Car nearly done with, and beech twigs

 I picked up the car Wednesday morning and got a  bill for zero dollars and zero cents. And the general checkups put every system in the green column. So all's well. 

I saw the erring clerk and she looked a bit anxious, but I figured ah I'm done here, and said nothing. She was probably glad to see me leave.

Back home Handsome Son and I had some car talk and I found he was, after all, not interested in taking on my car. He's happy with his beater for now.

So I'm up for selling it and already had several offers which I'm looking at. They'll pay for quite a few rides, aside from saving on the expense of running a car.

I'll be so glad not to be responsible for keeping a car going in winter, having to clear it in snow and get it moved to allow the snowplows to clear the whole area. There's no staying in the warm in snow!

So, lovely visit with tea, then HS went off to get his COVID shot -- turns out NJ has authorized it for all ages, without a prescription, regardless of the federal age restrictions.  This is part of the northeastern coalition of states on the issue.

Later I got out for a chilly walk, feeling better than for ages, and found a few downed beech twigs to join the oak twigs 

The shells whatever they're called -- if you know please say -- after the nuts fall out, are beautiful little sculptures. 

I expect squirrels are helping with the nuts -- a lot of half eaten nuts everywhere. Squirrels are like nature's kids, biting one bit, then tossing for other people to clear up. 

Swept the leaves off the deck and into the ground cover to shelter animals and the roots of the trees and shrubs over winter.

This week is looking up. Thursday is Misfits day. Speaking of which, the delivery day will be different when we get to Thanksgiving which is usually my delivery day. 

And Handsome Son tells me he's likely to be free the week after tday to celebrate. He'll be working on the day. 

It's all good! Sell the car and I'll be done with the auto world, wheee! 

That's telling them, sez Billie the Pup 

Cars, the next chapter, Textiles and Tea, Laura Thomas

 New readers start here!

So, I left the car overnight, then waited till early afternoon to check. 

Meanwhile I studied the orchid which after several months of bloom, is now dropping its blossoms. Then I pruned the main stem and moved it upstairs where it will be in good light with friends until it starts flowering again.

And I noticed I was stiff and achy from stress and not walking yesterday, so I did a 20 minute workout with April and Aiko, which helped a lot, also cheered me up a bit. A small bit.

And I sent a couple of very firm messages to Shaheen and Kaine, two of the little quislings who betrayed the Dems by voting to cave, about their treachery.   This also helped my mood.

When I called the car dealership, they were working on the car right then, the part had arrived, the service manager all over me being nice. 

I said we're not talking about charging me any more, then? Of course not, this isn't your fault, no, no, and I really apologize for yesterday, but now we're on it. 

It looks as if my call to the manager paid off. But I  really had had a lot of anxiety about maybe having another set-to when I picked it up. I agree that it was looking like a bit of bullying an old lady. But this old lady appears to have prevailed. I resent the emotional energy it took though.

Then I decided I'm old enough to please myself, and they were working late enough that it was going to end up with my having to drive home at dusk, not good, also I'd miss Textiles and Tea. 

So when they called late afternoon to let me know the car was ready, I said nah, I'll get in tomorrow. Too bad if they want my car off their crowded premises, I thought. Neener, I thought! Then I started laughing at myself! Finally cheerfulness broke through.

But the convenience of the ride service was so cool, and Lyft has a new program where you can request a favorite driver, or at least a woman, which pleases me.  There's also Uber available locally. 

This has  renewed my decision to get out of  car ownership, either to Handsome Son or to sell it. I'm tired of the responsibility and I think age 87 is high time to leave driving to people who like it. Tomorrow HS is going to drive me in to the dealership to pick up, then come back here for a cup of tea and car talk. 

Soooo, Liz 1, Honda,0. As of now.

And Textiles and Tea was a Welsh woman, Laura Thomas, whose Bridgend studio is next to Ewenny Pottery,the oldest working pottery in Wales. I wonder if blogista potter Gwyneth is familiar with it?

Laura, Eisteddford Gold Medal winner in 2024, does amazing weaving, exploring line and texture. Many of her pieces are threads encased in resin, amazing things. Most of her work is small, the largest we saw about 60" x30", and several works about 12" each way.

She's had a varied career, including designing for a traditional Welsh blanket mill, teaching, curating and exhibiting. Definitely check her website. I took some of these images from there.

The three images above show the whole work with a detail image 

She's a fearless and brilliant artist, cheerful and so honest about her work and plans. I know our Welsh blogistas will be all, well, she's a Welshwoman, so of course! 

Then I decided I needed a nice supper after all that, so this happened.

Shrimp boiled with lemon juice and salt, with brown rice cooked with butter and Old Bay, then a spritz of soy sauce on the plate. Spinach and scallion salad. Fast. Nice. Enough for tomorrow too 

Happy day everyone. Stick up for yourself even if your voice shakes a bit! Sez Ted and Big Ursy 

Car world blues

 So I got the car in to the dealership for the fuel pump replacement recall.  They set up a ride home with a very nice woman Lyft driver, really interesting person, a writer when she's not a driver. So far so good.

At home peacefully reading various library books including this 

It's a bit dry, what with chemistry, but the history of cooking tools is interesting. She tends to get into list mode a bit. 

By 3:30 I hadn't heard from the dealership. I waited till late afternoon because they'd said it was a day-long job. But I was concerned in case I ended up driving after dark.

Called and found they couldn't do the work because they couldn't remove the panel to access the fuel pump. They needed to break the panel. And they planned to charge me for the part. 

Yes, didn't sound right to me either. And they said a week to get it.  I made unhappy noises about both things. So they're getting the part overnighted, will do the work tomorrow.

Soooo I called the general manager and he agreed it didn't sound right, he'd be right on it.   A few minutes later the service director gets back to say he's all over it, part ordered, he'll check with me Tuesday morning.  He sounded totally panic stricken.

So we'll see if they still try to charge me when I see them. If so, I'll definitely do a call the manager scene. I can't believe they can ask me to pay for what they broke. If they do, I'll definitely bust them online and here. 

Today started out well and then it didn't.

Happy day everyone, this too shall pass. Though I've had better days.

Glove One done, Ikigai

 I found an audiobook to knit by

which accompanied me through Glove One and untangling the remaining yarn ready for Glove Two. After I'd done that I fell asleep for a while, the usual result of being unoccupied with a task while an audiobook plays.  The narrator is so calm and restful it's like having a cat reading to you.

Then later, the first glove is finished

Thank you for the kind comments about the little gallery of a few of my fiber art pieces. Here's a bit more about some of them. And since the light's better, maybe a couple of better views. And an explainer about the sawblade loom.

I thought Ceres deserved a better shot. I was too tired to climb up and get her off the wall then, but now I've managed it and here you can see her better.

 

Technically, this is one of the better fiberworks I've made. Ceres, aka Demeter, goddess of corn and other grains. 

I started at the top, adapting a complex Victorian knitted stitch pattern called Wheatsheaf. 

This is knitted, two-dimensional, then I moved into crochet for the full belly, and you see that it becomes three dimensional as the roots develop. This was a single skein of yarn.  It's about grain and fertility, as you see.

And the rigid heddle piece is the only one I did before giving the loom to an eager beginner. There are tons of experiments in this piece. Then I concluded this loom was too restrictive for what I needed to do, and passed it on.

Charleston, one of the red pieces, I wove on a cardboard loom I made, partly because I don't like red. But it's not what the artist wants, it's what the art wants. 

So I tried to make it frivolous and silly, with ribbon and interesting patterns, leaving the top of the warp bunched like shoulder straps on a dress good for dancing the Charleston. 

The dress needed red. The weft threads are mostly fuzzy, not out of focus -- some are hand spun, some are unspun roving.

And here's the saw blades, donated by contractor friend Michael, which I used for the circular parts of some works. They're too blunt for his woodworking, but you still have to handle the points with care.

I used some hand spun to show you how I threaded the warp. Back and forward over the teeth, progressing round the circle. Then you start weaving from the center.

Here's the back, showing how you just catch the teeth. Once it's woven you slip one or two threads off the teeth, a bit tricky,  and the rest come off more easily, giving you a circular weaving and an empty loom for the next project.

Anything can be a loom. 

Rainy here today, but I did a bit of indoor exercise, and made broth from the remains of the game hen, ready for soup. 

Then I made a pot of soup, game hen broth, diced tomatoes, chickpeas, fusilli, enough for six meals starting with Sunday supper.

Happy day everyone, the best loom of all is the enchanted one, our brain, where the magic shuttles work.

Textiles at home

 I thought you might like to see some of my fiber art things around the house. These have all been exhibited, and a couple won awards. They were all fun to make.

The woven ones were done mostly on homebuilt cardboard and stick looms, and a circular saw blade (!)

Quite a bit of the woollen fiber you see l processed, dyed and spun. Some is commercial knitting yarn because it's what I had.  Some is donated thread, yarn and beads from other women wanting to be involved.

Charleston 

Ceres

Saori woven landscape 

Woven, stitched and beaded

This was woven on a rigid heddle loom, a real one!

Knitted scroll 

Beadweaving landscape 

Woven wire mask

Freeform seasons in a landscape 

Knitted and knotted string tribute to my bird Emily whose perch this was

Saltburn Cliffs Yorkshire 

Seascape 

Happy day everyone! Enjoy the pictures. 

I'm deep in The Innocents by Margery Sharp, first time I read this one.

It's more poignant than her other work,  wondering what will become of them.