Upcoming art exhibit

 I was invited to send two pieces in for the group exhibit of the Plainsboro Artist Group in October, so I thought you'd like to see.

22x18, watercolor and chalk, Red Orchid 

and 

8x8 Hibiscus, black ink

They will be shown in the gallery you saw in Wednesday's post, which I founded. In fact I founded the artist group over thirty years ago. So they're kindly letting me know I'm not forgotten, really nice considering it's years since I was active with them. 

The current art scene is strong, especially considering the size of the town. 

So for various reasons I accepted and included in the reasons is

Creating means all kinds of creating, gardens, meals, lesson plans, animal care, as well as the arts.

Happy day everyone, keeping well is also resistance.

Cauliflower, Tuesday Knitting Group, Textiles and Tea

Tuesday involved using that cauliflower you saw in the misfits box, and a very nice head it was, good all through. I had decided on a cheese sauce, long time since I made that staple. I used cheddar and feta cheeses, didn't add salt because they're salty, but did use plenty of black pepper.

I really like baking food in glass dishes, and I have several sizes, so it fits.

About six meals here, and I have soup in the freezer full of vegetables, so there's a range. I can make a helping of this cauliflower make a meal on its own. Dessert was yogurt beaten with pumpkin and sweetened.

Then off to the food pantry with sugar, flour, and malt vinegar packets, on the way to the Tuesday knitting group. Small group, no new projects, just a lot of fun with friends. 

Chat ranged over forthcoming wedding with pictures of The Dress, past and present pets, with baby pictures, misfits market, that  supermarket and restaurant app that gets leftover food, dreams about furnishing rooms, meditation, yoga, pilates, AARP, butterflies, groundhogs and more. It was such a relief from the news. 

Here's the view down into the ground floor, from outside the room where we meet. Vertiginous, no? Scroll past quick if it's too much.  

Left is where I sit when I read here,  behind you see the gallery and current painting exhibit, right are the study tables where people often work, between them and the food permitted area is the new book section.

Home after that to Textiles and Tea with Joyce Robards,  a beloved weaving teacher whose own students joined up to sponsor her appearance. 

Her own work is pretty classical in style, and excellent in quality, scarves and yard goods. Mainly she was interested in encouraging people to abandon their fear of difficulty and just plunge in and learn. You could tell she's a great teacher. 

And here's the weaving Center she founded and where she teaches,  in Rochester, NY.

That laugh is typical of her happy approach to life, I think!

Happy day everyone, still waiting on the paper copy of the heat pump info,  which they mailed on the 11th.  Anyway, stay strong, don't cave, we got this.

And keep fit

Howard's End is on the landing, Brideshead redux and toys for boys

Monday morning the cleaners came so I got out of their way.  I had dropoffs for the food pantry about which more later, then pickups at the library, so I stayed there.

When I found that the newer Brideshead Revisited had Emma Thompson playing Lady M, much better casting than the earlier miniseries with Claire Bloom, I decided to borrow it. Monday night at the movies.

The other pickup was 

This inspired piece of writing, which I found out about on Sue from Suffolk's blog, thank you.

It's very engaging and I've already borrowed a couple of her book recommendations for my Kindle. She'd disapprove of this, preferring to be surrounded by actual books and handling them, even ones she's had for years and will definitely read one day.

And convent schooled ladies (!) will recognize this way to hold a book. Never press a thumb into the spine, gels!

Whenever I pick up a book I hear Mother Monica's Irish landowner sharp, loud,  voice.. I daren't hold it any other way.

I used to be in a postgraduate course long ago with a Susan Hill and have often wondered if it's the same one. Turns out not, so it's not six degrees after all. 

Outside the library, in the  square where the fountain is located, they've been digging and tearing all summer and we're finally being let in on what they're up to. The fountain will move but will be there.

All kinds of fun big toys, some for picking up paving looking like hippos biting it and slinging it on a growing heap. There are also humble  spades and rakes, I was surprised to see.

My walk today was around the square, dodging traffic because the sidewalks are gone for now.

Back home I realized that the food pantry can also use condiments and I thought I had a lot of turmeric accidentally over-ordered, and many malt vinegar packets, same reason. 

I did indeed have extras and checked the expiration date on the turmeric. Oh. 2022. I was pretty sure it was more recent. I can still use it, it's vacuum sealed and good quality, but I can't donate it. 

The many little packets of malt vinegar, serving sizes, are fine, and confectioner's sugar. So Tuesday, when I'm on the way to my needlers group, I'll drop them off.  Time flies when you order too much by accident. 

I also have vital wheat gluten, kept frozen, but I can't donate it, it's also well past the date.  I may add in whole wheat flour, though, which is definitely good.

Happy day everyone, some of us are a little past our expiration date but who's counting.

Not I, sez Flufferina

Wildlife and other important items

On a Sunday walk to the pond I encountered late blooming beds of yellow sorrel, the short stemmed kind, not the sprawling version on my patio. Small brown butterflies all over it 

On the way home there was a group of young golfers, pretty good driving, from the sound of things. They looked maybe nine or ten years old, with some talent there.

If you're still stressing, here's an idea 

On the third day of visualizing, I'm noting that each session has new and different scenes and events, but wild animals being friendly seem to recur. No beavers eating cabbage though.

I'm about to study the heat pump information and make a decision, so I think I'll need all the above.

Happy day everyone, find something that helps. There's probably something, sez Ted and Big Ursy 

While acknowledging the hard, sad, also true things 

Warrior? maybe.

 I have questions

Do I need armor and a sword to avoid falling? Judging from my days with Carol Cane, the sword would trip me anyway.

Anyway, warrior or not,  I've resumed my meditation practice. I thought you might like to know which one I like. 

I followed a meditation reintroduction presented online for 9.11, to help get through the day. The leader's approach was a good reminder of the general practice, but the approach I like is the visualization kind.

I expect someone taught me this years ago, and now I'm returning to it. My version is to close my eyes and visualize a long hallway with closed doors on each side. I open any door and see what lies outside of it. I just let my mind provide images and follow where they go. I find it very calming and a happy process. 

Yesterday I was surprised when I opened a door and  found it opened to another hall of doors! So I tried again, opened one of the new doors,  and was in an outdoor scene, a clearing in a forest,  with animals greeting me, a deer, a cheetah, and in the distance was a little boy sitting under a tree, eating at a small table. 

It's a very nice adventure, and you do need to be able to visualize,  which not everyone can. If you can, maybe try it. I find it brings my heart rate down to a steady slower pace, probably good.

Saturday's garden exertion was about raking out dead foliage where the patio will be, and incidentally finding more river stones which have been buried over the years. 

While recovering,  I listened to a Shedunnit podcast about poison in crime fiction, while I did a visible darn in a favorite pair of socks. Rose, I think you'll recognize the original yarn. I love these socks and I've repaired them several times to lengthen their life.

Visible darning is meant to show up, a decorative departure from the old fashioned invisible darning precious to our foremoms.

There was another sock waiting for a long time, with a bigger repair needed. I fancied trying a crochet approach to this one though.

I did this and though it looks a bit bumpy, it's very comfortable, like a cushion under the heel. 

Before, the heel was completely gone, so I kind of reconstructed the shape. I picked up all the live stitches I could, and crocheted around a pretty massive gap, drawing it in as I went, until it was filled in. 

I forgot to show you the wreckage I started from.  I like this crocheting idea and I'll probably do it better in future. You go to darning with the skills you have.

And while my supper potatoes were roasting I did a twenty minute workout with resistance bands. I stepped up from green to blue this time, a bit more resistance.

Happy day everyone, let "good enough" reign!

First soup of the season

 

Leek, potato, tomato, chickpeas, chicken broth. Seasoned with sea salt, basil salt, long red pepper, smoked paprika.

Six more meals to come.  It's not very cold yet but I thought I could handle a bowl of soup.

I finally wrestled a huge container of lemon balm out of its place on the patio and emptied it. I have to put away the pot and dump the contents. I had thought I'd contain it in this pot because it's invasive. 

What happened was that I gave it an hq from which it sent out tendrils everywhere. So I'm trying to get rid of the main supply. 

It's a relative of mint, so you can see what this means. Now, the peppermint and spearmint I'd like doesn't do well at all. I'm nursing along a little pot of peppermint now and the spearmint has vanished. 

I'll never lack lemon balm though. Tiny plants everywhere.  And it's certainly resistance exercise to drag that massive thing over and empty it.

Happy day everyone, my Wi-Fi is very dodgy today, constantly going out, so I'm writing as I can.