Finally the Christmas decorating reveal, and Textiles and Tea

We don't get carried away around here. This is it. The second set of figures has a backup baby, a spare, because you never know.

I skipped the Tuesday knitting group because laundry, cooking, bits of holiday stuff to do.  Also serious time-sink in Advent calendar games. They're good for the brain. I claim.

I did check in with Textiles and Tea though, for a high energy session with Tina Linville, who works as a sculptor using all kinds of material including fiber. She weaves, crochets, dyes and combines unlikely old and new materials in tabletop size sculptures. 

The energy that bounces off these pieces is great. And while she was talking about playing and letting the materials speak, I started thinking about doing a bit of freeform crochet again.

Great presentation and you can check her website for more. That first piece is very much like one my collab artist and I made and exhibited as Unified Field, back in the nineties.

Happy day everyone, play as if your life depended on it. Because it does.

Sez Ted and Big Ursy

Wrong day misfits, now confusion of the season, bergamot wannabes, The Bishop's Wife

Because of the holiday falling on my delivery day my misfits came Monday. As if I didn't already get confused enough when there's a holiday.

Note the bergamot wannabes in the background starting to take shape, sssh, don't jinx them. Even that busted up one may be fixable, wabi sabi, with the last finishing stage, tissue paper and white glue.

Meanwhile back in the food world, cans for the food pantry, scallions to add in all over for crunch, apples because mid morning requires an apple, cheese to stock up again, red lentils likewise. This is a short week, so a small box, because I still have plenty from last week's delivery. 

Also Handsome Son will be here bearing food on Thursday, so there will be reinforcements. I'm doing the corn, peas and roast potatoes, and he's doing practically everything else, yay.

I appear to have neglected to do any Christmas decorating, because I forgot to ask him to lift down the box from the high shelf. I'm not feeling very pressured about it though.

I will remember to watch my favorite movie of all for the season, the one that gets it. The Bishop's Wife. 

Breaking from ants and plants:

News from the cactus front. Down to two buds after some clumsy gardener knocked one off while watering next to it. Boud: boo hiss. Cactus: never mind, I'll be fine.  All alone. In the dark. 

News from the ant front. After I put down the borax and confectioners sugar mix, there was a rush of tiny ants, then none at all.  Gone. For now anyway. Boud 1, ants 0. Just now.

Happy day everyone, plants can be passy aggy, too. And ants.

Bergamot boxes more or less, part one

I had the lemons waiting,  ready for the bergamot boxes, or lemon boxes. The peels need to be soaked in boiling water for an hour. Since I was having boiled egg and toast for dinner, I thought ah, do it then. Ready pan of boiling water after the egg comes out.

Since I was going to use two lemons I experimented, cutting one pole to pole as Sally recommended, and one across the equator, to see which worked better.

You have to scoop out the insides, now in the freezer for the next time I need lemons 

Then soak, here in the water from the egg 

Then find containers to use as molds, and you also find that even the smallest ones in the house are a bit too big. 

It takes ages to scrape out the pith, then turn the rind inside out. One just exploded into three pieces, hence only three seen here

It then took more ages and patience to get them to lie on the molds and this is probably the tenth iteration, since the rubber bands I started with kept leaping off and flying across the room. Then I resorted to twine hoping that might stay put.

This is the state of the boxes Sunday evening, and they will need to be revisited and pressed down and squeezed frequently during the drying process, which might be a day or more. 

If they dry, there's more to do. I doubt if any two will fit together like a box and lid, so I may have made bergamot bowls. 

Bergamots are a variety of orange, but this idea can work with any citrus fruit, the idea being the lovely scent. 

Anyway there may or may not be a part two, depending on the vagaries of the lemons, the solstice and the configuration of the planets.

Update: another rind broke apart spontaneously. That's both of the pole to pole cut ones. So, despite Sally, I'll stick with equator cutting. Pole to pole works for the globular orange shape but lemons, no, maybe not 

Meanwhile happy day, everyone and remember I do these things so you don't have to. 

Death doula, and visible mending

 Latest reading one of several books going at any one time, a first person narrative where the narrator is a death doula, and what she learns as she goes along. 

It's an easy read, a bit of a romcom type of story, but I did finish it. Very New York is the center of the world, and leaving it means going to Nepal kind of vibe. 

The writer seems prejudiced against  people who don't like crowds and parties, characterizing them as inevitably lonely and longing.

When the main character starts to run  about traveling and joining groups, dumping her doula work, it's presented as personal improvement and progress into an adult life.  I'm not too comfortable with the underlying agenda. Not very respectful of end of life work. If you read it please let me know if it struck you differently. I'm open to revisiting. 

I was up at 4am on the solstice, woke ready to get up and drink coffee. I like waking in the dark and watching the dawn gradually appear. Now that I can nap after breakfast it's a luxury. There's not the pressure there used to be when I was caregiving, on my feet 7 am to 11pm, and needing to stay in bed as long as I could.

Saturday is for visible darning and other pursuits.

This is under the heel, as usual. I walk through my socks. I used a soft yarn for the darn and it feels soft underfoot.

Happy day everyone, repairs are as interesting as creating if you make them fun.

And I spent Saturday evening online with a phone tech who diagnosed the issue with the lack of mobile data on my phone. It was the plan not the phone blocking it. So now I have a new plan with mobile data enabled, and I don't need a new phone after all. That was my main need. Yay me 

Neighborly day and annual treats

There was sheeting rain Friday morning, washing away all the snow and ice, and finally I got out to walk, quick between storms.

End of the street looking left, clear blue visible 

Looking right, a lot of black, darker than it looks here. But note the complete absence of snow and ice.

Nice chat in the way home with next door neighbor about cars and his latest adventure with a dealer who thought he was an easy mark, and found his mistake, and his various buying adventures, resulting in three cars. He'd hoped to sell one but was dismayed at the price he was offered, so it's still here.

He introduced me to a new neighbor, Surya, actual name much longer but he said Surya is fine. Nice man. He bought the house so that's good. The owner landlord had let to some fairly sketchy people over the years but has now moved to Colorado and sold.  

And two more neighbors have offered me rides where needed.  I should have sold the car years ago!

Mike the Artist Contractor came over to present me with my annual peppermint bark and cookies and a chat. 

They're off to drive to their daughter's in Florida Saturday and the weather has blessed them. They drive because dogs, two Cavalier King Charles spaniels.  

For readers outside the US, it's quite a few hours from NJ to Florida, down a lot of the East coast.  They sometimes stop off in North Carolina to see his mother, pretty much on the way. From door to daughter's door is over 1,000 miles, a fair way.

And I got back from the walk about one minute before sheeting rain started up again.  Timing!

Happy day everyone.  Timing may not be everything but it doesn't hurt.

 

Misfits and watch these lemons

Misfits today, driver Quinn in a white van, which looks like a Misfits but without the graphics.

Canned goods and ketchup for the food pantry -- condiments always welcome to make plain food appetizing. 

Garlic paste which is now a staple, great for garlic bread, hake because I need a bit of ocean fish, NZ blogistas, thank you, from your ocean, blackberries because it's been ages, tofu for various dishes, mostly crunchy, yellow potatoes to boil then roast, tuna for favorite tuna melt when I don't feel like cooking. 

Lemons for lemon box experiments, watch this space. Nothing wasted -- I'll use the contents as usual.  As you see, they're on the Big Side. Two were free, redeemed with points, even better.

I was interested to see the responses to doing nothing. Some people's versions of nothing look like perpetual motion to this reader! But then I remember the older lady I knew as a kid who told me she'd had a hectic day, she'd cleaned two handbags. It's all relative. 

And there are people who see reading as doing nothing. I also suspect people who say they've done nothing mean they haven't made anything, even a fuss. But they haven't been sitting with their hands folded.

Lovely day, Thursday, got the recycling out now the ice has retreated, continued with Queen Jane formerly known as Seymour, obligatory check-in with the Advent calendar with games to play and elves to find.  

Washed and organized the groceries,  planned fish, mash and broccoli for dinner. thought how lucky I am to afford good ingredients, a big part of being well.

Happy day everyone, look for something to enjoy in these tough days.  There's usually something to laugh at, even if it's yourself.