Happy half birthday to me

Today's my half birthday. I always envied people with birthdays well away from Christmas, so this is my answer. Also I may not have a lot more,  so I may as well seize the day.

Two men visited to help me celebrate. The dryer vent cleaners, to be exact. I was so glad the weather has cooled to the 70s, because one of them has to go up on the roof. 

while the other man lugs a giant vacuum cleaner thing upstairs.  Between them, they remove the accumulated lint from the exhaust, then vacuum the money from my wallet.

Now I have the official certificate showing it's done. I can take it along to the manager when, if, he shows up Thursday at the clubhouse, and that completes my obligation to the HOA.  Before it became a requirement I used to get it done anyway, lint being a fire hazard. 

Such an exciting birthday party.

I'm thinking about making a sash for my kimono, just a narrow band one, not like an obi, and I'm picking colors.  Please chime in.

I need two colors for a clasped weft design, to echo the swoops and jags of the kimono design.

I'm also revisiting Elizabeth Taylor, one of the best novelists of recent times. She keeps making penetrating observations and her eye is wonderful for description in few words. Today it's 

This is a quietly savage, desperate novel written in gentlewoman's language, just an arresting read. You keep having to stop and take in what she just said. So many throwaway lines.  You need to experience it for yourself though.

Happy day everyone,  I'm off to sit outside today because I can. Three bean salad for lunch. Several lunches.

Every day please 

Did I mention that all my sunflower seedlings were picked by birds, likewise my cotton plants? Sic plantia mundi. 

More heat, so early morning outside

I'm getting out these mornings very early, to enjoy the patio and water my flourishing flowers.  After that I'm hiding from the heat, reading and making things, including food.

Here's Wednesday morning in the garden 

The hibiscus is definitely getting there now

The scattered seeds are doing their best 

Last year I got a ton of morning glory foliage, no flowers. I think the mix was too rich. This year let's hope for flowers 

The tired looking coleus is from last year's seeds, kept over the winter and now out with her friends 

Zinnias and marigolds are booming, and the feathery foliage of cosmos is showing. 

Then out front a young morning dove was strolling on the path, apparently there's good pickings there, the doves are around often.

He took off when he noticed me.

Then for stitching, and I only need to hem the linen tunic and it's done. 

I like how the sleeve pleats improve how the sleeves fall. Pretty much as planned.

On the food front, the pastry is going further than expected. One more pasty today and enough filling for one more. Then still enough for sausage rolls, when Misfits brings me my ground turkey Thursday. It's practically a lifetime supply.

This small recipe makes the kind of thin crisp crust I like. It can also make crackers, rolled even thinner and and with spices rolled in. I like an all purpose food, I must say. This is a kind of good fast food.

Today's reading is the wonderful 

in my Kindle collection, and she's such a powerful writer I have to be ready for her. Not a casual summer read, despite the title.

Wednesday seems to have been a productive day despite dragging myself mournfully about wishing for walking weather.

Happy day everyone, there are people in freezing temperatures just now, finding it hard to imagine this heat, as in "feels like 99°f". 

Stitch on! Whatever form your stitching takes, wheelchair repair, to vegetable picking!

Art my way, and finally bread

 I couldn't wait for the Art Shaped book to arrive, so I tried out my materials with my own way of doing it.

I'd seen this image

and liked the concept of a landscape with fissures and confused shapes, but I wanted an aerial view. I didn't look at this picture again, just went from the concept into the materials and had a good time. 

I learned quite a bit about manipulating card and paper by hand. Darrell does a lot of precision cutting in his work, and maybe I will too, after I study his book. But tearing and squashing is more my style.

Here's a step by step, to where I am now. I had to work on the fteezer top and the kitchen island, because the table is covered in jigsaw puzzle. But the light is good.

Left is a painting done on my hand dyed fabric cut and  reassembled tumbling block style, which I decided to use as a base. Good size, already wired for hanging. It's ready for a new life.

 

And found I had to cover the surface with bits of card stock when  tape wouldn't stick.

Under way squashing and tearing and sticking, rock formation ideas

Then I added in tissue paper, for more detailed softer shapes 

And here's where we are till tomorrow, when I paint it, outside, not wanting vapors from the spray in the house 

The colors are irrelevant at this point, just stuff I had lying around, including some of those small rapid paintings I did last summer. They're getting a second life. They'll be painted over.

At first I thought I'd spray the whole thing with the dark green enamel I have ready, then pick out highlights in liquid metallic acrylic. 

But now I think I'll spray more sparingly, to see if occasional visible colors work like rocks. We'll see. This was a good day.

Meanwhile, while I was tearing and squashing snd sticking, nature was creating a wonderful artwork right there as the sun moved round.

I also finally baked bread this afternoon, whole wheat with a bit of white and a cup of oats.

And when I sits I reads, so now that This Golden Fleece is done, highly recommended, and Beasts in my Belfry, likewise, I'm into (writer, not actor) Elizabeth Taylor's complete short story collection. 

 

She's pitch perfect. You have to keep stopping to make sure you see what she did there.  I'd read "Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont" ages ago and noticed her point of observation is very much like William Trevor in his short stories. It's a similar perception, rather than similar writing.

So that's where we are, and I'm about to order Misfits and see if this week I can get anything on my list, before thinking of a tuna melt for supper, home-baked bread, a favorite easy meal.

Happy evening everyone, follow your own lead, the others are all taken. 

That's at a minimum, which is also the puzzle answer, but you knew that.