A day packed with minutes

Today I felt tired but still, oddly, did a lot. I was out very early making videos after the overnight downpour left everything covered in diamonds.

Later I walked but not very far 

Then food safety -- strawberry jam 

I've been in touch with Misfits Market, who assured me that NONE of the cyclo suspect foods ever got into Misfits, that Taylor Farms had removed the suspect lettuces anyway, and that they were on top of it, all that. They talked me off the ledge. But I'm not taking any chances just yet.

 I macerated and simmered all these beautiful organic peaches and plums 

Custom grated fresh nutmeg to add in, that wonderful smell reminds me of my mom making egg custard, always grated nutmeg fresh over it.

While that was happening I took all the July drawings and paintings and assembled them into a book. Here's the Book of July 2026.

Front cover 

Back cover

Standing up. Since the left hand pages, the backs of the work, are blank I may write in them. TBD.

And while I was being busy outside, I noted that the morning glory is finally underway.

This is a good proof of concept, because I just let it self seed last year and since it's flowering it will seed again, so I think it's getting established.

While I was admiring flowers I picked a new bunch, I mean bouquet, posh 

And I organized the workbasket under the coffee table which has TBD items, and finally stitched up the front of the slippers I made months ago. 

They only needed a few stitches at the opening to tighten them up a bit. It took five minutes including finding the needle and matching the yarn.

Boots the upstairs bear, approved 

However his sidekick Pink Rabbit is looking at me a bit sideways, and evidently campaigning for boots, too.  Hm.

About the short videos. This is really new art direction for me now that I've managed to get my meager devices sitting up and taking names. 

Like all art, a video is not a picture of something nor a story about something. It's an experience, which has an arc -- a beginning, a middle, and an end. In this case it's movement within a short time frame, 20-30 seconds max. 

This all sounds a bit highfalutin, but bear with me, it's my jam. With each video I'm looking right now for either a dramatic beginning, as in the hibiscus one, or end, where the thing is in your face. As in the butterfly, and the maple foliage. 

And as I explore more, not the boring tech, the actual potential of this limited visual experience, I'll see where I get. 

What I'm doing is inviting people to just look. Breathe, look. If 20 seconds sounds short to you, it's a heck of a lot longer than people usually pay attention at one time. It's more than the glance we often give.

I don't want to distract with music, maybe once in a while I'll say the title, I'll see.  And the art of presenting it will either succeed in holding attention or not. 

Meanwhile it's compensating me for the demise of knitting, so there's that.

Happy day everyone, do all the things. Or delegate them, if you can.

Dog, morning glory and other company

 Yesterday I was planning on how to give the rapidly growing morning glory a place to grow, rapidly growing, that is,  out of the beginning pot.

The ground cover takes up all the planting space, so I have to do other things.

Earlier readers may remember my mini greenhouse caper, a while back, using a bag of potting soil set on a lid with its upturned translucent plastic container over it for a successful winter crop of greens.

I'm thinking of a similar idea with a bag of potting soil, one of these

pierced for drainage as usual, but directly on top of the ground plantings. No cover though.

You pierce the underside for drainage, turn it over, cut out a section on top  and plant into it. It works like a growbag. Anyway I'm going to try it. Placed next to the shepherd's crook it's currently hanging from, for a climbing support.

Without my interference, nature's doing a lovely job out front, some planted by me, all lovely, and look at all the green colors and tiny yellow flowers.

Yesterday suddenly exploded with company, with the warm weather and clean air bringing an old friend to drop by with her dog Abby. She's one of the few people I love to see without an invitation. 

Then Gary appeared on the patio, including my plants in his watering, so I invited him in, since he hasn't seen her for ages, though she only lives down the street. 

So he and Billy the Pup joined us, except B the P had to stay on the patio, shouting, because Gary wasn't sure about the two dogs together. 

Abby was delighted to pose for her close-up

Billy not so much

I did get my chicken roasted, after friend left, with a bunch of lavender.

Marinated overnight in yogurt and garlic. Great supper of buttered pita stuffed with salted chicken breast slices and fresh spinach. Can't beat it.

Then my Haggard Hawks puzzle book arrived, days ahead of schedule, and I tried a few beginner puzzles, succeeding here and there.

Full disclosure: when I put a puzzle on this blog it's always one I can, and did, do. I play fair. Which means there's quite a few that never make it into here. Although maybe I could try one of those, asking for help in solving it, come to think of it. What do you think?

So that's the picture Chez Boud today. I think puzzling might take my mind off my hurty neck. It's not the shoulder joint, or any joint, more likely, from the tingling and shooting pains, an irritated nerve. Not as miserable as last time, definitely, but nonetheless whineworthy.  

Happy day everyone, life's a puzzle, ain't it?

Tearin' it up and morninglories

Last evening a sudden email from HOA management saying that paving work was scheduled for 7 am today, in front of, and a list of house numbers including mine. Cars to be moved or towed.

So I went out, amazingly found a parking space at the other end of the street, outside the range of specified numbers.

Then this morning another email,  now including the entire street including the slot I parked in. 

Soooo I went out, retrieved my car and went in search of another spot. There are more vehicles than spots, so I was lucky to find an overflow spot, not one someone would need in front of their house this evening. 

Then boys with toys arrived

And tore chunks out of the paving here and there. I won't be able to return until they've filled them back in, I expect.

So, not wishing to lose my spot by doing errands and probably coming home to find it occupied, I got on with setting up and starting the new woven panel

And hoping to improve the fell line, though my selvedges are much more competent than before.

And I did a bit of puzzling here and there

You'll notice the aspect ratio --a rectangle -- of the picture on the box, is different from that of the puzzle, which is a square. Springbok puzzles pull visual stunts like this, a bit jarring. I do like the irregular piece shapes they make though.

And the morning glories are now planted and hanging outside, 

replacing the Thai basil which is now next to its friend, the curry leaf plant

It was a great afternoon for sitting out with tea and the Mitfords. And sleeping might have happened, too 

The last couple of years have been very poor all over the neighborhood for iris, and here's this year's total bloom Chez Boud

Tomorrow I have the annual squashogram, so I'll have to get my car out of its precious space and hope to find another when I get back home. 

The parking situation will be fraught for a while as each street is repaired, because those residents will be displaced in turn and my own spots might be at a premium. We'll see.

Nevah a dall mament as a Mitford might say!

Happy day everyone, enjoy the good bits, rise above the rest!

Textiles and Tea and the libe movie

 Textiles and Tea was a great meeting with

who has long lived in New Mexico, and reveres the  work and designs of the early people there, the Mimbres people. Though their pottery is known, no weaving remains, but she's sure they were weavers.

Her own designs echo their pottery and the petroglyphs she's studied where she lives.

Also a shepherd and natural dyer, she raises the sheep whose fleece she uses in her work, for both warp and weft, though she no longer spins it herself. She gets it machine spun for consistency.

 And she's written on the natural dyes of her region.

You can see the influence of native peoples on her designs. She's worth following. And the Mimbres are worth studying.

From there downhill a bit to yesterday's library movie, another in the Katharine Hepburn celebration.

Her first movie, with Adolphe Menjou, Douglas Fairbanks and other stars of the time.  Maybe it was the lighting, but they all looked very overlookable. 

And after an hour of Hepburn (over)acting the gamut from A to B, to quote a critic of a live theater performance, I was nodding off and went home. She won an Academy award for this, why?

Anyway if you were thinking of checking this one out, I'd suggest, unless you're a serious student of the history of Hollywood movies, you do something more interesting instead! I'll be back next week in the hope of a better movie. though.

Happy day everyone, keep looking for a better option. There's a chance Ukraine might retrieve Crimea, let's hope.