We were camped up on Guacamole Mesa one night, a small group of friends in an inflatable pool we had constructed into a hot tub, chatting and occasionally glancing up at the glittering sky. I noticed Jupiter above us and asked Dennis if he recognized what it was.

“Venus?”

“No, not Venus. But good guess.” I proceeded to remind him that Venus never wanders this far from the Sun. Like Mercury, you’ll find it either rising before the sun or setting shortly behind it. The sun was well set by now and this planet was directly overhead. Too far out for Venus to travel. But like Venus, Jupiter is very bright in the sky, though not quite as bright.

Then I proceeded to point out constellations I recognized and one of our friends asked if Scorpio was up yet.

“No,” I said “Scorpio won’t be up for a while.”

I continued to explain that the sun was in Pisces at this time and the constellations we were looking at were Aries, Taurus, and Orion, and since Scorpio is positioned on the opposite side of the Zodiac belt from Taurus, it was currently well beneath the horizon.

Our friend who asked about Scorpio went home that night and told his partner they needed to hire me for their stargazing tours. So here I’ve been for the past month training up to be a Night Sky Photography Assistant with my eye set on possibly becoming an Astronomy Guide eventually, if we stay here long enough (because I love talking about the stars and showing people around the night sky).

So I didn’t mean to go over a month without making a single post on here, but this new job has kept me busier than I expected to be, focused on learning and projects that I hadn’t initially planned on for this year (photography). I usually only work two to three nights a week, but a huge part of the job is taking night photos. Night photos are trickier to take than daytime photos and before starting this gig, the last time I took a picture with an actual camera was when I was maybe 23. I’m 35 now. The phone cameras have gotten too good.

In high school I actually wanted to become a photographer but my life path didn’t end up winding in that direction. I used to have a camera but over the years I had gotten so used to taking good enough photos with my phone that I stopped using the camera and ended up giving it away to a kid who was interested in photography. But to take good night photos you have to have the right knowledge and equipment to get a good shot. So Dennis has lent me his Sony and has been helping me learn how to manually adjust the settings along with the basic skills for getting a decent night portrait.

A stargazing portrait practice:

In January I had set my intention for this year to primarily focus on my personal projects and actually craft more, and I still am doing that. I’ve just been on a side quest for a short bit as I’ve found myself unexpectedly learning photography—bootcamp style. (AHH! 🙀 She used the em dash.)

Between work, intensive photography lessons, and practice sessions I’ve still managed to weave in time for my textile art. I’m focusing mostly right now on spinning different types of cotton on both the charkha and my new tahkli spindle.

I’ve also been accumulating all the necessary ingredients and equipment for natural dyeing projects I want to do this summer once I’ve got enough spun fiber:

And mostly, despite the fact that this has been the busiest month of the year so far for me, I’ve been appreciating how crafts like spinning require you to slow down, breathe deeply and evenly with your core, and place your attention on the here and now. Spinning especially has been my favorite meditative practice lately and I have learned to delight in how thoroughly it reveals the profound affect my thoughts have on my performance.

The act of spinning also makes me feel so much more resonance with the world, despite anything and everything happening in it. It’s a bit tricky to explain, but I feel so suddenly connected and tuned to IT ALL as soon as I get a thread going, like I’m enacting a most sacred ritual, mirroring the movements of the heavens.