I am still here, contrary to appearances. I’m working on a big jewelry project, and running out to pull weeds in the breaks. Will try to take some pictures and post some news soon.

I dug up these carrots while clearing the garden beds for peas.

I planted them in late summer hoping for a fall and winter harvest, but the greens were munched by slugs and I didn’t think there would be any root growth at all. Funny what surprises lie under ground.

Sadly they tasted like old sticks.

We were in Texas earlier this month. When I left there were 6 inches of snow on the ground so it was a treat to sit on a patio and drink iced tea for a few days while contemplating the blue, blue sky and noticing the warm textures around me.

When I got home the snow was gone. Within days the bulbs started nosing up out of the ground. Spring, spring, spring!!

I was standing by the sink, getting a glass of water, when I looked up and there, under the bird feeder, was an opossum!

The opossum. The one living under the barn. The one whose little hand prints I’ve seen in the snow and on the barn wall. My opossum!!

I yelled “Opossum!!” and scrambled for the camera, the cats scrambling in tow.

Meanwhile Possie calmly munched on sunflower shells. Then headed back home in an ambling way, following the path left by my footsteps to and from the feeder,

and sniffing the air.

When s/he disappeared out of view near the house I lost track, I think because s/he was skirting the walls, but when I ran over to the other side of the building there was Possie,

heading to that gap in the barn siding where we always suspected s/he lived.

Estyn Hulbert jewelry is now available at Associated Diamond Brokers in Philadelphia.

Drop by if you’re in the area — the people are friendly and the store has been in business for nearly half a century.

The raised beds have been reduced to little bumps, practically invisible.

My drive down to Philadelphia for the Buyers Market looked like this:

snow

more snow

I95 with only one other car in view

welcome to blizzardy Pennsylvania

you’re really in trouble now

just 3 more blocks to the hotel. Phew.

A few buyers and artists weren’t able to make it at all, or had to scramble to create displays out of office supplies when their shipments got stuck on the other side of the country. I was very lucky to have everything with me.

We had more snow on the way home, but M drove (thank you!) and we made good time.

I’m glad to be back in the studio filling orders, with the help of my trusty assistants.

I’m back home, resting, recovering and reorganizing after my adventures in Philadelphia during the great whiteout of 2010. I promise a detailed narrative very soon…

There’s a lot of making things like this

and this

going on, in preparation for the next Buyers Market wholesale show next week in Phili.