The strange ruggy thing starts to develop, and fitness Boud style. Late: a great man has left us

 I'm glad the bird stories amused you, so much more, but that was enough to pack into one post. My posts sometimes make me think of an overstuffed suitcase with all kinds of unrelated items sticking out. Which is pretty much a description of my mind, come to think of it.

Anyway I've been doing something or other with the Granny square project, which is getting big enough to warm my legs while I work.

I've tried various ways of incorporating the small squares, and keep having better ideas. It will eventually look like something. That's my story anyway. 

I also report that the dodgy hip might be healing finally. I quit the stretches when I suspected that they were irritating the tissue rather than healing, and I've felt better since. I'm still moving, out walking today in an amazingly mild temperature, in the 60s f. 

There were multiple skeins  of Canada geese wheeling about, all making a right angle turn right over me and heading to the next town. They claim this is migration, big fibbers.

Back home I did some walking backwards in the kitchen, beside the counter, nine steps along its length. This is supposed to rebalance your muscles and tendons or something, after the forward motion of walking.  It did help the hip, so maybe there's something in it.

And while I'm waiting for something in the microwave, I do the standing on one foot exercise. I used to do the tree pose, as near as I can get to it, but now I do two in one -- balance on one leg while doing the upper body thing. 

You hold up your hands shoulder high, palms forward, elbows out to the side,  and shoulders pressed back. This is great for unkinking your neck. I do this to reverse the effect of all the forward positions of crochet. You can also do this in a doorway, hands on the frame,then leaning forward. 

Most of my exercise is brief and focused, short attention span, variety required, no surprise there. 

Despite my plans I wasn't feeling like cooking today, maybe tomorrow. I plan on Tofu Masala, for which I have pretty much all the ingredients, from Yeung Man Cooking. 

And a new recipe for little crisp cheese biscuits to try, from Marion's  World. She uploaded it a year ago and I found it today. 

Also I'm making mayo, maybe this time I'll try chickpea mayo, from Yeung Man, just to see what it's like.  Such ambition.

Happy day everyone, when in doubt do everything. Then you have no regrets.

Late addition:

I just heard Jimmy Carter has died. There's someone who always walked the walk. RIP.

Battery time, soup, Frederica and Pepys

The car died again, we jumped it again, I decided I needed a new battery.  Gary may help with that this week. Meanwhile the car's down the street out of the way of the truck coming to pick up the pod from his house.

Handsome Son tells me AAA might be able to replace the battery on the spot, so that might be worth investigating. I must admit to feeling a bit defeated at the moment, just not enough energy, emotional or physical, to deal with the cold weather and attendant issues. 

In my seventies this would have been very manageable, but once you get past eighty, things are very different, including the energy available to cope. I do continue with what exercise I can manage, to try to maintain strength.

One really useful one is getting out of a chair without using your hands,  then lowering yourself veeeeery slowly back down to a sitting position. It's like squats, and is vital to keep your legs working if they currently do. 

I do about ten of these in a set, and various stretches and balancing things at odd times. Usually waiting for the microwave is a good moment for a tree pose and other moves, with counters handy just in case.

Meanwhile, spinach, cilantro and potato soup, yogurt stirred in for a lovely tangy flavor. Toasted multigrain on top.

And I realized I've had Pepys' Diary on my Kindle since December 2020, probably a plan to do some serious winter reading which didn't get very far. Giving it another push now.

He mentions a lot of names, which are instantly explained in brackets, and hold up the narrative flow to a trickle. This part is happening during the upheavals of the Rump Parliament, around the restoration of the monarchy, and his undramatic recital covers a very dangerous and dramatic time to be living in London.

He still makes a point of describing his outfits and meals, though, and continues to enjoy his life despite all. So I'll push on a bit.

and for comic relief there's Frederica, with some of the funniest scenes ever, the best being the passage where someone actually does object to a marriage, cries out for video!

Happy day, everyone!

My salute to Ukraine today is to its fiber arts, here the exquisite white work

Not reducing the size here. This is from the blog Fils et Aiguilles

Thoughts about stitching and Fox and plants

Yesterday was all about laundry and changing sheets and making yogurt and asking the FCC to lift Fox's licence.

Once the laundry was done and the yogurt started,

I had planned to go pick grass to make into ink. Another time I'll explain that. Then while I was busy indoors, the landscapers got busy outdoors, cutting the grass so low I can't pick it yet. 

So, in the time now freed up,  I did a bit online, found the FCC (Federal Communication Commission) in charge of conferring and rescinding US transmission licences for broadcast and cable, has, very unusually,  opened comment on Fox's licence renewal, in response to a public petition.

Fox News (!) as you know, has been purveying flat out lies, particularly about the 2020 election, has lost all its defensive court cases, and a petition has been accepted by the FCC to review its licence. I'm particularly incensed that it's the preset 24/7 station on American military bases. 

So while the milk for yogurt was cooling, I did my bit. As you see, it landed and I have the receipt

This is how I got there. You go to their website, follow the prompts and get to a place to create and send your comment. The docket is Fox.

I imagine it's open to anyone in the US. People are not aware, at least I wasn't till yesterday,  that they now have this unusual right to create their own comment on whether Fox should have its licence renewed or denied, and it's a significant first. 

This is a great chance for good people to do something! Please do. Kitchen table activism. Not many people know about this yet, judging from the numbers of comments filed to date.

In other exciting news, I think this post should have an excitement alert, might be too much for nervous people, I cut the base of the morning glory, after it stopped raining.

I retrieved the potting soil, which I'll remix for other plants, and when the morning glory has withered, it will be easier to remove.

and I moved the coleus out front for a while before it comes indoors to become a houseplant. I'll repot it in this bigger pot, using some of the soil from the mg.

Here it is in an arrangement with the Russian sage, failing a bit this year, after many years of domination.

And I found a new, very cute, physio online with exercises I've started yesterday, all about stretching and staying flexible, at this point as useful as staying strong.

The first was calf stretches, which I already do, so I'll continue. Then there's this great one for my neck issues

And a multi part approach to being able to get up from the floor

You can find him on YouTube, you see the name of his practice in the pictures. Another Australian, I think. I've got all the best physio help from Australia, seems to be the motherlode.

A sad goodbye last night to my entertainment center

My little white tv, still able to run video cassettes, and plugged in to the DVD player on the right, under the lamp, running my collection of DVDs and the current library borrow of Suits, is no more. 

It's about 30+ years old, and has been in failing health lately. Last night it gave a little sigh, switched off and there was a burning smell. Thank you old friend, yes, you did spark joy. Hours of it.

So I've ordered a portable DVD player, the kind with a screen, and I'll offer my old player on free cycle, because it's working fine, and find some way to dispose of the old tv. It's very small, so not a big issue.

I will also have a free surface, the top of the antique washstand the setup was on,  for stuff, maybe a table scape. TBA.

The stitching continues and this morning I got a great idea for the whole thing: instead of a backing, a fronting! A piece of fabric with many varied, organic shaped, cutout windows revealing all the blocks, reverse appliqued. This could be very cool, and it will  have sashiko stitching, attaching the front layer to the stitched blocks.

Anyway meanwhile

Here's where we are. The latest block is in progress.

Happy day, everyone, look out for incoming ideas, they're everywhere!