Painting a bit, Talking Heads and Boots Ahoy

Yesterday I took advantage of the new organizer, and lifted out the entire drawer of watercolor supplies. This works a lot better than assembling things every time.

Just messed about and had a lovely pointless time.  All the things available and I used very few. 

Finished crocheting the Boots. The pink yarn lasted till literally the last stitch. Then this morning I did the finishing and fitting.

And Pink Rabbit is back upstairs, booted. Here's Boots the Upstairs Bear admiring the summer icecream boots in action.

The Boot Crochet Shop is now closed before anyone else hears about it.

I watched the Thora Hird monologue from the Talking Heads series. It's confusing that the name is the same as the David Byrne group and I wonder who got there first. I'm guessing Bennett, since it dates way back to the days of Beyond the Fringe. 

It might account for the dislikes registered, probably people who expected Byrne and are confounded to find it's old Northern actors in brilliant form. 

I plan to watch more. They're difficult because so tragic, with funny sparks, but they're so well done. 

Happy day everyone. Mine has been less dramatic than this alert might indicate 

I live right in the middle of the red bit. No need to water today. I also got a phone alert. There's no standing water as of now, though we got a big downpour.

Ice cream boots and Alan Bennett

Too hot to be out much today other than watering flowers, and recycling, so I did exciting laundry and dishes, glad I'd got out walking recently. 

Today's about boots for Pink Rabbit, approved by her and in ice cream colors. Summer boots. Resistance boots.

Who knew I'd come to this? My hands are holding up pretty well to crochet and I'm needing to weave again. The warp weighted loom is on hold till cooler weather, another heatwave being promised next week.

Before the heatwave arrives,  Handsome Son is driving me to the dentist to complete the coronation.

 Then, while we're in the neighborhood, we're taking a trip we've been meaning to take for about a year, to the thriftie. I must remember to get cash ahead. I don't actually need anything other than a bigger teapot, but you never know.

The flowers are doing well but the split leaf isn't. I've now pushed it under the shade of the butterfly bush, because it's looking sun burned though I thought it was in shade. I may have to do some heavy pruning, but not till the weather cools.

Meanwhile the perennial black eyed susans are getting on fine with the visiting coleus, there's a meaning there.

The susans were rescues when a neighbor left, before the new owner finished ripping out the flowers to make the walkway neat. They're pretty robust, to have survived that,  and living with aggressive pachysandra. 

And the coleus is a descendant of a packet of seeds several years ago which has supplied several gardens and neighbors with plants. I think they're related to the mint family. Judging by their will to live, I'd say it's likely. Also that there's not much repeat business in coleus seeds.

This afternoon I found Alan Bennett monologues on YouTube, wonderful acting, do check.

I'm in search of more, because the acting is superb.

Thank you to the loyal blogistas who signed up and even show up at Boud's Glimpses. It's so cool, a new adventure using the tech equivalent of two cans and a piece of string. 

But I usually like the most primitive way of doing anything, why should this be different.

Happy day everyone, keep cool or warm as needed. But better take advice from someone who's not knitting boots for rabbits. I mean, people, who are you going to trust?

 We got this. Nineteen states, now including mine,  have now won their case against the feds suing to get voter information. 

States 19, feds 0.

And there's so many more victories that you won't see in the oligarch media.  Spirits up!

 

Good news, Lammas, and white rabbits

In case you want to know!

YouTube channel 

August is here. White rabbits 

It's Lammas, loaf Mass, celebrating the grain harvest, so my breakfast was a slice of wheat bread with home-made strawberry jam. Lammas acknowledged.

Here's the good news from NJ 

This is from my MOC Bonnie Watson Coleman's latest newsletter. John would be proud.

I made it to the pond this morning and created a couple of videos but did remember a still, and a selfie at the pond, proof of life, for blogistas.

This is the hat I made a while back, and I painted the shirt back when I was in my T-shirt painting period. It's my Aged International Spy outfit.

I spied fungi 

Meanwhile, Pink Rabbit, spurred on by certain blogistas and the appearance above of a white rabbit, hopped downstairs to press her claim on a pair of boots.  Ready to get all dramatic, see the Kleenex all ready to go.

She was rescued from a dumpster a while ago by Handsome Son who didn't want her but thought it was awful to toss a loved bunny. 

So I laundered and brushed and generally rehabbed her, and presented her with the bandana she demanded as soon as she looked presentable.

Now it's boots. I'm expecting picketing and Unfair to Pink Rabbit signs any minute.

Happy day everyone, do silly stuff, it's good for your head. Sez Ted and Big Ursy and Pony and Ursula.

Because 

 

A day packed with minutes

Today I felt tired but still, oddly, did a lot. I was out very early making videos after the overnight downpour left everything covered in diamonds.

Later I walked but not very far 

Then food safety -- strawberry jam 

I've been in touch with Misfits Market, who assured me that NONE of the cyclo suspect foods ever got into Misfits, that Taylor Farms had removed the suspect lettuces anyway, and that they were on top of it, all that. They talked me off the ledge. But I'm not taking any chances just yet.

 I macerated and simmered all these beautiful organic peaches and plums 

Custom grated fresh nutmeg to add in, that wonderful smell reminds me of my mom making egg custard, always grated nutmeg fresh over it.

While that was happening I took all the July drawings and paintings and assembled them into a book. Here's the Book of July 2026.

Front cover 

Back cover

Standing up. Since the left hand pages, the backs of the work, are blank I may write in them. TBD.

And while I was being busy outside, I noted that the morning glory is finally underway.

This is a good proof of concept, because I just let it self seed last year and since it's flowering it will seed again, so I think it's getting established.

While I was admiring flowers I picked a new bunch, I mean bouquet, posh 

And I organized the workbasket under the coffee table which has TBD items, and finally stitched up the front of the slippers I made months ago. 

They only needed a few stitches at the opening to tighten them up a bit. It took five minutes including finding the needle and matching the yarn.

Boots the upstairs bear, approved 

However his sidekick Pink Rabbit is looking at me a bit sideways, and evidently campaigning for boots, too.  Hm.

About the short videos. This is really new art direction for me now that I've managed to get my meager devices sitting up and taking names. 

Like all art, a video is not a picture of something nor a story about something. It's an experience, which has an arc -- a beginning, a middle, and an end. In this case it's movement within a short time frame, 20-30 seconds max. 

This all sounds a bit highfalutin, but bear with me, it's my jam. With each video I'm looking right now for either a dramatic beginning, as in the hibiscus one, or end, where the thing is in your face. As in the butterfly, and the maple foliage. 

And as I explore more, not the boring tech, the actual potential of this limited visual experience, I'll see where I get. 

What I'm doing is inviting people to just look. Breathe, look. If 20 seconds sounds short to you, it's a heck of a lot longer than people usually pay attention at one time. It's more than the glance we often give.

I don't want to distract with music, maybe once in a while I'll say the title, I'll see.  And the art of presenting it will either succeed in holding attention or not. 

Meanwhile it's compensating me for the demise of knitting, so there's that.

Happy day everyone, do all the things. Or delegate them, if you can.

Fauci, podcast and Misfits

Just to support a public health hero 

IYKYK

And a nice new podcast I just came across, from Alexander McCall Smith 

This is so calming and a great antidote to current daily life.

Also Misfits came, right van but not pink.

A couple of items were out of stock, no yogurt, shock, horror!  But it's still a good box.

Peaches, plums, strawberries to cook, the strawberries probably as jam or sauce.  

All the cheese you need for great quiches and pastas, carrots for roasting and to go with the potatoes and chicken I roasted earlier this morning 

With shawarma spice mix 

Bread because it's still too hot to bake regular bread. Bananas for breakfast, and plant based beef stuff, a new try for me.

I'm still having fun with my mini videos, which will form a kind of local nature journal. They're a separate adventure from blogging, but while we're talking nature, the patio zinnias are getting under way, and a fresh crop of daisies.  

The wandering dude is summering under the self planted butterfly bush.  The bush has already grown about six feet this season, and much straighter since I pruned it heavily at the front in spring.  It's not leaning over between the chairs now.

Happy day everyone, life's good.  And I sent a little donation to ActBlue to support their Run for Something program, funding new Democratic candidates for office. No more letting GOP run unopposed.