Mood swings, big plans for cool weather

Your exciting update on the mood swings in the sky. Thunderstorms, threatened tornadoes which blessedly didn't happen, high winds 

And note the humidity and dewpoint

Special weather warning almost literally in my back yard

My only casualty was the zinnias flattened into the deck and now staked upright again

It's so much cooler and I'm feeling more cheerful already.

Yesterday's stitching involved the negatives from earlier positive cutouts. Just as stencils give you a positive and a negative, so do the fabric pieces I used, and from which I saved the leftovers.

These will be reverse appliqued and go from there with a third color yet to be decided, shape also to be decided. 

This interesting project checks a lot of boxes, modular, flexible, colorful, manageable, frugal!

Today is full of plans now that it's cooler. At home I'm making granola, yogurt, and roast chicken. Abroad I'm off to pick up more Suits and return the current season.

And what helped get me through housebound hot days are a couple of great podcasts: Lady Audacitea on YouTube, and The Daily Fail which I catch on Google.  They're both  teams of two hilariously funny and astute young women journalists commenting on the follies in the media. They've also been guests on each others' podcasts, this being a small world. 

One, Meredith Constant,  also has her own YouTube and tiktok channels, very funny, very well researched, very accurate, penetrating questions, mostly about the msm's wildly inaccurate takes on Meghan and Harry.  I personally owe Meghan for bringing shakshuka into my life, and Suits, so I'm a fan.

And, if all the weather isn't enough NJ content, here's the place where the Big Bang was first detected

Just sayin. Jersey Strong.

Happy day, everyone, I hope your big bang is less dramatic, also your weather. Unless it's a military necessity

Indonesian weaving, patio find, and joy, it's cool!

Today brought the promised relief from heat, windows open to enjoy it

And yesterday there was an excellent online presentation about textiles from Indonesia. 

I was particularly glad they showed the simple looms these highly complex works are made on by master weavers, often members of the royal family. Where you see an inset photo, it's the weaver shown with her work.

I learned that mud dyeing, a common technique used in this area, means the river mud, an iron rich  material, is the mordant only, not,, as I had wondered, the dye. People who've been reading here will know the mordant is what enables the dye to bite into the fabric -- that's what mordant means. 

The dye material is found in the bark and inner fiber and roots of local trees. For other weavings, other dye sources.

The two funeral pictures show the dozens of textiles heaped onto the body as a mark of honor, to this day. And a line of mourners

This island was a Dutch colony until independence, and some of the earlier works show the Dutch coat of arms, now replaced with local symbols of their traditions.

And today's patio discovery, a purple butterfly bush, among the white, very welcome. 

Gary will probably want an offshoot, because he now only has white blossoms. Speaking of butterflies, I notice they're mainly interested in the zinnias, so I'll note that for future reference. Mainly white butterflies, with a single monarch recently and one dusky swallow tail. 

Happy day everyone, here's the current bouquet

Look, a hitch hiker!

The weather seems to be cooling off rapidly, so I've begun to bring in houseplants bit by bit.  The spider plant had a readymade place on top of a high bookcase, so she came in first.

And after fiddling about with a plate in place for the planter, and taking off the hangers it had used to hang from the cherry tree, and navigating a little chair to reach the top of the bookcase,  I got the spider plant, with a lot of new children, set up in place.

It wasn't till then that I realized we had brought in a little traveler. Dear little guy, hanging on firmly to the wall now.  

I'm torn between letting him stay and deal with insects in the house for me, and detaching him from the wall to set him outside where he soon needs to be.

He seems to be in tune with the current artwork -- I'd just got through molding paper over tiles with little amphibians like him on them. To learn more, go here 

Perhaps he thought I needed a few pointers.