness.

I can barely drag myself out of bed by 7:00am. In the summer I'm easily awake before 6:00. Last night at 8:00pm I was ready to go to bed.

Yes, indeedy. Change is not only a'comin'. It's here.

Life has been ridiculously -- wonderfully -- busy and full since the DM arrived at the end of April, but lately we've been looking at each other and declaring how much we're going to enjoy being home and quiet for a while. We've one more out-of-town jaunt next week, to rendezvous with Ohio friends on the CO/UT border, but then no real plans until spring. I'm sure something will come up, but right now we're happily making soups and stews and stocking up on hot chocolate and reading material in anticipation of some quality hunkerin' down time.

The last few days I've been enjoying some time to build books. These little stab-bound volumes are hand-built collections of bits and pieces from my sketchbooks- the first ("Flora and Fauna") contains random field sketches and studies, the second ("Living on the Edge") is a gathering of sketches made during a two-month journey from Colorado to Holland to New York to Maine and back again. Like a lot of good things, they started out as a small idea and mushroomed for a time into something only barely manageable. These days the production pace is a little more sedate.


Building books requires a clearing of the studio tables to make room for trimming and collating and stacking and gluing and sewing, so it typically requires goodly stretches of time. HA! We all know how often THOSE happen. But since a considerable percentage of my compatriots enjoyed a holiday yesterday (no such thing for the self-employed, eh?) it's been quiet in the client department since Friday.

We're also gearing up to build some blank books. A few years ago my friend Andie Thrams taught me to make lovely little journals with soft leather covers. I've filled several of them myself, but I also build them for others, and it's time to make more. Not long ago I taught the DM to make his own, and he's anxious to be involved in this next construction phase. New endpapers arrived in the post today, so I've trimmed them down and we're ready to start assembly. I think tonight after supper we'll be folding signatures.

I'm sure things will pick up again tomorrow, but I have found it really refreshing to have a few days to work at a thoughtful pace. It's lovely to feel ideas come out of the cramped corners of my otherwise static-filled head and stretch their legs for a bit. Will there be more of this soon? Oooooh. I sure hope so.