Inspired by Indian Women, Q. Cassetti, 2011, sharpieAs the sauce is stewing and the water boils for dinner, I will talk to you via my iPad. I am typing away on “pages”— liberated by my ability to stand at the stove and attempt to write and listen to the radio. I started a gigantic pot of spaghetti sauce this morning with meat cooking, mushroom plumping ( porcini..for depth) and a gigantic can of red sauce ( red pack) with veggies. We can be snowed in! And tiny Alex can eat.

Shady was frisking in the dusty, icy snow— her favorite time of the year. Mr. White is yellow white in the clean blue white snow. Both wood stoves are now functioning, so we can hunker down with our hats on and soak in the heat as the chill sets in tonight . Kitty called to say that Hampshire College closed today due to all the snow. We will see here as the Tburgers are pretty puritanical and it really needs to be dire before anything is closed around here.

I designed and ordered a valentine for a friend. I agreed to a chicken illo to be in the next edition of “Edible Finger Lakes”. I recolored the “Ragtime” poster and moved the elements around on the Rocky Horror to make it more PG.

Am living in the warm pool of Madhbari illustration — the gods and goddesses, the happy cows, the pod heads that are space fillers, the flora and snails, and the endless fish that seem to also fill the pages the way the Pennsylvania Germans wedge birds into the nooks and crannies to make sure nothing on their pages can breathe. In my Indian world, these benign cows smile placidly at the fish while the happy pod heads narrate the rich story they are all inhabiting—inviting us in. Lines upon lines with the occasional big white (or black) field to rally force some visual order from the twirly embroidery.

Let’s see what happens!