Pollen Moon

April was 'Pollen Moon' because the Douglas-fir released great clouds of yellow-orange pollen from young bright-orange cones high in the trees. This image is of an old Douglas-fir cone.

The Maple flowered and released pollen too. 

The new Cedar branches become a bright red. 

The Arbutus dropped more of its vivid yellow-green leaves and red bark.
I stitched with more intense colours that month.

Storm Moon Colour Studies

I called February's new moon 'Rain Moon'.
March wind and rain storms were memorable so I called it 'Storm Moon'.
The trees had responded to longer and warmer days.
Peeling Arbutus bark was drying and colours greyed.

New Cedar growth had shifted to a yellow-green.

There was less of a colour shift in the slower growing Douglas-fir.

Maple buds shifted from a red shade to a more pure red and chartreuse emerged.
I went through my threads to find the colours I had observed and stitched another band on each cloth.

Stitching Here, Stitching There

Here are 3 cloths waiting for their 'Cold Moon' (January) band of running stitch. 

I took a cloth with me whenever I had to go out. Stitching in a coffee shop.

 

 

But this is where I did most of my stitching. When I looked outside I could see all 4 trees.

Maple Cloth Stitching Progress

I called the October new moon 'Falling Leaf Moon' and worked autumn leaf colours into the bed sheet.
The hole was made after the stitching, while the cloth was on the tree. 

During 'Wet Moon', I added colours of decaying leaves lying on the ground within the tree's drip circle.
The 3rd band, during 'Frost Moon' or 'Long Night Moon', I worked a colour study of the almost neon green lichens glowing on the bare tree's bark. 

Buds appeared in January during 'Cold Moon' month.

For 4 moons I have worked bands of red noting a shift in the hue from a cool shade to a warmer more intense shade as the buds matured.
Once the whole bed sheet is stitched it will visually show the chromatic physiognomy (biological identity) of the tree.

Tree Cloths & Time

An important aspect of my work is the concept of time.

Not time as measured by a clock or calendar. I saw evidence of time each time I emptied the 7 threaded needles I took out to the tree. I felt time through my working hands. I saw changing time as the number of stitched rows increased. I saw time in the changing bands of colour on the sheets as the tree responded to climatic changes.

Rather than follow the Gregorian calendar to tell me when it was time to do the next colour study, I decided to follow the moon phases because they are linked to growth cycles in all living things.
I settled on the day of the new moon, a time of new growth. 

Early human artifacts show marks recording moon cycles. Many North American Aboriginal tribes named each moon phase according to what they observed happened in nature.
From November 24th to December 24th I lived without watching any TV, reading newspapers, or listening to the radio. I went to bed when  I was tired and got up when I woke up.  I was mostly on my own and spent the time stitching and walking outside observing and listening. I wanted to develop a more instinctive awareness of time. I became aware of time in the present and stopped continually thinking of time as always passing me by. 

I drew a graph to visually show the time schedule I needed to work to.
I found it interesting when I explained to people what my project was, most often their first comment was, 'That will take a lot of time'. They were right. It is all about 'Taking the Time'.

Moon-Sun-Earth-Water

I received this wonderful image from my yoga teacher today.

Thank you for sharing, Livia.

It shows the sun setting over the North Pole when the moon is very close to the earth.

Beautiful.