So much in rotation.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

More work in progress. He's got so much in rotation, and has been able to get so little time in the studio. Even so, I'll have one new piece (nothing shown here) posted probably tomorrow.

It's been a day, starting with having to get up far too early after far too little sleep. Wings's dental nightmare took a lot less time than we feared . . . for now. But it's going to get a lot worse in the weeks and months to come. Thursday is going to be the horse vet and farrier, and another couple hundred cash out the door; still waiting on the firewood delivery. I think I've solved the fridge problem again, although it's not a permanent solution (it's a massive design flaw, actually), but there are still a dozen other things that demand my immediate attention. As of last night, phone service, FINALLY, four days later, although as always, the "service" is garbage. And my joints are still screaming. Oh, and I need sleep.

And still, I need to bring in one sale a week to break even. All of our links are here; emphasis on sales and testimonials for now (and subscriptions, if you're looking for that; I'll have more on that to come in the next few weeks, hopefully with some changes):

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priority right now is the liquid soaps, any fragrance);
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site (and there will be more to come for Valentine's Day), so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.      

Red Willow Spirit: Cosmic Rhythms of the Cold Season

Photo copyright Wings, 2023; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's an edition of Red Willow Spirit for the full moons of midwinter and the possibilities they hold. It's two images linked by a single extraordinary work of wearable art, collectively animated by the cosmic rhythms of the cold season, a drumbeat of hope and promise, of resilience and survival.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. As always, his photos are available in any of the usual three formats; simply inquire via the site's Contact form. We will still need to make consistent sales as we enter this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and while most of the holiday season is officially over, there are opportunities for belated gifts and many occasions for gifts thereafter, so shares of the site links are much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.  

Extractive work.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

One of the Western scrub jays, realizing that he's struck gold (in the form of dried corn and seeds, anyway). Those long dagger beaks are great for extractive work.

They're all happy; we have a whole small clan of them this year, plus regular visits from the piñon jays, whose clan size is much larger but who are individually quite a bit smaller than their scrub cousins. We also have several house sparrows, mated pairs, for the first time in several years; plenty of chickadees, both black-capped and mountain varieties; sparrows and finches, including goldfinches that are wintering over for the second time in a row, apparently because they've calculated that it's safer to stay here than risk migration; and of course all the ubiquitous magpies and crows and ravens. And the young redtail, more often on his own lately, but he's getting bigger, so it's time.

And, of course, the elk. They showed up very early last night; Stormy apparently thought it would be fun to chase them. Then about 12:30 AM, we were awakened by obnoxiously blinding spotlights arcing through the window and out across the land, which sent the whole herd stampeding back up to the mountains. Cops, speaking of "extractive." Not, apparently, looking for anything specific to the elk or to us, but after someone, probably the same someone the Statie helos were searching for overhead yesterday morning that was reported on social media as a "missing person" ("missing" because they're a suspect/fugitive, most likely). And no, it's not likely to have anything to do with the Pueblo, other than the fact that colonizers on the run think they'll hide out here (nope). Of course, getting ripped out of sleep like that meant that I was awake until 5 AM or so, and I've had precious little since then.

So much to do this week; so little time. Tomorrow's the next round of Wings's dental nightmare. We'll see how it goes. Wednesday and Thursday are other problems. Meanwhile, the fridge is still leaking, so I'm on that duty once again in between the other things that demand my attention. Still no fucking phone service, four days later. And the winds are bitterly, viciously cold today, so my joints are screaming at me.

And still, I need to bring in one sale a week to break even. All of our links are here; emphasis on sales and testimonials for now (and subscriptions, if you're looking for that; I'll have more on that to come in the next few weeks, hopefully with some changes):

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priority right now is the liquid soaps, any fragrance);
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site (and there will be more to come for Valentine's Day), so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.      

Monday Photo Meditation: An Icy Arc of the Most Ancient Stardust Light

Photo copyright Wings, 2023; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a Monday Photo Meditation for cold clear nights and the oldest of lights one month into the midwinter new year. It's not the current comet that persistently eludes our sight, but one from a quarter of a century ago, but it's still an extraordinary example of their kind, an icy arc of the most ancient stardust light.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. As always, his photos are available in any of the usual three formats; simply inquire via the site's Contact form. We will still need to make consistent sales as we enter this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and while most of the holiday season is officially over, there are opportunities for belated gifts and many occasions for gifts thereafter, so shares of the site links are much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner. 

Won't last much longer.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Still quite a lot of snow on some of the peaks. The Spoonbowl, for one; part of Pueblo Peak's ridgeline, for another. The rest, though, are already more bare than not. Even in this kind of cold, the sun can melt a lot very fast. We still have quite a bit on the ground here, too, in places. It won't last much longer, though, even with these awful winds. We're supposed to have essentially two weeks of constant sun, and that will take care of it, unfortunately.

The last couple of weeks have been absolutely nightmarish in terms of expense, but also just the constant wheel-spinning time-suck of a society that has no respect for people's time or humanity. This week will be more of the same. We've had to shell out the equivalent of all our holiday sales and more, several thousand dollars in cash, all the business and insurance renewals and the ATV repair and Web-site/software renewals and everything else, and that doesn't even count the massive check we sent to the IRS this month as final prepayment for this year. We have the vet and farrier coming for Miika on Thursday and Wings's dental appointment on Tuesday, and that's likely going to involve an argument with the dentist, and I am NOT looking forward to it, or to the damned expense. It's absurd that in 2023 it's still impossible to get decent dental care, but here we are. It's also absurd that, in the start of our fourth year of this, the pandemic rages unchecked and the appointments are not safe for him, but also here we are, because we are simply sacrifices to colonial politicians on the joint altar or corporate greed and so-called electability. I'm getting increasingly angry at having to deal with their nonsense. Everyone here is sick; nobody's testing, and nobody's masking or distancing, but we all know what it is. Can't test; the state shut down all the testing centers, and the new variants don't show up on RATs. Convenient for [Di]Scrase, who's retiring in a couple of days, who axed all real testing, recording, reporting, and mitigation anyway.  Yes, his name is Scrase, but I spell it as above, because he is an absolute disgrace on every level.

Meanwhile, my own "severely immunocompromised" status gets worse by the day. My pain levels are off the charts in every way; half of my fingers either don't bend or don't straighten; my thumbs both dislocate at a hard glare, as do my shoulders and knees and other joints, and I am just so, so tired. No sleep will do that to you, and with this kind of pain, sleep is a rarity.

And still, I need to bring in one sale a week to break even. All of our links are here; emphasis on sales and testimonials for now (and subscriptions, if you're looking for that; I'll have more on that to come in the next few weeks, hopefully with some changes):

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priority right now is the liquid soaps, any fragrance);
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site (and there will be more to come for Valentine's Day), so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.      

A Cold Wind and A Cosmic Breath

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's one of Wings's newest works, a slender but solid traditional cuff animated by the spirits of sea and sky. It's a perfect work for this icy season of still-long nights, a time when our world is itself animated by a cold wind and a cosmic breath, bringing us the beauty and medicine of the most ancient light.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We will still need to make consistent sales as we enter this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and while most of the holiday season is officially over, there are opportunities for belated gifts and many occasions for gifts thereafter, so shares of the site links are much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.    

Everyone comes here for refuge.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

I had to take the shot through the kitchen door, hence the terrible lighting and focus, but the one sitting in the feeder is goldfinch baby girl, horking down seeds as fast as she can vacuum them up. The red finch, larger (house or Cassin's, can't tell from the shot but based on the face, probably the latter), is one of the usual winter visitors. The goldfinch is not; ordinarily, they show up the last week of May or early June, and are gone before the monsoons make the August nights cold. This will be the second year in a row that they've wintered over with us, so to speak.

Everyone comes here for refuge.

Elk were here and gone early last night, like by 12:30 AM; Wings saw them out the window, but just as he mentioned it, something spooked them and they took off (probably something from the highway, because the traffic here has become awful). Even so, they'd managed to hoover up everything already. He's already spread more of the unsuitable-for-horses stuff for tonight.

And while I got one big thing done that's needed doing for a few weeks now, it's put me way behind on today, so I need to get to the rest of it. Including the never-ending chase for sales.

Because we've had a few sales now, I feel better about covering this month's always-awful one-off expenses, plus the others we weren't anticipating, like the ATV. But we will still (always) need to make sales; to break even, we basically need to make one a week, year-round, to cover everything — which means that I need to make at least one sale between tomorrow and next Saturday to stay on track. Of course, there are plenty of gift-giving events coming up in this new year, especially with Valentine's Day only two weeks away now. But if you're looking for places to donate to folks who need it, watch this space and my other online spaces, because I'll be highlighting them in the weeks to come. Much of the country has just been through a deadly storm, and there's an even more deadly pandemic still raging, utterly unchecked; lots of folks in our various communities are going to need long-term help. If I can ever get some extra time, I can get some of them covered here and elsewhere.

All of our links are here; emphasis on sales and testimonials for now (and subscriptions, if you're looking for that; I'll have more on that to come in the next few weeks, hopefully with some changes):

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priority right now is the liquid soaps, any fragrance);
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site (and there will be more to come for Valentine's Day), so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.      

As a Winter's Light Blossoms Into a Winter's Night

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's one of  Wings's newest works, a cuff that seems at first glance to be better suited to summer, but that embodies all the beauty of a wintry twilight. It's a strand of vines and silver light set with the deepest of purples, like our western sky as a winter's light blossoms into a winter's night.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We will still need to make consistent sales as we enter this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and while most of the holiday season is officially over, there are opportunities for belated gifts and many occasions for gifts thereafter, so shares of the site links are much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.   

Just tired.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

End of the day today, and the next storm forming. Not one that will deliver anything to us; this one is all about the east slopes, out of our sight. But it shows how fast weather can whip itself up here, given that the whole day today has been nothing but cloudless blue skies and blindingly bright sunlight.

It's been a day, a thoroughly crappy one. Fitting, at the end of an equally crappy week. Unfortunately, next week's going to be more of the same, with demands on our time that neither of us wants to be dealing with, but we don't have a choice. Every new year I say that this year is going to be different, and every year, it's the same old shit. I'm tired of never being able to get anything done. Tired, too, of that being worsened drastically by my illness. I have had to retype virtually every sentence tonight because my hands are so bad, and I am so very, very tired of pain. 

Just tired.

Despite the cold, we've had a few sales, and I feel better about covering this month's always-awful one-off expenses, plus the others we weren't anticipating, like the ATV. But we will still (always) need to make sales; to break even, we basically need to make one a week, year-round, to cover everything — which means that I need to make at least one sale between today and Saturday to stay on track, since those three cover the first three weeks of the year. Of course, there are plenty of gift-giving events coming up in this new year, especially with Valentine's Day only three weeks away now. But if you're looking for places to donate to folks who need it, watch this space and my other online spaces, because I'll be highlighting them in the weeks to come. Much of the country has just been through a deadly storm, and there's an even more deadly pandemic still raging, utterly unchecked; lots of folks in our various communities are going to need long-term help.

All of our links are here; emphasis on sales and testimonials for now (and subscriptions, if you're looking for that; I'll have more on that to come in the next few weeks, hopefully with some changes):

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here;
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site (and there will be more to come for Valentine's Day), so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.      

Friday Feature: The Dreams of the Winter Light

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

It's our Friday Feature at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a single work from five angles, each illustrating a different aspect of the season's cosmic gifts. It's sun and moon as snow and fire, the heart and breath of the new world of each dawn, and the dreams of the winter light fulfilled.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We will still need to make consistent sales as we enter this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and while most of the holiday season is officially over, there are opportunities for belated gifts and many occasions for gifts thereafter, so shares of the site links are much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.   

Tracks.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Not a cloud in the sky today, anywhere . . . but plenty of tracks. You can see how the elk tore up the snow and made short work of the old hay. I only saw them once, about 1:30 AM, if I remember correctly. Actually, that's not quite accurate, because what I saw wasn't "them," but rather a single giant mass, feeding. Presumably the bitter cold (below zero) had them standing against each other for warmth; it was a single long, dark chain of uninterrupted shadow. They were gone early, too, presumably headed back upcountry, which is good.

I finally found my copper-infused fingerless gloves this morning, but of course, I'm having to get used to them again, so my typo rate is terrible. I have two fingers on my left hand and one on my right that do not want to bend or straighten, just hover somewhere in between; both thumbs dislocate slightly multiple times throughout the day. And that's just my hands, never mind all the rest of my joints. I can't really write at the moment; typing's hard enough. And yes, it's partly the cold that's aggravating it, but only partly. This is only one small part of what worsening autoimmune disease looks like.

Despite the cold, we've had a few sales, and I feel better about covering this month's always-awful one-off expenses, plus the others we weren't anticipating, like the ATV. But we will still (always) need to make sales; to break even, we basically need to make one a week, year-round, to cover everything — which means that I need to make at least one sale between today and Saturday to stay on track, since those three cover the first three weeks of the year. Of course, there are plenty of gift-giving events coming up in this new year, especially with Valentine's Day only three weeks away now. But if you're looking for places to donate to folks who need it, watch this space and my other online spaces, because I'll be highlighting them in the weeks to come. Much of the country has just been through a deadly storm, and there's an even more deadly pandemic still raging, utterly unchecked; lots of folks in our various communities are going to need long-term help.

All of our links are here; emphasis on sales and testimonials for now (and subscriptions, if you're looking for that; I'll have more on that to come in the next few weeks, hopefully with some changes):

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here;
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site (and there will be more to come for Valentine's Day), so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.      

#ThrowbackThursday: Sustaining, Sheltering Gifts of Winter

Photo copyright Wings, 2023; all rights reserved.

It's #TBT at The NDN Silver Blog, with a #ThrowbackThursday work that dates back to somewhere between 2009 and 2011, one in a small informal series of Wings's beautifully stamped heavy-gauge triangle-wire cuffs. This one featured repeating patterns of traditional motifs with layers of meaning, perfect for embodying the sustaining, sheltering gifts of winter.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. This work will never be duplicated, but if the general style speaks to your spirit, simply inquire via the site's Contact form; Wings can create a version uniquely your own. We will still need to make consistent sales as we enter this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and while most of the holiday season is officially over, there are opportunities for belated gifts and many occasions for gifts thereafter, so shares of the site links are much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.        

Safely.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Every year we lose a certain amount of hay to mold and other problems. Pre-twelve-hundred-year drought, when we grew our own (when it was still only a five-hundred-year drought), it wasn't much of a problem; our losses were next to nothing, and we had the best grass and alfalfa in the county. Everyone wanted it, but we fed it to our own horses. Now, though? Now that we have to buy it from other people, it's never what's advertised, even though the price of a bale has much more than doubled in the interim; it's always adulterated with inedible crap, never mind the mold that develops, and very often, what's portrayed as all-grass has a lot of alfalfa mixed in. Miika can't have alfalfa, or adulterants, either; they'll worsen her founder, and potentially kill her. So what do you do when the hay's bad?

That up there.

The elk were here again last night, and this time, they brought their babies. And I do mean babies; tiny ones, still wobbling on spindly legs. They are losing habitat to drought, climate collapse, and colonizer overdevelopment with increasing rapidity now. But they've known our land as a refuge for well over a decade, and on the coldest nights, the snowiest nights, they come. They fed, and then they slept, all of them, in two parallel lines, for a couple of hours; they began drifting away in twos and threes, back upcountry, as the sky began to lighten.

It's criminal that colonialism is killing off indigenous (and Indigenous) herds. Wings is determined that this one will not be lost to starvation, lack of water, poaching, or highway accidents (ask me about how the colonizers drive to and from the Ski Valley on these ice-slick S-curves at our north boundary). And what Miika can't digest is just fine for ruminants, so once again, nothing goes to waste.  It's now supposed to hit -7 tonight, actual temperature, which means that it will be more like -15, because they always, always pitch it too low. They will probably be back tonight to feed. Safely.

Now, I can only hope that I can have the rest of the week mostly uninterrupted to get some work done, because at least part of next week is already going to be a mess. Wings arranged for a propane delivery and they estimated next week; the guy was supposed to call before he arrived so that we could put the dogs in the dog run; we keep the gate shut so that they don't get out on the highway. So of course, he shows up this morning, no phone call until he left because the gate was shut, and Wings had to call to find out why they couldn't handle even that. They said he would turn around, but they neglected to mention that he was apparently idling down the highway, because I had to run up in the 12-degree wind chill and the snow and he was back before I hit the drive. And, of course, I ran myself into an asthma attack, entirely predictably. And the propane fill was another $500 cash out the door, so there's that, but at least the tank is full.

Oh, and I may not be able to post on the NDN Silver site tomorrow, if our host's server migration tonight doesn't go well, so there's that.

Despite the cold, we've had a few sales, and I feel better about covering this month's always-awful one-off expenses, plus the others we weren't anticipating, like the ATV. But we will still (always) need to make sales; to break even, we basically need to make one a week, year-round, to cover everything — which means that I need to make at least one sale between today and Saturday to stay on track, since those three cover the first three weeks of the year. Of course, there are plenty of gift-giving events coming up in this new year, especially with Valentine's Day only three weeks away now. But if you're looking for places to donate to folks who need it, watch this space and my other online spaces, because I'll be highlighting them in the weeks to come. Much of the country has just been through a deadly storm, and there's an even more deadly pandemic still raging, utterly unchecked; lots of folks in our various communities are going to need long-term help.

All of our links are here; emphasis on sales and testimonials for now (and subscriptions, if you're looking for that; I'll have more on that to come in the next few weeks, hopefully with some changes):

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here;
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site (and there will be more to come for Valentine's Day), so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.      

Where Meet the Roads of Winter Earth and Sky

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a work for sanctuary places and liminal spaces, for ancient gifts of the earth linked inextricably to those of cold alpine desert skies. It's a local and thoroughly indigenous jewel set atop a heavy band of sheltering symbols, a tangible distillation of that threshold place where meet the roads of winter earth and sky.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We will still need to make consistent sales as we enter this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and while most of the holiday season is officially over, there are opportunities for belated gifts and many occasions for gifts thereafter, so shares of the site links are much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.  

Every bit as cold as it looks, and then some.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

In the foreground, elk tracks in the snow. In the middle, it's not what you see but what you don't: They took out part of the electric fence, jumping over it. Good thing it wasn't live. [It was up for our b-i-l's horses a while back, but they've been gone for months; a couple of months ago, once we realized the elk were coming back, Wings shut the current off.]

And yes, despite the snow missing from the berm, it's every bit as cold as it looks, and then some.

We are supposed to get snow overnight, and temps around zero; tomorrow night's low is forecast at -3, which inevitably means that it will be more like -10 here. There are days when I can navigate this kind of cold somewhat, and then there are days like this. I can type, but I can't do much else, when several of my fingers won't bend or unbend in any real way. Still dealing with the constant dislocation issues in hands, shoulders, knees, etc. And nothing really takes the edge off the pain at times like this, so on a day when I've been dealing with shipping and errands and outdoor stuff, yeah, everything's going to be late, and probably in rough shape.

Despite the cold, we've had a few sales, and I feel better about covering this month's always-awful one-off expenses, plus the others we weren't anticipating, like the ATV. But we will still (always) need to make sales; to break even, we basically need to make one a week, year-round, to cover everything — which means that I need to make at least one sale between today and Saturday to stay on track, since those three cover the first three weeks of the year. Of course, there are plenty of gift-giving events coming up in this new year, especially with Valentine's Day only three weeks away now. But if you're looking for places to donate to folks who need it, watch this space and my other online spaces, because I'll be highlighting them in the weeks to come. Much of the country has just been through a deadly storm, and there's an even more deadly pandemic still raging, utterly unchecked; lots of folks in our various communities are going to need long-term help.

All of our links are here; emphasis on sales and testimonials for now (and subscriptions, if you're looking for that; I'll have more on that to come in the next few weeks, hopefully with some changes):

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here;
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site (and there will be more to come for Valentine's Day), so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.      

Red Willow Spirit: From Ordinary Suns, A Winter Magic

Photo copyright Wings, 2023; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's an edition of Red Willow Spirit for the most powerful storms and the deepest cold this harsh alpine land has to offer. It's a reminder that these days, so hard to navigate, are still touched by medicine when from ordinary suns, a winter magic is born.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. As always, his photos are available in any of the usual three formats; simply inquire via the site's Contact form. We will still need to make consistent sales as we enter this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and while most of the holiday season is officially over, there are opportunities for belated gifts and many occasions for gifts thereafter, so shares of the site links are much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.  

Incoming.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Conditions today are absolutely miserable, ferocious trickster winds driving bitter, brutal cold. Heavy weather incoming . . . or so it appears. But at the moment, it's all around us on the mountains, with nothing but that vicious wind here.

Hard to function in these conditions, at least for me. Brutal pain, everywhere. But the work has to get done, and it's going to be a very busy couple of weeks ahead.

A few sales, and I feel better about covering this month's always-awful one-off expenses, plus the others we weren't anticipating, like the ATV. But we will still (always) need to make sales; to break even, we basically need to make one a week, year-round, to cover everything — which means that I need to make at least one sale between today and Saturday to stay on track, since those three cover the first three weeks of the year. Of course, there are plenty of gift-giving events coming up in this new year, especially with Valentine's Day only three weeks away now. But if you're looking for places to donate to folks who need it, watch this space and my other online spaces, because I'll be highlighting them in the weeks to come. Much of the country has just been through a deadly storm, and there's an even more deadly pandemic still raging, utterly unchecked; lots of folks in our various communities are going to need long-term help.

All of our links are here; emphasis on sales and testimonials for now (and subscriptions, if you're looking for that; I'll have more on that to come in the next few weeks, hopefully with some changes):

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here;
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site (and there will be more to come for Valentine's Day), so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.      

Monday Photo Meditation: The Winter Sun's Soft Fire

Photo copyright Wings, 2023;
all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a Monday photo meditation for a world battered by fierce midwinter winds and a bone-deep cold. It's a contemplation of the compensations that such extreme conditions offer, including the medicine of the winter sun's soft fire.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. As always, his photos are available in any of the usual three formats; simply inquire via the site's Contact form. We will still need to make consistent sales as we enter this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and while most of the holiday season is officially over, there are opportunities for belated gifts and many occasions for gifts thereafter, so shares of the site links are much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.  

Feels like good luck.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

That's what it looks like here today: bright light, blue skies, long shadows, and tracks everywhere. Most of those were made by the dogs; the smaller ones were made by the birds. Those heavy tire tracks curving in the background were made by the guy who delivered part of our firewood this morning; the rest is coming next weekend. 

And not visible in the photo are the tracks made by the small herd of elk who arrived in the early hours of the morning. There weren't many of them this time, but they were clearly part of the regular herd. Wings handed me the binoculars to take a look at one of the bulls, and he was absolutely massive. They fed for a while, lay down in the snow and slept here for two or three hours, and were on their way back out of sight before the sun was up.

Whenever they visit, it feels like good luck.

And we've also suddenly made three sales in two days, so maybe it is. I feel better about covering this month's always-awful one-off expenses, plus the others we weren't anticipating, like the ATV. But we will still (always) need to make sales; to break even, we basically need to make one a week, year-round, to cover everything — which means that I need to make at least one sale between today and Saturday to stay on track, since those three cover the first three weeks of the year. Of course, there are plenty of gift-giving events coming up in this new year, especially with Valentine's Day only three weeks away now. But if you're looking for places to donate to folks who need it, watch this space and my other online spaces, because I'll be highlighting them in the weeks to come. Much of the country has just been through a deadly storm, and there's an even more deadly pandemic still raging, utterly unchecked; lots of folks in our various communities are going to need long-term help.

All of our links are here; emphasis on sales and testimonials for now (and subscriptions, if you're looking for that; I'll have more on that to come in the next few weeks, hopefully with some changes):

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here;
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site (and there will be more to come for Valentine's Day), so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.      

When Winter Flowers

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a work for these days of deep cold, when the earth, as winter blossom, shows us the best and most beautiful the season has to offer. It's an arc of silvery light that catches petals made of snow, the medicine that grows when winter flowers.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We will still need to make consistent sales as we enter this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and while most of the holiday season is officially over, there are opportunities for belated gifts and many occasions for gifts thereafter, so shares of the site links are much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.  

I think this is a record.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

The storm has mostly moved out; nothing left overhead, although the peaks are still shrouded with active stormclouds. We got probably half a foot in some areas; others show only about four inches, a result of yesterday's ferocious winds scattering it far and wide. Our low tonight will be below zero, actual temperature.

And for now, the wild birds have returned to the feeders in force. 

January 21st, and we have our first two chokecherry birds already, a mated pair of evening grosbeaks. I think this is a record; the earliest I can recall them arriving in years past was sometime in February, and that was early then. At least they have a safe space here. I had to spend a chunk of yesterday evening rescuing a dark-eyed junco that smacked into a front window just enough to stun it; had it not been so bitterly cold, it probably would have flown away on its own in a matter of moments, but its little body just couldn't handle it under those conditions. So we kept it warm and safe, and eventually put it back out; it spent some time on the feeder, then moved to red willow branch, then down at the base of the red willows, and finally, it flew off. It's probably out there today, but there are so many of them, I'd never be able to tell which one.

And today we're both behind on all the things we wanted to get done, but we're also both exhausted, so some things will have to wait. The guy who was going to deliver our firewood this morning begged off until tomorrow or Monday, too; apparently he's got the same problem with overwork, and needed to get some things done at home today. But it'll be delivered soon; Wings has the ATV back and it's running better than it has in years; and I, bullheaded as I always am, went back to the drawing board on the fridge and I think I found the problem. It's okay at the moment, anyway, so fingers crossed that I'm right and that it stays that way.

We've also suddenly made three sales in two days, so I feel better about covering this month's always-awful one-off expenses, plus the others we weren't anticipating, like the ATV. But we will still (always) need to make sales; to break even, we basically need to make one a week, year-round, to cover everything. Of course, there are plenty of gift-giving events coming up in this new year, especially with Valentine's Day only three weeks away now. But if you're looking for places to donate to folks who need it, watch this space and my other online spaces, because I'll be highlighting them in the weeks to come. Much of the country has just been through a deadly storm, and there's an even more deadly pandemic still raging, utterly unchecked; lots of folks in our various communities are going to need long-term help.

All of our links are here; emphasis on sales and testimonials for now (and subscriptions, if you're looking for that; I'll have more on that to come in the next few weeks, hopefully with some changes):

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here;
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site (and there will be more to come for Valentine's Day), so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.      

From Winter Skies Fall the Waters of Life

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a masterwork for time and place, season and space, and a perfect tribute to old-style Indigenous smithing and even older gifts of the Earth. It's a cuff wrought in traditional styles and manifest as the survival medicine of this season, where and whence from winter skies fall the waters of life.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We will still need to make consistent sales as we enter this fourth year of pandemic and loss, and while most of the holiday season is officially over, there are opportunities for belated gifts and many occasions for gifts thereafter, so shares of the site links are much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.   

Not a single thing.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; al rights reserved.

That was the sky this morning, around 9:30 or so. Plenty of light, high, thin clouds, gossamer and iridescent. But far more sun and blue sky.

Now, it's snowing. Heavily. We might actually get that additional three inches in the forecast.

It's good; it's welcome. But it's also perfect fodder for accidents, and there were apparently plenty of them today well before the weather started. Wings had to go pick up his scrips and run a couple of other errands, and it took him about twice as long as it should have, in part because on his way home, he wound up having to turn around and go back through tribal back roads to get here; just down the highway from us, there was apparently a massive and very bad wreck at the intersections, reportedly involving two different vehicles towing trailers. Just at our own north boundary is a tight S-curve, and at night, on these ice-slick roads, colonizers go blasting back and forth between here and that stupid resort. It's a wonder we haven't had far more already.

I stay home as much as humanly possible, of course, and I'm hoping that won't change throughout the weekend, because Spirit knows I'e got more than enough to do here. I was so sure I'd solved the fridge problem late yesterday, but no; it's inexplicably at it again, and I'm tearing my hair out. I also thought my shoulder was a little more healed than it was, but no. I have so much to do just to catch up on basic chores that I couldn't do with my arm in a sling, and I need to help Wings with some of the studio stuff, and writing . . . forget that, it'll never happen, because I'll never have time. 

I have gotten not a single thing accomplished the last two weeks that I intended, and there's all the usual January stuff to worry about on top of it. This and June (or July, depending on how the bills fall in a given year) are always our worst two months in terms of expenses, and I don't know how this one's going to shake out yet. I've also got so much to do in terms of ordinary day-to-day work, but of course, I need to try to sell it, too, and already, our Web site hits for this month are down by well over 50% even for this time of year, which makes me worry that this year is going to be another bad one, sales-wise. All these cash expenses, too (a grand on the ATV, which has been immobile for two months; firewood; potentially either a plumber or a new fridge, and I want to deal with neither, but here we are), and only one sale so far this year is not going to cut it.

Because we will still (always) need to make sales, and there are plenty of gift-giving events coming up in this new year. But if you're looking for places to donate to folks who need it, watch this space and my other online spaces, because I'll be highlighting them in the weeks to come. Much of the country has just been through a deadly storm, and there's an even more deadly pandemic still raging, utterly unchecked; lots of folks in our various communities are going to need long-term help.

All of our links are here; emphasis on sales and testimonials for now (and subscriptions, if you're looking for that; I'll have more on that to come in the next few weeks, hopefully with some changes):

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here;
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site (and there will be more to come for Valentine's Day), so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.