…and nothing to do with it. That’s what I’ve been thinking every time I pass by my second year weld, lush, tall and proud. Because as I mentioned in the fennel post A. I don’t have a new dye yarn supply, B. I don’t really want to keep dyeing samples with cheap yarn, C. I don’t have any projects planned that require a large quantity of yellow yarn, and D. I just haven’t felt like it anyway. Which is a shame, because it is one of the plants I want to keep using in the more limited range that I’ve set out to use in the future (rather than try all the things).
Category: Garden
Head on fire
One of the advantages of being a backyard photographer is that you can catch the sun, go shoot a few test images, check them on the computer and then go back out to take more (unless the sun hides in the mean time, like right now).
Monday, Monday
Woke up, no headache, with the weirdest sentence in my head. While still in a fog it seemed deeply profound to me, so I decided to repeat it until I could write it down. Now I’m all, WTF? “We operate in the narrow strip between tranquility and normal life”. Um, right….. Who? 😕
I’m feeling a bit odd after last week’s various exertions, not anxiety but something close, like not knowing which foot to put down first. Thinking about some of the topics that came up here as well as related talks on friends’ blogs. You all know who you are, thanks for being so amazingly in sync!
So, what the hey do I do now that I have no chores and no headaches? Let’s make the most of this week, shall we? Paint, weave, spin, the list is long. Doesn’t matter which one I begin with, really, what matters is getting on a roll and stay. Heal. The LYS is having a sale later. With cake. (I shouldn’t eat the cake). First I’ll be waiting for the postman to bring me an extra loom, usually they are here early on Mondays. Ooops, I promised myself to do one load of laundry! No biggie. Just one look on the used items page to search for a jack loom, then I’ll get my butt out of this chair, it’s 08:19, I’ve been reading enough interwebs. Closed nearly all my tabs, job well done! 😉
Used loom ads check – check- Laundry in machine – check
- Winding hanks of yarn into cakes while glaring sternly at the driveway to reveal postman – 1 down, 10 to go, noticed the time. Because these things can be done when I’m tired, painting cannot.
- Postman delivery – what, no?!
- Clearing worktable – new tablecloth, no more RED! – check (incidentally, how do you unwrinkle a plastic cloth, you know, the kind with fabric on the back? Oilcloth? Left it folded up all w-e… And it stinks….)
- Having leftover potato salad and a tomato for breakfast, in front of the window. Did not conjure up the postman.
Time: 09:50
The thing about chores is, I don’t really mind them, as long as I get to do my other things. I do not want them to be my second full time job however.
- Hang laundry – check
- Read blogs – check
10:42
Trying to get restarted on the micro canvasses, pretending to ignore stink from table cloth. Pick 6 off the wall I wanted to finish next, can’t really remember what I meant to do. Do something else just to get the paint flowing? Hungry. Ha, go away procrastinator, you ate already.- Need more whites, running out soon. Shut up.
Read in the garden instead? This sometimes helps, because if my brain is scattery it will try to get out of reading by throwing images at me. Not today, however.
12:25 Postman been with loom and gone. I can put on painterly clothes now and not scare anyone.
Yarn shop open, not in the mood. Money saved.- List and plan weaving projects, find yarn, get brain reorganized – tomorrow? Play with new loom!
- Mend torn bed sheet – later
- Brush and walk the dog – in a minute
- Photo lupins take 1 – check
15:30 Tired. Using blog post to procrastinate. Get off and hunker down with some task, any task, now! Something easy, no stress. 2 hours, then dogwalk.
All in all a pretty scattered day with too much web clicking so far – but I’m happy to be on my feet and ignoring the floor and various other surfaces 😉 It always takes me some time to change gears even when I know I simply need to do it, not think it. I’ll get up to speed eventually.
Question is, if I’m too preoccupied with the loom to focus on the painting and simply need to give in and have a go at that first. It’s the same type that I already have but with a much finer reed, I’m hoping it will be suitable for my purple warp. And it’s always nice to be able to sample things even if you have a slow project on one loom. I have plans to turn in into an optional multishaft loom too.
Proof of pie
This is what I did today. No recipe, I just threw some things together for a glutenfree crumble. Almonds, coconut and stuff. I had a bit too much of both crumble and rhubarb, so I made a smaller one with a muscovado/molasses sugar just to try it.
G installed edges to my no dig bed, we got them for free from one of his shooting buddies. Gets a bit easier to control the lawn this way, and perhaps I can install a second layer some time to make things easier on my back. In the future, the boxes should go in first obviously, to not have to do any digging, but at that time we didn’t have any.
And some random point / shoot garden shots testing the new to me pocket cam, some of the functions don’t work the way I’d like, or rather, it seems the macro function is wonky. And sometimes in the sun you’re not pointing where you think you are! But then I would not have seen that decorative cloud, so all good. And the strawberry harvest is going to be amazing if I can keep the crows out. Now I’ll just make the guacamole for dinner and no more of housey stuff today. Basta. This is turning into a very everydaily blog, isn’t it? I’m not even reading anything awfully interesting at the moment, I’m between books. I may look at Pema Chödrön next. Unless I just grab a Pratchett….
So…
This is another one of those days where I have a number of blog drafts sitting around, but can’t get to the end of them because stuff is missing. (I can’t tell you of a loom I did not get to buy for instance because somebody else beat me to it) But I need to keep in touch or I’ll go missing entirely I think, there’s definitely something to staying in the flow, not just with art, but with blogging too. The more you do, the more ideas happen as well.
Busy week here preparing for an insurance inspection, ditto meeting and generally a very tiring May. My journal has ONE page in it, that’s how little I’ve been “me” instead of janitor/general manager/headache monster. Trying to reset myself now, mentally and physically, by doing very little, my brain is boiling a wee bit. Definitely hoping to get back to work on Monday, and I know I’ve said that about some previous Mondays as well, but this time I mean it or I’ll murder somebody. I don’t even care if they deserve it. 😉
Anyway, we were out of dog food and old ladies get special low calorie senior kibble, so I had to drive to town today and decided to try a marathon run of my long accumulated shopping list. No more room on the whiteboard. Only forgot to look for two things and didn’t get one other which was not available, so all in all I feel very efficient and also accomplished enough to relax about granting myself some me-time. So much for resetting, but I did that most of yesterday at least and haven’t done much else today either. I may not be able to get artsyfartsy on weekends, but I think tomorrow will be for a couple of projects where I just have to point. Rhubarb pie might happen.
Only yesterday I was thinking about how it would be nice to have various shades of bright thread to make scrap blankets/quilts from old clothes. Well, first stop on our tour was getting a new cover for painting on the dining table and what did they have at the checkout counter? A little junk basket of very marked down threads… Thanks a bunch!
Second score was a new hedge trimmer. The one I’ve been using for the last 12 years is a bit weak and I often have to hack my way through if I need to trim close. My arms, shoulders and back just aren’t up to the job anymore, so we agreed last year that I’d get a better one. Tried various types and the really good ones were also too heavy, so I hope I’ve found a good medium variety. Why doesn’t the large person in the household cut hedges? Because he is not a garden freak and I’d go bonkers having to supervise the job. He could theoretically use this one too, but it wouldn’t work the other way round; which means I’d have to be a major nag to get it done. Not my favourite situation at all. And, well, I kinda like doing it. Especially after.
I’m going to try fishing line for helping with my selvedges in weaving. Do you think this will be strong enough? I obviously didn’t have a chance to pull it before buying…
I also bought a piece of wood. Maybe another day I’ll show you what I want to make from it. It amuses me no end to prance around the hardware store, try things out and pick what I want, with a guy in tow just carrying the stuff!
My saori jacket is not making a lot of progress, oodles of design errors and remakes. I was picking out buttons the other day, haven’t found the perfect set, but decided on “good enough”. This pile I received from Melanie in Toulouse along with chocolate and two lovely scarves, how’s that for a score!? Maybe some day surprise packages will go out in the opposite direction, but for now that’s a secret.
And that’s about it from the cottage this week. The lilacs are looking spectacular at the moment, but so far I’ve forgotten fresh photos of them. Lucky for me, they look just the same as last year. I’m going to try my very best to be a little bit interesting in the near future.