Tuesday, September 15, 2026

Good news, baskets and towels

The medical testing went fine, no issues at all,  even the thing they spotted two weeks ago had gone away. So all's well, and thank you for your kind words and notes.

Home to Textiles and Tea and 

a basket maker working in twined fiber, embroidery floss over wire. She's interested in mythology and how it intersects with current situations. 

And she has a daily blog.

Before you go over there, take a look at her work. She started life as a painter then moved on to fiberarts when basketry appeared, after a foray into clay. Clay is too clumsy a medium for her fine lines and profiles, and twined fiber works better for her ideas.

Here she is in front of some of her materials


Fallen wings of Icarus, life-sized and can be attached to a person.

Cranes here, threatened by predator snakes


These are all poisonous plants, as in folklore


This linen thread as a drawing



She's a wildly inventive and fearless artist never repeats herself, only accepts commissions that fit what she already does. 

When people start to list what they want in a piece she declines the commission and gives them first refusal on her next piece instead. I find that an elegant approach to inappropriate demands.

She was a welcome soft landing after a tense day getting the exams done and read and the relief of a good verdict. 

I don't know if I can do this again. This is the third false alarm I've had, and at this age I am wondering how I'd handle a sad diagnosis. 

I certainly think radiation and chemo and the accompanying side effects are hardly worth it at my age with my life expectancy. 

I had already told Handsome Son that if it came to that, I'd do the least possible and get pain relief but not look for a cure or even remission. I'll bring it up to my doctor, again, when I see her next month. At this point I even resent the two weeks of worrying about the recall.

Happy day everyone, relief is lovely, and I was cheered by having a dishy Lyft driver home, Muhammad. I favorited him on my report (!)


 Here's the pancakes you may have seen on YouTube sizzling, served with macerated apples and nectarines. Breakfast of Queens.


And, since I'm getting my bathroom renovated a bit, if the contractor artist friend ever comes back to continue, he's taking longer than ever before, but I digress, I decided to ditch my threadbare towels.

Here's the replacements, hand towels and bath towels for both bathrooms, in fact very nice sage and mid green but photographing as grey. 

The old ones are decades old and really ready to be floor cloths. The new ones will go nicely with the peach walls in one bathroom and the pale blue in the other.

And here's the second sighting in over 35 years in this neighborhood of deer. There were twin fawns, still with juvenile coats, and the doe. They let me get close before moving on.  Couldn't catch both fawns at once, so typical of kids, different directions.

It's like herding artists, sez Ted and Big Ursy and Pony and Ursula 





39 comments:

  1. That artist is fabulous! Yay on the good report! Happy day!

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    1. Thank you, it feels pretty good.
      I'm planning to follow her blog now.

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  2. Wings! I love wings! these shown here are amazing. Really good news on the recall test. Past a certain age I wouldn't be taking all those treatments either.

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    1. Isn't she an exciting artist? Yes, I think heroic treatments are for people with a longer life expectancy than mine.

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  3. This work is stunning. I want to learn. Going to see what I can find here.

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    1. Check her website. Her blog celebrates all kinds of makers.

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  4. There will come a time when we might have to make a sad decision. In the meantime, there may be fawns,

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  5. That artist's work is very fine. That last basket with the birds is almost uterine. I love it.
    Such excellent news about the tests! And I'm with you on treatment for a dire diagnosis. I always think that if I got one I'd just go sign up with hospice immediately. "Hello, I'm dying. May I have drugs please?"
    Oh, who knows what we'd really do? But it is definitely something to think about.

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    1. Considering by how much I've outlived my family and peers, It's unlikely I'd live long enough to be worth the stress and misery of cancer treatment. But who knows.

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  6. A Lyft driver named Muhammad sounds good to me.
    A friend who had cancer received intensive treatment followed by about five years remission but when the cancer returned, he simply said he was going back to the deepest hole he could imagine, and chose no treatment. Yes he died, but it was a peaceful and pain free death. I respect his choice and his sense of reality.
    I rather like your new, patterned towels. I might look for similar rather than boring solid colours.
    Ms Eckert is very talented.

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    1. I've known other very old people decide on palliative care only, and thought what an intelligent decision -- continuing with some energy and wellness with their lives, instead of as invalids.
      These are the first patterned towels I've had. or colors other than white. High time.

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  7. Glad your health issue resulted in good news! And oh my, yes, doesn;t Carol Eckert do exquisite work! I will definitely check out her blog. Your new towels look very plush -- enjoy them!

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    1. Check her website for her own work, the blog for general basketry by various makers. She's a find.

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  8. Phew, yay, and happy dance on your behalf!!!! So VERY glad the news was good.
    Your new towels look nice and have reminded me that I really should replace our stiff-as-board versions soon. We can't use fabric softener of any kind (RC is allergic) so it doesn't take long for towels to get stiff. I usually take them to the local humane society who are always happy to get them.
    I enjoyed the latest T&T artist and appreciated her focus on nature.

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    1. Thanks for the dance! The towel replacement is long overdue, considering the state of the old ones. I doubt if even a dog would accept them.

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  9. Happy to hear the good news on the health front.
    Once on the invasive treatment roundabout it's hard to get off - perhaps easier not to get on in the first place.

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    1. Exactly, Sue. The establishment takes over and it takes more energy than a person has, to call a halt.

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  10. I feel like I’ve been away for a long time. Very good news on the test results. I like those towels, as well as the gorgeous work of this artist. It’s wonderful.

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    1. You've been missed while you were attending to your life.

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  11. Wow, that is beautiful art that she makes.

    As for a recurrence of cancer at 88, for me, I would do nothing, but that's me. If Miss Katie was given a dire diagnosis, I would do nothing either because it would impact her present life too much.

    We all have to die and I guess the only thing we have much control over is how we die. I want to die peacefully and with dignity, pain free in my own bed. I also don't want to die until Jack is grown up, but I don't have much control over that either. I just hope and try to stay healthy.

    I worked in cancer care for 14 years and radiation and chemo are hard on people, especially as we age. I also watched friends in their forties and fifties go through radiation and chemo before they died and it was hard. But the most important thing I learned while nursing is that everyone has different beliefs and values, and that deeply impacts a person's choice and I learned to respect that. As my young friend would say, You do you.

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    1. I've seen friends go through cancer treatment and I think the treatment would kill me, if the cancer didn't. But as I'm healthy and have never had it, I'm talking as if. I think treatment is a huge decision that medics tend to rush people into, at least my friends have found that, and once started it seems unstoppable. I don't think it would be my choice.

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  12. That artist has such an amazing variety of beautiful work.
    I'm glad you had a good report and wish you much good health for the years ahead.

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    1. I may have a little discussion with my doctor next month. She tells me she wants another mammogram in six months.

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  13. What a rich post. I'm grateful you had good test results and hope that all continues to go well. I think as we age, we always think about what we would do if something amiss was found, and I suppose it would depend on what it was. But I really understand that decision. Those pancakes look great and so do your new towels!

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    1. There's a point at which the treatment is more rigorous than an old person should be asked to deal with., and I believe I'm at that point! The pancakes were very good, must make more.

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  14. Happy at the good news; glad you don't have any medical Big Decisions in your immediate future. It's definitely worth talking with your doc, especially if she wants to up your mammo schedule to every 6 months.

    Carol Eckert's work is fabulous! You have me thinking about pancakes now. I'm very surprised that deer are a rare sighting in your neighborhood. They seem to thrive in suburban and surprisingly urban areas.

    Chris from Boise

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    1. The deer are rare in this neighborhood though numerous outside of it, because there are three main highways around this section, and they don't usually make it across. A lot of roadkill around though. I think the summer road repairs and closings probably gave them a way in.
      I think I'm going to take a well I'll think about it approach to the mammo recommendation. Translation, I doubt it !

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  15. Carol Eckert certainly seems gifted - using textiles, yarn and embroidery techniques to express her art in original ways. I am glad to learn that The Grim Reaper has taken his scythe elsewhere for now.

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  16. Wow... what a way to create things. Wonderful.

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  17. Glad to hear the good news about your health.

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  18. How wonderful to see fawns.
    glad your test results were good.

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    1. Around here, any deer are a surprise, and twin fawns particularly pretty. They still had those speckled coats developing into the adult solid color. Playful, too, skipping around.

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  19. I'm so glad you're medical report was good. It can be so stressful to go through any number of false alarms.

    Carol Eckert's work is amazing. Makes me look forward to some fiber time as fall garden cleanup and planting wind down.

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    1. Yes, as a weaver you'd appreciate the intricacy of her work.

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