Information and actions from Earth Day, tofu, loom, Misfits

I came out of the Earth Day online rally last night with new information on what's happening in Newark to stop further pollution, and links to help. There was  encouragement to speak up, every voice matters, from distinguished national weather scholars and officials from earlier admins when the gummint took the environment seriously. It was an evening well spent.

Sleep having decided to blow where it listeth, I woke at 2am ready to go. So I made a cup of coffee, slice of olive bread and downloaded Margareta Magnusson's book on old age. She's the author of Swedish Death cleaning. 

She wrote 

during the pandemic, when she was 86, and a good bit frailer than I was at that age. 

But she had a resolute good humor about difficulties. Always an artist, she was interested in so much, even when her physical horizons shrank. I just checked and found she died only a couple of weeks ago at 91. She had an interesting life well lived.

It was a quick read, after which I slept till the reasonably hour of 7am.

Today's Misfits, so here's the bag outside.

At the moment the boxes and ice blocks are going to Gary. 

Meanwhile, I needed lunch and made red lentil tofu, cooked in a sauce of scallions, soy sauce, Worcestershire, apple cider vinegar and ketchup. This was so good. Enough for two more meals. From half a cup of red lentils, one cup water, salt. 

Plain mixed green salad, plenty of flavor in the sauce. 

And, before Misfits, came the loom!!

They're serious about beginners -- it arrived ready threaded and started! 

So maybe I'll do something with this before I get onto the pattern weaving. Or maybe I'll adapt and make it into my first patterned band, whoa. As you see it has multicolored warp threads. There are possibilities there. And the heddle is a different dent (warp threads per inch) so it doesn't duplicate the one I have.

This is a nice deal, heddle and shuttle included, aside from the work they did, in case the buyer didn't know how. Maybe this is self defense against multiple calls for help! 

Then Misfits finally arrived, Ramon, on the afternoon shift, driving a nonpink truck.

Cans for the food pantry, enough bread for the foreseeable future as well as the loaf I found in the freezer when I was in there for something else.

 Fusilli because I like curly pasta, lovely Envy apples, they've been excellent lately, potatoes ready to parboil for roasting, Bananaz to ripen a day or two, yogurt to go with them.

 Lovely brown eggs for all kinds of plans, including egg 'n chips -- fries-- quick meal, chocolate covered almonds because times are haaaard, and I expect they're nutritious.

What a great day. 

A bonus -- I'm packing a small framed artwork to ship, and having a bit of a time finding packing materials. So the bubble wrap from the eggs and the packing paper from the loom will be pressed into service. 

Happy day everyone, do all the things then lie down.

Still mine, dammit. 

Happy Earth Day! Gentle rain here, perfect

 

This evening I'm at another Stand up for Science online event, this time to celebrate our earth. 

I think you can still sign up. Go to standupforscience.net and find the simple registration form.  Show up! 8pm Eastern time. I'm posting early to give you the chance.

The loom is on its way. I keep getting excited updates -- now in NJ! Too funny.  But yes, I'm ready. 

Meanwhile I slept till 9:30 this morning, unheard of, but all's well, and I've started another Tudor history, this time a fictional account but well researched, of Thomas Cromwell. 

Happy Earth Day, everyone, each one do our bit where we are, following Jane Goodall's advice. Also go, Virginia!

Now that Orban is gone, Hungary has released massive funding to Ukraine that he had blocked.

Earth Day, Textiles and Tea, and an important step

 Still Earth Day as I write, and here are some great Patrick O'Donnell Mutts takes, with Earl the dog and Mooch the cat.

That's all I need to say, said more eloquently than I could. Patrick is a NJ native, just sayin.

And Emil came this afternoon for a really strenuous time, involving testing my ability to stand up from sitting unaided, check, climb the full flight of stairs (!), check, get into my rather high bed, check with apostrophe, use the shower bench in the bathroom that's too narrow to admit the walker, check, come back downstairs, check, walk with only a cane, check, and, get this -- walk unaided at all. I managed all of it, yay. Checkity check. And the session ended with some test movements on the table, range of motion. 

So I still need caution, someone with me when I'm off Walker Twostep, but he may be retired after another week, yay.

Gary is figuring out building me a wood step to enable me to get into bed, in the next couple of days, using scrap wood 2x4 pieces. Then I'll be able to sleep on a real bed. The sofa's worked fine but I fancy being more comfortable. 

After Emil left I fell asleep quite abruptly and just missed sliding off the sofa, but all's well. This was a vintage afternoon.

Textiles and Tea featured Jennifer Williams, an inkle loom band weaver. They didn't show her loom, assuming their audience was familiar, but if you're not, look online. You warp a very long warp to create a long narrow band which can be cut and stitched into wider pieces of fabric. It's a tradition in quite a few cultures.

Happy day, everyone, I hope you have all the help you need when you need it.

I checked out Quinn's recommendation of Jam and Jerusalem, and kept thinking it was just like the Clatterford series I watched and loved and blogged about years ago. Turns out it's the same series with an American title. Joyful reunion!

Happy Earth Day

 

I remember when Gaylord Nelson, Democrat of Wisconsin in the 70s,  organized the first teach-ins about the earth, which developed into Earth Day. 

We took it very seriously having observed the near extinction in this region of the iconic bald eagle, as well as many other less spectacular species. We did save the eagle and the osprey, but we need to take care of Gaia to preserve our remaining species.

Meanwhile let's enjoy her and admire things like this ancient b and w spread from my family dictionary from 1935

I used to read this dictionary all the time as a kid, and it's the only thing I inherited from my parents. And it's enough.

Then there's

Then locally out and about, daffodils have done their job, so now it's dogwood

And here's the little gnome, reunited with his umbrella and installed among the tulips.

Food is happening, too, so here's my latest flatbread, red lentil.

I put the lentils to soak in water overnight, rinsed them today, minced in garlic and fine seasalt, added a bit of water, then blended them to a nice consistency for flatbread.

It made a lot of batter, so there's a container of it in the freezer, too, now.

So here's today's lunch, the rest of the chickpea tuna salad, with the avocado oil, heated, with a lentil flatbread. Garnished with fresh sage.

You need flatbread here because the salad dressing is too good not to mop up. 

And if you can't stand fiddling away with the puzzle any longer, it's been going forever because it's 

ETERNAL

Some people were right on it. And I added to the entertainment by being too dense to pick up some clues and answering them solemnly! I guess there's worse things than providing what G and S would call innocent merriment.

Happy day everyone, Earth too. 

Earth Day

 Today we celebrate our big blue marble

And here's a series of paper mosaics by young  children in Darrell Wakelam's classes

And closer to home, balancing, more or less, the destruction of our lovely old weathered cedar fences, the roots of a felled tree across the street were removed yesterday, and a lovely new flowering tree planted in their place. 

Mary, I thought of your grandchildren when I watched these boys with toys at work. They'd probably have been asking to help.

And, my own little bit of up cycling, here's the first fitting of the vest, to check my shoulder seams.  

I'll be cutting more from the armholes, armscyes to posh seamstresses, before I settle on the side seams. Depending on how the pockets work, too, I may shorten it before hemming. It's a work in progress.

Aren't we all.. happy Earth Day, everyone.