I did all the things

I put together some exciting little packages for blogistas, to mail out on Monday.  No pictures. Classified.

Then, since I'm going to the post office anyway with them, I finished off the second glove for the Sock and Glove Ministry, to send at the same time.

Two pairs of gloves, one of socks. I think my next socks will be spiral ones for a change.

Then Gary came over with a request, which we'd talked about a few days ago.

This is a Japanese silk window sail I made for him, he tells me ten years ago, which hangs in his loft skylight window and moves gently when there's a breeze.  It's held in place by tension rods. He'd seen this one I made for my own similar window, 

and admired it until I took the hint and made one for him. 

His is wearing out a bit at the rod, so I'm going to do a repair on it. It's a lovely piece of fabric. My own is just an upcycled pillow case. 

So that will happen. And, speaking of critter deterrents,  I'm trying yet another approach to fighting the ants on the kitchen counters. None at the baseboards, so they must be in the wall. Everyone has them. These are so small they can get into screw cap jars, just climbing in the threads.

The latest WMD is equal parts borax, baking soda and confectioners sugar, in a shallow container, some artfully spilled, to attract them. I notice a lot fewer ants on the counter this morning, so I'm hopeful.  I'm certainly tired of sharing my own food with them.

On a cheerier subject, in response to various messages I've had about the construction of the slot and tab fabric book, I deconstructed mine to show you 

Here's the constructed book with the pages temporarily numbered with masking tape and marker, showing you the usual page sequence.

Then I took the book apart, and now you see how the numbers work before you construct it.

One side 

Other side 

Done this way you can slide the pages together into the right sequence. It's a kind of Chinese puzzle of a project. This is why I referred you to Ann Wood's website, where she gives you number diagrams and a step by step of the construction sequence. 

You need them if there's a sequence to your stitched pages, such as seasons, or some such progression. Mine didn't have that kind of logical progression, aside from deciding which pages I wanted for front and back covers.

And yes, I did get it reassembled after the pictures!  Some people try this out with blank fabric pages before getting into all the stitching it entails. 

My current stitched book might become a tab and slot, or maybe an accordion. We'll see.

When Elizabeth of York gets a bit heavy -- oh, Weir doesn't accept the Josephine Tey version of Richard III's innocence of the Princes in the Tower disappearance. As laid out in Daughter of Time, which is worth reading if you haven't yet.

Tey discounts Thomas More  as using third hand gossip to accuse Richard. Weir clearly accepts More, and has staked her credibility on Richard's guilt. A lot of writers and academics have. They have a lot to lose by backing down. And Weir gets very defensive on the subject, aha!

Where was I? Oh yes, when it gets heavy going, I've started on this, another Dinner Ladies adventure.

Happy day, everyone, no need to do all the things. Some is fine. None is okay too.

Freecycling and the circle of life

The art I've been free cycling is part of my end of life planning, as you probably observed, seeing the winnowing around here to make it easier for Handsome Son after I die. The art falls into a different category, though, since free cycling is a way of getting good original art into new homes. 

The latest round went to the same person who took the last group, and we had a great exchange about it. Here are the pieces, from my black gesso, handmade paper and copper wire period.

it's a series of faces, where you can change the narrative by hanging them differently. Here it goes from realistic to abstract. Hung in reverse order, it brings the realistic out of the abstract. 

The recipient is hanging all my art on one wall, very happy with it. This series was bought from an exhibit, and I found the buyer left it to me in their will, so it eventually came back again! I hope it will stay put in its new home. The new owner has been an art docent at MOMA and the local art museum, so, good hands.

I'd far rather my work go out like this than have a  scramble to get it out after I've gone. People might as well be enjoying it. And I have three floors, so the upper stairwell, where these pieces were hanging, isn't a daily view. I won't feel deprived.

I'd offer choices to local friends, but I've found they're very reluctant to take pieces they like because it feels bad, pushing me off the stage! I don't mind, but they feel a bit weird. 

Meanwhile, the Izzy gang is growing

And the Christmas/Thanksgiving cactus is happy

While the rain has finally stopped, after days of downpour, leaving the Japanese maple wearing diamonds

Hard to see here, but a lovely sight. Take my word.

Finally there seems to be enough water in the ground, but I've been frugal with water ever since I learned from Jane Goodall about the lives of women and girls in Africa spending most of their days carrying  water for daily use. Girls can't get to school because they spend hours daily just securing and carrying water.

I don't live where this happens, but I understand why digging wells is important work for incoming helpers in those regions, how life changing it is to have water here, literally on tap. I assume the planet's supply must be finite, so I economize. 

I quit using running water to rinse dishes and wash fruit and vegetables, a bowl uses less,  finally started taking my doctor and a rehab nurse's advice to shower less frequently, and briefly. The showering is about aged, delicate skin, rather than water economy, but it fits into conservation.  I can see from my water bill how it's working.

I'm listening to the audio book of

Where Tey's detective Alan Grant, temporarily out of action from injury, detects a historical puzzle instead of current crime.

It's about the bad rap Richard III, the last Plantagenet king, has had, showing that the depiction of him as a villain is largely based on  hearsay and the writings of a later regime. 

The Tudors, with a tenuous claim to the throne, and much to gain by blackening Plantagenet memory, were the main perps. Shakespeare gleefully fell on the popular myths because -- more dramatic. More clicks. Sounds  familiar in this age of disinformation. And it's surprisingly timely to read this now, when people are still credulous and willing to believe what suits them.  

Happy day everyone, don't believe everything you hear, well, you don't, this is a self selected thoughtful group.