Cross Rubicon, check, Misfits and more

Thursday morning I cut yet another final bouquet. Each cut stimulates more flowers and Wednesday night's heavy rain seems to have woken them up.

And the orchid against an early morning backdrop, is still blooming.

The print information about the heatpump arrived. I'd squinted at it online on a little screen, so now I was able to see better what was what.

Scary total. Rubicon sized.

I made my choice after finding out about all kinds of stuff such as SEER ratings, which are not about second sight, and what units the heating and cooling power is counted in.

Then I called the heatpump people, and Marty, the HVAC man, and I had a nice chat, and I learned more things. He thinks he can get it installed next week, meanwhile I have to do some e-signing. 

This timing is good, because the weather is still mild so it's  good to get the installation done.  One working day will do it. 

Then I needed to get out and walk before Misfits arrived.

Self portrait, looking surprisingly tall 

These shrubs are full of fruit probably for the birds and squirrels 

Right across the pond there's a whole congregation of turtles shining in the sun 

And Fergus Frog is sitting in the shallows under a branch, observing me

Look at these wild shapes overhead

Goldenrod is really at peak now, pollinators are happy to note. 

Eventually Misfits arrived, on the regular van but evidently it's being repainted, not yet its usual pink 

Canned goods to share with the food pantry, raisins for snacks and baking, honey because it's ages since I had any, cod pieces (!) with various plans, tofu for a Yeung Man Cooking recipe tomorrow, blueberries and strawberries for desserts with yogurt, which will also feature in the Yeung Man recipe, when I find it again. Baby Bella mushrooms, maybe omelette, maybe recipe.  Tuna for tuna cheese melt, beautiful brown eggs for omelettes and baking,  cannellini beans I think also will be in the same YMC recipe, it's carrying a lot of freight.

Is this fruit a thing of beauty or what? American fruit in American pottery bowls.

Today's resistance was a message to ABC-TV condemning the sidelining of the Kimmel show over a mild comment. 

I note that Disney executives were in on the decision, since D is the corporate owner.  I can't boycott something I don't use, but I'm just sayin, there's other things to watch and other places to go.

Happy day everyone, here's the continuing sock, the heel turned, and soon to bust out in stripes, mainly because I'm seriously short on sock yarn and I'm eking it out.  

That means I'll get to one and a half socks before shrieking "Eek!"

Thar she blows, sez Ted and Big Ursy 

And we remember trans women are women

 

Orchid still going, doors, knitting group,Textiles and Tea

 

Morning light shining across the backyard and through the orchid blossoms.

Tuesday started with an appointment with the audiologist because I was missing words here and there and wondered if my hearing was deteriorating. Turns out it's Ruth and Laura's wires. They're now replaced and everything sounds clear again.

I got lost both ways. I often overshoot the ENT  office driveway because it's set back among trees, like a lot of destinations around here. 

Today I was about to turn in the drive and realized all I could see were earthworks and digging equipment. So I drove on thinking I'd turned too soon. No. They're digging up everything in front of the building which is still there and operating with half a parking lot and no exit. 

So I  got to the appointment after all, very successful, and managed to get out again after edging back and forth with another car whose driver didn't grasp this narrow area was now two-way. We managed not to back into the ditch or tangle bumpers and I was off home. Up to a point. 

The back road I take home was closed, with a detour sign in place.  I followed this but evidently missed the end of it and had a lovely country drive around a local science lab campus. Eventually I found a fairly legal u-turn place and wound my way back to a road I recognized, then finally, to my surprise, reached home.

I'd just put lunch -- roast potatoes, baby broccoli and a patty of spicy plant-based sausage -- in the toaster oven, when Mender Mike arrived with the newly finished drawer fronts and doors.  

Before

After, looking like new, worth the money 

Certainly a lot less than buying new. 

Then I was off to Tuesday Knitting Group, a cheerful group working in everything from a  stuffed cat, to a finished item being modeled here, with a terrible picture from your wobbly photographer, knitted socks, headband, a needlepoint seat finally picked up to finish after many years on hold.

The stickwoven strap on the bag interested the librarian and I showed her this model bookmark for beginners,  

woven, using drinking straws. I've taught this skill to kids but P the librarian thinks it might be nice for her monthly senior crafters. It can be done in one session, from first learning to finishing. And I had a request to bring in my weaving sticks next week, to see how it works.

Convo ranged over hearing aids, getting lost in your own town, forgetting names, cooking for one, baby pictures, face blindness, bees, bereavement, assisted living and more.

Home to a pot of tea and Textiles and Tea with Ruth Hallows, an indigenous weaver from the Pacific North West, who introduced herself in her own language.  She works daily in the practice of the traditional style and form seen in ceremonial regalia. Further down you'll see a picture of one of her ancestors in full dance regalia.

There are only fifteen of these robes extant, all in museums in Europe and Russia, not available for the sacred dancing,  but modern indigenous artisans have reverse engineered them to recreate robes.  

Laws were passed outlawing this weaving, on pain of having families broken up. Ruth's great grandmother had to comply in order to keep her family intact. In the US these laws have been revoked. In  Canada they're still, shamefully, on the books, though not enforced. So now the artform has to be revived.

She teaches the traditional Ravenstail and Chilkat designs, of the Northwest Coastal People from whom she's descended.  But she asks that non-native learners respect the sacredness of the ceremonial robes and significance of the colors and designs and use their skills making other weaving, not copying robes.

There are very few people who currently have mastered these twining skills, executed with a loose hanging warp, all the pattern tension and definition created by the weaver's hands. She would like more people to learn and preserve these skills.

She showed a couple of works in progress and a workshop of women learning the skill.

Sponsored by WARP (Weave a Real Peace), this was a powerful episode. If you're not familiar with WARP, check their website. They're active in grass roots peace work and intersectional connection via the textile arts.

Here's her great grandfather in ceremonial regalia for dance.

Here she's showing a drum which features the ovoid shapes characteristic of this art form, seen in the textiles. Each ovoid influences the next and all belong in the whole. It's a metaphor for their philosophy of life.

Simple setup to learn a difficult twining art form

Here she's showing how a piece is started on that stick, the warp threads secured at the top and left to hang. This is a Ravenstail design depicting the return of the salmon.

This is a personal artwork depicting the concept of unmasking

And here's a big artwork in progress started last spring, to be completed early 2026.

 Happy day everyone, Tuesday here was action packed!

Art goes on, and orchids too

Sunday afternoon and Monday morning were about doing art obligations. The main job was to select the artwork to enter into the group show per invitation.

I decided on one of the ink drawings I did in July, the hibiscus. It's pretty good, and I feel it's appropriate to show what I'm making now, rather than old stuff. It's about forward movement, not history.

Then the hated task of finding, choosing, cleaning and taking apart a frame to use. A sectional metal one, silver color, was the best available choice. 

Then came the fun of unscrewing it, and removing the spring clips without getting one in my eye, and breaking the glass, easily done, ask me how I know, then cleaning the sections, then polishing the glass, then mounting the drawing on a backing, then finding all the tiny screws again, assembling it all and rewiring it with the wire hangers slid (needed pliers)  into the new position, and getting the spring clips reinserted under the sides. Then sitting down for a minute.

Then came the online paperwork, title, size, date, price and artist statement about the art group, upload of image.

The occasion is the 32nd year of the local artists group, which I founded and ran for several years before a staff member was hired to manage the gallery among other things.  I'm considered a legacy member, too funny.   

So the piece is official, chosen, 

There she goes. I also helped write the overall blurb for the exhibit, and that's done too. The current organizer did most of that but wanted a bit of support.

This took an astonishingly long time, and I don't exhibit now for a reason -- I need my time and energy for other things. But this was special.

I also needed to think what to take with me to Tuesday's knitting group, and ended up dumping out and organizing several project bags.  I plan to crochet together linen squares and pinloom woven squares somehow, to do my version of a fusion quilt.  

In the course of organizing I found my big sewing needles, crochet hooks, mixed knitting needles,  that cardboard lucet and several pairs of missing scissors. Also some little experiments, which I tossed.  

The thing is that I supply each project with its own tools then lose track of them, and end up using kitchen scissors because I can't find stitching ones. 

And there were balls of yarn, now untangled and bagged all together.  The crochet hooks are now with the project that needs them and the rest I put upstairs with their set.

There were bamboo knitting needles of all sizes everywhere. Now they're with their same size friends, wrapped with rubber bands. And with the needle gauge, saves guessing.

This orderliness will last long enough for one project anyway.

Meanwhile the orchid is quietly tending to its knitting. 

Look at those negative spaces. It's a marvelous shape, locking together background and positive areas. I need to draw it again.

The weather turned very wet and colder overnight, 60s in a couple of hours, down from 90s.  I ended up doing a few things outside but not walking for once. It was surprising to feel chilly. 

Happy day everyone, try not to get things so befankled that you need to sort before you can make. I'm a bad example.

Butterflies and Victorian murder

Another marvelous day, largely outside walking, watering, picking flowers, loafing, reading

The butterflies are very active, too fast for anything better than this blurry attempt at a silver spot. 

There were monarchs and another similar butterfly that isn't a monarch, Marie will know what I mean, also many insects of all sizes. There's a lot of activity around my tiny patio which has never been sprayed. There are even little bees trying to break into closed morning glory flowers. They should have been here earlier.

Indoors some accidental art, the shadow of the window curtain cast on the fridge. 

This was a bonus I hadn't thought of when I hung the curtain.

And there's a bouquet guarded by a Herend hound

While the posh orchids are posing 

Today's yes2next August challenge was only five minutes of arm weights, so I added in another 15-minute one, using resistance bands. Some of the moves are tricky for balance, and I noticed I'd improved since I last did that routine. All good.

I'm beginning to think about soon being ready for fall, after so much time outside, and for once I'm not cast down about it. I think the experience of surgery and car upheavals has made a quieter season quite appealing. And maybe new interests, too. We'll see.

Thank you everyone for your takes on work and value, always good to hear what blogistas have to say, never dull.

Happy day everyone, speak up always, especially in here, sez 

Ted and Big Ursy