All hands

 

Sometime last September I had a duel with a jar of salsa. The lid would not come off and I wanted that salsa. Without bothering with the usual methods of coaxing a stuck lid - you know, tapping it on the table, running it under hot water, etc. - I grabbed it and used every ounce of strength I had. 

Yes! There was salsa. There was also a very painful swelling on the back of my hand over my two middle knuckles. The usual remedies didn't help much.

A week or so later, I went for my booster shot. The dispensing pharmacist welcomed me behind the screen. He'd noticed that I had difficulty with the paperwork and was cradling my lumpy hand. He asked me to spread my hand out on the tabletop and explained that in Pakistan he had been a hand surgeon. He had me move my hand thus and so. Touched the swelling very gently and declared that I had torn a tendon. Ice, rest, and a long recovery period were prescribed. No more fighting with recalcitrant jar lids. And a COVID jab for good measure. He was right.

Today was the first time since then that I was able to thread a needle and use it without any pain. I'd almost forgotten it was something I did all the time without even thinking about it. I basted a few likely players into position for about an hour and called it enough.

 Actually, it was Bailey who called it enough. He's a peripatetic fur snake but when he wants love, he leaps into your lap and demands it. Clambers over whatever you have in your lap, damn the pins and needles.  

Maybe for only a minute or three before he dashes off, but it's always a miracle to see him drop the tough guy routine for a dose of mama love. Irresistible.

A heart of darkness

 

I frighten myself. I imagine I frighten a lot of you gentle souls. For that, I'm sorry. 

Like many, I couldn't sleep last night. Charlie has a little cold. An earache from swimming. Every time he coughed in the next room, I was reminded how being a parent, even a grandparent, is having your heart outside of your body for the rest of your life. In its place, I have a black hole full of lightning and lasers.

Awake, I kept imagining the terror in that classroom. Do you really think they all died instantly? There is no god that good.

If anyone says "thoughts and prayers" to my face, they may well experience the wrath of Kali.

 

When I did fall asleep, I imagined myself moving through the night with a machete in each hand. Finding the NRA puppets, one by one. Slashing. Laying waste. I have never been more furious at being an old woman.

All I have is my vote, and I did earlier in the day. What money I can spare will go to the Blue candidates who need it most.

Beto was magnificent today. And I can't wait for the 1/6 findings to be televised. The revolution WILL be televised. 

And over all of this, the sweetness of summer.

Store update

 

This one is ready and one other.  I've left the pieces larger than I used to pack in the fat baggies.  Hand-sized for the most part, some larger. I've tried to put a large variety of cloth and colors in a bundle. Likewise the threads.

You get to chop them up as needed.  

Details here.

Email me to order.

This one is SOLD.

Summer still new

There was a Spring this year. Brief, flirty, but we had it. 

The heat and humidity snuck up on me yesterday.  I've had a cold for a couple days - sneezing and runny nose are the extent of it. Not enough of a bother to get tested since I live like a hermit and still mask if I have to go out. 

This may be the best investment in good clean fun that I've ever made. 

Everything flourishes. I have sunflowers for the first time. Now all I have to do is keep the climbers from strangling them. A daily battle with a potted garden.

There is a ton of dyed cloth. Enough to go around for a long time. I still haven't done up the muslin for my summer dresses so there will be at least one more round of dyeing.

School is almost over here. Charlie went in the pool for the first time yesterday. 15 minutes and his lips were blue but still, he had to be dragged out. It's going to be a fun summer.

All of this busy-ness is a distraction from a clutch of admin-type stuff that I'm not doing. You, know, wills, taxes - that sort of nonsense.

One accomplishment has me all full of self. Finding a tolerable new. local primary care doctor/facility. Bloodwork all came back astounding normal. My health coach, a charming leprechaun of a boy, wants me doing cardio in a pool somewhere to spare my miserable skeleton.

So, we will swim till we sweat  WHEN the temperature comes around. Sushi replaces the roast beef hero, ginger ale traded for seltzer, and some vitamins for slightly elevated triglycerides. 

There are still books to write, cats to herd, a child to see raised. Life.

 

Day 2 - the cloth

It's starting to look like rain. A perfect end to a special dye adventure. We started on Beltane and will end under a full lunar eclipse. I will leave all these outside tonight to receive the moon's blessing.

I lift each wet bundle and shake out the oatmeal. The dye is exhausted at this point. I sweep the crumbs up and toss them out into the weeds. I don't compost this stuff because I also use salt in the mix. 

As much as I've read about salt killing plants, the weeds that grow so fiercely under and around my deck must not be hearing that conversation. 

None of the colors will transfer to the plastic and only stays a few rains on the deck boards.

I can't wait to wash and dry this large piece of lightweight linen from an online resource. I don't usually buy new cloth but I wanted to try using linen for some summer shifts. Couldn't leave it plain old white.

 Somehow my favorite linen blouse got mixed in to this lot and I didn't realize it until I flipped over the wet cloth on the deck (which was already strewn with dye-dusted oatmeal) and saw the row of mother of pearl buttons and the Structures label. 

Oh well.