Strange clouds, strange skies.

Photo copyright Aji, 2026; all rights reserved.

That was this morning: strange clouds, strange skies. The winds were already up, and tey battered everything all day long.

Including me. My joints are screaming at me.

I'm so glad this week is almost done. It's been a nightmare. Meanwhile, all the work still has to get done: the housework, the paperwork, the sales work, everything. The one thing that came out of the tax nonsense is that I was not losing my mind; last year, we made barely more than 50% of the previous year's sales, which tells you how bad Trump is for business [and for everything else except inflicting harm]. So we've got to get caught up, and we've got to maintain it, because we've got big costs [the door, for one] immediately ahead. To that end, links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here [and to whomever sent a bunch of items off it that have arrived recently, THANK YOU; there were no purchaser inserts with the items, zip, zero, nada];
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And we do still need to make those regular weekly sales, so please share all of the links. We really do need to get this year onto a better footing than the last two, and so far, it's been pretty grim.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2026; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.   

Friday Feature: The Greatest Gift of the Spring Sky

Photo copyright Aji, 2026; all rights reserved.

It's our Friday Feature at The NDN Silver Blog, with a single extraordinary masterwork shown from four perspectives, an old-style butterfly concha belt set with an astonishing 26 separate pieces of freehand silverwork. It's a traditional belt featuring 12 phenomenal classic conchas, 13 butterfly conchas, and a fabulous Art Deco buckle, all of them manifest as the greatest gift of the spring sky — light, and breath, and life.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. It's already April, we bit the bullet and mailed the check in full to the IRS Wednesday, and now we badly need to get caught up and recover some of that ground. That begins with a minimum of one sale a week, without fail.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2026; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.  

The work still has to get done.

Photo coyright Aji, 2026; al rights reserved.

Almost eight o'clock in the evening, and I'm finally starting to feel marginally human. Today has been so incredibly difficult physically, and it doesn't matter, because the work still has to get done.

This has been a hard, hard year so far, and the tax crap has been the hardest of all. I'm so tired, and I've had to be doing all sorts of catch-up physical work today, and . . . I've just felt my body and brain shutting down around me.

It doesn't help that April is the worst month for markers. Four of our dogs, one on the 10th, one on the 14th, one on the 27th . . . and one today, the 16th. The hardest of them all, my heart and soul and spirit dog, Griffin, ten years ago this evening, at 5 PM.

And I woke up at 2:30 AM, Griffin having visited me in a dream, feeling the velvety softness of his fur under my left hand as I petted him. The dream itself was strange in multiple ways, but he showed up in it, and it was perfectly normal. He tagged along with me as I went back and forth in it, and I overheard some stranger asking another person why "that dog" was following me everywhere; she responded, "It's her dog, and he goes wherever she goes."

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that message.

But I miss him, so terribly. But I know it was him, and I know he's in the light in the western sky tonight.

Meanwhile, all the work still has to get done: the laundry, the linens, the dishes, the paperwork, the sales work, everything. The one thing that came out of the tax nonsense is that I was not losing my mind; last year, we made barely more than 50% of the previous year's sales, which tells you how bad Trump is for business [and for everything else except inflicting harm]. So we've got to get caught up, and we've got to maintain it, because we've got big costs [the door, for one] immediately ahead. To that end, links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here [and to whomever sent a bunch of items off it that have arrived recently, THANK YOU; there were no purchaser inserts with the items, zip, zero, nada];
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And we do still need to make those regular weekly sales, so please share all of the links. We really do need to get this year onto a better footing than the last two, and so far, it's been pretty grim.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2026; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.   

#ThrowbackThursday: The Spirit of the High-Desert Sky

Photo copyright Wings, 2026; all rights reserved.

It's #TBT at The NDN Silver Blog, with a #ThrowbackThursday featured work that turns out to date back exactly fifteen years ago to this very day,  April 16th, 2011. It's one of an informal signature series of pendants that Wings created intermittently between roughly 2008 and 2012 in the form and shape of Dragonfly, here manifest as the spirit of the high-desert sky in the warm season.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. This work will never be duplicated exactly, 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. It's April already, taxes paid yesterday in cash, in full, and we need to get caught up and begin recovering some of that enormous expense. That begins with a minimum of one sale a week, without fail.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2026; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.   

If only.

Photo copyright Aji, 2026; all rights reserved.

What a life. That's Cricket, our feral. After more than eight years, there's still no touching or petting him; he was apparently so badly abused that I don't think he'll ever get over his distrust of humans. But he's happy here.

I'd like to have the kind of life where I could just lie in the grass and not have to do anything, at all, ever, too.

If only.

I am so, so tired, and I so badly need to bring in some sales. We bit the bullet and wrote the check today for the full amount, purely so we don't have to deal with it again until next year [or penalties or interest]. And we are both so goddamn enraged that we have to pay our hard-earned money to these monsters for use in their genocides.

The one thing that came out of the tax nonsense is that I was not losing my mind; last year, we made barely more than 50% of the previous year's sales, which tells you how bad Trump is for business [and for everything else except inflicting harm]. So we've got to get caught up, and we've got to maintain it, because we've got big costs [the door, for one] ahead. To that end, links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here [and to whomever sent a bunch of items off it that have arrived recently, THANK YOU; there were no purchaser inserts with the items, zip, zero, nada];
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And we do still need to make those regular weekly sales, so please share all of the links. We really do need to get this year onto a better footing than the last two, and so far, it's been pretty grim.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2026; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.   

It Is the Light That Mends the Broken Sky

Photo copyright Aji, 2026; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's one of Wings's newer works, a simple but stunning necklace built around an old Skystone heart, one illustrating the truth that breaking one's heart creates space for letting the light in. It's an old Hubei cabochon finely webbed with gray and black matrix, set into a freehand flanged bezel framing it with light, a reminder that it is the light that mends the broken sky, just as it does our wounded hearts and spirits.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. It's already April, we bit the bullet and mailed the check in full to the IRS today, and now we badly need to get caught up and recover some of that ground. That begins with a minimum of one sale a week, without fail.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2026; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.  

Give or take.

Photo copyright Aji, 2026; all rights reserved.

That was this morning, 8 AM, give or take. [We know a lot about that right now, because at the moment, the government's all take.] We had beautiful skies, but the rain was over. Still, that's two nights of rain in a row, and you would swear you can feel — and hear — the land breathing again.

it's also the fifteenth anniversary of the day we lost a little sweet spirit. Dom. April is the cruelest month, indeed: four of our dogs, across different years. Dom was the first domino to fall, literally ["Dom" was short Domina, because she had a a little black half-mask], late on this night in 2011. I sat on the floor of that toxic tin can and held her in my lap while she fought to survive; she wasn't ready to go, but her body, thanks to the cancer that riddled it, had other ideas.

Another hectic day for all kinds of reasons, not the least of which was the need to go in and sign our tax forms and have them submitted, pay the accountant, and get the receipts to send with the checks tomorrow.

And it's about $2K more than my estimate. Which actually is about right; I always try to overestimate in my own mind so I'm not disappointed, but I screwed it up this year. That's probably more a reflection of the bone-deep exhaustion that's dogging my every moment now than anything else. I am so, so tired, and I so badly need to bring in some sales to make up that difference.

The one thing that came out of the tax nonsense is that I was not losing my mind; last year, we made barely more than 50% of the previous year's sales, which tells you how bad Trump is for business [and for everything else except inflicting harm]. So we've got to get caught up, and we've got to maintain it, because we've got big costs [the door, for one] ahead. I really, really could use a $2K sale tonight, which would allow us to pay the whole bill tomorrow instead of incurring penalties and interest. To that end, links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here [and to whomever sent a bunch of items off it that have arrived recently, THANK YOU; there were no purchaser inserts with the items, zip, zero, nada];
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And we do still need to make those regular weekly sales, so please share all of the links. We really do need to get this year onto a better footing than the last two, and so far, it's been pretty grim.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2026; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.