Sunday morning encounter and other good things

I was out walking early this morning, catching the cool, and met a lovely baby being carried by her grandfather. I spoke to her and she studied my face complete with sunglasses. Then she turned and looked up at the sky. 

This was a smart baby -- she'd seen the clouds reflected in my glasses and realized it was the sky!  Her grandfather was talking to her in Chinese encouraging her to say hi, I think. She gave me a tiny baby wave. Awwwww.  

Then I did some really undemanding braiding while I watched Atomic shrimp hiking down a Cornish cliff with wife Jenny and dog Eva. 

We had thunderstorms last night with downpours, and today the earth's scarcely damp, so it must have been thirsty. No need to water my seedlings today. There's a lot of small foliage down but I didn't see any trees down.

And here's the daylilies budding up ready for their midJune flowering.

Gary's magnolia is in bloom, no scent though 

On Cs suggestion I've borrowed Mona's Eyes, a kind of novelish art history book. I've hardly started yet, but the gist is a grandfather in Paris taking his young granddaughter around art museums to experience many classic artworks before she may lose her vision. 

It's a bestseller and got a terrible review in The Guardian. So terrible I think there's a personal beef there. So I'll read it and decide for myself.

Happy day everyone, let's not allow journos to make up our minds for us. On any topic. Today's column is tomorrow's fish and chip wrapping.

Every day please, every month not just 

 Pride Month 

Scarfing along with Atomic Shrimp

This morning I'm into the next bit of the scarf production.

I had some yarn left from the main section so when I started on the two outer parts, I carried it along.  There was enough to cast on and knit one row on each part. 

You'll see how I left a length between needles, like a weaver working further down the warp. Using up the first yarn is planted to unify the middle and outer sections. Then the outer edges will be the same as the center section.

Then I cut off the excess once I started on the second yarn, and knitted in the ends as I went. Less finishing at the end. 

This second merino and silk yarn is lovely to handle, very kind to the knitter's hands.

Once launched, the trick is to avoid picking up the wrong yarn. It's really two projects moving in parallel on the same needle. I like this approach.

Back when I knitted sweaters when we made them in modular form, like dressmaking, I used to knit both sleeves at once, to keep them evenly shaped and to avoid second sleeve lethargy. That's the early version of second sock syndrome.

While I was doing this, I had Atomic Shrimp going on YouTube,one of his lengthy beach walk and picnic outings. It's the one at the top of the video thumbnails,

He's a funny man, very entertaining and enterprising, always exploring and discovering and cooking and learning crafts. He's a knowledgeable naturalist too.  

He's based in, I think, Dorset, he moved recently, somewhere in the south west peninsula of the UK. No, he doesn't know I'm doing this, in case you wondered. I just like to offer interesting channels and websites to anyone who would enjoy them.

Happy day everyone, today's lunch is a rerun of yesterday's.  Groundlunch Day.

Gardening with an assist

A bit more planting today. I managed to grabstick the container into place without bending far. Wildflowers just scattered to take their chances, and zinnias in the pot, with squirrel deterrent installed.

I discovered another bag of potting soil in the process, good.  More planting when I recover.  This is definitely piecemeal gardening, but I'm glad to be able to. 

Back in March, when I got the seeds, I hoped I'd be able to do this by late May, and I'm a bit ahead of that hope, yay me!

I walked earlier, carrying but not using Carol Cane, and admired neighboring plantings. A bit wet, after all the rain, for much walking on the grass, though I did some, and got wet feet, shoes now drying out.

Down the street, my neighbor's area is just booming 

Happy day everyone! Doing just a little bit is happier than not getting to it at all.

Now for reading, plenty of good books loaded and ready. And maybe I'll watch the latest Atomic shrimp on YouTube. 

He makes the most ordinary things interesting to follow.  Who knew I'd enjoy an entire video on can openers?  Today he's setting up a small irrigation system in his yard. It's a must watch!

 

Visible Darning and Punching With Angry Eyes

Yesterday more visible mending, the handspun and knitted house socks becoming more darn than sock. I always get out the darning egg, usually find it's too small and end up using my eyeglass case.

While I worked I watched a Ash YouTube weaving episode where they 3D printed their own heddle! To create a commissioned medieval reproduction piece. Ash is a hugely entertaining YouTuber, very much recommended. Makes costume for cosplay LARPS,  social commentary, an every-fiber-art expert, just worth following

and then on to Atomic Shrimp, here cooking items he's foraged. Another channel worth your time, endlessly interested in nature, foraging, cooking, creating items, with a nice little dog, Eva, who takes part in practically everything. And a patient and encouraging wife.

and here's the completed socks ready for wearing again.

I revived my qi gong practice, Eight Pieces of Silk, eight exercises with names like Holding up Heaven with Both Hands, Pulling the Bow, and Punching With Angry Eyes. I like the punching one, great stress reducer for the solar plexus. And you can ki-yip  on that one, that sort of scream that gathers your strength, the kind weight lifters do. 

Happy day, everyone, enjoy screaming and punching if that's where you are today.

Exercise, manly work and the pursuit of happiness, also gloves

 While I was waiting for tea to heat this morning in the microwave, I did, as I often do, a bit of exercise. Today it was my close as I can get to a Tree Pose. 

That's the one where you balance on one leg, one foot resting on other thigh, or calf for me,  hands high over head. 

Very calming, terrific for maintaining balance in an aging bod. I alternate legs. No use having one stronger than the other, probably find myself walking in circles. 

Also, in my case, exercise is onan endless possible source of entertainment among passersby, since my kitchen window faces the street and I always have the curtains open.  I often do poses and stretches and shoulder flexing in the couple of minutes while the microwave hums. Micro exercise.

Meanwhile back in the yarn department, I've started to knit a pair of gloves for me.  After 20+ pairs of socks and half a dozen pairs of gloves for the Sock and Glove Ministry, over the last year, I think it's okay. 

I decided to use two strands of this lovely stuff

And, since this makes a finer yarn than the previous three strands I was using, I did a test knit then tried on.

 It slipped nicely over my hand, fits my wrist, so we're off.

While I knitted, I watched Atomic Shrimp on YouTube. He's an endlessly curious and enterprising and happy man, full of ideas. 

Today it's collecting seaweed and bringing it home to his garden, then doing some seed prep. He's planting pennywort in the crevices of his old garden walls while I knit along.

On the subject of knitting and anyone can knit, men too, I was in school with a family of five sisters, whose father was a merchant seaman 

He would be away at sea for months. Then when he came home, one sister would be wearing a new knitted dress.  He did a dress on each stint at sea, so everyone got her turn. 

They were beautiful, fine knitting, flared with knitted-in godets and lovely narrow  lacework each side of the godets. 

A godet, for them as don't know, is a triangular area created to make a fitted bodice flare out in the skirt. 

In dress making, they're inserted into the main skirt, but a skilled knitter can incorporate them while creating the skirt.

Always the right size and length for whichever sister was up for a dress. I think it kept him close to his family while he was away. I've never forgotten his expertise. A lot of long voyage sailors knit and do knotwork, too 

Then, back in the yarn dept, the sun came out, the wind dropped a bit, and I got my act together and went walking 

Here's Handsome Partner's daffodils starting. 

They're all over this local patch of woodland. After 9.11, he wanted to make a memorial that would improve our little bit of the world, so he bought a sack of mixed daffodils to plant.

At that time he was already losing mobility, could walk with Handsome Son and me, but couldn't dig. He pointed, we dug. We let him know this was a labor saving way to garden, for him! 

And they've come up and spread, year after year, some picked by people who didn't know they weren't for picking, some dug up and stolen by people who know better, but wherever they are, they'll still bloom and be meaningful. It's always good to survive another winter and see them.

When Handsome Partner died, I planted daffodils in his memory, in 2011, and the ones in my garden are for him. Quite a few friends did likewise, and I'd get updates from a couple of them in spring.

And here are the Stella d'Oro daylilies I started in the trees from my divisions.

Today's winnowing is about fabric, I think. Not yet done, but will be.

So that's where we are, and I found a great reminder on Richard Rohr's newsletter this morning. 

I thought you'd like to see it. Whenever I manage to remember it, my day improves. Disregard the first word, which belongs to a sentence saying much the same thing as our excerpt.

Happy day everyone, enjoy the exact moment you read this word!

Atomic Shrimp

I've been having a good time distracting myself from current life stuff by discovering Atomic Shrimp's YouTube channel.

He's a man with many interests, and great curiosity. I love his approach, all about how will this work? Let's find out. He's open to additional information and advice from commenters, too.

He's seriously good at the various adventures he undertakes, from foraging for wild food

And teaching people how to do it safely

To mudlarking, he lives in the south of England where there's local tidal waters

To creating things like an Audubon style bird call from scratch, where he gives a blow by blow of the molding method he used to create the decorative pewter bird and how he carved and drilled the wood base.

First creating his own wax carving tools

And creating this bird, using the wax casing, this cracked me up, from a couple of baby cheeses, after eating the cheese!

Then the molding process where he retrieved the molded bird  for another use.

He used a silicone compound to pour into the mold.

And he cooks interestingly, very inventive and experimental in his methods

He does shared cooking projects with an African friend

He tests milk heat by how long his finger can stay! As in one two three ouch.

Then he goes to just study nature and enjoy things like this enormous fig tree in a botanical garden on the isle of Wight, probably the most mild climate in the UK.

This  channel is where I found out about pineapple weed, among a lot of other plant information.

He's just an enjoyable, friendly, low key person, just right for me today, when my neighbor texted me to say my car window was open. 

Unknown to me, been like that I think since Thursday. Major rainstorm. 

This has happened a couple of times, a rear window has opened that I didn't know about.  I guess some towel work will be needed, sigh. Once it stops snowing.

And a couple of other things, too boring to go into. Oh well.

I'm baking a tea loaf today, with any luck, and maybe handsome Son will visit. 

Meanwhile I'm warming up my laptop to get tax forms downloaded and printed and it's not having it. Everything needs to be updated, it's been a while. The good news is that it did fire up. As did the printer. 

So there's that. I'll let you know about the tealoaf.