Marian Anderson, weaving and chicken soup

Yesterday I did what I often do on that date, watched and listened to the glorious voice of Marian Anderson, to honor her April 9, 1939 concert at the Lincoln memorial

It's on YouTube, you can find it. 

The bitter irony all these years later, of hearing her sing My Country, 'Tis of Thee, a couple of days after two black State senators were expelled from the legislature. 

For protesting on the Senate floor the  gun deaths of little children, at a local school, in their district.  I weep every year over this concert but this year was even sharper. 

The DAR owned Constitution Hall, where she was originally supposed to sing, and refused it to her, on the grounds of race. 

Whereupon another concert was arranged, out of doors, 75,000 people in attendance including a lot of prominent supporters on the steps with her.

She sang with only a piano accompaniment. It was all she needed for a historic statement.

And yesterday was about resting after the Easter dinner, and making yogurt and chicken soup.

Great chicken led to great chicken soup. With a pita bread stuffed with chicken scraps and vegetables.

Then today I got weaving. Well, threading.

The new rigid heddle is great, and I found a handy windowsill to clamp the warping post. I used the bathroom seat, just the right height to weave on an upward slant. I loaded a shuttle with a plain green yarn, and tomorrow I'll weave.

A trip to the library today to return The Maid, which I recommend, and borrow another cookbook from Laurie Colwin

I find I'm still winnowing --  the daily habit seems to have taken hold. Mostly it's paper goods. 

And Freecycle yielded one taker yesterday for the Nerf toys, who set it all up then backed out, saying he just realized it's too far.  The location being clearly stated, twice, in the listing , sigh.

Then today another potential taker, we'll see. No interest at all in the Barbie set-up. It's really too cumbersome for the thriftie and may end up recycled. Again, we'll see.

Happy day everyone, sing your song! Which reminds me that yesterday I discovered that after a long lifetime of being unable to whistle, I managed it. 

An actual tune, Schubert's Ave Maria, to be exact. I just tried it on an impulse, and it's scratchy and not a huge range, but more or less accurate. So maybe my face has changed over the years or something. Anyway I suddenly have a new instrument, more or less..too funny.

White rabbits and swifts

 Happy April

As Chaucer more or less put it;

When that Aprille with his shoures sweet

The droghte of March hath perc'd to the root

As seen here today

Too warm to sleep, so up early, and embarking on breakfast of pita bread filled with havarti cheese and spinach.

I'm rereading Laurie Colwin

And since she's a bit more meat-heavy than I, scrolling by,  but she reminded me about making yogurt, which I used to do all the time. 

Nowadays when I think about it I usually don't have a starter in the house. But right now I have some great Misfits yogurt for starter, and she reminded me of the proportions of starter to milk. 

I also found a mason jar to use, so today I'm all set to make a batch and see how it goes. It will be a bit cheaper than buying but will, even better, save bringing in yet  another plastic container each week.

Yesterday's knitting group was a small one, and our leader brought this in for me to use

 It's a swift, a piece of knitting equipment which helps you turn skeins of yarn into balls of yarn, like this

It beats using a chair back, if you don't have a handy relative to hold the yarn while you wind it. And, as you see, I was down near the end of the current ball.

We were discussing brain fog, mine, and how viruses can cause it, also Lyme disease and other infections. 

Ed note: I edited here to make it clear that Lyme is not a virus. Living almost at ground zero for it, I could hardly fail to know that, but blogista Cathy pointed out my wording wasn't clear. I was just generalizing about ailments that can cause brain fog. Thank you Cathy, and back to the narrative..

 One of the group said well, it took me a year to really recover from the aftereffects of Lyme disease.  And some people, she added darkly, never recover from brain fog. A bit discouraging! She's not known for her tact..

Last evening I made vegetable stock

Which included the peel from a recent batch of ginger, very interesting smells in the house. Later today I'll use it for barley and sausage soup. Stormy weather forecast, so a big pot of soup will be handy.

Happy day everyone, I expect you all played nicely together to solve the word puzzle: 

ORCHESTRA!

Enjoy your day, my usual daily text to Handsome Son.