Red Willow Spirit: Weathering Storms and Winter's Fire

Photo copyright Wings, 2025; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's an edition of Red Willow Spirit for a season that exists mostly in memory now. It's three images linked by two new[ish] works of wearable art, all of them capturing the beauty and power of this land and season of weathering storms and winter's 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 have enormous repair costs ahead and we're already into the first week of March. We urgently need to shift 2025 to a much better footing, and we need to do it very fast now, so shares are very much needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2025; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.    

Talons and teeth.

Photo copyright Aji, 2025; all rights reserved.

That was around noon.  We got a few flakes, a little graupel, nothing collecting anywhere. Constant high-velocity winds, though. I would call the storm toothless, except since it's nothing but wind, that means it's nothing but talons and teeth.

Which means that I feel like absolute hell. 

There is no weather phenomenon as destructive to my joints and connective tissues as high winds. And we have three full months ahead, at least; it lasts longer every year now. I haven't had any real sleep the last two nights, and I felt absolutely ill last night, and this is why; it was on the way, the changes in air pressure and other conditions set my whole body on fire.

AndI'm ridiculously behind today; couldn't even get to my own work until about 2:30.  Tomorrow will be worse. I am determined that the rest of the week is going to be for my work, and nothing else, because I am out of time.

I have to get our taxes done. I have to be chasing sales. [Cut-and-paste ahead, because I'm so tired I can't even rephrase.  I've got hours of work ahead again tonight, too.]

Spirit knows we need all the help we can get on that score. Last year was a nightmare, all year long: expenses of the sort you can't plan for that were astronomical, combined with one of our worst sales years ever. The really bad part is that we still haven't recovered from it. Meanwhile, new expenses mount, and we've made a grand total of three sales all year so far.

That won't even begin to cut it.

Wings has been rocking in the studio for weeks. There's a ton of new work, but posted just last week alone are two new pairs of Red Creek jasper earrings, plus four new necklaces [one vintage-style oval and three hearts, the latter all made with some really unique materials]. And, of course, there are all the other new works from the past two months, a couple of bolos, a new buckle, endless cuffs, I don't know how many pairs of earrings. If you're in the market? Now would be a really, really good time to buy. We have to pay taxes soon; we have to replace our well's pressure pump; we have to get a security system installed suddenly; and I still need to replace my laptop, which I have to baby along daily. We're also having to help relatives with some cultural obligations [that's already begun the last couple of weeks, and there's a lot more to go]. And of course, there are all the animals' expenses. Gotta keep the chickie girls happy: Those eggs won't lay themselves. [And yes, they've been known to go on strike when they don't get what they want.]

So I really, really need to sell some of his work, and soon.

Links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (Amazon cards, Soapbox soaps, Black KN95 masks are most useful at this point); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

After such a grim year last year, and this one beginning at least as badly, we urgently need to move 2025 onto a better footing before taxes take every last cent, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2025; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                                                     

Monday Photo Meditation: Of Winter Reborn

Photo copyright Wings, 2025;
all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a Monday Photo Meditation for a day and week forecast for winter, but already stolen by spring. It's a reflection on what has changed so drastically in fewer than two decades as well as on what remains, and on the truth that ours is a world of winter reborn, and we have much work ahead of us to nurture and protect it.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We have enormous repair costs ahead and we're already into the first week of March. We urgently need to shift 2025 onto a much better footing than last year, and fast, so shares are very much needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2025; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.         

At long last.

Photo copyright Aji, 2025; all rights reserved.

Findings on those last two done at long last. I was too beat to haul out the velvet backing, though, and take new photos; I'll do that sometime tomorrow. I really overdid it last week, and it all came crashing down on me today.

I keep saying I'm supposed to be staying here, not running errands constantly. Last week didn't get the memo, obvs; out of seven days in the week, I think I had to go into town on five of them. For me anymore, that's a lot; way too much, actually. It's also maddening that I felt good yesterday [I mean, as good as I ever do, which is not what most people mean by the phrase, but my illnesses have left me with expectations that are a hell of a lot lower now]. So I had high hopes for getting things done today, and instead, I barely slept overnight, and I've been sick all day today by which I mean the kind of "sick" that lupus and RA induce, which essentially feels like the kind of fever and so forth you get with a bad case of the flu, except there's no flu and no actual fever, either]. I will have to go into town at least once this week, but that has to be it, I think. And of course, we all know how likely it is that that will actually happen, anyway.

But while I'm here, I also can't be doing everything else under the sun. I have to be chasing sales. [Cut-and-paste ahead, because I'm so tired I can't even rephrase.  I've got hours of work ahead tonight, too.]

Spirit knows we need all the help we can get on that score. Last year was a nightmare, all year long: expenses of the sort you can't plan for that were astronomical, combined with one of our worst sales years ever. The really bad part is that we still haven't recovered from it. Meanwhile, new expenses mount, and we've made a grand total of three sales all year so far.

That won't even begin to cut it.

Wings has been rocking in the studio for weeks. There's a ton of new work, but posted just this week alone are two new pairs of Red Creek jasper earrings, plus four new necklaces [one vintage-style oval and three hearts, the latter all made with some really unique materials]. And, of course, there are all the other new works from the past two months, a couple of bolos, a new buckle, endless cuffs, I don't know how many pairs of earrings. If you're in the market? Now would be a really, really good time to buy. We have to pay taxes soon; we have to replace our well's pressure pump; we have to get a security system installed suddenly; and I still need to replace my laptop, which I have to baby along daily. We're also having to help relatives with some cultural obligations [that's already begun the last couple of weeks, and there's a lot more to go]. And of course, there are all the animals' expenses. Gotta keep the chickie girls happy: Those eggs won't lay themselves. [And yes, they've been known to go on strike when they don't get what they want.]

So I really, really need to sell some of his work, and soon.

Links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (Amazon cards, Soapbox soaps, Black KN95 masks are most useful at this point); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

After such a grim year last year, and this one beginning at least as badly, we urgently need to move 2025 onto a better footing before taxes take every last cent, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2025; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                                                     

Of the Hardest Days Is a Green and Flowering World Born

Photo copyright Aji, 2025;
all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a work for changing seasons, one originally created for fall's linking of summer to winter but just as apt for the unsettled threshold between winter and spring. It's a reminder, too, of where true strength lies, and of the truth that of the hardest days is a green and flowering world born.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We have enormous repair costs ahead and it's March already[!]. We urgently need to get 2025 onto a much better footing than last year, so shares are very much needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2025; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.   

First egg.

Photo copyright Aji, 2025; all rights reserved.

March first; first day of meteorological spring [and 72 degrees]; first egg.

Yes, it's a broken egg; one of the 'lorps occasionally lays one with a shell that hasn't hardened entirely, and quite often, her first one of the year is like this. But it means they'll be laying regularly soon. And given the literal price of eggs now [and the fact that stores are limiting purchases], that will save us some money.

Spirit knows we need all the help we can get on that score. Last year was a nightmare, all year long: expenses of the sort you can't plan for that were astronomical, combined with one of our worst sales years ever. The really bad part is that we still haven't recovered from it. Meanwhile, new expenses mount, and we've made a grand total of three sales all year so far.

That won't even begin to cut it.

Wings has been rocking in the studio for weeks. There's a ton of new work, but posted just this week alone are two new pairs of Red Creek jasper earrings, plus four new necklaces [one vintage-style oval and three hearts, the latter all made with some really unique materials]. And, of course, there are all the other new works from the past two months, a couple of bolos, a new buckle, endless cuffs, I don't know how many pairs of earrings. If you're in the market? Now would be a really, really good time to buy. We have to pay taxes soon; we have to replace our well's pressure pump; we have to get a security system installed suddenly; and I still need to replace my laptop, which I have to baby along daily. We're also having to help relatives with some cultural obligations [that's already begun the last couple of weeks, and there's a lot more to go]. And of course, there are all the animals' expenses. Gotta keep the chickie girls happy: Those eggs won't lay themselves. [And yes, they've been known to go on strike when they don't get what they want.]

So I really, really need to sell some of his work, and soon.

Links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (Amazon cards, Soapbox soaps, Black KN95 masks are most useful at this point); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

After such a grim year last year, and this one beginning at least as badly, we urgently need to move 2025 onto a better footing before taxes take every last cent, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2025; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                                                     

The Borderline Blues Between Winter and Spring

Photo copyright Aji, 2025;
all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a work for the first day of meteorological spring, and for the natural, if unfulfilled, expectation that from last snow, first rain will fall. It's also a work that recognizes our differences from other climates, historically and now, one to celebrate the borderline blues between winter and spring.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We have enormous repair costs ahead and it's March first already[!]. We urgently need to get 2025 onto a much better footing than last year, so shares are very much needed and much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2025; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.