Great Balls of Willow

​Usually it happens in the middle of winter --

But there was a lot of snow this year.
​And it was cold.

So the urge to tromp across field and marsh,
gather willow and red osier dogwood,
fill my studio with multi colored sticks,
and twist, twine and weave them into something,
didn't show up until a few days ago. 
(same link as above--an old blog post about willow projects over the years,
so no need to click it twice)

Funny how such ideas appear--
the sudden irresistible need
​ to make a thing
I hadn't even imagined
ten seconds before.

Does this ever happen to you? 

This one may have come upon me
because the snow was mostly gone,
or because the sky was blue
or because there was no tromping to be done--
​merely a short meander 
​into our slowly greening back yard.

It may also have shown up
​ because my industrious family
was hard at work,

and I had to do my part.

As often happens with such projects, 
I had/have no idea how to weave an orb. 

so I made something up.

The willow wands and grape vines
were long and satisfyingly resilient.
The Pear shoots not so much,
but they are pretty,
and since Ana was cutting them, 
it was less trouble to weave with them
than to put them in a pile.

 I ended up making two
largish, round(ish) objects.

An heir and a spare for the flamingo, perhaps?

Guess, I'm done for now, though.

Except, perhaps,
for taking another stab
at removing the grass stains
from the knees of my pants.
​
​Or not.