natural fiber and color

exquisite floral plates in this British book

2011-09-06T11:04:00.000-04:00

frost

2009-12-17T07:22:00.002-05:00

This morning when I let the dog out there was frost on the grass. His pawsteps sounded crisp on the grass. Must be cold on his pads. In the east, dawn was yellow and the sun not above the horizon. A Carolina wren was making liquid music and a couple of crows cawed. Morning traffic made a low background hiss. A bark at the bear-like black dog who lives in the yard with the swimming pool. His owners were pulling in in their van. Do they work at night?

I would have taken a frost picture, but Kamath insists on going out on the porch with me and it is easier to hold him than catch him if I let him down.

Pink streaks were rising in the northwest and a siren sounding as I let Buddy in the screen door. Dogs bathroom breaks are a lot more interesting than ours.

an attractive pearl trimming

2009-12-07T13:51:00.001-05:00

Look at the pretty card of buttons I scored in Hendersonville Friday.

Last Harvest

2009-11-30T21:25:00.000-05:00

trolls

2009-11-27T10:02:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we went for a walk in the woods and found this troll house.

And this troll

Maiden Spinster

2009-11-26T05:14:00.005-05:00

I believe there were days when
you could not bear to spin.
trapped on your low stool.
It became a task too cruel
while outside sunlight burned,
banners snapped crisp,
and hoof beats fell like laughter.
But in winter when dark wrapped
close and wind racked rock
you were glad of colored fire
and crimped wool with lanolin
that could not work if cold.

Autumn Gold

2009-11-26T05:04:00.002-05:00

I don't have many pictures of Autumn, aka Fuzzy. But
Here is a poem (not a great one)I wrote about him. I don't know when.
He vanished just after Katrina devastated New Orleans and I was still frantic for Jane who was trapped in her house with a phone line that friends and family could call in on, but she couldn't call out. Bad days, those were.

Scent Lessons

lavender boiling
ripped grocery bag yielding faint blue of hydrocarbon
fruit spilling orange, yellow, bruised, cheap
You, blonde, big Norwegian
once human
now lie on the flooring of old oak and poly (whatever that is)
watching with those greengold circles
me cleaning
your litter
stale male urine wafting, marking
your place
to you an alphabet of knowledge
the a b c's of cat

Bird

2009-11-24T07:15:00.002-05:00

Kamath has this toy - we call it bird - that he drags around Everywhere. He even knows it's name and will go get Bird if you tell him to. Some nights we have to sleep with it on the bed and often it is stretched out in the hall when we wake up. Last night he decided to sleep in this chair and drug Bird in with him so he could sleep on top of it.

Kamath

2009-11-18T19:29:00.002-05:00

fairy circle

2009-11-17T09:39:00.002-05:00

what popped up in our garden this fall
i wanted to go out at midnight and see if any wee people were dancing there, but never made it

Little Miss by the Day

2009-11-16T18:05:00.001-05:00

This was one of my favorite books when I was a child. I have a copy, but its cover is ripped and the spine gone. Still, I would have a very difficut time parting with it.

alpaca yarn

2009-11-06T16:23:00.002-05:00

I have wound off another skein of 2 ply alpaca Danza. Here it is on my antique clock winder.

Fall

2009-11-06T11:31:00.002-05:00

It's finally beginning to look and feel like Fall around here. Perhaps the cooler weather today helps.

This is a photo I took on my trip to Kentucky in October. I stopped in the grand metropolis of Crab Orchard near what I guess is the city park, or the town square. There are always a few locals selling stuff at tables there, I wanted to walk Buddy, but one guy had his hound keeping an eye on things from the back of his truck and I didn't want to stir up trouble. Crab Orchard is interesting and I like stopping there before I have to get back on the interstate.

Anyway, I haven't written much about my Kentucky visit on either this blog, or my other one, Johnson Family Bible, but guess I should start putting down the information I gleaned from relatives, Neville mostly. Or it will be lost in the vagaries of my loopy handwriting. Next post.

goldenrod roving, Etsy

2009-11-03T07:22:00.002-05:00

This is some roving I dyed with goldenrod and posted for sale on Etsy. I'm not sure why the photo is coming out so small.

Quiet

2009-11-02T05:41:00.002-05:00

Halloween was quiet. I felt a bit under the weather, we went out for breakfast at McD's, Brian worked on the kitchen, I made Cushaw soup and dessert, read an interesting book, we had a few, very few, trick-or-treaters. The weather was grim Saturday, but Sunday was lovely and eventually we went for a ride to TR by back ways to look at Autumn leaves at sunset and explore. It was lovely, we found a fabulous view of the mountains, and the moon was rising, but we didn't have the camera. Well.....

Another week of physical therapy, doctor's visits and the hope the B holds onto his job. Same old scary routine.

a bigger photo

2009-10-27T12:49:00.000-04:00

handspun alpaca

2009-10-27T12:47:00.001-04:00

I have been comissioned to spin alpaca. It is lovely stuff and all my free hours are spent spinning now. I have five bags to spin.

a better Monday

2009-08-24T10:52:00.002-04:00

Life has been complicated recently. Grace had a bad wreck. We are grateful she did not get badly hurt, although she is still struggling with pain and tight muscles. We took our vacation to Santa Fe anyway (we had the airline tickets) and it was her vacation week. Last week was consumed by post vacation and trying to find a car to replace the white one that was destroyed. We found one in Columbia and the whole process was complicated by driving back and forth twice to that city. But there was success despite the stress and...

Just to update, we took the little red car to Fisher's this morning to have it checked out. Yesterday we drove it up Caesar's head and had a picnic of tomato chicken sandwiches. It was surprisingly cool up there, refreshing really, although we shared both the road and the park with a gaggle, roar (?) of motorcycles.

The car handled beautifully, took the hill with no apparent strain, the lighter body apparently compensating for the 4 cylinders. It took the curves nicely, hugging into them. No problems with the brakes on the return trip, either. All good news for you, Grace.

We saw a hummingbird drinking out of jewel weed blossoms and Dad, of course, was targeted by a couple wasps. But the breeze kept the mosquitoes at bay and it was heartening to see how the vegetation has recovered in this rainy year, despite the drought of the previous 3.

Bubba

2009-08-04T05:35:00.001-04:00

Bubba is suffering from kidney and thyroid problems. We don't know how much longer we will have her. We will board her at the vet when we visit Grace next week and hope they can get her stabilized. We have her on pills (ever try to pill a cat?) and special food right now and she is slowly, let me emphasis, slowly, improving.

Bubba this past Christmas

2009-08-04T05:34:00.001-04:00

Bat box

2009-08-04T04:35:00.002-04:00

Well, the bat box is up. John did an absolute meticulous job. Nice guy. Kudos to anyone willing to dig a post hole in summer!

I will post a picture later as I was too tired yesterday to get a shot and it is dark outside at the moment. B spritzed the little brown things to give them an incentive to go looking for accommodations outside our attic.

The garden is not as prolific as in past years, but has been producing a steady stream of cucumbers and tomatoes. The beans have started to come in. I planted a number of home grown seeds and have a bean plant that seems to be a cross between what southerners call field peas and black beans. OK with me. Seems just right.

There is a red and yellow theme to this time of summer. Blooming are fennel, evening primrose, those native cone type flowers whose name I do not know, and red swamp hibiscus. Also some fiery hot peppers are reddening. I don't think I planted any fiercely hot peppers, so there must have been a mix up in the seeds somewhere. Of course, they are prolifically thriving, while the tamer peppers are just in a medium mode. What shall I do with all those intensely hot peppers?

wild rabbits - bad knees

2009-07-29T10:28:00.002-04:00

OK. So hubby spotted Ears (a wild brown bunny) in the veggie garden this morning and went out with a broom to evict him. I followed more slowly (as I do most things these days). Turns out Ears had chewed himself (herself?) a neat hole through the plastic fence. Grrrrrr.

So what is so fabulous in our garden, you might ask, that Ears with a world of wild green around him, has to go to so much trouble? Beans! Seems that bean plants are the chocolate and caviar of rabbit gourmets. Go figure.

So here is the schedule me and my hobble knees have worked out. Get up. Let dog out. Make tea and drink it with synthroid. Walk the dog a short distance down the street, trying to increase a few steps each day. Return. Make another cup of tea. Make husband's lunch. Drink Tea 2 with Sam-e, folic acid and B complex. Kiss husband goodbye. Pick up rabbit food scraps and, followed by dog, head to the back yard for a weeding, veggie picking, rabbit feeding, cage cleaning session. Return inside and make another cup of tea and grind flax seeds. Make morning oatmeal including said flax seeds. Take tea, oatmeal mix, E, bee pollen, calcium with mag and Vit C to computer to have bkfst and read emails, explore blogs, etc.

All of this is not finished until 10:30 or so. By then it is to the kitchen (in wheeled computer chair to save my knees) to process morning picked veggies, clean up kitchen, etc. Usually it is noonish by the time all this is done. And that means more ground flax seeds and whatever.

My afternoons are my own with the exception of ingesting another Calcium mag, C, and two
Ever-flex. But I am limited by the amount of pain I am experiencing on any given day and the immediacy of tasks awaiting me. At 5 I start preparing dinner and at sixish hubby returns from a hard day of slogging it out in the salt mines. We eat, watch TV, retire to respective corners to read, sew or get on the computer. Then I try to take another walk down the street with dog going a few more steps than the morning. My goal is to be able to walk to the elementary school and back, but since I haven't made it to the first cross street yet, I have a ways to go.

Wish me luck. There does seem to be some improvement with this regimen, however slight.

we have bats in our belfry, ur, attic!

2009-07-28T15:22:00.000-04:00

2009-06-29T17:24:00.003-04:00

One fox, two fox
Red fox, blue fox.
No, wait, wait, that's not right.

The socks in fox
fall mainly in the box.
No! No!, That's supposed to be
about rain and Spain. Sigh.

Twas brillig. Oh.....not right either.

When Knox in socks
drinks whisky on the rocks
Nope, nope, nope.

Wait, I got it!

When young foxes in sockes
learn to think outside boxes
they invent new visions of eggs
and ham. Sam.

Play it again.
I am
Carolyn

Open Letter to Depak Chopra

2009-06-28T09:09:00.002-04:00

"I matter, I belong, I am worthy, I am safe, I can express myself, I am loved."

I don't believe any of the above.
Isn't that sad?

Life has taught me that these things are only for the beautiful, the rich, the powerful, the well placed, the healthy.

The rest of us have to figure out how to do without them.

shadows

2009-06-26T22:33:00.002-04:00

Finely drawn shadows surround your eyes,
Night scrapes our window.
Behind dark, a penciled star.
Everything is cold now.

Still Life with Cat

2009-06-26T05:05:00.001-04:00

Our sweet and independant Bubba.

2009-06-16T00:32:00.003-04:00

How did I get so old and beat up?

Why do my adult once children live so far away?

I remember the day each was born and now they have lives that seem as distant from mine as the evening stars.

Fish Bait

2009-06-13T16:27:00.002-04:00

Antin, Lake Lure

2009-06-13T16:27:00.000-04:00

Sunshine on a Grey Day

2009-06-13T16:26:00.000-04:00

Rainy Day Lilly

2009-06-13T16:25:00.000-04:00

Cosmos

2009-06-13T16:24:00.000-04:00

A dye plant!

Magnolia

2009-06-13T16:23:00.000-04:00

The perfectly cool beauty of a magnolia

Yesterday's Garden Haul

2009-06-13T16:18:00.001-04:00

Golden beets, garlic, shallots

doc

2009-06-08T09:50:00.001-04:00

well, I have to go see about my knees this morning and I am dreading it.
Not sure entirely why.
I've been so much better since I made the appointment, since I've been taking the supplements Vicky recommended, that it seems wrong to go, yet....
Why are we so in thrall to doctors?

selling kids?

2009-06-05T12:57:00.002-04:00

Might need to be a bit more careful here. Or is that furniture PLUS kids? So they throw the kids in for free?

cat art

2009-05-28T14:29:00.001-04:00

nuf said

Goodies

2009-05-27T08:38:00.003-04:00

Yesterday a package came from California. But the contents were from Australia. Thanks, G. The Tim Tams are open because I sent two of them with B for his lunch. He had a tough day yesterday and will likely have another today. I feel so helpless, unable to take any of the burden from him.

Oh, and that foot in the upper right. It's Bubba. She kept wanted to get in the shot. Just as I would focus, there would be a fuzzy calico in the lens. I'd remove her and realign the shot and then - well, you guessed it. I figured this was as good as it would get.
You can't see it well, but there is a nifty kangaroo pin in the foreground.

May

2009-05-26T10:36:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I cleaned the kitchen and the table and put a vintage linen on it. I thought I'd better take a photo, while it was uncluttered, because soon there will be papers, etc. stacking up on it again.

But for now, here it is - a tribute to May. I know, I know, May Day is in the past a bit. But, well, it isn't June yet.

Porch

2009-05-25T08:11:00.002-04:00

Another rainy morning, so I thought I'd sit on the porch swing with my tea and camera. Want to join me?

Elder

2009-05-24T09:19:00.003-04:00

It is too rainy this morning to work in the garden outdoors. So I have contented myself with sorting bean seeds and deciding to hand wash the old linens Jane gave me. The beans are sorted and I pulled out the linens, but with my usual multi-tasking, I have since had bkfst, made coffee, up potted the succulents that were given me at Biltmore, put them on the front porch, rearranged the plants B put out there before they left, decided the porch needed sweeping, taken a call from M, and gone upstairs to take this pic of the elder blooms from studio/daughter's room window. Never a dull moment. Oh, yeah, fed the cats, chased Kamath back in from the front yard as he slid through the door when my hands were full of plants. (He plots his chances.) And it is not yet 9:30. Of course, I will be sleepy in the afternoon. But in this south, the mornings in summer are the best part of the day. Sleeping in the afternoons is not a bad idea, I think.

I still need to change the litter box and retreive my neighbor's Sunday paper as they are off this holiday weekend to see their daughter.

Just because it is too wet to work in the garden, doesn't mean that there is not work to be done.

It is a very quiet neighborhood this weekend, but a few cars do pass. It is so quiet, that when I am outside I can hear conversations (not words) inside neighboring houses. That is rare here. Usually there is the hum of either heat or air conditioning to block the sound.

elderberry

2009-05-23T08:58:00.003-04:00

The elderberry has tons of blooms this year. Only thing, they are up high. So high that I can't get a good photo.

Because of all the rain here it is very green and lush. I feel like I am inside a green womb. A cozy and strange feeling, but comforting nevertheless.

Berries

2009-05-22T09:39:00.004-04:00

Soon the berries will be ripe. And I will fight the birds for every one. Oh, you say, put a net over them. But then they, esp robins and thrushes, sneak in from underneath. I level the playing field by picking the berries a bit under ripe and letting them ripen indoors. But it is a draw at best.

Yesterday evening, just after B got home, I looked out the kitchen window and saw our wild brown bunny IN the garden. Um, isn't that is why we put up the fence to keep him out? Didn't she read the memo?! So buddy and I went out and harassed him a bit. Buddy ran around trying to herd Bun from outside the fence. I was hoping I could find the "hole" by seeing where Bun exited. No such luck. She ran and flung herself at the fence on all sides before finally hitting one section hard enough it buckled. This after I opened the gate. Sigh. Buddy and I shall have to be more diligent.

It is a competitive world out there.

today's haul

2009-05-21T10:58:00.003-04:00

Mostly for an Thai simmer pot tonight - carrots, beet greens, dandelion leaves, leek. Also lemon balm and mint leaves for pesto.

things that sprout in the night

2009-05-21T09:16:00.007-04:00

This morning when B came down he said, "Wow, look at the bean teepees that sprouted in the garden overnight." In the world of reality, I woke at dawn as he was tossing about with pain from the back muscle strain from moving the ficus outdoors yesterday evening and hauled them into place. But they do look as though they bloomed overnight, don't they?

One task for today is to sort through the bean seeds in the friggie and see which ones want to be planted this year.

This morning I also up potted a late crop of tomatoes that sprouted in the biodome bottom just as I was getting it ready to bring in, clean up and put away. They will do well to replace tomato plants that burn out or to fill in any spaces. If there are any spaces. I like a well planted garden.

I also wanted to post a pic of this necklace I designed for P before I mail it off to her. Poor thing, she is struggling with her health and struggling with staying optimistic. Anyway, I found this stone on the top of a mountain and wanted to give it to her. The rock is chalcopyrite, B says. For those who believe such, it helps to remove energy blockages and aids in the movement of chi. The pic is a bit blurry. I don't do close ups well. Besides the stone, there are glass beads, silver wire, and hand spun and dyed churro. P has tests on her heart today.

Strawberry Weekend

2009-05-18T12:57:00.005-04:00

We had a quiet but productive weekend.
I cut up Beechwood strawberries and made one batch of jam -

And another.

Day

2009-05-18T11:51:00.005-04:00

It is so lovely here today. It feels like the best of California, high mountain or English weather. Clear, clean and crisp. So rare for South Carolina in the middle of May.

I wish I could capture the light and the air in some way, to sniff and see on those heavy muggy July and August days.

In the age of portraits, no one conceived of photographs, much less digital ones. So, in this energy hogging, near bankrupt time, maybe someone will invent something that captures light and breeze and air quality. So we can feel back and remember - oh, that was the day after the front moved through when everything was so fresh, it made you glad to be alive.

Well, hopefully made you glad to be alive.

The Columbine's have almost stopped blooming -

The rose that tries to eat the sidewalk is in full swing -

Hiding behind the rain barrel, the pink foxglove raised from seed purchased a looong time ago at Callaway gardens (it reseeds) is lovely, if secretive -

Mother's Day trip

2009-05-13T08:50:00.002-04:00

We went to Little Switzerland area as a Mother's Day overnight treat. Stayed in a really funky, odd hotel built over an old moonshine still cave. Still retains a lot of its original character complete with the possibility of a wandering nighttime ghost. Superb view, we drank mocha beer (actually pretty good) ate spicy wings and watched a storm move away over the mountains with accompanying thunder, lightening, fog clouds drifting up, etc. Lots more interesting parts to the trip, but don't want to bore you. No pictures as the camera is being repaired.

We drove up to the top of Mt. Mitchel where I was able to hike/limp around a bit. While Brian went to the overlook on top, I explored the beginning of the Mountains to Sea Trail and found a heart rock! Well, it could be a butterfly. I am currently experimenting with hand spun and beads, wire to see if I can concoct you a necklace that looks as graceful and elegant, The geologist husband was intrigued, as it was a rather unusual rock. I won't spill the whole beans now, leave you guessing. Never know what rocks you will find in North Carolina. Rather exciting.

I think the knee is getting better slowly. Walking is becoming easier, and less awkward every week and there are fewer incidents of that acute burning pain I experienced. So, I will keep on the same - doing my best to loose weight, trying to gradually increase activity, etc.

Pulled a bunch of churro roving (wonder where that came from) out of various dyepots this morning. The avocados are starting to give nice colors in reds and the tulip petals are still yielding yellowy greens. Amazing amount of color in them. I shall have to start cultivating tulips.

Lots of gardening going on, rabbits hopping about the front and back gardens, exploring fence perimeters, etc. Ants starting to multiply. Everywhere! I've even got a problem on the front porch. Luckily they are sugar ants, not fire ones.

This is the loveliest spring here for many years, probably due to the extra rain.

Buddy says hello, and, oh, yeah, we went to a Powwow, but he Hated the drums, even though a cute Indian toddler exactly the same height shared potato chips with him.

There is Nothing

2009-05-05T17:37:00.003-04:00

There is nothing like a thunderstorm. After three years of too few, I no longer take them for granted and celebrate each one that I can.

When the rain is deluging down and hitting the kitchen windows so hard it sounds like hail, when the dog haunts my footsteps because of thunder, then the world condenses. Everything becomes milky green, a washed combination of water and growth. Everything narrows and widens into this one thing, something more than water and wind and receptive soil. Twisting and beating the storm forces barriers to drop and life becomes a roar and a wetness.

There is nothing else.

Then

it passes.

Drops sparkle like original diamonds. A robin shakes herself on the fence. Thunder individuates in the east. Two birds call in stereo, liquid gurgles and splashes from the eves and downspouts. An airplane can be heard, a squirrel investigates a wet bit of pine bark, traffic splashes up and down the street.

Life breathes and resumes.

wild bunny

2009-05-01T17:54:00.003-04:00

This morning I held a baby wild brown bunny in my palm. He, yes I checked, was small hardly able to hop through our lawn. Somehow he had gotten out of the nest too early and gotten separated from his mom. Buddy alerted me to him by sitting beside him and guarding him. There was another that was dead.

I didn't know what to do. He was young enough to still need to nurse and it is always dicey taking a wild one and hand rearing it. And what would I do with him afterwards? I have five, count them, five angora bunnies already. One of whom is a female who needs to be breed.

And why did we bother to put the fence around the veggie garden last weekend? It was specifically to keep little brown bunnies from noshing on our peas and beans and lettuce and carrots.

I held him kicking in my palm and looked into his just opened eyes, saw his tiny transparent claws and beginnings of a beautiful coat and I put him into the weeds by the fence with a wish and a hope that whatever should happen would.

But even from that brief contact, I miss him and wish him well in a world where he is Prey to most everyone.

2009-04-29T09:51:00.001-04:00

This morning a squirrel carefully checked the perimeter of the new fence trying to find an egress point. No luck so far. Last year one climbed the sunflowers that come up every year from seed the goldfinches scatter and chewed sunflower heads. We had a very dry year last year - the third in a row - and I imagine some of his food sources weren't available.

Even though the sheltie chases birds and things, it is more in the nature of herding than catching and the wild things seem to know it.

In addition to the usual tomatoes, I am trying various squash again this year. Usually the borers get them before I get much, but I haven't grown them in a couple years, so perhaps the in ground population has died. I can always hope, right?

Amazing New Spring Colors - Natural Dyes

2009-04-23T08:56:00.001-04:00

Some great colors from Lichen, tulips (of all things), marigolds and hibiscus. Can you tell which is which?

a Wren for Easter

2009-04-07T11:14:00.003-04:00

This card is by a local artist - Bruce L. Bunch www.brucelbunch.com
We bought this at Trillium Saturday when we went for the opening new work there. In case you don't recognize the bird, it is a Carolina wren. We have a pair nesting every year near the back porch. For several years, they made a nest in the old gas grill that came with the house. We'd leave the lid propped open a bit and they seemed to think it ideal. The pipe rusted however, and since then, they've been nesting under the eaves and in the bushes near the back porch. They are very companionable and little afraid.

The first year Buddy the sheltie came to live with us, I would leave the back screen door propped open for him with his water and food on the porch. Somehow a bunch of flies got trapped inside the screened area. Our pair of wrens, not ones to miss an opportunity, flew in to feast. Somehow the wind blew the door shut and the birds were trapped.

By the time I noticed and went out to release them, they were so full, they couldn't fly. I could actually see the bulge in their crops. They had to waddle to the door, giving me the beady eye over their shoulders, hop down the steps and sidle into the boxwoods.

2009-04-02T00:17:00.000-04:00

Its tough to believe how hard life is.
I can't get a firm footing, everything slides.

dahlia dye

2009-01-19T08:59:00.001-05:00

cochineal exhaust, mix, pomegranate dyed roving

pomegratate dye

2009-01-04T07:22:00.001-05:00

Note the bit of cotton on the right of the fiber blob. It picked up the color more strongly than the churro. Alum was used only.

morning

2009-01-04T07:17:00.001-05:00

The sky's first blue of the day is always amazing. Today it is a milky robin's egg. Touched by fog and tree stems dark with rain.

January 09 - the month that looks back and forward

2009-01-04T06:54:00.000-05:00

early

2009-01-04T06:39:00.004-05:00

I like the dark early morning world of the sleepless. It is preindustrial. No cars pass on the street. The air is fresher and crisp. Rain drips from the eves in a symphonic harmony which sounds all the louder for the absence of machine noises. Driven by the dogs' need to go out, I become another mammal. Albeit one who can solve the riddle of doors. We communicate, dogs, cats and I, with small sounds and eye contact. I enjoy a oneness with the world that is distracted by lights and sounds. On Sundays, even the train is not running. The loudest sounds are the click of my keys and the chuckle/growl of the fridge. Stillness is such a gift.

Snowfall

2008-12-12T11:18:00.001-05:00

With snow falling yesterday in Louisiana and Missippi, I thought it appropriate to commemorate the event by starting on the project I had already planned as my Christmas project this year.

rain and Christmas 08

2008-12-11T09:19:00.000-05:00

dark

2008-12-03T06:50:00.001-05:00

I find these days of early dark and late lightening difficult to deal with.

Here in the sunny south, we are just not used to it.

However, the celestial show right now is amazing.

And I like when the light first starts to come up in the mornings. There is a blue to it that makes me think of snow covered fields.

recycling

2008-12-02T12:30:00.002-05:00

Sometimes recycling can be a real pain.

I have a these cute little jars that bruschetta came in and I want to use them for pumpkin butter for Christmas presents. Yes, I know the pb needs to be kept in the friggy.

But the labels are stuck on with some sort of monster glue. I have washed them, boiled them (not energy efficient except that the weather is cold and the boiling adds to the heat in the house. Finally I'm resorting to scrubbing them off with ajax.

Grrrr. I'd give up, except stubborness has set in.

beaded crochet necklace

2008-11-24T00:18:00.000-05:00

page 1 - Leon's WWII Diary

2008-11-21T08:28:00.000-05:00

New Air

2008-11-05T09:05:00.003-05:00

I think, just possibly, I might be able to believe in God again.
I couldn't understand how she/he could possibly permit someone like Bush to run this country.

But now, I think, God put the right person in the right place and it was the right time.

Kudos to all the 20 somethings who got involved in the political process.

Kudos to Obama, who will have the hardest road ahead of him. Not because he is black, but because there are SO many, major, extremely big problems.

Uncle Neville

2008-11-04T11:00:00.002-05:00

My Uncle Neville, my father's brother.
He currently lives in Virginia Beach with his wife Betty. They had two children- Neville and Mark. And there is a granddaughter who flies helicopters and is currently stationed at Fort Knox.

If you ever want to meet him, they go back to Kentucky for a reunion in October of every year. It is a big republican, right wing discussion every time and although I would have liked to go this year, I couldn't stand the politics. The men go in one room and talk about world affairs and the women sit in the other and talk about curtains and babies.

How did I get to be the only (and lonely) liberal in my family?

There are Still Knights

2008-11-01T18:37:00.002-04:00

There are still nights when oceans blend.

There are still nights which kiss beauty.

There are still nights where rain airs radiance.

In our unfolded hands a diamond resolves.

There are still knights.

Cat patient

2008-11-01T18:11:00.004-04:00

Bubba sits neatly and waits. Slim black tail curled properly around the immaculate white feet.

Large jade eyes turn, the head painted with harlequin colors follows me around the kitchen.

She didn't like the white wild cold stuff outside, explored it somehow without wetting one paw. And now she sits on the counter beaming subliminal messages to me.

"Eat. Eat." I think, I've had breakfast! And, then , those glowing translucent eyes catch me. Ah. It is not my hunger.

Flicker

2008-11-01T17:41:00.002-04:00

Movies have flickered in and out of my life.

Filmed before I was, black and white shadows of the 40's illuminate my parent's romance, blaze of The War. "I saw....", "It was sure swell." "On the carrier tonight they showed "Stars Over the Pacific."

Even though they were not my theaters, their story lines not my own, they shaped me as surely as if I acted in them. Perhaps I did. Played in my mother's conception of what "should" be. My father's blind sailor washed idealism.

"How now brown cow." It was a trailer for Snow White. I don't remember watching Snow White with my father at the drive in while my mother was hospitalized. Don't remember, consciously, her illness.

But the boy who couldn't speak, he was sent to a special school. There he eventually delighted his proud parents with the simple rhyme that still conjures up the cartoon for me. "How now brown cow?" Indeed.

Movies mark stages. Ben Hur at the Starlight Drive Inn. In the backseat with my parents up front. Moses lifted the tablets and fog obliterated the light. No smoking mountain, but some revenge perhaps on the growing sins of early adolescence.

Dr. Zhivago with a group. With me, a boy who wanted to hold my hand in the tinkling balalaika music. But he had no money to spend on me. I needed someone to spend money on me. To make me feel like I was worth something.

Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare's yummy words, Zeffirelli's equally poetic sets. Another drive in. Another boy, much older. I was way too young for him and he took me out as one would take out a younger sister. Half bored, half condescending. Some amused. But he was willing to spend a little money, perhaps sensing my need to feel "normal" for once.

Vampire movies at the Prytania at Morehead. I didn't love them, but my roommate did. They were cheap enough at a dollar for me to afford. And it was fun to wear a huge tin cross picked up somewhere at a bargain price and watch reactions.

A dollar a movie. A two stick theatre. One to prop the seat up with and one to beat the rats off with. It was a theatre dimly lit for good reason.

Art films, foreign films with subtitles. Married now, with some money thanks to a husband with a thing for leggy big breasted girls, I could afford the alternate theatre on the Prytania. Rosario and I accidentally ended up at a male porn film one night and giggled our way through the medical checkups and weird photography.

Star Wars was a revelation seen with my husband in a theatre in California. California was a revelation as well. Epic, immense, science fiction immortalized.

Back in the South. Child years. Children and Disney. Animation. Candy, gum, demands, sticky fingers, tears. A cuddle and a sleep head warm and sweaty. A lap full of child that I long for again with a passion unmatched by any other. The movies irritating, tacky, or somewhat interesting. The theaters becoming bombastic, iconic, expensive.

The latest. End of the world scenarios. Various variations on horror, crime, violence, blood, some humor. The venue? Plush, pseudo quilts, cutsie track lighting in plastic tubing reminding me of Christmas tree lights. A cup holder for an outsize drink. Reminders to turn off all electronic devices. A seat that would be comfortable if I could sit still, if my bones didn't ache, if I didn't know that when I stood up I would be too stiff to move quickly. The result of too much damage.

Movies. Theatres. The RKO Albee in Cincinnati, Pike 27. All the unremembered seats and places inbetween.

Bread and Circuses. The distraction of a distraught age.

hands

2008-11-01T17:36:00.003-04:00

Her hand had been well-tended, was slender, beautiful in age with its careful veins arching gracefully over the standing tendons. Diamonds hung loosely in the worn metal of their settings. They drifted around the slimness of her fingers in circles of endearment that young lovers could not possibly know.

His fingers were softened with age, but they were still squared with his ambition, still strong enough to clasp a mistress. Still greedy enough to ruin other men's reputations, ruin lives with no more thought than they would swat a mosquito. Perhaps less.

Well Fair Disabled

2008-11-01T17:12:00.005-04:00

It is not quite light.

In the dusk of the wire fence pairs of eyes patrol. Wary heads turn at human sounds, but mutter their own low tongued conversations.

She thinks she has been feeding the feral black and white cat that lives in the culvert, looses her litter to high water every spring when the rain turns heavy. But the coyotes know differently.

She sits heavy in the 70's kitchen chair, its orange plastic bruised and rubbed, cracked and mended with the silver of duct tape. Rust lines her hands when she uses the metal as a lever to stand. Her back bone is fractured with hairline cracks that medication and a food stamp diet have added to her weight.

Blue eyes seem to reflect sparks from the fence, as a train crosses the boggy land at the other side of the pasture. The expected rumble disturbs neither the cat hunting coyotes nor the blue eyes hunting ease.

She sits and watches as though the land were the television she will turn on when she returns inside. On her lap sits a pan of greasy yellow macaroni topped with buttery fake cheese. A clear plastic fork lifts and falls with an intense uniformity that the coyotes and the cat envy.

"It's the Ambien," she says. "It makes me eat."

In early summer the smells are still sweet. Honeysuckle fragrance drifts and the partially blocked sewage system is not yet blooming in the summer heat to come.

"It's all the fault of the liberal bastards." she says. "Them that kills unborn babies and commit same sex adultery."

Her church reassures her. No matter what happens. It isn't her fault.

2008-11-01T17:12:00.001-04:00

Out

2008-11-01T16:45:00.003-04:00

Two days of dancing ice.
I locked in the South with a glacial blue norther.

I Had to dig out, find my white car
Under its pale freeze of cloud born powder.

I had to drive with the snow sun
And glare dancing like desert diamonds,

Drive over black ice blue
Under tree thin shadows of polished ebony.

I Had to get out under the white sky skin,
The twig capillaries flattened budding sprigs.

Get to where no liquid ran
And Spring was a lonely lament
Unheard, unseen.

Leon

2008-10-22T13:38:00.001-04:00

My handsome father, his sister, Gypsy and some neighborhood children.

My son's BD is today.

2008-10-22T13:35:00.001-04:00

He is grown now and a continent away and does not communicate nearly as much as I would like.

I miss him. Pure and simple.

Russel Pearson

2008-10-18T18:15:00.001-04:00

My father's brother, who died young in some sort of accident.

2008-10-17T13:45:00.000-04:00

Clayton B. Moore,etc.

2008-10-17T08:54:00.002-04:00

I get the feeling that my dad, Leon, might have been a bit of a "wild child". Here he is in the middle looking a bit like a shaggy pony.

Also, something about the full head of hair, the shape of the face and the stance, reminds me of Greg.

Last Days of Pompeii 1980

2008-09-03T11:26:00.003-04:00

Isn't this a lovely image? It is the frontis for Last Days of Pompeii published around 1890.

You know, how do books survive so long? They outlive owners, moves, water and insect damage.

Somewhere once Mr. Craig McFaddens owned this. Long gone Mr. McFaddens, yet here his signature and his book remain.

"Heaven had given to Glaucus every blessing but one - it had given him beauty, health, fortune, genius, illustrious descent, a heart of fire, a mind of poetry; but it had denied him the heritage of freedom."

http://www.google.com/base/a/4571708/D7304807738038074778

The Cricket in Times Square

2008-09-01T11:16:00.005-04:00

This is a book that my children enjoyed. (so did I) This 1988 dell yearling edition is in near new condition. The spine is not even cracked. I am selling it on Google Products for $1.00 plus $3.99 shipping and handling. http://www.google.com/base/a/4571708/D5324442612368458314

The cover is still so shiny, I had trouble getting a photo as the flash kept glaring off the surface.

peace

2008-08-28T10:31:00.001-04:00

gift project

2008-08-27T10:02:00.003-04:00

Here is the beginning of a gift I am working on. It is from this book, which I picked up at the library sale two weeks ago. I'm using two yarns - a red cotton with a silver metallic thread running through it and a homespun singles wool. It is much sparklier than in the photo.

There are disadvantages to using such a lively singles. It has a lot of energy and I keep having to untangle it. However, that makes the repeating stitch more interesting, even if it does slow me down.

See the little bit of white fluff at the top? That is a bit of angora fur that managed to sneak in somehow. Gotta love those bunnies.

The rain was wonderful this morning. I sat out on the back porch crocheting and listening for a half hour. A dove was cooing, the rain was misting down steady and sweet, running into the rain barrel and plunking off the porch roof into a plastic bucket. We have been in drought for so long, I feel as thirsty for the sight and sounds of rain as the plants must.

Tornados and Fay

2008-08-27T08:03:00.000-04:00

Woke before the sun this morning. Guess I was slept out. Last night went to bed early, even missed Hillary's speech. I'm sure I was fatigued due to all the tornado excitement of yesterday. Buddy, Kamath and I hid out in the downstairs bathroom for half an hour as the local weather was broadcasting to "take cover".

A tornado actually touched down in Clemson. As far as I know, no one was hurt, but a lot of trees were downed and it did some damage to an athletic field and knocked a lot of power out. I hear there are trees down again this morning. Many of the trees around here are weakened by the years of drought and when the soil gets soft, they just can't take it anymore.

The rain barrel worked well, although we just kept the valve open and let the rain run out into the garden via the hose. Today I will close the valve and maybe we will get enough rain this morning to save up another barrel.

Scary afternoon, but on the up side we did get lots of much needed rain. Perhaps that will take us out of the extreme drought category. Hope, hope.

I feel for everyone who has suffered so much damage and flooding due to Fay. But the silver lining in these clouds, for us anyway, was some critical rain.

Girl Scout Uniform 1923

2008-08-26T14:16:00.002-04:00

This is the two-piece version. There is also a one piece, looks very similar.

Scouting for Girls 1923

2008-08-26T13:55:00.003-04:00

Garland for a City

2008-08-26T11:29:00.006-04:00

Bubba

2008-08-25T22:07:00.000-04:00

Bubba posing on the piano as the precursor of Halloween 08.

Christmas Apple

2008-08-22T10:25:00.004-04:00

To discourage squirrel and birds, I hit upon the plan of draping the apple tree with yarn. Seems to work as squirrels are afraid of snakes. Ha!

Well, this morning Bubba jumped up on the Butcher Block for breakfast and broke a coffee cup of mine. It had a loon on it and said Minnesota. I was contemplating giving it to Melissa since her son is going to be moving there. Wonder if there is some karmic lesson in that?

It was windy out this morning so it had the illusion of being cooler anyway. The air was fresher than it has been for a month or so, so I opened a window upstairs and turned on the attic fan to pull some of the fresh stuff from the coast in. Thanks to Fay. Although we could really use rain, hope, hope. It reminded me of that morning I woke up in Carmel when I was with Greg and Cristin and Sarah Grace. Same feel. Different smell, tho.

I persuaded Brian to help me "yarn" the apple tree. It does seem to be keeping the squirrels away. Looks a bit Christmassey, I think what with the green balls of the apples. Maybe the origin of Christmas trees....not.

Found a good sized green pepper in the garden along with the usual tomatoes and okra. Think I will make kasha for dinner. With an Indian okra side dish.

Have enjoyed being able to electronically chat with Cristin this morning. Wonderful technology, to enable that. Got a facebook friend invite from a friend who used to live up the street, but has moved to Ohio. Miss her being around although I don't correspond with her as much as I should. Just get in a rut of housework and gardening.

Well, onward and upward. The dehydrator needs attention. Maybe I'll finish that mitten today.

Thurs, August 21, 2008

2008-08-21T11:01:00.000-04:00

Well, it looks as though Fay is going to give us a miss. This morning in the garden was nicer than usual due to a little cloud/fog cover and a breeze. Thanks Fay. Now for some rain. Hint, hint.

Tomatoes are still producing nicely. Think I will crank up the dehydrator again today. Apples juicy and still green and tart the way I like them. Brian is waiting for them to get more goldeny delicious.

Okra is doing what okra does. Keeping up a steady production as long as I keep it picked. Finally, finally there are some peppers. Had an egg with okra and peppers for bkfst this morning.

Saw the wild brown bunny in the garden yesterday and B saw him/her near the magnolia. Think that must be the hidey hole as I have seen Wild Bun run in under the low branches there myself.

Working on my second knitted angora mitten. When I get both finished I will post a picture on my blog. They should be good and warm for someone this winter.

Am sick of my own cooking these days. Maybe we will go out tonight, or I will just fix steak and some boxed scalloped potatoes.

Got a letter from Melissa yesterday. She sounds very sad. Is having trouble with her teeth - implants falling out. Can't think why they don't just pull her remaining molars and give her bridges. She has had trouble with her teeth for years.

Well, the sun in shinning. I'm going to spin up what I brushed from Pinky (formerly Angel) and then cut up tomatoes and apples for the dehydrator. After that it is clean kitchen and do laundry.

I have been avoiding the garage, hoping that if any yellow jackets were alive after being stomped inside B's shirt they would die or find their way out.

But since complaints have been made about a lack of underthings, I must enter the (possibly) danger zone today.

Oh, the hazards of keeping a house and garden! LOL

Make it a good day.

young buns

2008-08-14T14:16:00.000-04:00

It is hard to take pictures of bunnies, as they sense you want them to stand still. Being the personality plus beings they are, they see the camera and think, "oh, move quick, she might capture our soul."

Today I am tired from not sleeping well and getting up very early. As in while it was still black early. But I can't seem to nap, so will trog, I mean, blog on.

Have gotten things accomplished in the last 2 days, although it doesn't feel like it. Dug the lavender plants i bought in by the drive before the rain and planted asiatic lillies while it was raining. I know it is the wrong month to plant bulbs, but since these are left over from spring, I figured I'd take my chances in the ground rather than drying out in the bags.

I should have taken a pic of the bulb bags spread out all around my computer chair as I pondered what to plant when and what to give whom. But it was a bit overwhelming and I have cleaned them up.

B said there were spiders in his motel room last night and a fridge that churped like a cricket. I bet he didn't get much more sleep than I did.

Managed to get two shelves of tomatoes in the dryer and one of apples. I think they multiply in the kitchen overnight. Maybe that is why I was having trouble with sleep. Too much multiplying. LOL.

Got enough field peas for a mess for dinner, not that I haven't been eating bits for a while. Got a handful of okra too. It is like tomatoes. Once it starts producing, you had better keep up with it. The green beans are on pause because of the heat last week, but if it stays this cool, I'm sure they will start up again.

The seeds I planted in the tray thingy are already up and enjoying the light on the front porch. I have others to thin and transplant. Never ends, this trying to grow your own food.

I am really grateful for yesterday's rain. There is a slim chance of a thunderstorm this afternoon. May that slim chance grow fat with water and thunder and park itself directly over my house.

There is some water in the rain barrel from yesterday and I will release that to the garden tomorrow if we don't get rain today.

Life goes on whether I am sleepy or not.

8/8/08

2008-08-08T23:12:00.000-04:00

Nearing the end of sunflower summer. I won't miss the heat, at least for a while, but I'm always sad when the fresh tomatoes run out. May they last until Christmas.

Greyboy/Smoke

2008-08-02T15:14:00.000-04:00

Should sell this guy, but he is soooo cute!

another view of squirrel

2008-08-02T15:13:00.000-04:00

squirrel eating sunflower seeds

2008-08-02T15:12:00.000-04:00

grrrrr

another view

2008-08-02T14:49:00.000-04:00

aug 1

2008-08-02T14:48:00.000-04:00

August 1 arrangement with new curtains in background and lavender and recently finished centerpiece also. Granny Grace's teapot on left.

homegrown lavender for cooking

2008-08-02T14:45:00.000-04:00

new kitchen curtians

2008-08-02T14:44:00.000-04:00

Handmade. Not bad for a $3.00 yard sale fabric find.