Hot, but new ideas anyway

Today the cleaners came but it was too hot for me to go out, and I stayed home but out of their way. They're like a tornado, rapid movement in all directions, no chat, they know the house so well. In an hour and a half they were done, and the house is shining.

Meanwhile I finished that woven belt, with the slot to thread the end through and modeled it. 

And I'm planning on the next adventure. This was a good day to work indoors, and I'm going to try out a thing I've been interested in for ages and why not now.

It's a warp weighted loom. This is the way weaving was done before the horizontal loom was introduced. It's a vertical setup where the warp threads are hung with weights to create the tension.

Penelope wove on this loom when she was unweaving daily. The Bayeux Tapestry, actually an embroidery, was worked on fabric woven on the warp weighted loom.

I love simpler ancient techniques relying on a lot of common sense and ingenuity before engineers started complicating the issues in order to simplify the process for the worker.

Anyway here's what I'm thinking.

Here's my yarns, and I checked to make sure the yarns could be threaded on the heddle. I'm using the rigid heddle rather than the string heddles you see in the reenactment pictures.

I need a plan and this is the back of the envelope idea as of now, sketchy as you see.

Since I need to set it up vertically, i think I'll use this rod across the door of my supply closet.  First I'll remove the curtain, which is an Indonesian handwoven piece. Then I'll set the rod up firmly enough to withstand the weights.

I'll attach 120 warp threads 60 double lengths with larks head knots, to the rod, reaching the floor, thread them through the heddle,  then attach weights to bundles of the threads near the floor.  The weights will be the one pound soft weights from my leg weight set.

So far so good. I fact if it works, I'll just leave it in place as a new curtain across the doorway.   I'm studying a lot of videos to make sure I've got the gist before I get on. There's a heddle issue to figure out.

Meanwhile one of the friends who now has a piece of my art, this one an embroidery, sent me a picture of it in its new home. Her kitty Sesame helped, but Pumpernickel jumped out of frame at the last second.

And there's an updated bouquet 

Added to the usual suspects are baby's breath and dayflowers.

Happy day everyone, remember your yoga 

Gardening is happening

Yesterday while the cleaners were busy restoring my house to nondusty and washing everything that didn't move, I did the annual gardening shop.

Not at the nursery, too early for tender plants, but at Tarjay, where I'd gone in search of dishwashing brushes, which they didn't have.

Here's the car homeward bound

But the garden supply center was open so I invested in a soaker hose, replacing my homemade one which had done its bit. I've wound it around the potted plant area. Haven't turned on the water yet.

And I picked up seeds. The morning glory and sunflowers will help disguise the fence. I've got them in soak till I plant them tomorrow. And the marigolds and Italian basil are  already planted, using the potting soil I picked up yesterday. I already have a few seeds at home, moringa and name escapes me.

The squirrel issue is especially tense with seeds and new plantings which they dig up and scatter immediately. 

So here's attempt #1,463,876 to baffle them. The upturned crate which is also a patio tea table, can house the two pots. 

Rain and sun can get in, squirrels not so much. Until they get going and can move into the herb area with their friends.

When I'm ready to plant the sunflowers and morning glory, I have another crate ready to go.

I had thought of moving my non-flowering iris, not waiting till Fall, then noticed a couple were flowering. If you squint you can see. 

So I'll hold off in case they've decided to flower this year.

The sage is putting up buds this year. I think it's every other year. 

Again you need to squint a bit.

Last year just foliage, which is fine, since that's what it's for. In a couple of days there's going to be lovely blue/purple blossom.

And, out front, the rescued azalea is fighting off the pachysandra and crowded iris, which will need lifting and moving at some point.

It's red, a color I don't like in the garden, 

because summers are hot enough without adding hot colors. But it was a rescue, and I don't like to refuse it house room because of that. 

I feel the same way with all the dogs who've come into my life, none of them the golden retriever I always wanted.  But I couldn't turn them away. It would be breedist. 

Speaking of animals showing up, as they do

This has been a respite post, from the ever worsening news everywhere.

Cats, Hobbyhorses, Meditating and the Monkeymind 6WS

Recently I've reintroduced meditation into the morning routine, and notice that the cats notice instantly when I start, then sit with or on me, and the second I stop, jump down and stroll away,even if I'm still just sitting.  No idea how they know, but they are tuned in.

They are naturals at not doing anything but let things pass before them, exactly as meditation aims to do and mine so rarely does.  

My monkeymind, never stopping its headlong rush in all directions, gathers up all the hobbyhorses from the fields and leaps on now this one, now that one, and creates dialogs some funny, some indignant, all irrelevant. 

What's that galloping by?  horse? monkey?

 I have to remember to let the ideas go on their way, not to follow up new art ideas, if they're good they'll come back,  not to continue dialogs from decades ago, and resume the breathing and counting, and most of all not to judge whether a session has been "good" or not.  It just is.  That's the hardest thing of all for me to grasp. 

It was a monkey riding on a horse..

All these animals milling around get in the way!