On Dying

What kind of dying?... Both! This past week was tough. Monday the 9th of November was the 8th anniversary of my Mother's death. Friday 13th of November, a dear friend died after battling against Leukemia for the past three years. Tuesday the 17th of November my maternal grandmother died back in the UK at the ripe old age of 89. Deeply sad time, but also filled with some very wonderful memories. And the great cycle continues, already bringing about positive transformations. A quiet, slow turning.

With this I have decided to take my interest in natural fiber dying more seriously. During the past few weeks, Nilo - my soon to be 7 year old son - and I have dabbled abit at this. But now I'm going to make an effort to document, share AND use the results. I like more and more the subtleties of natural dyes, and with a 2 acre garden out front and a 6 acre rainforest out back, I think I really should have some interesting things to try and to tell of. This afternoon, we gathered from the garden. Flowers and berries. Since we are only planning to dye small amounts of cloth and fibers at any given time, we don't need to gather *that* much. Nilo helped to mash it all with the wooden pestle that we bought a few months ago on a trip to Boquete in Panama. I love these experiments in color. One never can tell just what will happen! Today's little bonus surprise... flowers (from the genus Stachytarpheta, probably S. frantzii) that we have growing in the garden here start out yielding a glowing purple tone, but then add a drop of boiling water and this immediately turns a wild aquamarine-blue. This fits well with my blue-green theme. I can't wait to see how the cloth turns out!