The flood warnings were accurate, weaving and animals

Those emergency alerts I was getting yesterday were on point for just a few miles north of me. A neighboring suburb got over five inches of rain in a couple of hours. And other local towns didn't do well.

Here in town there were wires down and power out, but not my neighborhood, lucky there. Today the humidity is in the 80s, with sun and rain. 

I did get a walk while the walking was good, though. 

Patrick McDonnell, creator of the great Mutts comic strip, and a NJ local, it's not just Bruce, is a mover and shaker in animal welfare.

He's just sent out a survey as part of his work to improve animal shelters. If you'd like to take part, please do. There's plenty of places to express an opinion not just check a box

Note this is a screenshot, so you need to cut and paste.

Then there's the loving hands at home side. The woven belt is getting near the end 

When I reach the heddle you see at the top, the work will come off the loom. 

And I finally pressed that linen?cotton? I got ages ago. It's been waiting by the ironing board for months. 

It took about eight minutes including filling the iron. One of those jobs that took up a lot of mental energy before I finally did it.

I think this may become that surcoat/robe I was musing about a while back. With a woven patterned band for a belt, hm.  Simple, minimal shaping. Hand stitching. Now that it's prewashed and ironed, there's no stopping me.

Today's early morning picking yielded a new bouquet 

Daisies, chrysanthemums, black eyed susan, a lone coreopsis, ivy, wandering dude. Outside a pink zinnia is opening, so soon there will be zinnias in the bouquets.

Happy day everyone, weave all the things, do all the projects. Or maybe just think idly about it, no need to rush into things.

 

Signs of spring and a surfeit of eggs

You can see it's nearly March, how did that happen, because the State extension people are out with their list of Banned Botanicals.

Quite a few of these around here, which I see when I'm out walking to the pond.  Some are escapees from cheap mass landscaping, some were planted before people knew better, some just barged in.  

There's a date by which you have to eradicate them if they're on your property and by which nurseries have to stop selling them if they ever did. 

I doubt if this is the whole list, just the most likely. 

So Know Your Enemy is a sign of spring to our extension crew. 

And while I was knitting and eating breakfast,  cheese muffin, and idly checking what's new on YouTube, I found Ash LG, making a surcoat.

Ash is a larper, always into creating historical costumes, but regularly remembering the keen followers with less skill than Ash. 

So here's my summer sewing future 

In previous summers I've handsewn skirts and a couple of sleeveless lined surcoats will go with them a treat, with a cap sleeved top. I have skirts and tops, now to check fabrics around the place for surcoat purposes. This is where my portieres find themselves conscripted into use. One is batik cotton, one Indian sari silk, and there are sheets.. 

You see the complete notes needed to do this including translating cm to ins, she's a Brit. I remember as a teenager making a thing like this. I also made several in the 70s to go with matching short skirts. We called them tunic sets and thought we were all that.

Meanwhile I'm dealing with having over-ordered eggs, by making a spinach quiche using five of them.  With onion, garlic powder, shredded cheese. Started on top of the stove then baked in the oven, in trusty castiron pan. Amazing how spinach cooks down.

And here's lunch. I didn't cook the spinach ahead of time, just tore it up and added to the caramelized onions. Then thirty minutes baking and it's done enough for my taste.

Happy day everyone, spring might soon get here, after maybe a couple more snowstorms, we never know in March.