New venture into glimpses

The adventures with video yesterday have brought me to an interesting enterprise. Since I accidentally started a YouTube channel, now named Boud's Glimpses @ChezBoud, Glimpses of a small old life, yeah, get me, huh? I now realize a few things.

One is that I don't want to blather away about myself on video -- I tried a couple of test videos talking and though my voice sounds okay, I look so old and crumpled I can't see anyone wanting to look! Also talking heads are usually pretty dull.

And I certainly don't want to fiddle around editing and captioning and working my phone to the bone on full length videos.

The other is something I really would like -- I can create and upload brief content I like, to YouTube Shorts, just 15-20 seconds, catching a moment. 

This could be fun, not lengthy editing, just brief forays to make videolettes. I like this a lot. I'm hoping, but not promising, daily uploads, to follow the seasons.

I uploaded a second one today. Yesterday's already has nearly 700 views. I suppose it's a nice antidote to doomscrolling.

So I appear to have accidentally found a new thing to look forward to each day. Who knew.  All I intended was to upload a video to this blog now and then. What I'm in for now is so much better.

This morning I baked banana bread 

Gary missed out on this, but my local drivers will get a share.

In other exciting news I picked up tonight's DVD entertainment 

Old movie I watched years ago about the WI women creating a nude calendar as a fund raiser for cancer research.  In the comments Debra reminded me of it, and I thought, hm, why not revisit it.

And in the same trip I sent off the last socks plus weavings to the Sock 'n Glove Ministry.  Sister M was so gracious about my sock farewell, though I'll still do a bit of weaving and maybe crochet for them. 

After I got home I went out walking, a bit hot and very bitey, but I saw the first monarch on a butterfly bush this year see YouTube short ;), and a cornflower has appeared on the patio 

About nine last evening, there was a bang at  the door and suddenly Gary was in my midst. Rapid fire exchange of news, and he was off again! He says he will pick up the plants, just not yet. Right. 

Happy day everyone, hang in there.  You never know when a struggle will result in unexpected fun. Ask me how I know this.

I found a bench for Steve on Freecycle. 

Sunday morning with snow and coffee

Since Gary's tree went down in the last storm, my view opened up. Snowy Sunday with coffee and banana bread 

I finished the bergamot boxes, leaving the inside unpainted to keep the lovely citrus scent, and the tops actually fit quite snugly 

And here they are in a mini gallery 

Today's deed is to finally repair a few rips in the pillows I made several years ago, in a summer frenzy of English paper piecing and patchwork, using batiks, silk, and designer fabric scraps. 

I also converted some dyed beaded and stitched wall hangings into pillows. And the knitted pillows I made for use in the car have come to join them.

They've all had wear and tear from visitor handling, so there's a bit here and there needing a stitch. Invisible repair this time,  they're busy enough without more decoration.

The spicy banana bread is very good on the second day, for breakfast with coffee.

Happy day everyone, enjoy something, what ever you can.  

If Minnesotans can do fun costume runs down the slopes, we can certainly find fun somewhere.

And we can resist AI. AI is theft.

Shoveling light rain, banana bread, clothes wash

The forecast was for light rain. Then

11am 

Noon

Still going. Local police now advising inches of snow, roads are slippery, many collisions reported. Shoveling in progress.

 Meanwhile I had stuff to do 

The makings for banana bread. See the cacao nibs, Wilma? 

And, not to be confused, the makings for laundry soap

The Windex jug is empty,  just a handy gallon container for the mixture. The little wrapped thing next to the funnel is the last of the castile soap, to be grated in.  I don't add scents or color or anything, just a simple mixture. 

And later, after a strengthening cheese and tomato sandwich, here's the rest of the story.

The laundry soap needs 24 hours to cure, the banana bread a few minutes to cool.

In the cooling process I turned the loaf out onto a rack, and made handy discovery.

The rack made handy cutting marks for slicing. How clever.

The knitting is moving along 

The boxes are coming along, one repair almost done. Reveal tomorrow.

Then the plan is a pot of tea, cake and a murderer mystery under a knitted blanket.

Happy day everyone, it's okay to cut straight to the tea and cake, if you're not as driven as some of us.

 

I got weaving

The main event on Friday was the weaving I set up.

I'm pleased about how this worked out. I used that piece of corrugated cardboard for a loom and realized a good way to set up the even warp threads was to insert skewers right through the channels in the cardboard. 

When I ran out of skewers I used small knitting needles. Then I warped up the loom. You'll see the warp threads run right over the back, too.  I wanted a seamless pocket for a potholder, so I set it up that way on the loom.

I used cotton warp thread, and wool handspun for the weft. It came out as 6 epi, ends per inch. That's the weaving equivalent of stitches per inch. 

As you see, I used a crochet hook to draw the weft through. After a while I switched to a size 4 Tunisian crochet hook,  which worked better.

Saturday Handsome Son is visiting to get tea and his share of banana bread. Out of one loaf I get a couple of slices. Mostly it's a shared thing with son and neighbors.

The reviews for it are pretty good so far.

Happy day everyone, get weaving, whatever that means in your life.

Sez Ted and Big Ursy 

 

Whatever bread, pond scenes

Here's the source and recipe for the banana (or otherwise) bread I made. UK blogistas might need to do some translation of amounts and temperature.

As you see, this book has seen some use.

This is a kind of little black dress of recipes. You can sub and add whatever you like, or, more likely, have. 

The trick is to note that you need one cup, 8 oz, of banana pulp. So you can choose to sub some other pulp, same amount. I've used zucchini, pumpkin, squash, grated apple, and here honeynut squash. Honeynut is a little squash with a nice texture and flavor. Sometimes I've even used bananas.

Then you fling in whatever bits you like, about a handful. Chocolate chips, raisins, chopped dates, walnuts, here I used dried cranberries.  

It's pretty fail proof but it's good to remember to get the melted butter out of the microwave, if you can, and add it. Easy to forget it in the heat of the moment and find it next day.

Today is around 70°f, windy and bright and I had a great walk, dodging the landscapers roaring around collecting leaves. I made it to the pond, first time in a few days, and you see how it's changed now that the leaves are mostly down. And how low the water is. 

My house, on my way out.

I'm happy to say that the tipping I reported has been almost totally cleaned up. It looks so much better now it's lost the favela touch.

Carol and I are getting on much better now, and I expect we'll soon learn how to navigate doors, too, then I can test for my Cane Proficiency Certificate, Level One. 

Happy day everyone, bake or get your friends to bake and share with you. Why should you have to do everything, you're supposed to be resting.

More textile arts and the New Misfits

 Yesterday's request about seeing a piece on the saw blade triggered a search in my still open art blog, Art The Beautiful Metaphor, and yielded this.

You can see the wires going around the teeth of the blade. This is the piece you saw finished yesterday, in progress.

And I neglected a couple of notes yesterday

On the left there is a box of cards I made for card weaving. I can't lay hands on a sample, so I probably gave them away. 

Card weaving involves passing four threads through cards, one through a hole in each corner,  in various configurations, then weaving snd turning some or all the cards to create designs, passing a weft thread after each turn. It gives the same range as four harnesses on a floor loom, I'm told. 

I made my own cards, though you can buy them. It's an ancient weaving art, stone cards found in old excavations, many hundreds of years old.

That dark grey piece of cardboard behind there is a bead weaving loom on which I made quite a bit of jewelry , and items like the seed bead decoration on the binding of this artist book I made from red onion paper. 

No, the onion smell doesn't linger long.

The other chunk of cardboard I used to weave these pieces

View of the cliffs at Saltburn, Yorkshire, looking from the beach.

And this more abstract Earth and Sky piece. Mostly I used my homespun yarn, which I'd processed from a raw whole fleece, dyed, combed, carded and spun, wonderful summer long adventure.

I don't use patterns or guidelines for weaving. It's like painting alla prima -- just plunge in, it will tell you how to go. Jump, and the net will appear!

Story of my life, come to think of it!

Last evening I spun more,  and wound off my output into a center pull ball, well more of a sausage, really, on the dibber repurposed as a nostepinne, sent me by Joanne, thank you.. 

That's a tool for winding center pull yarn balls in more skilled hands than mine. But it was the first time of trying.

And I realized ohemgee I have no banana bread. So I remedied that this afternoon, after the first walk since Virus Strike. It was lovely to be out smelling cold air, seeing flocks of mourning doves, currently populous, snd skeins of Canada geese shouting overhead pretending to migrate.

Then home to bake

Banana, cranberry, walnut bread. Minus the melted butter which I forgot and found later in the microwave. More famous cooks than I admit to doing this, too, including Melissa Clark. This makes me feel better.

Made my first order from Misfits since they changed. So excited about no minimum on cold pack items. After I splurged on chicken! Fish! Shrimp! Butter! I probably exceeded the minimum anyway. But I didn't have to over order. They had no eggs.  Let's hope delivery is good next Thursday. 

Happy evening everyone! Don't worry if you forget to add the butter of life, or the eggs are no-shows, all will still be well.