Orchid still going, doors, knitting group,Textiles and Tea

 

Morning light shining across the backyard and through the orchid blossoms.

Tuesday started with an appointment with the audiologist because I was missing words here and there and wondered if my hearing was deteriorating. Turns out it's Ruth and Laura's wires. They're now replaced and everything sounds clear again.

I got lost both ways. I often overshoot the ENT  office driveway because it's set back among trees, like a lot of destinations around here. 

Today I was about to turn in the drive and realized all I could see were earthworks and digging equipment. So I drove on thinking I'd turned too soon. No. They're digging up everything in front of the building which is still there and operating with half a parking lot and no exit. 

So I  got to the appointment after all, very successful, and managed to get out again after edging back and forth with another car whose driver didn't grasp this narrow area was now two-way. We managed not to back into the ditch or tangle bumpers and I was off home. Up to a point. 

The back road I take home was closed, with a detour sign in place.  I followed this but evidently missed the end of it and had a lovely country drive around a local science lab campus. Eventually I found a fairly legal u-turn place and wound my way back to a road I recognized, then finally, to my surprise, reached home.

I'd just put lunch -- roast potatoes, baby broccoli and a patty of spicy plant-based sausage -- in the toaster oven, when Mender Mike arrived with the newly finished drawer fronts and doors.  

Before

After, looking like new, worth the money 

Certainly a lot less than buying new. 

Then I was off to Tuesday Knitting Group, a cheerful group working in everything from a  stuffed cat, to a finished item being modeled here, with a terrible picture from your wobbly photographer, knitted socks, headband, a needlepoint seat finally picked up to finish after many years on hold.

The stickwoven strap on the bag interested the librarian and I showed her this model bookmark for beginners,  

woven, using drinking straws. I've taught this skill to kids but P the librarian thinks it might be nice for her monthly senior crafters. It can be done in one session, from first learning to finishing. And I had a request to bring in my weaving sticks next week, to see how it works.

Convo ranged over hearing aids, getting lost in your own town, forgetting names, cooking for one, baby pictures, face blindness, bees, bereavement, assisted living and more.

Home to a pot of tea and Textiles and Tea with Ruth Hallows, an indigenous weaver from the Pacific North West, who introduced herself in her own language.  She works daily in the practice of the traditional style and form seen in ceremonial regalia. Further down you'll see a picture of one of her ancestors in full dance regalia.

There are only fifteen of these robes extant, all in museums in Europe and Russia, not available for the sacred dancing,  but modern indigenous artisans have reverse engineered them to recreate robes.  

Laws were passed outlawing this weaving, on pain of having families broken up. Ruth's great grandmother had to comply in order to keep her family intact. In the US these laws have been revoked. In  Canada they're still, shamefully, on the books, though not enforced. So now the artform has to be revived.

She teaches the traditional Ravenstail and Chilkat designs, of the Northwest Coastal People from whom she's descended.  But she asks that non-native learners respect the sacredness of the ceremonial robes and significance of the colors and designs and use their skills making other weaving, not copying robes.

There are very few people who currently have mastered these twining skills, executed with a loose hanging warp, all the pattern tension and definition created by the weaver's hands. She would like more people to learn and preserve these skills.

She showed a couple of works in progress and a workshop of women learning the skill.

Sponsored by WARP (Weave a Real Peace), this was a powerful episode. If you're not familiar with WARP, check their website. They're active in grass roots peace work and intersectional connection via the textile arts.

Here's her great grandfather in ceremonial regalia for dance.

Here she's showing a drum which features the ovoid shapes characteristic of this art form, seen in the textiles. Each ovoid influences the next and all belong in the whole. It's a metaphor for their philosophy of life.

Simple setup to learn a difficult twining art form

Here she's showing how a piece is started on that stick, the warp threads secured at the top and left to hang. This is a Ravenstail design depicting the return of the salmon.

This is a personal artwork depicting the concept of unmasking

And here's a big artwork in progress started last spring, to be completed early 2026.

 Happy day everyone, Tuesday here was action packed!

Gardening, Misfits and podcasts, Mutts

Thursday, another cool sunny day, was fine for a bit of garden cleanup. I pulled out the sorrel and dayflowers, which will come back next year, and since the morning glories are fading and setting seed, I removed the supports and pushed the plant down, hoping the seeds will be protected there and we'll get them next year.  

They were a definite success 

Not so successful were the potatoes which never flowered, though they had plenty of foliage. So there was no harvest when I pulled them from the container. That's a first.

In the other hand, a little potato which evidently planted itself among the dayflowers emerged 

That one hadn't flowered either. Strange year.  I'll try again next year.

Misfits arrived early, Kareem's morning shift.

Interesting couple of surprises. The gala apples weren't there, already credited for them, and that drink, not ordered, was. I tried it, pretty good, various juices and a milky base, probably oat.

Coconut milk for the food pantry, it's on the list of items there. When people qualify, income, residence,  etc, they fill out forms where they alert the pantry about food allergies, religious rules, and general preferences based on availability. I think that's where Erum, the manager, derives her list for the website. So this week I checked and found coconut milk is requested. Fine. Done. I do canned fruit and veggies too.

The large size surplus spinach is excellent, very glad I got it again. Maybe a spinach pie, not sure. And baby broccoli, also beautiful leeks.

This time I chopped the leeks keeping the green part and white separate in case I get fancy. I usually don't bother.

I made the hot spicy plant-based roll into patties which I froze on parchment paper, easy to separate out one as needed. And the whole dates, favorite Medjool, will be a snack replacing the apple I usually have.

By the time I've washed and prepped and frozen or fridged or bowled what's needed, swept the floor and broken down the box for recycle, I'm ready to sit down.  Another week's food on its way.

I did try mixing yogurt with fresh chives, cut short, and a sprinkle of dried basil and spices, on potato bread, with afternoon tea on the deck. That was worth doing again. Maybe I'll make crackers for this purpose, too, good savory snack.

About podcasts, I've started following Shedunnit, about crime fiction, very good discussions, ranging all over the last hundred years, very knowledgeable, and easy to listen to while you knit or go to sleep.

I've also found the podcast version of Lucy Worsley, her Lady Killers series about real life female murderers. She's just as interesting without the historic buildings and costumes, she does love to dress up. But her presentation doesn't need dressing up, really interesting and well researched.

I get my podcasts on the free version of Spotify, which comes with ads, but not in the middle of the podcast. 

Happy day everyone, and if you have recommendations of podcasts, not the political ones like Daily Beans, Daily Fail, Meidas Touch, etc, we know them. More literary or historic ones is what I'm looking for just now. Thank you kindly.

Kitchen done! More about keys

This morning's walk was beautiful, cool sunny weather, happy neighbors on their patios, including one who's just finished getting his redone with tiling. He was so pleased when I admired it, though I think hello and yes was the limit of his English, but we communicated anyway.

What happens when you neglect to move the kids' bikes before the landscapers come around.

 The Sleeping Beauty effect.

And this looks like a natural object at this point, so weathered 

This morning Michael the Contractor came, caulked the cabinet, chatted about his mother, the food pantry, his noisy neighbors, crunchy tofu, he loves it.  

Also I paid him, very fair price, though a stretch for me. I rationalize that it's a once only job. I may have converted him to contribute to the food pantry; he didn't know where it was till now. Also he's going to see if his mother can get the bone density injections I get.  Quite a productive convo.

About locks and keys, when I had the pet care service I had many keys I kept safely, coded for security. One time I got an anguished call from a client, so sorry to disturb me, could I rescue him? 

He happened to live close by, which I knew but he didn't, for my security -- I didn't broadcast my address. Anyway he lived in a third floor condo in my development,  only one possible entrance from the staircase. 

He was getting his excitable Golden retriever ready for a walk, dog jumped at him, he staggered out the door,  the door slammed shut, he heard the lock drop! 

This left the dog inside with the keys, owner locked outside, luckily with phone and my number saved. I brought my copy of his key, let him in, no charge,  and he begged me not to mention it to his wife, who would never let him live it down! I did get a nice Christmas gift that year. No connection I'm sure..

Happy day everyone, try not to let your dog lock you out! You feel pretty silly explaining it when you need help.

Up to now: the Gubbernor ordered the rainbow crosswalk near the Pulse, scene of a mass shooting tragedy, painted over. A crowd of LGBTQ+ people protested with joy, flags and chants and repainted the rainbow. Once more Gov. Boots had it painted black. Once again the rainbow returned. Up to now. 

Don't let anyone dim your rainbow! Screenshot this one to preserve it in case Boots paints it over again.

Misfits, a walk in the park, a Month in the Country

Out early Thursday morning before the heat arrived, I did a walk I haven't done for a while, across to the park.

It involves crossing another development, climbing up a little slope and then you're on the perimeter path.  Very pretty, interesting trees, quite a few planted since I was last here, plenty of friendly early morning walkers out, and both further and with a higher degree of difficulty (!) than my pond walk.

That was a good feeling, because it really was a pain free walk despite bits of climbing, then home to feel smug.

And I've been emptying the kitchen bit by bit, no need for weight exercises, swinging all kinds of appliances and lugging crates and dishes round two corners, then the shelves they were on 

Misfits arrived around noon, so that was more weight exercises.

Canned goods for the food pantry, bread because I'm operating field-kitchen style and not baking, that's my story, beautiful brown free range eggs, olive oil because I'm nearly out, surprising how much I get through, yum plums, vital yogurt and equally vital chocolate cherries. 

Good food and walking are two mainstays around here.

That and endless entertainment from neighbors, several visits from Gary, watering my outdoor plants,  conferring about hearing aids, he's finally going for it, flowering shrubs, his speed crazed vacation on mountain roads, loved it, one visit from another neighbor about her health issues and where was my car and her cat's arthritis. Never a dull moment.

The heat set in again Thursday, so the afternoon was about being indoors reading King short stories, and a murder mystery, Queen of Poisons.  And drawing, see below.

A____n does this weird thing when you keep reading your Kindle. They send all kinds of attempts to sell you books that may not suit you, but they'd like to move them. And if you mostly borrow books, they're really desperate to make a sale. 

All kinds of books appear on your screen, some you'd like but not for that money,  all the way to some they're practically paying you to take. 

This is how I now have a complete Turgenev, because the algorithm leapt from Writers and Lovers to there. It makes computer sense when you think about it, but zero literary sense. But at 99c minus my 99c credit, the price is right.

One summer as a teen I read all the Russian novels in my town library, in North Yorkshire typical freezing summer weather, great Carnegie endowed library. 

But they didn't have any Turgenev. There  were Tolstoy, Chekhov, Gogol, Dostoevsky, but it's taken till now to check out Turgenev.

Which may prove that algorithms now and then work, or that some people don't know when to quit.  If I eat chocolate cherries while I read Turgenev I'll have a permanent sense memory, as I do of the winegums I ate through Great Expectations.

You really never know what branch lines my train of thought might find itself on.

But drawing continues. Here's today's drawing leaning again its model. In the background on the mantelpiece are the earlier ones you saw.

And here's a closeup 

Happy day everyone, stay cool or warm depending on which hemisphere you're reading from sez

Ted and Big Ursy