For the first couple of days, there are actual chores:

 

Heavy wooden storm doors and windows to remove and store in the barn,

the plumbing system to get up and running,

furniture to uncover and move onto the screened porch,

and fallen branches and other storm debris to clear in the yard.

 

Canned goods are hauled out of the freeze-safe cellar

and back onto shelves in the “spring house,” the little pantry

where spring water used to flow into a tank from up the hill.

 

The excuse for making the 7-hour drive up here

is to ready the house for family gatherings in the summer.

But mostly we are here to slow way down and enjoy a simpler life for awhile,

after a busy few months at the city house.

 

 

 

The first simple pleasure appears before we even enter the house:

 

 

 

 

Our dear neighbors have left us a little gift of a prized Vermont craft beer!

 

 

~  ~  ~

 

 

Just before arriving here, I had spent a few weeks working on
a new edition of block prints at a fairly hectic pace, with the usual brain strain
and head-scratching technical glitches.

 

They say that the artistic process, not the product, is where the magic resides.

 

Huh.

 

Angst, definitely. Magic? You be the judge…

 

 

The inspiration for this block print had come from two walks:

 

 

 

 

one through woods on a foggy morning,

 

 

 

 

and one through a neighborhood full of flowering trees.

 

 

~  ~  ~

 

 

Imagining a flowering tree in a misty woods, I spent a couple

of weeks drawing and re-drawing a color sketch. I pondered how many colors
it would need, and in what order they should be printed.

 

That was the brain strain part.

 

I cut a piece of linoleum, and mounted it on board.

No carving was needed, since this was going to be a solid block of
background mist color. Mist is white, but taking some artistic license,
I mixed a light aqua blue.

 

 

Bob has the brute strength to cut thick stacks of paper to size on the old paper cutter,

and he had presented me with about 200 sheets. So I printed them all.

 

Next, I drew the background layer of trees with a Sharpie on acetate,

taped it to the linoleum face down (to make a backwards image
so it will print frontwards), slid transfer paper underneath and traced the drawing.

 

 

 

 

Here’s the drawing on the block…

 

 

 

 

…and here’s the carving.

 

 

 

 

The carving part is mainly fun and relaxing. No decision-making required.

Fire up an audiobook (Robert B. Parker is a favorite), dig into the soft linoleum,

follow my outlines and plow away, removing all the negative space.

This carving probably took about five or six hours.

 

I locked the carved block in place on the press,

mixed up a sort of grey-blue ink, inked up the block…

 

 

 

 

…And printed.

 

 

 

 

This layer of trees is pale and blue, since it’s in the far distance.

The trees look severely pruned at the tops on purpose,

because much of that area will be covered by future printings.

 

If I’ve planned it right.

 

 

 

Time to get outside. It’s a lovely Spring day. My favorite little blue flowers

(the inspiration for my “Blue Flowers” block print) are blooming in the back yard.

 

I used to call them Squill, but after I blogged about it, some controversy erupted

regarding what I should call them:

 

Scilla Siberica,

or Scilla,

or Siberian Squill,

or Chionodoxa.

 

So I just call them little blue flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

Bob is out here splitting wood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The house has no insulation or central heating, and in the hills of central Vermont,

temps can dip into the thirties at night, even in summer.

 

Thanks to Bob, our cozy wood stove is now operational again, with a new
triple-walled pipe, freshly split firewood, and a Scoutmaster-grade fire
blazing away in it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

~  ~  ~

 

The next carving was for leaves and forest floor in the second layer of trees.

I’ve been trying to carve more areas to just meet at the edges, like puzzle pieces,

because too many overlapping layers of ink can cause trouble, and too much shine.

 

So I carved empty shapes where tree trunks should fit in later.

 

 

To save time, I peeled off the linoleum between leaves and ground,

where no carving was needed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This carving required a darker, greener blue than the last layer,

to bring it forward a bit.

 

 

 

 

In order to achieve really precise carvings and “puzzle piece” printings,

I put a sheet of clear acetate over the previous print

and made a sharpie drawing for the next carving./div>

Chapter Three

Other things we see on our walk:

Chapter Four

about a thirty-second of an inch down.

Chapter Five