Happy Mothers Day, and change of plan

Lovely ecard arrived from Handsome Son, who's working a full day today, so can't visit.  I played it several times!

And here's some good thoughts about art

Yes to just about all of this.

The weaving needed a change of plan, because I forgot, when I threaded, that pattern threads need to be doubled. My single threads didn't show up legibly. So I decided to continue anyway, with a medley of pattern motifs to see how it works.

Each mistake I make shows me why things are done the way they are. All good experience. And this band is giving me the chance to try a lot of the five pattern thread motifs in the book. They'll look different because of the single threading, and that will be interesting.

I think soup will be on today. Carrot, pumpkin, red lentils. This will be a nice color. 

The containers are whey from the paneer making, and I added in potatoes as well as the ingredients you see here, to make it thicker. I used two containers of whey and the third, still frozen, is back in the freezer.

Here's lunch, decorated with the last of the chive blossoms from the paneer.  It was a golden lunch, because dessert was mango chunks with the last of the paneer 

I had a great postprandial walk, local kids at the start playing football 

Then down the greenway between houses and golf course 

Then chats with neighbors and exchanged greetings for Mother's Day, to turtle watching at the pond 

And young golfers out doing pretty well. These are not the duffers.

Home again and the honesty is developing seedpods. I'm going to have a good harvest. The plants coming up among the sage are interesting -- they're running to seed while the sage blossoms are budding out. Outside there are iris budding up, after years of foliage.  I think they too are glad the butterfly bush is gone. 

So, reading on the deck, sleeping happened too, pot of tea, after checking the iris 

These are heirloom purple and white bearded iris, descended from some planted nearly 100 years on a now deceased friend's grandmother's farm south of here. There are others I gave to neighbors now in bloom, because they're in a sunnier location.

Tea featured several visits from a squirrel who kept forgetting I was there and suddenly realizing ohemgee a human, and dashing away, once with a carpenter bee in pursuit. They're territorial insects, and the squirrel was pottering about in the honesty where the bee was being busy.

Lovely Mother's Day, texted wishes, in person wishes, ecard, it was all good.

Now back to weaving, I realized you can try out a series of designs without making a whole band for each. Just because that's the tradition doesn't mean I hafta. This way I'll have a band that's also a sampler, and a few experiments thrown in. 

Happy day everyone. For some people this is a difficult day. If that's you -- it's just one day, soon done. Hang in there, sez Ted and Big Ursy and Pony and Ursula.

You saw it here first

Today was about designing a patterned band with high hopes. This may or may not work, but trying is how I'm going to find out. 

I've been working it on my head, but finally committed it to paper, more or less. Eagle eyed blogistas will see what this is about. 

Then I figured out the colors, five green pattern threads, flanked by tan, then off-white background and weft.

 Then I cut the threads, thredded the heddle, methinks thredded looks nicely medieval there, and mounted the outfit on the loom. 

You may notice that I'm not using the heddle I made. That's because the holes didn't hold up against the strong warp thread, which just cut through. So, change of plan, I unthreaded my cardboard heddle and threaded up one with a similar dent, thread count per inch. 

And we'll see how it goes.

In medias res, Gary came dashing in with a box of small computer parts in case I could use them in art, very good idea to check. I couldn't but I liked the gesture. 

He's in the middle of packing, I've already Freecycled some items for him, and I expect there will be more. He's using my Misfits boxes, which are really well designed, intended for carrying, with handholds, a big point when you're lugging stuff about.

Rainy today, not good for walking but I'm doing movement inside the house.

The patio looks lovely just now, the honesty still doing great and the sage coming through it.

 Soon I'll plant seeds. That big split leaf houseplant on the right is a guest, which will leave when Gary does. Along with the posh glass table I've been using as a staging area for packing art for shipping. I did cover it with a cloth.

Before I leave the subject of condominium ownership, I had two documents to deliver for the townhouse I live in. They wanted one notarized. 

This involved making an appointment at the library, where the fee is blessedly small, and arranging a ride to get there. The HOA manager had planned to be available at the clubhouse yesterday from 2:00 pm.  So I'd fitted in the notary to suit. 

I walked over to the clubhouse, really the pool house,  at the appointed time, with both required docs, and found a knot of owners waiting for him to arrive. 

The gate was locked, pool area not yet open for the season, so we waited and chatted and grumbled outside.  Another young man joined us, saying he'd come to help the manager, and was also waiting to get in.

After half an hour we all started to get a bit mutinous and one owner asked if the young guy would take our docs and hand them over when manager Shiam arrived. Which he agreed to. I got his name, insurance purposes, he's the son of a Board member, so I handed over my stuff too and left, not best pleased. 

I will not hesitate to hold this non -appearance over him next time I need a bit of leverage, heh. Well, home ownership is a rough game, face it! Little things like retaliation bring great joy.

I hope he's okay though. 

Happy day everyone, strategy is everything,  from weaving to bureaucracy.

Jam, knots, braids, HOAs

Yesterday I made a small pot of blueberry jam 

Enough for me for now

And today paneer with chive blossoms, a softer version this time, very good with fruit.

Containers of whey for upcoming carrot and pumpkin soup 

This is really good, so much more flavor than the kind you buy.

I'm returning to my patterned bands as I learn some finishing techniques. Here's one with whipped ends right,replacing the temp knots left, 

and one with braided ends, the latest band off the loom.

There's more to do after the weaving's off the loom. I think next will be the heddle I made with special slots for the pattern threads.

Following on our condo chats and how some people vow never to live in one, a few thoughts.  

I've been a renter, an owner of a freestanding house and owner of an HOA townhouse and an HOA condo apartment. My credentials!

I'm also a single older woman with neither financial nor physical strength to run a free standing house. Contractors are not easy to deal with when there's no man in the picture.  The unnecessary struggle is very real, and exhausting. Also expensive.

That leaves the other choices. Renting puts you at the mercy of a landlord in a state where there are only vague guidelines on rent raises and what's reasonable.  To rent a house exactly like the one I live in is currently $3k a month. Plus utilities. That's more than my income.

One bedroom apartments are currently $1800 monthly plus utilities. Rents have doubled in the last five years 

Then if you want to buy a townhome like mine, they're currently about $550k for two bed two and a half bath, 1200 sq ft footprint.

Condos like my rental are up to $200k.

I bought when prices were lower, the condo, mine only, not joint, I bought at rock bottom because the market was poor at that time. We bought the townhouse from the builder at a desperate price because they wanted to complete the sales and leave the governance.

For a single older woman the trade offs of living with an HOA are: there's a massive inbuilt insurance of the whole development, trash is picked up, snow cleared, including paths and walkways, landscaping is done, mowing, dead trees removed, exterior maintenance and repair is HOA work. 

I'm responsible for the inside of the townhouse. Likewise the condo apartment I rent out.  I couldn't afford the maintenance and repair on a freestanding house,  all of which I'd have to contract out.

So that's why I live where I do, and it's a beautiful place. If you have the strength or partner or finances to live elsewhere, you're very fortunate. It's good to remember you're speaking from an advantaged position.  

But when you don't have those privileges, you make other choices.  I'm happy with mine despite the drawbacks I've been complaining about lately!

Happy day everyone, play the hand you're dealt! It's all good sez Ted and Big Ursy and Pony and Ursula 

 

Pond walk with frogs, chives, Misfits box

This morning the rain had stopped, cool, in the sixties f.,  cool enough for layers for this chilly old party.

The frogs are out and leaping into the water, each with a Geronimo yell. And I heard the first redwing blackbird of the year, great excitement. 

Before Misfits arrives, I'm making Nigella's sardine pasta, the doings organized here.

 It's sounding pretty good.

It's one of those recipes where you add the drained pasta into the sauce and continue cooking for a minute. I didn't have scallions -- used them up in that roasted chicken vegetable extravaganza -- so I used diced red onions.

You use a can of sardines in olive oil, and she suggests draining the can but using other olive oil for the pan, why? I drained the can into the pan to cook the garlic and red pepper seeds. 

I used shredded mozzarella rather than the shredded Parmesan she likes, mainly because I wasn't in a mood to be grating Parmesan and the mozzarella was right there.

It's quite fun to make and about 15 minutes tops, from finding the spaghetti behind the cans to serving. At least three more meals here.  

I also have plans soon for paneer studded with chive blossoms, because they're here

And I'm comfort-reading Britannia Mews, an old favorite 

Meanwhile, right after lunch, the Misfits van arrived, Ronald driving.

This layout looks like a good composition. Nice diagonals working with verticals, but I digress.

Wall of cans mostly for the food pantry, and Gary added in a case of small applesauce jars. Big bunch of spring tonic dandelion greens, some of which might make a nice quiche, with some of the eggs there. Chard for anywhere I need greens, maybe also in the quiche, we'll see. 

Lovely Envy apples, and no Bananaz because I have a surfeit of apples, also blueberries in the freezer, maybe for a tiny batch of jam. Next week will be about berries of various kinds. 

Look at those beautiful potatoes. They're probably a little undersized for the supermarket, but just right for me. I'll parboil them today and refrigerate, then use as I go. Mostly for roasting.

Happy day, with nature and birdsong and food arriving on the step, and I'm thinking about a new artwork featuring 8647...watch this space.

 

Weaving frenzy with gardening and a dino

The bandweaving continues with a leap ahead in skill. See current output plus WIP on the loom.

Left the first try where I found I needed to rethink yarn choices. The white thread is braided and doesn't pack down well. Middle the second brave attempt, where I was defeated here and there by difficult to read variegated yarn. Both these ended up looking like even weave, not the goal. Warp faced is the goal, where the vertical threads are visible, the weft, horizontal threads hidden. But I hadn't figured out how to get there.

The work on the loom is where I finally realized that there was a starting move I hadn't grasped,  which drew in the threads to get the desired warp faced weaving. Clever me. Finally.

The interesting thing is that this happened when I was setting up for a different weft design, which I love, clasped weft.  I found it is impossible with this corrected weave because it needs to be a weft faced weave.

It cracked me up to realize that trying another weave for a nice change from struggling,  accidentally solved the problem of the previous two. Chance favors the prepared mind! Also no matter what serious endeavors I undertake, comedy breaks through.

Anyway after this exciting session I thought I could do a bit of gardening, weather warm enough, cloudy. The henbit has died back enough that the bees have moved on, so I pulled it out, not too hard, and I just got done when I was surprised by rain.

Bag of debris ready to go out under the trees.

That amount of work is about my limit today. Good thing I have a small area.

I'm reading, as always, currently a reread of Cluny Brown, comfort reading while I stress about paperwork.

And in the intervals of trying to upload vital documents, when my phone decides to drop the Wi-Fi signal, I've been known to play Dino.

It fits the need for speed, usually I'm done in a couple of seconds when he lands on a cactus.

Happy day everyone, don't land on a cactus. On the other hand it might take your mind off your troubles, sez Ted and Big Ursy and Pony and Ursula