A day of many parts

Yesterday was the first day of great weather for walking in the evening, light enough, warm enough and insect free enough. A stroll to the pond happened.

There's  a scruffy old squirrel's nest up there.  The nest, I don't know if the squirrel is scruffy.

Today started before dawn, when I woke ready to start the day. I was out watering plants outside because the forecast was for this 

and it's been dry for days. Then I watered all the indoor plants, same reason, the house will be warm and they'll appreciate the help.

And a session with April and Aiko, for lower back issues. My sciatic ouch has diminished significantly since I got back into these particular exercises. Also since the cold finally went away, taking the jaw pain and leg pain with it. I suppose a virus attacks the weakest links. 

Then for some plain repairs, starting with Gary's hoodie, which is not a good design. 

A nice screen printed image on woven gauze, bonded onto a knitted hoodie. Recipe for failure, and it happened. He put it on, the hoodie stretched, the screen print tore away. I put in a few stitches, allowing for stretch and we'll see.

Then there are my favorite jeans which either have stretched or I've shrunk. So I did my favorite simple alteration.

Inserted elastic inside the back of the waistband to draw it in a bit. That should save endless hitching up.

At noon there was an AARP online Tai chi session with a very good instructor.

After half an hour of moves, Tai chi not my strength, I get my arms mixed up, he had us sit to do more, this being designed for older people. 

So I took his picture at that point and next thing I knew after breathing and relaxing, I was waking up to his thanks for a lovely session.

This was a nice afternoon for sitting in the shade listening to birds and dozing and generally enjoying the day.  There was the last of the daffodils, the distant trees starting to leaf out, the spicebush at peak and the honesty getting into bloom.

Braiding is continuing with the shoelaces moving along. I have ideas for aglets in fact I dreamed of one idea

The notebook I made the other day has been received happily by a knitting friend, and there will be a couple more 

This is another couple of images from the same art catalog.

Happy day everyone, online this evening with friends. Such a rich day.

Hot day, tai chi, drawing and flowers

Wednesday felt very humid early, so I checked before deciding whether to walk 

This was 5.30 am. I'd got up thinking it was 6.30, no glasses on. In the high 70s but not very breathable.

So I looked around the patio and found 

As you see, blossoms all over. This hibiscus is in her second year. Last year two blooms, this year at least a dozen buds.

The morning glory is starting to flower. Zinnias, too, and while I was there I hauled the lavender plant over to be propped up in the corner. It fell again during the storm, and I don't want it falling on the hibiscus.  The coleus also fell during the storm so now it's sitting on top of a container of lemon balm and they can fight it out.

And while I was there, I noticed how bad the gate looked, covered in algae and looking neglected, which it was. So I thought while I was there why not wash it. This is an index of not having enough to do, when you start washing gates.

So off I went indoors in search of cleaning materials. Then I saw my neighbor coming out of her front door in search of the newspaper and completely forgot what I'd come in for.

I remembered something about water but not what. Retraced my steps, sat on the patio and caught sight of the gate. Ohh. Quickly ran back for cleaning spray etc before I forgot again. It was quite easy to clean, one of those jobs you postpone for months then it takes two minutes once you remember it.

Algaegate, then Cleangate! 

All this early morning hot humid activity definitely suggested a shower, but first, since I wasn't walking this morning, I did some tai chi with Don Fiore, same man I'd done qi gong with earlier.

That calmed down all my joints nicely, and one shower later, I was ready to follow up on the car and house issues.

House contractor, no response to text, but I think the contractor's on vacation this week. Anyway I've registered my need to know. 

Called the body shop, they're waiting for parts, maybe ready end of next week. So that calms the brain that's pushing to know more and not just sit there. I've done what I can. 

Then I was wondering what arty thing was next and I didn't feel like fiber arts today. So I thought maybe I'd draw what was happening on the patio, around the morning glory. Pilot pen fine, black, little drawing, about 7" square,  first in ages.

That was a nice few minutes. The paper is bright white but doesn't register that way.

Wednesday galloped by, mid afternoon before I noticed it. Audiobook, a very nice reading of Georgette Heyer's  The Nonesuch,  tea, and a snooze may have ensued.

Happy day everyone, life's a banquet! And here's a hilarious website, Than Average, in case you want to compare yourself to a lot of strangers.

Tai chi, curried shrimp and restoration.

 Here's Bob, the online tai chi instructor at work in yesterday's AARP online presentation. The exercise lasted about 45 minutes, a long time for me, but I kept up till the last few minutes when I finished it sitting down.

it was very similar to Eight Pieces of Silk, which I haven't done in a while, and I ran into my usual coordination issues, getting arms and legs going out of sync, but it was really good. I was totally relaxed in the afternoon and much less stiff than usual this morning.

Bob has decades of experience teaching in person, and the only hitch was the sound quality. When he introduced himself, close to the camera, it was fine. Then he stepped back as you see and started the movements and was inaudible. I think AARP is amateur night about miking. He was not body miked, I'm guessing. 

I messaged them and they said well that's why there's captioning, and anyway it worked fine in our practice run. I didn't pursue it but thought it was more than I could do, to read captions while watching and imitating what for me were difficult movements. I missed all the names of the moves.

It did revive my interest in Eight Pieces of Silk, and I may resume that practice, so that was good. And I'm glad they did it, even if not very well. They got about 150 viewers, pretty good.

They timed it for 12 noon, awkward time for lunch, so I postponed mine thinking better not to have a full meal right before. So eventually this was lunch. Curried shrimp over jasmine rice.

This is a natural artwork, the olive oil moving on the rice water and the reflected shapes. Cooking makes art!

Here's the rice, with the shrimp cooking in the foreground, with curry powder, my own Bill Veach mix, onions, garlic, homemade yogurt, salt and pepper

Then a handful of parsley chopped in, should have been cilantro but I didn't have any. And it was very good. Enough for another meal today, too.

And here's a bit of good news, some priceless artifacts looted from Ghana in colonial times personally restored by officials of the Fowler Museum, with some gracious apologies. 

Along with some lame excuses that they didn't know the full provenance back when the curators of the time acquired them. Which means they were either lying, or they didn't do their job back then. Anyway they now say they discovered these items were looted in conflict, and they are now back in the right hands

So, virtue signalling aside, this is good. They're beautiful artifacts, demonstrating the high culture of what Western powers dismissed as primitive people. Not so much. 

And this tickled me. Ukrainian humor. If they can laugh in their suffering, it seems we more fortunate people can at least cheer up. Which may involve avoiding the news for now.