Frozen ponds, goalies and holly

Sunday's walk to the pond yielded the first freeze of the year, the pond iced over, resting 

And I remembered scissors so I was able to cut a couple of holly branches, the only greens I can bring in 

After I'd spotted the concrete rabbit, now very hard of hearing, trying out for goalie.

With a cheering or jeering section squirrel criticizing his form 

From a safe distance. The squirrels are manic just now, leaping around, mating rapidly between scarfing berries and seeds, nature in action.

Now that I've exhausted the Ruth Galloways currently available, I've retreated to Tudor times and Alison Weir, with Jane Seymour.

This is not as far fetched as it seems, my people still fighting the Reformation. Still loudly reminding everyone that those cathedrals were ours, and we took care of them without GoFundMes. 

I perfectly understand the mentality of people still arguing the outcome of the Civil War.

Happy day everyone, remember to take your hobbyhorse out for a trot around the paddock. What's your ride or die hill to die on, to scramble a couple of metaphors?

Ted and Big Ursy have a few of them 

Still my flag, a whole class of hobbyhorse.

 

Duluth trading, and food, surprise, Knitting Group and books

Friday's mail included this little order from Duluth trading, their spring sale. I'd noticed a couple of people who like their clothes to last, like this company, so I gave them a try. Perfectly fittting underwear, funny designs and altogether fine.  

I ordered a couple more, now that I know they fit, and here's what came today.

These guys are funny. And if anyone knows, what color is LBK? Lubbock? It's a kind of dusty pink.

I made a wildly healthy lunch, stir fried dandelion greens and little shrimp, with whole wheat curly pasta. Some for tomorrow, too.

The shrimp and greens were happy together, and I forgot to take a picture of the plate I set up. 

Friday Knitting Group was great, no pictures because all the interest was in the chat. All kinds of pets, from rats to birds to ferrets to cats to dogs, art events, freestyle crochet, playing piano, guitar, voice, improv, respite care and the weather. Our youngest participant brought his girlfriend, a wildly interesting young woman, talented and funny. Time flew.

My current reading is a variety, the 1619 Project still going, more of the Housekeeper and the Professor, and now with Elizabeth of York by Alison Weir added in

I love Weir's scholarship as well as her narrative strength, and this subject is a pivotal figure, bridging  Plantagenets and Tudors.

And a cozy mystery new to me, recommended by, I think Northern Reader in her blog

she's put me onto some enjoyable writers before, so this might be a good Saturday afternoon read.

I appear to have ruined the weather by making my summer skirt and pocket. It's back to late winter, kids out in puffy jackets.  Plenty of reading required this weekend.

And here's a great poem from my 365 book. A number of blogistas are rusty machinery aficionadas, this is specially for them, but everyone's invited.

Happy day, everyone, I hope you find interesting company this weekend. Which may be yourself, me too,  fine too. 

And exhaling now that the SOTH has finally brought the Ukraine funding bill to the floor where it passed easily. Now Senate, then POTUS and we can finally hold our heads up again. Slava Ukraini!

Plans for rain, and thoughts of bills

 Since this is in our immediate future

I'll be occupied indoors, with the second one of these, which I cast on at the knitting group

And the biography of Mary Boleyn. 

It's a name that has many spellings and historians have settled on the version that Anne, the most famous of them, and Mary's younger sister, used.

My high school principal, an unreconstructed old fogy with a brilliant history degree from a  prestigious uni, always referred to her as Nan Bullen, insisting it was the usage of her time! 

Meanwhile Handsome Son continues his  free cycling by proxy -- he brings his declutterings here, and I free cycle. 

Quite a bit of this box is usable food, so that's in my kitchen. And other items are leaving here and there via freecycle. I'm happy to help, because he's  struggling to overcome his packrat tendency, so he does this on his time at his pace and I encourage by helping. 

Yesterday's discussion about bill paying reminded me of a convo a while back with an affluent friend whose brother was hopeless with money and in trouble with arrears on his mortgage. She said "We could easily afford to help him but if we give him the mortgage money, he'll certainly spend it elsewhere on an impulse." 

I could see the issue there and suggested they direct funds straight to the mortgage holder, whereupon she tells me "You don't understand about mortgages. Only the person whose name they're in can pay them."  Which I seriously doubted, since why a mortgage company would even care, or notice, if it comes to that, is unlikely. 

But it's a fixed assumption. It doesn't account for little pieds a terre in St. John's Wood (London) beloved of gentlemen who put them in their mistress's name for secrecy reasons, but paid for them!  She wasn't familiar with that kind of maneuver, being a sheltered lady herself, and not much of a reader of the novels where these characters appeared, as well as in real life.

Moving on, have a good day, everyone, pay your bills, if you just can't find someone willing to do it. Mine has never shown up, so I guess it's not going to happen! Sigh.

Joking aside, I'm fine with being an independent old lady with no partner needing my energy. It's so much easier to just take care of the Great Me! My mother used to comment on how  the widows of her acquaintance, out of long old-style marriages, centered on the husband's wants,  suddenly looked younger and stronger, as she would say "Fit and fresh!"  And ready to frolic!

Speaking of such husbands, did you get the puzzle?

KILLJOY!

:)

Katheryn Howard, Izzies and cake!

 Yesterday brought a gift from a lovely lady, so welcome. Fruitcake! I love fruitcake, and anyone who doesn't perhaps hasn't had  good fruitcake.

At its best eaten Yorkshire-style, with good cheese, here cheddar. And since it's full of nutritious fruit and nuts, it's also breakfast food. Around here, anyway. Thank you!

It's keeping up my strength to knit Izzies, see the first finished of this group, with more to come.

One of the things I like about this is that after you stuff the doll,  you sculpt the shape with needle and thread, and transform it into a little person, hands in pockets. The intended recipients, Friends of Pine Ridge Reservation, have seen this picture and are happy with the proposed dolls.

When I'm not knitting along to Click and Clack, I'm reading another Weir, another doomed Queen

I like the settings Weir describes, how they got around, on horseback or in a litter, so slow, what they wore, the food, and  the whole period ambience, especially the fear, of the King's power and illness against which they had few protections. And they were all so young, marrying in their early teens, grandparents by their thirties  sometimes. It's a gripping world to enter.

Happy day,  everyone, misfits arrives later today with ordinary food, no fruitcake, but I'm already supplied.

Misfits and a Shilling for Candles

Yesterday's misfits included a wild extravaganza of berries -- out of season raspberries and the usual blueberries. The raspberries are wonderful with good honey and homemade yogurt 

I always marvel at the beauty of brown eggs, and these are so fresh, they rest right at the bottom of the pot when you boil them. I often have a boiled egg and whole grain toast for tea. Or pita bread filled with spinach and egg salad.

And the cranberries are already sauce. I make this very simply, berries, sugar and lemon juice.

And I've been serving it for years in the glass container my sister gave me many years ago, one of the few things she gave me, and treasured accordingly.

While I knit, I've been listening to this old, a bit dated, but still good, Tey. I like all her work, particularly Daughter of Time, which rehabilitated Richard III using actual research, not the wildly inaccurate pop version by Shakespeare.

 

And when I need to read words, because I can't knit endlessly, poor me, I'm doing a weird alternation on Kindle between the Jane Seymour book by Alison Weir and Crampton Hodnet by Barbara Pym. 

The second one is an in-joke, Crampton being part of Pym's family name. And it's one of the best of her novels, with marvelous comic scenes, very movie-like. The Weir, with its social rules and expectations in dress, deportment and food references, has a lot more in common than you might think, with the humor absent. Also no violent death in Pym. At least not physical death. Social death is another issue.

A lot of interesting observations on friendship and falling lately,  thank you all. I learn from you all the time.

Happy day, everyone, I'm off to throw the Thanksgiving red cloth over the incomplete puzzle on the table, then set it up, but simply this year. Tomorrow we celebrate, on Handsome Son's day off.

In Thursday I'll be alone, neighbors mostly away to relatives for the week, but I'll be taking part in Spoutible online high jinks for other people alone on the day.  Or maybe medium jinks, we'll see. It's all good.

More winnowing, friendships

In the  course of looking for other things, I came across more winnowing fodder -- fabrics. This includes the rest of those donated sheets I didn't use because they're mauve, which I don't like, though I did make skirts and a robe from the rest, and a bunch of sari and other fabrics, some with bling,  left over from projects.

Due to be picked up today. I hope it works out for this taker, because earlier their schedule fell apart and they missed the art bag, but were very courteous about keeping me informed.

I'm trying to be realistic about how much I can use these days and what  items can go to better hands. It's not easy, to be honest. It's not about the stuff, it's about saying goodbye to the plans for it. Well, that's why parting with things is hard, not exactly breaking news. It's easier when it goes to nice people.

And having finished all my other reading, I'm now kindling this

I do like Weir's narrative style, and I think her historical settings are pretty accurate. Seymour's the Queen who died after giving birth, just to situate her in the Henry story. 

It's possible that kindling is why I'm not getting on with stitching, hence the freecycled fabric remnants..

I've been thinking about kinds of friendship lately, largely because a rl friend is going through some sad times with family illness, and experiencing some of what I did in a similar situations.

There are people who will drop you, heck, Andy's nurses used to tell me of partners who were abandoned when they got sick, but even friends might do that. They can't handle it even at second hand. 

Then there are people who hang in, very kind and helpful. Then when things start to look up for you, they go away. They're better equipped at having the upper hand, I think, and don't know how to navigate a more even relationship. 

And there are what I call activity friends, who want to share a group or activity, but not want any contact outside of it. 

All this is just part of the tapestry of life, nothing bad about it. But it took me so long to grasp this, that I've been disappointed quite a bit,  expecting to buy eggs at the hardware store, so to speak.

I do think it's a mistake to think your real friends are the people who support you in hard times. I think your real friends are those who are supportive and happy for you when things are going well. That's not easy, considering how fast envy can get into the picture.

Anyway, a few musing thoughts, and I'd welcome yours, too. I learn a lot from your comments, thank you.

Happy day, everyone, oh, I just found out we're doing Thanksgiving on Wednesday next week, Handsome Son's day off. He usually works Thanksgiving. This is the nearest we've come in recent years to the official day.

So enjoy your day, even if it's not on the national schedule.

Leaves in progress, Misfits quirks, and soup

 I've been on an Alison Weir trip, with this rather dry history

and this much more lively historical novel same characters

Between shopping in the freezer and making soup.

I used up a couple of quarts of homemade vegetable stock, plus the cooked butternut squash and most of the carrots from the freezer to make this. Since the weather had dropped to the 80s f. I rationalized that it was soup weather. 

It's a favorite meal, with pita bread toasted with sharp cheddar, as seen here. 

And the wall hanging is starting to take shape, here with a couple of blocks tentatively in place

 

current blocks close up, top left in progress

I love working on one block at a time, completely engrossed in the intricacy of it, working in hand. You can see the size from the measurements on the cutting block they're resting on.

The little open work yellow leaf on the blue leaf is the same one as the orange insert under the yellow leaf, just cut with more detail.

I do like modular, in art and gardening. You get to continue designing as you go, many chances to change and reorganize. I've made some big artworks consisting of small components.

My gardening is similar -- containers beat planting in the ground for me. I do both, but I know which I prefer.

I notice a new Misfits quirk. It used to pay to order as soon as the window opened, because they would sell out so quickly. So I'm in the habit of checking in promptly. 

But now I'm finding most produce  labeled sold out even before I get started, within minutes. This week the entire fruit section was sold out. Nothing to buy. So I started my list anyway. The window is open for a couple of days before they close it and charge you. Then I had an idea, went back in later. The whole fruit department was now stocked.

I think whoever opens the window is faster than whoever stocks the shelves! It's like unlocking the shop door while they're still running items onto the floor. 

I had a similar situation years ago, when people still did bank operations manually. Every check I wrote one month on our local country bank, into which my husband's salary was deposited, was bounced.  Written a  full day after the deposit. 

I hared in and demanded the manager explain and grovel. He explained that the lady in charge of bouncing checks was faster than the lady in charge of posting deposits! 

I made him write and sign a handful of letters  explaining their blunder, for all the people now charging us for nonpayment, and swallow the fees for me.  He did all this but was noncommittal about my suggestion he switch the ladies over to avoid this kind of snafu.

Misfits is simpler, just wait  a day!

And if there's anyone still wondering about the dad riddle, well, if he had a  widow he'd be dead! So it's unlikely he'd marry her sister. Many times people start up figuring the degree of  relationship, the law etc., reading widow as wife!  Not our sharp blogistas, nooo.

And justice continues to roll down on tfg. Georgia is the most likely to be crushing. He can't get out of state charges even if, God forbid, he gets reelected. Between the New York, the Florida, the DC and now Georgia charges and indictments, the walls,  I pray, are finally closing in on him and his gang.

Happy day everyone! Continue to take care, covid is still around, though not in the news.