Friday, April 22, 2022

Friday Feature: The Promise of Plant and Petal

Photo copyright Aji, 2022; all rights reserved.

It's our Friday Feature at The NDN Silver Blog, It's a pair of complementary works in soft and gentle shades for a day of extreme danger for much of the surrounding area. It's a necklace and a coil bracelet from Wings's gemstone bead collections, manifest as the promise of plant and petal — a promise of life and medicine whose fulfillment is our collective task, once the flames subside.

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 to make it through this third year of pandemic and loss, to say nothing of an outrageously high tax burden and equally high medical expenses, so shares of the site links are much appreciated.


All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2022; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.    

Thursday, April 21, 2022

A single flowering sun.

Photo copyright Aji, 2022; all rights reserved.

A single flowering sun in the form of the lilies I love so much.

We haven't seen much sun here lately, not because it's cloudy but because everything's on fire and the skies are clogged with smoke and dust and dangerous particulate matter.

Today is going to be a hell of day; I'm swamped, and so I need to get the daily posts out of the way right off the bat. The winds today and the rest of the week are supposed to be an absolute nightmare, too, and given that there are wildfires everywhere, it's a time to be indoors as much as humanly possible. At the moment, it's all smoke haze to the east but clearer to the west, and very little wind, and we need to take advantage of that while we can.

Meanwhile, I am overwhelmed by everything I need to get caught up, and everything I still need to do to keep pace with this year's tax burden, never mind our medical expenses or what the land needs. Two separate four-figure checks paid out last Wednesday (and those are only the first). Meanwhile, my Patreon is down by nearly $100 this month, and sales have been . . . few and far between, to put it mildly. I'll be shelling out another four figures on my eyes this week, and I cannot put that one off any longer. I'm still debating whether to keep my pain therapy appointment, which will be $500 out of pocket, up front, every single time. And without plastic, we have to pay cash in full for everything.

But I'm increasingly disabled, and I can't work if I can't get the pain under control, or get back my ability to walk [mostly] unhindered. So I need to find a way to do this, and I'll need help to get it all done. Links are here:
  • Sales here; 
  • Testimonials here; 
  • Amazon wishlist here (priorities are first and foremost, the other ladder, the Thermacell lanterns [the flies are already out, so the mosquitoes won't be far behind], and the liquid soaps, which prevent our hands from cracking and bleeding given that we're forced to wash them fifty times a day;
  • Patreon here;
  • Ko-fi here.

We're still hoping to put aside enough for a new well when the ground thaws enough to drill in the spring, too, Nah, we've given up on the well. No one's available to drill before the latter half of summer, and the tax burden means we would never be able to afford it anyway. But it's perhaps even more of a good time to make a purchase, because Uncle Sam is a vindictive colonizer, and my current stress levels about paying it all are off the charts. And there's lots of fabulous work, so please share all of the links. 


All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2022; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                             

#ThrowbackThursday: The Medicine In the Smoke

Photo copyright Wings, 2022; all rights reserved.

It's #TBT at The NDN Silver Blog, with a #ThrowbackThursday work dating back eleven years, to the motifs and medicines of the growing season. In these too-early spring days riven by catastrophic winds and riddled with the smog of wildfires everywhere, it's a reminder, too, of the other forms available to us, of the medicine in the smoke.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. This work obviously 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. We will still need to make consistent sales to make it through this third year of pandemic and loss and an outrageously high tax burden for a government so ready to let us die, so shares of the site links are much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2022; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.     

Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Smoke everywhere.

Photo copyright Aji, 2022; all rights reserved.

That was the sky to the south last night. Also today. You can't even see his niece's house from here.

California, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico are in flames. We now, as of last night, have a THIRD ignition in the adjacent county, all three uncontained, the winds too fierce for aerial support and the humidity? Don't make me laugh. Yesterday the humidity was sixteen percent. Today? Today it's 9%. NINE PERCENT HUMIDITY.

Smoke everywhere, and the land is burning up around us. 

Meanwhile, I am overwhelmed by everything I need to get caught up, and everything I still need to do to keep pace with this year's tax burden, never mind our medical expenses or what the land needs. Two separate four-figure checks paid out last Wednesday. Meanwhile, my Patreon is down by nearly $100 this month, and sales have been . . . few and far between, to put it mildly. I'll be shelling out another four figures on my eyes this week, and I cannot put that one off any longer. I'm still debating whether to keep my pain therapy appointment, which will be $500 out of pocket, up front, every single time. And without plastic, we have to pay cash in full for everything.

But I'm increasingly disabled, and I can't work if I can't get the pain under control, or get back my ability to walk [mostly] unhindered. So I need to find a way to do this, and I'll need help to get it all done. Links are here:
  • Sales here; 
  • Testimonials here; 
  • Amazon wishlist here (priorities are first and foremost, the other ladder, the Thermacell lanterns [the flies are already out, so the mosquitoes won't be far behind], and the liquid soaps, which prevent our hands from cracking and bleeding given that we're forced to wash them fifty times a day;
  • Patreon here;
  • Ko-fi here.

We're still hoping to put aside enough for a new well when the ground thaws enough to drill in the spring, too, Nah, we've given up on the well. No one's available to drill before the latter half of summer, and the tax burden means we would never be able to afford it anyway. But it's perhaps even more of a good time to make a purchase, because Uncle Sam is a vindictive colonizer, and my current stress levels about paying it all are off the charts. And there's lots of fabulous work, so please share all of the links. 


All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2022; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                             

A Scarce and Valuable Green

Photo copyright Aji, 2022; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a work for these early and difficult days of spring, when drought and wildfire and trickster winds threaten the land's very existence. It's a work very explicitly of hope, of drops of water and the light of a new day and a scarce and valuable green emergent, reminding us that there is work to be done, but also life to be lived.

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 to make it through this third year of pandemic and loss, especially with tax payments due over the months to come, so shares of the site links are much appreciated.


All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2022; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.      

Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Tinderbox.

Photo copyright Aji, 2022; all rights reserved.

More smoke haze, this to the south yesterday. Which is a exactly the opposite way of the wind direction from the known fire at Cook's Peak yesterday, and Wings said he saw a plume at Truchas Peak, so there as obviously another ignition somewhere, albeit an unreported one.

The Cook's Peak blaze went from 0 to over 2,200 acres in the space of half a day (and that was overnight, in the cool, quiet hours), so it's now apparently completely uncontained and evacs are mandatory in some areas. Today's winds are once again blowing from south-southwest to north-northeast, so it's carrying it away from us, but there's a lot of habitat that's going to get eaten up by this thing. Still no word on ignition source, either. Then again, they've never admitted to the plane crash that started one on the ridgeline a couple of years ago, because around here, connected colonizers get protected, so here we are. 

And these jackasses want to expand the airport (a potential source of wildfire all on its own now) and desecrate another mountain at the Ski Valley, and both will probably happen, because that's what they do here. "Billionaire environmentalist," my fat ass; he's as deadly a colonizer as they come.

Meanwhile, the winds are howling; the humidity is sixteen percent; and the land is a tinderbox. One spark, and it all goes up. In the meantime, we get to deal with the stress and strain of the.se winds on our bodies, which for me means pain levels jacked beyond their already unbearable levels.

I said yesterday that this is going to be another rough week, but I had no idea. Good thing Wings actually looked at the calendar this morning, because I had the wrong day and date in my head for my eye appointment, and it would really have sucked to make a trip to Santa Fe for nothing right now. But this is what happens when there's too much to do and too little time and too few resources, particularly my own physical ones. I am overwhelmed by everything I need to get caught up, and everything I still need to do to keep pace with this year's tax burden, never mind our medical expenses or what the land needs. Two separate four-figure checks paid out on Wednesday. Meanwhile, my Patreon is down by nearly $100 this month, and sales have been . . . few and far between, to put it mildly. I'll be shelling out another four figures on my eyes this week, and I cannot put that one off any longer. I'm still debating whether to keep my pain therapy appointment, which will be $500 out of pocket, up front, every single time. And without plastic, we have to pay cash in full for everything.

But I'm increasingly disabled, and I can't work if I can't get the pain under control, or get back my ability to walk [mostly] unhindered. So I need to find a way to do this, and I'll need help to get it all done. Links are here:
  • Sales here; 
  • Testimonials here; 
  • Amazon wishlist here (priorities are first and foremost, the other ladder and the Thermacell lanterns; the flies are already out, so the mosquitoes won't be far behind);
  • Patreon here;
  • Ko-fi here.

We're still hoping to put aside enough for a new well when the ground thaws enough to drill in the spring, too, Nah, we've given up on the well. No one's available to drill before the latter half of summer, and the tax burden means we would never be able to afford it anyway. But it's perhaps even more of a good time to make a purchase, because Uncle Sam is a vindictive colonizer, and my current stress levels about paying it all are off the charts. And there's lots of fabulous work, so please share all of the links. 


All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2022; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.                             

Red Willow Spirit: A Growing Green Resilience

Photo copyright Wings, 2022; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's an edition of Red Willow Spirit for days of Coyote-like chaos and colonial caprice, for a world caught in trickster winds as new leaves struggle to be born. It's a meditation, too, on how we understand our world and our role and responsibilities in it, and on a growing green resilience that is the result of the work, even in a land and time of harsh extremes and circumstances.

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 to make it through this third year of pandemic and loss and now an outrageously high burden too, so shares of the site links are much appreciated.


All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2022; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.