Spring Woods , Tapestry and ta-daaaa, the Lizzies!

Pix of the woodlands by the path I often walk daily, never fails to surprise people who know what a heavily populated and industrial region I live in, but there you are.

Then there's the tapestry, which I am getting along with -- I used the Burningham book for tips on how to create the frame and how to warp it, and I made my shed sticks from matboard, also a couple of small shuttles, but fingers really work better for me. The current piece is about flower gardens, an abstraction of the notion, that is. The frame is an old canvas, canvas cut out, the remaining frame and stretcher are true right angles, and very strong, just about right for my purpose.

At the bottom are some of the yarns I spun from the fleece I washed, along with darker yarns spun from the roving I was given, just thought the donors would like to see this in action (!) and I'm incorporating all kinds of fun colors and textures from yarns donated by other people over the last couple of years.

Tapestry is different from other weaving in that the warp is only there as a support, not meant to be a visible part of the piece. I warped mine with strong masonry twine, meant to hold still and not fray out in use, as well as to vanish obligingly when I tamp down the weft with my handy comb.

It's a great art that can be interrupted a lot, my current new normal, without losing anything, but it still calls on all kinds of thinking and changing and adjusting and playing about with color and shape and form, great stuff. The only thing is that kitties like it, too, and once in a while I'm poking about in the yarn and come face to face with a little black hairy fizzog blinking back up at me. So that's the art front for now.

The HP front is that his birthday was yesterday, and we celebrated with a special lunch attended by HS, complete with birthday cake involving strawberries, his favorite fruit. Later neighbors stopped by with a present and visited a while. And in the evening I put on a DVD of one of the Foyle's War series, which we both love, terrific acting, great Michael Kitchen and the others. HP had a bit of trouble grasping that it was his birthday, but as the day went on and people talked with him, and he was enjoying it all, his lucidity came right on, and was terrific for the rest of the day. Good stuff. He's 77 now, hard to believe, but oh well!

And, since Midsummer Madness is upon us, I'm only a few days late in declaring the first Summer Solstice Annual Lizzie Awards.

You've heard of Oscars and Grammies and Tonys and Webbys. Well, here are the Lizzies!

The award consists of being mentioned in here, sorry, no little statuettes this year, but we'll see about next year, as a tribute to outstanding performance in various aspects of life that have benefited the Great Me in recent times.....


The Award for Grace Under Pressure Despite Losses and Catastrophes goes to HP, a gracious and good gentleman who needs no introduction.

The Award for Total Generosity of Spirit and Tact in Tough Times goes to Handsome Son, who has never wavered in his support and courage and encouragement to his mom over the last few years and especially the last few months. His email of encouragement at the start of our crisis, assuring me that "we will get through this together" kept me together more than he can realize. And his daily visits to HP in the hospital over months, every evening right from work, postponing his own dinner till late at night, were acts of huge compassion and perseverance, deserving of much more than a simple mention in here.

The Award for Supporting and Enabling Art Adventures and Serious Fun Stuff in the spinning category, drop spindle entry, goes to Carol Q. who not only delivered the spindle and a supply of roving, plus instructions, right into my hands at my house on a day when she felt physically rotten, but has been hugely good humored and supportive ever since.

The Award for Supporting and Enabling Art Adventures, in the spinning category, wheel entry, goes to Jinny B., who not only delivered her personal wheel into my hands but gave me a rapid lesson in how to approach it, in the parking lot, before she put it into my car, and has been a consultant since, and patiently awaits the day when I get the hang of it.

The Award for Supporting and Enabling Art Adventures, special category, fleece, goes without doubt to Paula L., a knitting designer and talented artist in her own right, who hand delivered the fleece you heard about and saw in progress in this blog over the last couple of weeks, having guided it from the original ovine owner, via various family arrangements until it finally got into my living room.

The Award for Musical Encouragement By Remote Control goes to Liane S. who made a long term loan of a beautiful silver flute, named Floot, for me to learn on and has been generously happy with the pleasure it's been giving me daily for almost a year now. She is spared having to listen to my performance since she's far away, but we won't go there right now.

The Award for Musical Participation, duet entry, goes to MaryCarol C. a pianist extraordinaire who played duets with Floot followed by civilized tea and chat, at intervals (sorry, couldn't resist the pun) for months until our lives got in the way, but one of these days we'll manage it again. Her patience with my beginning tone and her sheer niceness in dumbing down her playing to fit with my capacity, were worthy of awards quite aside from the tea and chat.

The Award for Photography and Friendship Combined, over years, even when there was a hiatus, we just picked up again where we left off, goes to Susan K. Her own total unselfishness in being helpful to me, despite having plenty of personal challenges, deserves a whole category of awarding power. And her photography is stunning, always improves the day when I visit her blog. Generosity personified, is Susan.

Next year a new lot of awards, no doubt, but meanwhile, please, wild applesauce cheering and stamping of feet and waving of knitting needles and crochet hooks and spindles and tuning forks, for all the recipients, who are now going, aw gee, and rubbing their toes in the dirt and ah, anyone woulda done it, and so on, too modest for words.

And one last huge award category: Friends and Neighbors and emailers and card senders and callers and visitors and shoppers and blog readers who have done all kinds of favors, quietly and sometimes anonymously, to keep the Adams show on the road. There are so many of you, and we thank you daily. You're in our minds more than you can know.