Frogs and bands

Today's pond walk included daylilies; all those buds of yesterday are now in flower

Jewelweed in flower

Frogs galore, you see them looking at you? And circles where they just dived under

The pond was crowded, but I only saw a couple of turtles today.

Home again, and I got going on the latest band 

It's moving quickly and I'm developing some skills at maintaining an even width. I'm liking this, and I'm also liking being at the narrowband loom again.

We recently had a discussion about the saying that if a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing badly. 

My bandweaving is a case in point. I'm not yet very good at it, but it's worth doing. The notion that a thing's only worth doing if you can do it well is a false position. Even if your best isn't yet very good, it's still worth doing. 

My hill, on which I'll die!

 

Happy day, making stuff. I may make another whistle lanyard similarly. I think I have another whistle.

 

Early morning and beanz and Garydemonium

Here's my view now the giant evergreen is gone. It's so much better.

Before, I could see part of the fence and the evergreen to the left. Everything else blotted out. 

And I finally, after years of not doing it, made a three bean salad. It's taken me this long to assemble the beans.

Natural art arrangement 

Now this is in the fridge ready for the 90plus degree heat we're expecting in the next couple of days. 

 I managed to get the new band mounted onto the loom. This is the hardest part, keeping the threads untwisted and under tension while wrapping them over and over the headpiece of the loom and installing it while keeping the warp threads secure at the other end, it needs three hands.

This morning I spied frogs in the pond. Here's a completely unconcerned one, studying me.

you lookin at me?

And I finished the first sock.

It was good I got all this done earlier because the afternoon which started with reading on the deck soon disintegrated into Gary's moving operations. 

A glass table I've been keeping for him being bubble wrapped by two relatives, the younger one the person I taught to make cordage, and her grandmother, old friend and future next-door neighbor. Gary provided plenty of bubble wrap..

Everybody brought their dog over, plus various other relatives carrying boxes of fragile stuff to the van.  Gary and grandson carried out the table to the truck.

Never a dull moment. They're lovely people, so I think all's well.

I seem to have a purple garden this year 

Happy day everyone! I have endless entertainment without leaving home. 

Frogs, nuts and Misfits

This morning's pond walk yielded one tiny turtle swimming towards me, little head above water, body maybe four inches long and round, until he got close to the shore. Then he saw me and did a quick u-turn. He may be young but he's smart. No pictures, he wants his privacy.

And there's a frog sitting on the side, behind a screen of nuts. Those nuts will all fall to squirrels. Humans don't stand a chance.

Misfits was welcome today, definitely low in supplies.

Canned food for the food pantry, from their list, beautiful brown eggs, the kind with golden yolks which stand up when you break the egg. The shells are sturdy and take a bit of breaking, too 

Strawberries at peak, also blueberries, to accompany yogurt and granola for breakfasts.

Yellow potatoes, for roasting with the chicken thighs, mushrooms to be sliced and sauteed for omelettes, bread for chicken sandwiches and egg salad ditto.

All very simple and good food. Next week I'll stock up on green vegetables, some big rescued spinach coming, which would otherwise be juiced or land filled, too large for the retailers.

I already have sardines and tuna, also various beans. I think I'll do okay, with very little prep.

Another friend, in her sixties, has just bought a single story house, reluctantly leaving her beloved big place because her knees won't do stairs any more. 

She's postponing joint replacement, and I'm encouraging her to reconsider. Life is so much easier when you're not hurting. And it's hard to be fit when you're in pain. But she has to decide. I know what it's like to feel too rotten to think about surgery, though. 

Currently I'm reading a Donna Leon 

A Refiner's Fire,  

I just started it and I may postpone my viewing of Season Six of Foyle's War until I finish the Leon.

Gary is off away tomorrow, family time in Florida, for a week and a bit. Maybe  I'll get my contractor friend Mike to replace the front door lock then,  much less activity, more focused. Now Gary wants to replace my front hall flooring to match the kitchen.. Today has been punctuated with visits ranging from discussing morning glories to my holding a piece of plastic in the wind on the back window of his Beemer because it leaks and he's trying to get it replaced. He needed a second pair of hands to get it in place.  He doesn't want rain to get in while he's away. Always something.

Happy day everyone, be friendly to your neighbors. You never know if you might need a hand with a plastic sheet in the wind. Or three sheets in the wind.

Today is Handsome Partner's anniversary, as well as Handsome Son's birthday.

Friday and a frog. Exterminator prep Also indigenous fire culture

Friday morning brought this slug, evidently the one responsible for the holes in the leaves 

I flung him far into the trees, plenty there for him.

And the pond walk yielded birdsong, frog sounds and this mushroom

And here's one of my frog friends, not too worried about my presence. I wonder if it's like young rabbits, more curious than alarmed.

I got back with the Exterminator John for my quote and found he'd sent it days ago, never arrived, not in spam, trash, nowhere. He re-sent it, expensive job sigh, I approve, he's coming Saturday morning. And asked me to empty the storage closet. Oh. Nobody available to help, so I did it. 

The view from my front door, there's more round to the right 

Some of that is dumpster bound, some Freecycle bound, it's a good opportunity to winnow anyway.

Thursday brought a Fowler Museum online presentation  I'd forgotten signing up for, good thing I also signed up for a reminder.

Lovely young graduate student presenting her Master's project, a current exhibit at the Fowler Museum of UCLA, and this Zoom presentation.

Here you see left a plant untouched by fire, growing less fully. On the right, opened up by fire, it grows freely and provides basket fibers.

Left is a sand painting depicting night and day, right sparks of fire and flowers together

The poem is set out to depict the mountains of the poet's childhood

The poppies are California icons and they flourish after fire.

The presenter, from a long line of basket weavers, is now far from her home territory, and is learning the style of her adopted region, but she plans to return and continue in the tradition of her family.

This exhibit is part of a movement to reclaim the cultural fire practices of indigenous people, and further to reclaim them for the women and queer people who have been excluded from their own practices, reserved for straight men. It's a double task. 

For centuries the indigenous people tended the land using fire to cultivate and protect it, until colonized. Then fire was outlawed and the wrongheaded Smoky Bear campaign to eradicate even useful fire resulted in the current undergrowth and kindling situation ending in massive out of control fires.

Fire, life, renewal and art are all part of the indigenous tradition.

If you're anywhere near the Fowler Museum, this would be worth a visit.

Happy day, everyone. Everything is good in its place. I'm still looking for mine.

Meanwhile this came in the mail with the perfect card for the likes of me.

Thank you J, perfect deck reading to get my mind off termites.

And I updated the daily bouquet