Civic duties done, germination under way

The mail yesterday brought my voting receipt with peel off sticker

And the Xerces Society stickers 

I'm doing my best for the pollinators.

And here's what's happening on the patio

Most of the pots now have seedlings, the zinnias the biggest, the wildflowers microscopic. The peppermint has kept the squirrels away and the seeds are undisturbed. 

The bottom picture is for you, Chris -- I poked about and found the morning glories have self seeded from last year. I'd just let the seeds fall as they wanted and here they come. This is the first time ever they've done that. Always they've grown one year, rarely even blossomed, so no seeds to fall. This year your flowers are doing as you promised. Yay.

Then after this early morning wander about the deck, I made coffee and finished the weaving on the repaired loom. 

It's now a rug under my water glass on the coffee table, with room for the pill I take three times a day.

This was mainly a proof of concept piece, to be sure the loom was in working order. Now I'm going to create a narrow band weaving on the other loom, with the same krokbragd motifs, which will work better smaller and tighter. At least that's the plan. 

And here's the band design coming up after that, courtesy of poet Padraig O'Tuama who took the picture. 

This is looking like a tapestry to come.

He's a brilliant poet and nice man, very thoughtful and maybe what I make might end up with him. We'll see.

Here's some of his recent thinking 

This reminds me of the narrator in William Cooper's novel Scenes from Married Life, musing on how people tend to get attached to their problems. They're reluctant to solve them, even when there are available solutions, wondering how their lives would go on without them as the mainspring.

I've often thought about that since I read Cooper decades ago, so astute and so ruthless. 

Happy day everyone, beautiful day today, out walking and terrifying local teens busy hanging out and being cool, by greeting them! Shock, horror, mumble mumble.. I have to say something back, mrmrm. Tiny smile. They'll learn I come in peace.

Make all the things, grow all the things, greet all the passersby..

Haggard Hawks, voting and other important things

Are you up for a puzzle? I haven't offered one in a while, one thing and another. I did this one last night, and was pleased to be able to.

The letters provided are each used once.

And my PT has been pressing me to drive. I think he's concerned that I might get too nervous if I don't just go ahead and try it. We already established that I can get in on the driver's side.

So I decided to make a destination drive, to the voting dropbox to cast my ballot, thereby getting two birds.

We're voting in the primary for Governor and various county and local offices 

I did other administrivia, too, voting for Board members of my HOA, donation to local rescue squad, studying yet another increase in my gap health insurance before sighing and filing.  All my civic duties done.

I read this yesterday 

Chick lit, I guess - a romance and a puzzle and very readable to the end, with surprises, which I hadn't suspected.

Then I found this, at no cost, so why not, I've never read it, just seen the video version.

Another classic to explore. I do like Kindle reading as much as audiobooks.

And just for the halibut

Happy day everyone, what's your stretch goal, if any, today? Mine is the short drive, doesn't sound like much, but it's looming.

Ted sez 

 

Chipmunk capers, Misfits box, and Mrs Gaskell

Chipmunks in various blogs lately and why I look askance at the cute little critters.

To wit: library friend reported a chipmunk got in through an open patio door after she'd repeatedly reminded her husband to shut it every time because of chipmunks and squirrels on the patio. 

She thought she saw something flittering across the living room to the kitchen where the dishwasher was running. Couple of minutes later, explosion in kitchen, flames and water together shooting about,  fire fighters cut water and power to extinguish the fire and found a tiny charred body in the wiring. I don't know what she said to her husband.

To second wit: pet supply store friends came home from vacation, to find water running down the driveway, discovered the basement was full, couple of inches throughout the ground floor, and many tiny toothmarks in the pvc basement water supply pipes,  through which water had evidently been jetting while they were away. 

Also a drowned chipmunk. And all appliances drowned and needing replacement. Serious furnace damage.

On a cheerier note, I have added to my classic Kindle library a complete Mrs Gaskell, and I'm currently rereading Cranford with much more appreciation than when it was a school set book. 

While I'm stitching, I also found a good audio version, so my FOMO is satisfied.

Before the pink Misfits van arrived, I fitted in a walk to admire late patio flowers, natural color combos and fall colors at the pond, little wind coming and going 

Misfits day

Great deal on white sweet potatoes, which will be roasted, baked, souped, various meals.

The yogurt front needed a boost from Nancy after several weeks of homemade. The flour may become bread. The big size seen here isn't often available. Cooking with Will Yeung uses up rice, so there's reinforcements. 

The ground turkey will be burgers soon, and spaghetti sauce, and the chicken will be in the depths of the freezer till I need chicken again.  Mozzarella because it's a melting change from cheddar. Future toasted cheese sandwiches.

I also found a good chickpea pasta dish which I'll try with the fettuccine currently in the freezer. It can work with my other favorite, cannellini beans, too. Hummus because it's been a while since I had any I hadn't made. And I've been out of vanilla forever, high time.

Nice haul, and as usual, great quality.

Early voting in North Carolina is booming. Huge turnout. Many anecdotal reports of GOP voting Harris, had it with the wannabe dictator. They may split their ticket, so we can't count on their Senate yet, but we'll see. 

Ticket-splitting, for blogistas in furrin parts,  unfamiliar, is where you vote one party for one or more offices, another for other positions. 

There are usually a lot of offices up for voting in a Presidential year because they seize on voters who don't turn out for the midterms and other elections. Unlike immigrants who make sure they're heard in everyone election no matter what's up for decision.  President or dog warden, hear our voices.

In primaries many states only permit registered party affiliates to vote, in their own party primary, some variation across states. 

But in Presidential elections you vote freely any candidate, any party,  you choose. And you can usually, in any election, write in the name of someone not on the printed ballot.

Tuesday knitting group, Textiles and Tea

 Tuesday I dropped off my ballot in the dropbox 

Then on to the knitting group nearby in the library, only two today, but here's the table set up with books to borrow.

Talk ranged over making hats, embroidery, Maryland Sheep and Wool last weekend, freezing weather, gardening, Misfits market, local farm CSA and more.

Home to Textiles and Tea with a spinning wheel restorer, John Sturtevant. Not being at all into spinning wheels, I was surprised at how interesting I found it, largely because of his love for what he does and his love of learning. And what a range of wheel designs.

this is his wife Kathy, testing restored wheels before they go back to their owners. She originally got him interested in wheels repair and restoration.

Here's a trolley wheel, really unusual, which he demonstrated on video.

His website is on the id slide, for more info.

Then I got back to my embroidery, which is my happy place just now 

A range of stitches, some improvised, and I'm starting to see what I'm doing here.,and what needs to happen next. Wednesday is always quiet, so it may be a stitching day.

Happy day everyone, do your own happy stuff if you can. Sometimes in hard times it can be only a fleeting experience, but worth looking for. I know this is true right now for some blogistas. I see you. Been there too.

Stitching plain and fancy, voting

 I finally got around to repairing Gary's window sail. It's silk and a bit fragile, probably because it's been in the sun,  so it was tricky. 

I restitched one end to cover the tear along the fold, then reinforced it with lace and turned the end over so it's  only about half an inch shorter, won't affect the drape. 

That should work fine.

Warmer today but I was tired, doesn't often happen, but I lay like a sack of sand in the lounge chair on the patio, may have slept, read some of the migration book, and finally got around this evening to some stitching.

The tree is under way, a lot more to happen around the roots, and there will be foliage. I can add to the length of the roots with direct stitching, likewise change the branches. Quite a lot more to do now that it's starting to get going. 

The fluffy mossy stuff is a soft thread, unplied and sort of shredded, then couched down. I discovered it by accident when I unplied the yarn at another point, and the single ply disintegrated, so that was an idea to use here. No idea goes unused. 

I'm working with a piece of glass slid under the page so I don't accidentally stitch it to the next one.  And I notice I'm stitching with either hand, depending on which is best, a bit tricky navigating this piece with two pages done and needing protection, and a length of unworked pages getting in the way.  Mixed dominance is very useful when you're doing things like this, or drawing and painting, switch hands as needed.

Also the other important thing I did was, drumroll, vote! 

Here's the newly designed ballot that the lawsuit was about, candidates in alpha order, no special favored positioning, the abolished County Line now gone. Ding, dong, the line is dead.

The municipal dropbox is close to the Tuesday Knitting Group location, so I'll vote on the way there.

Happy day everyone, I did good things today, as you did too, I expect.