Monday, Monday, Misfits and bananaz

Early morning walk on Monday, windy, and the narrow way I walk between houses and trees was a wind tunnel that morning. Fine on the way out, being blown gently along,  then not so much coming home and battling against it.

The light was sharp and bright for pictures, and I just took several random shots because all the views were lovely.

Home to send text greetings to wish friends a happy Thanksgiving and to say I'm thankful to have them in my life. I like to tell people how I value them, because I don't think most people get much of it.

Then Misfits arrived in the afternoon, the smallest box evah, and yes, look -- Bananaz!

Bananas for bread, sandwiches, smoothies, shipped a bit green so they'll be ready in a couple of days. 

Some conjoined mushrooms in this batch. 

Mushrooms ready to be sliced and frozen in meal size containers. Two boxes make six containers of slices.  I have various plans. Maybe some at Thanksgiving, some in omelettes, some with tofu and rice. 

Blueberries for desserts, yogurt likewise except a dab in soup and maybe pastry or crackers,  it's a good leaven. Aluminum foil is recycled. 

Did I mention that Misfits supports food banks all over the place, and my membership, which I took out as an alternative to shipping, goes toward feeding people? 

This week I needed few items, well stocked already. Every now and then I have a small order. 

In the US we have Thanksgiving coming up on Thursday and I have my annual reminder that people are not always unhappy to be alone on the holidays. Some people treasure that quiet time. 

So before inviting solo folk over do try to find out if they'll enjoy time spent in your family's company.

I had a couple of miserable Thanksgivings in the homes of friends whose family all talked to each other and, after greeting me, ignored me for the rest of the time. 

Don't assume your grown family will be hospitable to your friend. They may resent an outsider and make it plain. After a couple of those experiences, I would politely thank and decline invitations.  I liked my solo day.

Once I had the pet care service there was no need to explain -- from mid November to New Year was peak booking season. My mid December birthday had to wait till January!

Likewise don't assume your solo friends want you to drop in on them at Christmas because well, it's Christmas! My solo sister some years ago, when she lived in the city, had planned a lovely day with a good book, nice fire, cat and dog, glass of wine, to recover from a high stress job.

Instead she was bombarded with people "just stopping by for a minute on the way to xxx". She said she spent the day pretty much giving out her Christmas treats, and washing glasses while her friends polished off her Christmas wine! No wonder she retired to a small town that wasn't on the way to anywhere.   

And, if you wonder why she let them in, the harsh truth is that single older women can't afford to stiff-arm people, when it's clear they're home in a tiny house, window next to the sidewalk. A lot of people are  transactional, and supports are tenuous.

Anyway just a couple of pre-holiday suggestions. 

I did make those peanut butter granola bars, and they're very good. Handy for a snack or breakfast.

I substituted honey and molasses for the syrups in the recipe, added in ground flaxseed, good opportunity, used the pumpkin spice you saw me make, instead of cinnamon alone.

The bars are crisp and chewy, really good. This is great for breakfast. 

I was called on recently by a former student to advise a relative about natural dyeing. After a career in various helping professions, she's training to be a death doula. 

She wants to learn natural dyeing for -- shrouds. That's certainly unusual. I emailed her with a few beginning suggestions, and she plans to keep me updated on how it goes. Never a dull moment!

Speaking of which, the chickens were out, yay, they're still here, out at dusk so the picture isn't very good, but they have grown dramatically. Still peaceful, pecking and cheeping.

At this point, happy day, feel free to count your chickens!

The red carpet

 Sunday's chilly walk, down vest under coat, extra socks, because the cold penetrates when it's humid after overnight rain, rewarded me with a red carpet. I imagine the rain, as well as the freezing temps brought down the leaves, because they were lying where they fell. 

Full disclosure: I did bounce up the color in the third shot, because this is more like the reality. I don't adjust pictures usually, figuring it's already worth every penny you paid to get in.

Is everyone in the country having anxiety dreams? Saturday night was about being unable to lock an outer door. Interestingly, it wasn't about trying to get in, but about trying to keep people out. Boundaries. It made a change from being lost and it's getting dark and I'm on foot, anyway, so there's that.

I am really not in cooking mode just now, but Sunday's lunch was easy, spaghetti with butter and grated Parmesan on a bed of raw spinach and parsley. The greens wilted nicely when the hot pasta was added. Yogurt beaten with pure cane sugar and lime juice for dessert.

I'm thinking of making peanut butter oatmeal bars. In old age I'm developing a taste for peanut butter, at least the good kind I just got from Misfits. None of the dark metallic aftertaste I get from the famous labels. This is good. I even had a peanut butter and crushed blueberry sandwich Saturday night.

Bars doesn't count as cooking, more like assembling. So I think that will happen. It's breakfast food, which needs to be easy, I'm not in any kind of mood for work when I first get up and trudge glumly about.  It takes a while for me to accept the universe.

And trudging glumly results in darning 

These socks have darns already, in fact they're on the way to more darn than sock. Wabi sabi.  One minute there's a couple of thin places, then they come out of the laundry like this.  Ready for visible mending with contrasting colors.

Like this 

Done, ready to trudge.

Happy day everyone,  Misfits comes Monday because of the holiday, very small order, so it will be a small box I can use to carry the soft sculpture and stitched pieces I'm putting in the library display. Last year I did knitting and crochet, so this is a change. 

Firsts, and maybe lasts

 I don't do those "year of memories" type of posts some people enjoy at year's end, but this year has been a period of firsts around here. 

First joint replacement, first car sale, were pretty big, and the reunion with the local art group was significant. Also an expensive year with appliances and plumbing and HVAC and  kitchen wall repairs. And first for many years, Handsome Son is not working Thanksgiving so we will celebrate on the "right" day. 

Then there's the last drive in the car, which I can't remember, probably the food pantry, and a very nice possible last, this sudden blooming of the little chrysanthemum out front 

It just appeared overnight, when I was sure yet again that the season was done.

Shedding a car is pretty significant winnowing, and, the check having cleared overnight, corporate checks get the fast track, I've already directed the funds where they'll work for me.  It's a change to have money coming in instead of rushing out.

Happy day everyone, it feels so free not to be concerned about tonight's cold rain turning to ice on the car. Not my circus, not my monkeys.  Do you have a "not my circus" in your life just now?

Some very interesting textiles are coming my way soon, definitely my circus, thanks to a thoughtful friend, to add to my textile education and experience.  So many good people and so much good stuff.

 

Thursday, Friday, joy abounds

Thursday evening brought a lovely holiday surprise  

My great favorite and thank you so much, dear giver. 

On Friday, after many reminders, to make sure I would be present, at home, in person, with all the documents, fobs, everything, car emptied, all diamond rings removed from under the seats, Buyer David showed up bang on time. 

At first I saw him driving right past the house.  This routinely happens the first time anyone visits, because instead of the street being numbered odd one side, even the other, the quirky builders numbered the housed sequentially. 

Sooo people think they are looking at the side they want and suddenly they aren't. Number 65 is next door to 66 etc.   It's baffling to newcomers.

Anyway I talked him in, and it went very smoothly. All the paperwork was fine, and when it came to title signing, where any mistake voids the title, he filled out everything except my signature. Many, many papers to sign, I've sold a house with less paperwork. 

The offer was considerably higher than their estimate, and much higher than the other offers. This was clearly a good time to sell a good car. In the middle of it I even got a text from a neighbor who'd seen the company car, to make me an offer. Too late! I wouldn't sell to a friend anyway, it's a business transaction I'd rather not mix with friendship.

So now it's out front, plateless, the plates now in the house, the car not my property. I'm carfree and carefree. Check deposited, and now there's funds for ride services. One hour start to finish.

Then there was clerical work, to cancel the auto insurance and set up a refund, cancel AAA, find they won't refund because I should have canceled before November 1, arghgh, inform the HOA of the situation so nobody reports it as an abandoned car, and they were fine. 

No more worrying about tire pressure, nonstarting battery, weird alerts, moving in snow to let the plow in, it's lovely. 

Happy day everyone, I hope you can give up a burden of any kind, it's great.

Misfits and they slipped on the bananas

The squirrels were out Thursday morning to check on the pumpkin seeds. Word has got out.

This is a favorite food and they lost no time in finding and setting up to guard and eat them. 

Thursday the misfits insulated bag and ice block went out early, good thing because the delivery came very early shortly after nine am.

And, yes, we have no bananas. They were supposed to appear on top of the box in some fancy bag. 

I wonder if the drivers didn't get the message, since for years they've been delivering just a box. I reported it and their system must be blinking, because they only credited me with one bunch, instead of both. No doubt they'll fix this. They're good about it.

So, extra canned goods for the food pantry, cranberries for next week's sauce. I'll make it ahead and freeze it, not knowing when we celebrate this year, HS always working Thanksgiving.  

Here's the cranberry sauce in progress

Garlic paste because it's so useful everywhere I use garlic.  Spinach and parsley for greens, to be added into tofu, see it there, dishes and other things. A bunch dropped into hot soup is good, just wilts it enough. 

Apples as usual, blueberries for desserts and maybe muffins this week. Sardines for quick protein sandwiches. Diced tomatoes get in everywhere. One of my easy meals, really more assembly than cooking,  is chickpeas and tomatoes heated together with seasoning. It works like a stew, spinach gets in there, too. 

Thursday early the car buyer called, wondering if I'd like an earlier appointment, he had cancellations Thursday. But I left it at Friday, not wanting to be rushed. I didn't want to be wrangling groceries and the car sale together.

About anniversaries: I remember none of the dates of death of any relative other than one brother when I was young, and Handsome Partner, because that was also Handsome Son's birthday. I remember everyone's birthday though. I think it's better to remember them then, anyway.

Happy day everyone. It's okay to remember or forget, often it's not our choice.

Quiet Wednesday

 Wet cold windy weather, just right for reading and making soup.

I made a large pot, enough for about eight meals, of pumpkin (off the front step), sweet potato, yellow potato and leeks. Seasoning was berbere, turmeric, seasalt, smoked paprika, cumin. Added whole milk and called it cream of all-the-above.

With broiled whole-wheat spread with butter and garlic paste, it worked out well. Plenty more in the freezer.

I've been surprised to find I like the Ruth Galloway series of mysteries. I'd expected books about an archaeologist to be set in Egypt for some reason, to me the most profoundly boring of settings. Sand, heat, camels, hard writing, no. I don't like any of the Christies set there.

Then I find she's in Norfolk, and there are interesting characters at work, sometimes so many I have trouble with who's who, but I like it a lot. 

It's very cinematically written and I wonder if there are TV series about the books. It would lend itself to long shots of sea and sky, car chases, hair raising kidnappings, nice dogs, cute kids, druids, the pitch dark scenes beloved of TV producers, the lot. No doubt I'm the last person to discover I like this writer.

I have a small personal milestone to mention. Usually November is a difficult month for me, containing two late sisters' birthdays, the 7th and the 17th, and my parents' wedding anniversary, the 18th. This year I decided I'd mourned long enough for people who didn't value me as I valued them. And it went very smoothly. I got past all the days. Dues paid. Probably about time, too.

Happy day, everyone. It's okay to decide how much is enough. Sez Ted and Big Ursy 

And I'll purr to that sez Fluffaluffagus

Rimbaud, colored vowels, Textiles and Tea

Tuesday morning the sun, which had now swung right around, was casting great shadows through the trees onto the fence.

After that the wind got up and it got very wintry cold 

More about synesthesia, now in US spelling, in response to S. When I first realized my experience wasn't universal, was in my last year of high school. We got a new French teacher, new Oxford graduate, Daphne Nutbrown, great name and interesting teacher. 

This was an advanced class, doing explication de texte, a kind of close analysis, and she introduced us to Rimbaud's poem Voyelles,  on the colors of vowels. Here's an extract

I was thrilled about this, though my own colors were different, and plunged into discussion. I noticed a couple of other girls looking completely baffled, then one said "I've no idea what any of this means".  

Then I realized most of the group agreed with her. Oh. To me it seemed obvious. I remember being amazed in my turn! Up to then I'd never discussed it, any more than you discuss other senses, so normal. I thought. But Daphne was on it, and her colors were different, too.

About what senses are involved for me -- some, not all, of them. Every sensation or sound doesn't have a corresponding reaction. Many sounds evoke color and shape, color evokes taste, but taste doesn't evoke anything, names evoke color, shape, movement. Touch doesn't evoke anything, I think. 

So that's my best try for now.

I decided to skip the knitting group this week, a weird superstitious feeling that I'd rather not drive the car, just in case.  I wanted it to be in good shape for Friday. 

And I thought I'd wait on a ride service till next week, when I'll drop off food then go to the library to pick up my expected book and attend the group, all in one sequence.

Also I'm hopelessly congested, sneezing coughing. No it's not a cold. It's boyz with toyz.

Six guys with noisy tools and vehicles rounding up leaves and filling the air with dust and mold spores. I skipped walking, too. That's not fog, it's dust.

Textiles and Tea featured Andrea Blackmon, multi talented crafter, who aside from weaving, beading, crocheting, doll making and quilting, teaches weaving to young students with a range of learning issues. 

Here the focus was on her own work which she has exhibited, and these pieces are from a joint exhibit with another weaver based on squares. Her smallest one, the beaded tree, is 4" and her largest is 30" square. 

She uses a table loom, and it needs a skilled weaver to grasp what she said about weave pattern and structure. There's a lot of double weave here. 

On the right the image is by her colleague 

This is front and back of the same piece 

Happy day everyone, do what you can, don't pressure yourself the way I do!