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 White rabbits!

I watered all the plants early this morning after one of those two-sleep nights. 

It's where you wake at 3am, ready to get up, have a snack, make coffee, read, listen to an audiobook, then go back to bed. 

Then get up again a few hours later, for a second breakfast and a shower.  Except for the shower, people used to sleep this way. The idea of staying in bed all night is fairly modern.

I'll probably water the plants again this evening, though the humidity is in the fifties, not drying them out.

Very quiet day of reading about the Tudors, bit of weaving 

I'm liking how this is working. Definitely getting a bit of experience in managing warp threads and keeping them uncrossed. 

The shuttle is a pleasure to work with, too, much better than the usual blunt ones I've had. And this weaving doesn't bother my hands at all, unlike knitting. 

I did a bit of painting but found, shock, horror, I have no pilot pens. I use them for writing as well as drawing and I think they're all used up. So I ordered a supply. It took a couple of tries to find a source that didn't charge more for shipping than for the item.

All the daylilies are in bloom everywhere just now so I have to mark that.  This is watercolor crayons and graphite pencil.

Happy day everyone, off to make a roast chicken sandwich with a green salad for supper. Tomorrow Misfits arrives with fruit and other things I'm out of now. I have great sympathy for the drivers this week, brutal heat.

Billie the Pup wonders if these are the dog days. To her every day is a dog day.

 

Gardens, Textiles and Tea and art

The start of the heatwave kept me away from the needlearts group today, and since another member was stuck waiting for a service call, and another was out of town, I wonder if there was a quorum.

I was out early visiting plants and admiring my solar lantern, now hanging in the Japanese maple. It casts lovely soft interesting shadows around in the dark, very pleasing.

Indoors I checked out my favorites, succulents and the offspring growing in a miniature pot, fingernail nearby for scale.

Some weaving happened and as usual gave me ideas for more weaving. 

Then I thought about maybe painting a bit or drawing and said self, you're waving your arms,  giving unwanted advice to Mitch about trying a different art form, why not stop weaving for a minute, and do a bit of something else yourself?

So I did. First drawing I'd done since this time last year. A kind of rusty here goes nothing few minutes.  This is my entire watercolor setup. Little painting then a little drawing.

That was a nice little interlude and my hand started to remember how to do this. It's so much more subtle movement and closer observation than crafting work. Maybe I'll do it a bit more.

Later came Textiles and Tea with 

She's a weaver and mixed media artist, Caribbean tradition, who uses artificial hair as her main weft material. Her warps are cotton.

This was a commission for a special event 

She takes part in Carneval, and these pieces reflect her costume 

 

She's very young and I think we'll see a lot more of her work,  already appearing in juried shows and good galleries. She'll be in New York in September, check her website for details.

So that's today around here, happy day everyone, do something different to take your mind off whatever you need to take your mind off.

And while you're at it, US blogistas, please call or message your senators to urge passage of the bill before them, S4814. 

This bill restores and extends temporary protected status to Haitian residents. It's a workaround against the misbegotten SCOTUS decision to rescind it. 

It occurs to me to mention that every time I urge you to take some action, I've already done it myself. It's not just doasIsay! Just sayin.

I have some ideas about the hilarious range if Lyft drivers I've met recently, and the weird bosses I've had. I was reminded of bosses by some revenge fiction I've been hearing, terrible writing, so bad it's funny. But since the bad guys are exposed and shamed and the good guys win, it's clearly fiction. Another day for that.

Painting returns, climate concerns, and food ahoy!

 I've been following Marion's World on YouTube, repeatedly being reminded of all kinds of good ideas.

She's a brilliant stitcher, and uses painting when it serves her work. So I've been thinking about this, remembering my box of watercolor crayons, and realized this is the next stage of the page.

Just a chron series of stages I thought you might like to see 

The setup, after I finally located my brushes.

Here I've protected the previous two pages with a plastic bag 

And started to stroke in dashes of color among the stitching. I picked up color directly off the crayon with a wet brush, tested it on the spare bit of matching muslin, then plunged in 

This is close to complete. I probably will set a few stitches in that mountain image top left 

Then, while I had the crayons out, I painted a couple of pieces of fabric for future use, maybe as patches or applique material. At the bottom you see where the brush, nearly dry, creates lovely flying white, a technique from Asian art, and a favorite.

So that was a nice return to paint, but working with my current fabric project instead of a separate item on paper. It's that time of year when I always long to paint.

And I did return to put in a few finishing stitches.

Done. On to page four when I decide what it's about.

Speaking of water, there are new ominous maps of the parts of this state which may shortly vanish into the ocean. I'm about an hour's drive from the shore, but in a flood prone area 

I live in that pale section near Trenton, in the center of the state, and checked our local 

Elevation above current sea level. Hm. Okay. Maybe. 

There's always food. Here's the lastofthefish sandwich, wholegrain bread, with ta da! pickled red onions, a bit early, they need a few days.

And whoa is it good. Crunchy but not bitey sharp, really fine with a sandwich that needed a bit of livening up.

While I had lunch I was reading this 

I've been waiting months but it's here and worth the wait. Just started.

Also I've been thinking about ice cream, as you do, haven't had any for ages, prices just too much, I won't. Then I wondered about creating a blueberry frozen dessert from my yogurt, honey and whole milk powder.

Just a trial size, you see the container, not much yogurt left after I reserved some for the starter of the next batch. Couple of hours in the freezer, stir occasionally, and I must remember this.

This is definitely worth doing early in the day for a frozen dessert later. You could use cream, but I found the whole milk powder just fine.

Happy day everyone. Happy mother's day if it applies and you like it. I'll be visiting a local sick friend,  bringing this card I made for her.

New taste adventure, wallhanging shaping up

I'd ordered a dried red pepper new to me, and it arrived yesterday. Dramatic unboxing follows, complete with official first grinding, in the pepper grinder.

It's hot, but like nutmeg, too. This will be great in soup or shakshuka or spag sauce, and I'll include it in my next batch of berbere.  It now has a place on my salt and pepper shelf.

The wall hanging is shaping up, almost done with the applique blocks. 

I need to think about the final stage.

Happy day everyone, try new things, you never know!

Meanwhile, little painting, 4" h×6.5"w, sedum by sidewalk after rain.