throwback Thursday and other thoughts

in which our plucky heroine spends a good chunk of the day gallivanting...

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~ on the trail ~
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After seeing a post online about one of the crows being near the oncology building, decided that this morning would be a good time to continue my quest. Crow #13 "Back Alley Flora" was at the intersection of N Flint and N Broadway nowhere near the listed N WIlliams location at all. Of the three crows I ran across today, this one was my favorite, being painted with delightful illustrations of often found alley and vacant lot plants, complete with both common and scientific names.

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Throwback to former Augusts: five years ago recovering from jaw surgery, creating Alamandine, scribal art enthusiam, ten years ago making popover summer dresses, noticing earlier ripening of tree fruit, decluttering workroom, grinding enamels into painting enamels. Fifteen years ago was Handfix™, and being not-single, (and waiting in the wings a yet unknown dire diagnosis.)

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Since tonight is wheelie bin night, it seemed wise to fill up the greenwaste bin first thing, before the heat of the day, so picked up the loppers andstarted cutting back the green fig. It is a vigorous grower, and keeps trying to trespass on the neighbors garden bed. There is a lot more of that fig that needs pruned out, but the most egregious branches are now in the bin, along with the ones that were literally dragging on the ground. It will take at least two more full bins before that fig tree is less rowdy, and there are other trees (hello quince, and apple, and black elder, and persimmon) that also are waiting for me to get to their summer pruning.

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My new 7in7 idea is to combine vintage bone underwear buttons with a few precious mammoth ivory fragments to create "mobile" earrings. By drilling some holes and some wire bending of jump rings, two slightly dissimilar assembleages might become a pair of earrings.  

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August SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	2 Talenti shelves	Talenti shelf up	greenwaste bin
2	acorncap earrings	2nd pot lid rack	recycle bin
3	teaspoon earrings	painted mailbox	greenwaste bin
4	glass button earrings	Strombecker lamp	-
5	poppy pod earrings	-	-
6	red cube earrings	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
- recipes that bring back long gone memories
- free newspaper to mask overspray (2nd coat of mailbox paint)
- Hutch's Peanut Sauce*, delicious enough to make almost anything edible, and easy to mix up to dress a cold summertime salad

Time of Isolation - Day 2221

~ Hutch's Peanut Sauce ~

1½  T nut butter
2 ½ T oil (or coconut milk)
2 T tamari
2 T brown sugar
2 t vinegar
½ t cayenne
1 T chopped green onion
1 T minced cilantro

notes: originally served over cold poached chicken and iceberg lettuce as a dressing. I use either peanut butter or almond butter. The frozen chopped cilantro since it already is mixed with oil needs less additional than the recipe calls for. Make as spicy or mild as desired.

Tuesday tidbits

in which our plucky heroine gets an unexpected wake up call...

The smoke alarm just outside the bedroom chose this morning to let me know it was hungry for a new battery. Since there were no 9 volt batteries on hand, it meant an after-breakfast shopping trip. Which was also a chance to acquire a threaded wooden handle for the nylon boat hook, acquired to raise and lower the future insulated curtains on the west facing window. Imagine if you will me riding my bicycle, one basket lined with grocery sacks to prevent the end of the 5 ft dowel from sliding backwards, and the front end poking out beyond the handlebars. Must have looked rather like jousting!

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~ follow the crows #30 ~

Early this morning it was cool enough that a bike ride to the St Johns Library was pleasant. Starting my "Follow the Crows" excursions with the one painted by Carson Ellis seemed very appropriate. Am currently re-reading Wildwood to renew my acquaintance with the story and locations, and also looking forward to rambling around to find as many of the 30 crows as possible in the next few months... (This blog post comments about a few of the crows the writer found)

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Today it feels like I have used up all my earring making creativity in the last five days. That isn't true, of course. But the small wooden wall cupboard that holds my earrings is already much more crowded now. Rather than force a design, I'll continue to trust in my good  brain and gently wait a bit while tackling housey chores. (grey/taupe earrings, and a dark brown pair as well, would still be welcome) 

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After a rack of dishes gets washed, a bit of a beadwork break is in order, to start on the tiny tricolor guinea pig for Ashe. It is a lot smaller than the fox or the dragon, so might be quicker to finish. It would have made sense to pick up some more of the thin brass wire while at the hardware store this morning, but I forgot... With luck there will also be time to make some of the purple sparkly beaded dragons this week to mail out as gifts to various friends.

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August SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	2 Talenti shelves	Talenti shelf up	greenwaste bin
2	acorncap earrings	2nd pot lid rack	recycle bin
3	teaspoon earrings	-	-
4	glass button earrings	-	-
5	poppy pod earrings	-	-
6	red cube earrings	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
- search function on blog, that let me find a precious recipe somehow no longer in my hardcopy recipe box
- hardware store had an inexpensive threaded wooden pole handle
- My friend Leslie found a buyer for her house, so she can move forward with life changes.

Time of Isolation - Day 2219

Sunday satisfaction

in which our plucky heroine has a day of chores, online visiting and a tiny adventure...

Aside from making a start on the ever replenished Mt Dishmore and Mt Washmore, choosing to spend time indulging in creativity, and my always grateful for Sunday video visiting, there was a early morning transit trip to a new location: "Travel Portland" as they were one of the few locations mentioned online as having actual paper map pamphlets available for the Follow The Crows art installaion. Don't know if I will collect the whole set, as it were, but it will be fun to see all the various artist painted iterations...

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~ day 5 of 7in7 earring challenge ~

Dried painted poppy pods, stacked atop a small turquoise donut bead and a vintage whiteheart. (Oops, looking closely at the photo there are spots that need a bit more paint) They are really lightweight for their size. My inspiration was this 2022 photo by Johanna from Finland of poppy pods made into 1:12  scale "pottery"...

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None of us live forever... goodbye to John Crowley, writer par excellence... (may the four winds blow you safely home...)

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I've been trying and trying to find some interesting way to use the small bright red dyed coral cube beads that came to me as part of the previous advent swap, but keep finding their angular "cubeness" difficult. Tonight, Vesta's comment during craft-n-chat about lobster claw clasps immediately caused me to jump to using these beads to make decorative stitch markers for my textile art friends. 

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August SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	2 Talenti shelves	Talenti shelf up	greenwaste bin
2	acorncap earrings	2nd pot lid rack	recycle bin
3	teaspoon earrings	-	-
4	glass button earrings	-	-
5	poppy pod earrings	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
- venturing downtown to get a hardcopy pamphlet/map for Follow the Crows
- air clean enough to dry laundry outside on the line
- the clothespins Acantha gave me are so good
- walked almost three miles today
- listening to Eva read "The Cat That Walked By Himself" 

Time of Isolation - Day 2217

weekend wanderings and wonderings

in which our plucky heroine makes it to the library...

... and picks up 2 relevant to one of my current rabbit hole reference books to greatly enjoy. The more I read, the more possible it seems to design my own variation on an Aran style cardigan. Alice Starmore's "Aran Knitting" and Norah Gaughn's "Knitted Cable Sourcebook. By also combining the information in these with the "Twisted Stitch Sourcebook" (also Norah Gaughn's). I forsee much pleasurable time spent sketching ideas, and studying my "favorites" list from Ravelry.

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~ Brambly Hedge? ~

Vestia sent me a whole box full of pieces of fabric, assorted blue plush upholstery scraps, a length of very fancy trim, smaller bits of gingham and stripes, and a six yard piece of cotton, in an allover print of leafy foliage in blue on a white background. Not sure what the various bits will become, other than the generous length of blue and white botanical printed cotton is asking to become a Brambly Hedge dress. That has long been a fantasy of mine (dress, petticoat, apron, and flower trimmed hat); perhaps it shall now have a chance to become real. 

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A while back the Magic Pants pattern came across my radar, and the idea of nether garments that don't bite the waist or tummy is really appealing (that discomfort being why there is such an significant gap in my wardrobe. Given the current yardwork challenge of dealing with the back yard, this project is heading to the top of my priority list. Obviously there will need to be a toile made to check the fit, but somewhere in their wide size range ought to be something suitable. Once I unearth some muslin fabric, it will be full steam ahead. There are YouTube tutorials from the designer, and also multiple positive reviews such as this one online...

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Freezer with no fridge is better than fridge with no freezer... This afternoons' discussion during the Sewing the Way Forward meeting, about someone who unplugged their their fridge to turn it into an icebox, by freezing containers of water, and transferring them to the fridge, which had been adapted with insulated containers or some kind of liner flaps to help keep the cold air from falling out when the door was opened. Also talked about regional variations in what foods are stored "cold" at the grocery store. Very interesting topic.

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Saturday headed out for assorted errands and discovered my Hop card (transit pass) was empty. It was unexpectedly difficult, though ulimately possible, to refill it at the grocery store. Once back on the pleasantly air conditioned bus I wanted to check out the White Lotus Market set up in the parking lot behind Fubonn. Was not as much of a treat as I had hoped: a few rows of albeit interesting food booths and some crafts booths that mostly offered plastic trinkets. 

Takoyaki is not something I'm likely to make at home, so a tray with a few of those was my lunch, and I headed over to the far end of the parking lot where there were trees, hence shade, and no people to unmask and enjoy. I'd never had it topped with shaved bonito before, which added another layer of flavor and texture. 

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June SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Babs brooch	thinned apples	greenwaste bin
2	5th god lino block	add under elastic	recycle bin
3	5th god corner block	white scarf hem	recycle bin
4	enamels for John	add more elastics	greenwaste bin
5	tie-dye pillowcases	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
- blue leafy calico from Vestia
- takoyaki, a rare treat
- my Moody Blues summer coverlet

Time of Isolation - Day 2172

Friday fragments

in which our plucky heroine is charmed...

Earlier this week the birdfeeders next door were spangled with goldfinches, which was such a delightful visual way to start the day.

Also rabbit rabbit rabbit for the first of May!

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~ acorn tassels~

All I ever want to be speedy is my sewing machines and internet connection) As previously mentioned, I am not a fast knitter. Some folks can bang out a Sophie scarf in a few days, this one took me a whole month of intermittent knitting. The last several days of which were taken up in creating these knitted acorn and oak leaves added to the tips instead of pom poms or tassels. It was so slow because sock yarn and tiny needles. It is fairly narrow, and long enough to wrap around my neck and tie, intended as supplementary warmth over a turtleneck, which was hard to imagine Thursday afternoon, when it was 83 F (28 C) on my front porch

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Monday my friend Poni was willing to take me on a trip to Linfield Gallery in McMinnville to see "Continuality" by artist Tammie Dupuis. I've been following Tammie on social media for years now, she is one of my artist heroes. Highly skilled in multiple art forms and thinking deeply about what she intends to communicate using those skills. It was wonderful to see the actual pieces, which are so much stronger and more resonant in person than in tiny pixel images online. Rather like the difference between an LP and a live concert. I was particularly taken with the "Counting Coup On Curtis" series of portraits, which combine beadwork and mixed media in a unique way that really needs to be seen in person.

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Eeee!! new Becky Chambers coming this autumn!

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"Acorn Cottage Crafthouse"could be a good name for Discord server, I need to look up how to start one...

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May SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	-	-	-
2	-	-	-
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
- goldfinches first thing in the morning
- pad see ew
- Tammie's artwork is amazing, impressive, and inspiring 

Time of Isolation - Day 2121

Wonderful weekend whatnots

in which our plucky heroine enjoys in-person time with friends...

While Friday was a bit scrambled, as my friend M had vehicular difficulty and didn't end up staying here overnight after all. On Saturday my dear pals B and K arrived for the long weekend. We ended up cooking lamb roast for dinner that evening, and then staying up late talking and doing handwork.

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~ day 16, 17, and 18~

These are the warmest mittens, as they are at least a quarter of an inch thick or more and completely block the wind. I wear these when I am riding my bike in the winter. My dear friend Ariadne made them for me, using the naalbinding technique. Naalbinding pre-dates knitting, and was commonly used in the Viking Age, for obvious reasons.

This small handmade pouch started with a sample block print of a design I made for a friend, inspired by Bujold's "World of the Five Gods" series. The design so charmed me that I wanted to make the sample into some object of everyday use, in a way that characters in the books sometimes have done. 
The pouch has a square base with a full lining, and double drawstring closure, simpler to sew than to describe how to sew. The felt beads are both decorative and provide handles to open and close the bag. Lastly, I over-stitched the background of the block printed portion with small cross stitches, to add both texture and additional stability.

Much larger than it looks in this drawing, my maslin pan is one of the best kitchen purchases I've ever made. It seemed like a huge indulgence to get a special pan designed to make cooking fruit preserves easier. It turns out that it is a great pan for all sorts of cooking: soups, stews, and suchlike, as well as preserve making. When putting up fruit in various ways, I sometimes start cooking it in the maslin pan, then when it is closer to the desired result, I transfer the almost-jam to a smaller pot, and use the maslin pan for water bath processing the jars for stable shelf storage.

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Yesterday spent time transferring page one of Kestrel's "resipei" artwork to linen for embroidery. Page two is already finished, and I am looking forward to the relaxing time stitching more of her words and pictures. I love kid art, (particularly from this kiddo) and the finished stitchery will have pride of place in my kitchen.

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A plan to convert my venerable Muji A7 binder into a hardcopy recipe book sadly has been delayed as my initial order of filler paper and dividers went astray. I ordered it from an eBay seller, and for some reason (that remains unclear to me despite hours on the phone to both eBay and UPS customer service) the package was not delivered to Acorn Cottage, but to some unknown Wells Fargo bank "front desk" and signed for by someone named "Dani"?!? If all goes well, I'll get a refund, and try and track down something similar. It will be very handy to have a small kitchen notebook with all my favorite most often used recipes in a legible and convenient form. "Soup, Savory, Sweet, and Shelf-stable"

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Today we had minor but very pleasant adventures in the form of shopping excursions, much facilitated by the automobile. Started out by heading over to Mr Plywood for a piece of 1 x 10 lumber to make shelves in the bedroom to hold my wool handknit cardigans and pullovers, an improvement long desired. From there, we decided to walk the few blocks to the international market for various grocery and confectionary items unavailable in my neighborhood or their town, like a new bottle of orangeflower water to replace the one that broke last week. 

Since that shop did not have kasha (roasted buckwhat groats), which I'd been seeking for quite some time, I wanted to try one of the Russian grocery stores in outer SE. Now I've a 3 kilo bag of kasha in the pantry, and K found some interesting cheese, and zefir (a marshmallow made with apples). After heading back home, we ordered takeaway sushi, which made our dinner extra special (along with the cucumber salad and green salads that B made to go with). Our visits aren't just like the Before Times, but embraced a similar "flavor" both literally and figuratively...

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January SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	final alphabeast drawing	painted mini tree	recycle bin
2	calendar master pages	new bin for  cedar shakes	orangeflower water
3	5+ jars fig mostarda	drawstring cords	large broken bin
4	-	-	2 bags paper
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
- the braided nylon cord I ordered arrived safely, and worked perfectly to repair my rat and crow drawstring bag.
- sushi dinner takeout, such a special treat
- Karen makes homemade toffee, and the contrast between the very thin layer of unsweetened chocolate and the very sweet sugar and pecan topping is wonderful.
- with companionship, yesterday I was able to tidy about a 2.5cuft chunk of the living room, with much of it going directly to recycle, and today sorted through about two grocery sacks full of random papers, of which more than half also went to the recycling bin.
- Mr Plywood. I just love everything about that place, particularly how the men who work there are always courteous and helpful. And how they always have what I need for projects. Plus today when I was checking out after buying the lumber for my shelves, and I told them how I loved their store, they gave me a sticker that said "I love Mr Plywood", with an image of his very rectangular retro line drawing self

 

Time of Isolation - Day 2029

things of unexpected size and other tidbits

in which our plucky heroine takes advantage of a sunbreak...

Yesterday when speaking with Maeva about if the quince might be ripe, her advice was to go outside and have a good sniff, and if they were, that would make it clear! Sure enough, when the weather allowed earlier today, not only was it obvious even before immediate proximity, but one of the larger ones was on the ground next to the downspout. (Wondering if they were thinned early this year, as the ones on the tree now are so MUCH LARGER than any prior year) The one windfall quince weighed over 1½ pounds and is about the size of a baby's head. There will be much preserving this year.

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~ no bigger than my own wee paws ~

Time for a bit of exploration and adventure, an excursion to part of the city far from Acorn Cottage. PDX Dinorama had mentioned online a "tiny Little Free Library, and sure enough, it was so small, being only a bit taller than my (admittedly stumpy) hand length. And there was an assortment of very small blank books, one of which came home with me to eventually join the other volumes in the Shadowbox Library, once it acquires some content...

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Next week there will be three days of free ephemeral online presentations as part of  "Block Printing Fest 2025"... I'll definitely try and find time to view some, betwixt and between. 

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(whinges) Day four of medication. Less heartburn (which was not my main complaint), but throat "lump" sensation (which was) is, if anything, more bothersome, and appetite has not returned. Sigh. 

Further attempts but still the laptop doesn't know there is a printer. Deleting and reinstalling Photoshop did not give me a useable program, so now there is no image processing program either. Snapseed on my phone can do some image correction, but the photos remain too large in dimension and in data.

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Lovely alternating rams horn variation card weaving pattern, seen on FB's "suggested" and managed to track down. Has me wanting to set up a band loom of some kind again. The pattern is from Cerelle Woods, who says "Picks 1-16 repeated yield the band pictured. Picks 17-32 repeated will reverse the twist." There's S threading, which is when the thread comes through the holes from the back side of the tablet, and there's S slant, which is when the threaded tablet, when it's tensioned in the warp and viewed from above, has the same slant as the letter S (\). For Z threading the thread comes through the holes from the front of the tablet, and for Z slant, the warped tablet has the same slant as a Z (/). So! Depending on the weaver, S and Z can mean one thing OR its exact opposite. When I use S and Z, I'm referring to the threading, not the slant." 
If I try this, I will have to experiment to figure out if the threading shown in her diagram matches or is opposite from the Applesies and Fox Noses notation for threading, which is what I prefer.

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October SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	6 lunaria pod ornaments	wheelbarrow tire	greenwaste bin
2	5 more lunaria ornaments	cardigan cuffs	recycle bin
3	5 golden origami dragons	reattach wheel to wheelbarrow	recycle bin
4	5 mini amanitas	vegetable steamer leg replacement	recycle bin
5	18 penny luck envelopes	leather scissors sheath	-
6	10 holly&bells ornaments	x	x
7	more penny luck envelopes	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes - 
- the scent of quince fruit
- having Mindy show up at Crafternoon
- found a free online utility to resize JPEG images (one of the several tasks that I'd normally use Photoshop for, sigh)

Time of Isolation - Day 1951

Saturday snippets

in which our plucky heroine is grateful...

... for being able to smell the appetizing scent of tasty waffles wafting out into the street from the FLAVOURspot. (some folks I know have lost that ability due to viral damage in the last five years) That scent takes me back through the years, to the Sunlight Cafe in Ravenna, when Mark and I would go there for brunch and a "Belgian waffle" as big as the plate, topped with strawberries and whipped cream, and years earlier, when I was in my teens our family sometimes went to the IHOP (near the Fresh Pond rotary on the outskirts of Cambridge) where waffles were a special treat, and there were three chefs in the kitchen that could have posed for the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. It wasn't till I was an adult that it occurred to me that waffles could be made at home, that only required a functioning waffle iron. A dysfunctional waffle iron, OTOH, is a dreadful thing indeed!

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This morning I went to two different farmer's markets... first was Hollywood, since their email featured 15# flats of organic paste tomatoes from Flying Coyote Farm at a very good per pound price. Used my entire "Senior Farm Direct" coupon book, and a bit extra, for some just gorgeous nightshade fruit (I added a few Japanese eggplant as well as the tomatoes) My wicker shopping cart was pretty full, so it was time to take those home before any further adventures... then I headed out to St Johns on my bike. After looking at my Awesome Sauce recipe, peppers and garlic were now on my list, which Happiness Family Farmwas happy to provide. This marks the real beginning of preservation season.

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Currently making a pink-themed triangle pouch for Kestrel's toy "Fishlet" who apparently is really fond of that color. I needed a break from the troublesome popover dress, and these are fun to make and quick to finish. Some remnants of quilting cotton in bright or soft pink leafy prints that make me think of seaweed. A vintage pink button from the 50's that looks a bit like sea glass. Braiding cord for it from dark and light pink embroidery floss in a four strand spiral, and realised that the sewing bird is of great assistance. I can sit and watch a film at the computer, and just braid away...

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August SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	4 jar storage trays	tiger block	greenwaste bin
2	4 jar storage lids	bright rayon top width	recycle bin
3	dried basil	indigotiger popover  hem extension	recycle bin
4	3 jars apple/quince rosewater sauce	bike rear wheel	window AC
5	3 kitchen towels	new apron straps	apple tree prunings
6	x	frame for Pyle cartoon	greenwaste bin
7	x	x	recycle bin
8	x	x	greenwaste bin
9	x	x	big appletree prunings

today's gratitudes -
- the sewing bird works really well to anchor fiber for four strand braiding
- half the day was grey and cool
- the world of scent is still available to me, which unlocks memory

Time of Isolation - Day 1896

weekend whatevers

in which our plucky heroine wakes up early...

... since apparently the fence near the bedroom window is now a favored spot for a hungry young crow alarm clock.  There were other birds to be seen in the yard as well, once I was dressed and out and about: a pair of hummingbirds darted away from the hardy fuschia when I opened the front door, and the drumming high on the electric pole was probably a downy woodpecker (identification assist by pal Karen, as well as time spent looking up bird sites online - downy woodpeckers are more common in neighborhoods, hairy woodpeckers more common in woodlands)

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~ rainbow snake bench ~

For the most part, Tri-Met has removed much of the former seating and shelter infrastructure from bus stops over the last howevermany years. I was delighted to find this privately created bench at one of the local stops. Neatly placed in a sometimes shady niche between two shrubs, and with enough visiblity to be able to see the bus coming, it brightened my day.

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The new roof was completed in one long day on Thursday, and the project manager came by on Friday to do a final walk through and collect the balance due on the job. He brought a hardcopy folder with all the relevant paperwork, and a folder with the various colors of shingles, as I had asked for an actual sample to help when choosing future paint colors (I'll put the chosen "Silverwood" sample in the housey files, but not save all the rest) I had him check in the attic as well, to make sure that there was no damage to the heat pump ducts, and that the solar vent fan was working. Indeed, apparently the attic temperature was noticeably lower than the previous week, so the new fan and vents are working as intended!

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Ann Wood, of  the"Tiny Rag Doll" pattern, and "Miss Thistle Society" has shared a charming new tutorial for a miniature wheelbarrow! I think my tinyfolk and their Mud Bay pals may both need this addition to their abode and environs. (Now to find a local source for ditalini pasta...)

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Yesterday was dedicated to an attempted adventure, which saw our plucky heroine visiting not one but two libraries. First was a trip to Midland, near the late lamented Fabric Depot. The surrounding area seems to be further deteriorated than when I was last there years ago, but Midland Library has been impressively and pleasingly remodeled. More artwork inside and out, a much more welcoming entrance with book display space being what you see first, the information kiosk off to one side rather that seeming like a barrier... I was there to meet up with local SCA scribal folks who were having a paint charters activity all day in one of the newly remodeled meeting rooms.
 
I was already rather hungry (having forgotten to eat breakfast) so I picked up a few charters to take home with me and headed out towards my next destination. Unfortunately, the Burgerville formerly across the street from the bus stop was gone. Two more legs of the transit journey and I was only a few blocks from the Albina Library, which was having a weekend long reopening celebration. Fortunately, there was a Vietnamese cafe on the corner, and a bahn mi sandwich made for an excellent brunch option. 

The newly remodeled library was quite crowded with folks and families, and there were all sorts of activities in the various meeting rooms, the central open air courtyard, and even a photo opportunity in the central hallway. It was rather a bit much for my reclusive self, but I did want to attend the program on 3D printing in one of the meeting rooms, so I did my best to endure. The space itself is full of light and art, and would surely be a treat to explore if when not quite as crowded. 

I was most impressed by how the designers integrated the gender-neutral barrier-free bathroom zone. A hallway open on each end with one side of the hallway having  individual room cubicles with solid floor to ceiling doors, the accessible one with the same kind of pushbutton opening as outside doors have. The hand washing station was on the opposite wall with one long sink with three sets of soap, water, and air dry automatic spigots. Maybe a funny thing to have noticed, but careful universal access is rare.

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Defrosting the chest freezer is a time consuming though not difficult job, ideally done once a year. That doesn't always happen. But, since my good neighbors lent me their large cooler to keep drinks cold for the roofing crew and said I could borrow it all weekend, it seems a propitious time to tackle the task. It took over an hour to transfer the contents into temporary storage, both of my (smaller) coolers,the larger borrowed one, and two styrofoam boxes. A fan running facing into the disconnected chest freezer will help loosen the ice layer around the upper half; it forms from the moisture that enters when the lid is lifted, the lower half of the freezer box remains clear. This is also the ideal time to pull the entire thing away from the wall, vacuum and mop the floor behind and around where it usually is located.

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July SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Raven scroll	6 prs Beth pants	recycle bin
2	black floral scarf	prune² Wanda plum	greenwaste bin
3	4 jars strawberry- rhubarb preserves	mulch peartrees	greenwaste bin
4	sunblock mitts	Eames top	greenwaste bin
5	catch tarp for porch	filter box legs	recycle bin
6	x	new house roof	x
7	x	defrost chest freezer	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
- library taxes making a difference
- large cooler borrowed from neighbors
- a pleasantly grey day
- rereading SuperSupportive is being just as good as the first time

Time of Isolation - Day 1826

Thursday thoughts, just a little bit

in which our plucky heroine has intentions...

... to generate and maintain forward momentum. "Life is change, how it differs from the rocks"; "little bit further just a little bit more, little bit further than we've gone before...

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~ day 1 ~

Is it ironic to draw colour in pencil? I took my first thought for yesterday's prompt - how "coloured" horses are the ones that have a particular patterning of colour, though by no means the only coat pattern other than solid. In a similar mode to how the 100 day stitch book took form improvisationally, it feels right to go with first thoughts for these drawings. And maybe to go with 100 days of casual drawings would be a good thing for me... today's prompt is "favorite song", and I already know what I want to try and draw.... (Box of Rain)

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I tried going to the art museum. Or rather I managed to go to the art museum, but after maybe ten or fifteen minutes, it was much to much with all the unmasked people. Of course, with there being only 12 free days per month, it will probably be always really crowded, even as it is on a cold soaking wet January day. The "most busy" graph shows that the first hour of the day is the least, so perhaps that would be better to attempt. Would that I could find some appealing and mask-required events or locations here in PDX, sigh...

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Today I stopped at NS on my way home from my attempt to visit PAM. They had regular eggs for $3.99/dozen. I decided to buy an extra dozen and prep them to put in the freezer as a tiny amount of backstock. (It requires mixing in either a little salt or a little sugar to not have the texture of the eggs become difficult to use.) I have yet to try out flaxseed meal instead of eggs for baking, though it is on my list to try this year.

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This is a relief. I've been concerned that for many weeks now, I've had no enthusiasm for reading, or rather, it has been very difficult to find new things to read that draw me in and feel at all worth the time I spend reading. As a lifelong reader for pleasure, this was worrying, particularly since as my mom descended into dementia, she became unable to read. Now, having had to tear myself away from reading all the way through Robin McKinley's "Deerskin" in one galloping gulp of hours, it is apparent to me that the problem is not in my comprehension, but rather in finding books that engage me... Whew!

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Month SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	-	-	yard waste bin
2	-	-	recycle bin
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. I found a new to me book I enjoy reading
2. never get tired of hot running water, I doubt anyone who has lived without it ever would...
3. there were eggs at the store today, at an affordable price. I bought an extra dozen to put in the freezer.

Time of Isolation - Day 1631

on the upsondowns

in which our plucky heroine seeks equanimity...

My back is still quite cranky, the pain of which is probably driving some of my dark thoughts. On the other side of the balance, there are more and more beautiful and interesting things to see when I am out and about. I try and choose different streets to ride my bike, for just that reason, and by choice various side streets instead of the irregular sidewalks and high traffic main thoroughfares.

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~ so very small ~

Today in my Insta-feed there was a pdxdinorama post about a new little free art gallery, this time in my own sector of the city! Since the promised rain was not really happening, and I needed a break from the everyday, I decided to go look for it...

I rode further beyond St Johns than I'd ever gone, following the rough map drawn on the back of an envelope, and after a few turns through various maze like streets I was delighted to find my destination, this charming little "little free art gallery". Isn't this inspiring! Do I maybe need to figure out if I can build something like this at Acorn Cottage?

Anyway, how about a look inside...

I'd brought a few tiny paintings, and one of my golden origami dragons to leave in "trade" (all still in my pocket when I took this photo) and ended up choosing a painting from on the righthand wall not visible, that said "Home Sweet Home", which felt just right for my tinyfolk of Tansu Terrace...

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Brain weasels have been running amok for days now, sending me deeper and deeper into internal darkness. My toolkit is inadequate. Riding my bicycle is one of the few mental health activities accessible to me, but sometimes I have to pull my bike over to the curb until I regain equanimity. My online pal Cricket concurred that sometimes these sorts of mental "bad weather" just crop up randomly, stick around for some unspecified amount of time, and leave as randomly as they arrived. (I am going to check out the counseling option via my PCP office, which since they no longer have a dedicated in office staff person, is now all done by video call - I don't expect much, but retain an open mind, and sometimes just chatting with someone can be helpful to sort out tangled thoughts.)

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This is another bit that showed up on my Insta-feed:  Bentley House Minis made a long video of how she approached organising her extensive collection of miniatures. While I don't have anywhere near that amount of stuff, it was encouraging to watch how she thought about the process, and also about how she needed to stop periodically and then return to the process, acknowledging that it was a challenge to do.

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This morning I had my regular quarterly visit to my PCP, and since it was about the time I usually wake up, I had set my alarm for an hour earlier. Fortunately the forecast rain was not really doing much of anything, so the bike ride over there was pretty pleasant. Basically my health remains unchanged so far so good, so continue with the self care meals and exercise activity. My doc agreed with my assessment that whatever is going on with my back is probably not structural but to check back if it doesn't improve in another few weeks.

I remembered to ask the tech to please not use bandaids after the blood draw but rather paper tape. And then when we were rescheduling my next visit, and my doc told me that there were no morning appointments that month, I asked if we could just push the appointment out another month if there were early morning ones in July... She agreed, and found an open spot. Yay for me for asking for what I need! (much nicer to ride there and back in the early morning than in the hot middle of the day, and also fewer other humans are there).

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March SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	red enamel samples	bathroom undersink access	some driveway moss
2	turn buttons	contrast numbers on oven knob	recycle bin
3	6 tiny books	paint frame black	yard waste bin
4	2 velour sports bras	frame gift painting	recycle bin
5	Stromgard enamels	front yard dandelions uprooted	recycle bin
6	velour sports bra	x	yard waste bin
7	x	x	yard waste bin
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes-
1. the rain today was soft, I was able to both get to my PCP appointment without being soaked, and later in the day take a Long Ride beyond St Johns
2. An adventure, to go find the new tiny art gallery I read about on Insta. And I found it, and that was a fun thing to do. I brought three things to leave there (two tiny paintings and an origami dragon), and took away one... It is a LONG way from here on my bike. (Which let me know how much farther than that it would be to the someday six to ten years from now city pool that will be replacing the nearby pool they closed)
3. A nice long phone call with my oldest friend Sharon.
4. I was able to get my COVID booster shot at my PCP appointment this morning. So much nicer to get it there than at the drug store.

Time of Isolation - Day 1356

hippo birdy...

in which our plucky heroine begins another dive around the sun...

here: enjoy "Axial Tilt" by Cat Farber...

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~ a benign adventure ~
.

Today my pal Ursel had the day off work, and asked if I was going to do anything for my birthday. I decided that going to the Lan Su Chinese Garden would be a fun excursion, and we couldn't have asked for a nicer mid-December day, with the sky so blue and sun so bright that sunglasses might have been nice... We spent time wandering around the garden, taking photos and appreciating the many wintertime vignettes (I wish my phone camera had been good enough to let me share the corbie in the persimmon tree, nibbling at one of the remaining ripe fruit, but I did manage to catch Ursel in the sunbeam)

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I was so excited to find this DVD of "The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse" available on Etsy. It only took two weeks from when I ordered it for it to arrive here today.... I immediately tried to play it tonight, and was very disappointed... Instead of lovely clear video I got the sort of scrambled pixel squares that I have only ever seen before on overly used public library DVDs.

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I did read the many positive happy reviews of the DVD before deciding to purchase it, so I never expected this problem. I wanted to reach out to the seller first before leaving a scathing review of this very disappointing product... "Based on the many good reviews you have of this film, I can only imagine that I somehow received a defective copy; I don't know whether a replacement copy would be any better, but the DVD that arrived here is not playable at all." I'll have to wait and see how the seller responds...

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~ Advent Swap day 21 ~

pretty lampwork beads in pale blue and tomato red...

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December SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	7 jars quince	kitchen plumbing	old plumbing
2	dried pears	heat pump installed	old furnace
3	dried persimmons	return vent vanes	high pitched whine
4	linen gauze privacy curtains	bedroom register	-
5	tiny peach charm	bike flat tire	-
6	1-wire Laurel setting	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. phone calls and video chats with friends and family
2. tasty food cart pod lunch, a gyros sandwich bigger than I could finish, and a mango lassi to slurp up for drink/dessert
3. wandering around downtown enjoying the sunshine and the Chinese Garden with Ursel

Time of Isolation - Day 1267

blue roses on toeses...

in which our plucky heroine follows a wild hair down an internet rabbit hole...

I had a sudden desire to add British canal boat style roses to the toes of my just-painted-blue canvas shoes. The blue roses remind me of the 1978 Winterland Grateful Dead poster*, and I hope that these shoes will remind me to keep whimsy in my heart as I continue down the path...

The shoes themselves were originally a (boring) beige canvas, and I painted them blue last week. (The previous pair I painted blue lasted 4 years before they fell apart, but the paint was still in good shape. Just plain ordinary craft acrylic paint is surprisingly durable, unlike whatever the microfiber is that they use for shoe linings.) I found some good step by step tutorials and images online which helped me get the style of rose I wanted, and I used ordinary blackboard chalk to mark out where I wanted to paint the roses, because it wipes away with a damp cloth after the paint is dry...

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Saturday I took a small adventure and went to see my friend's display at an outdoor "art picnic" in one of the local parks. It was a treat to see them, and their artwork in person, as well as to get a sense of the hyperlocal and mostly youthful art scene. There was a wide range of media and imagery, of course, and it rather reminded me of my youth, when folks would gather on Cambridge Common on Saturdays to vend and be social.

I was totally wearing my P100 the whole time, and the middle of the day on a Saturday afternoon the bus was not terribly crowded. It felt fairly safe as the location and layout meant that there was plenty of fresh air, and enough distance between folks for comfort. Almost no one these days seems to be wearing masks, which makes me sad though.

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~ 100 day stitch book project - day 94~

Day 94/100 (page 19) - Sunday added some more subtle hillocks to the landscape, with stem stitch and a bit of French knots, and I began adding stars to the sky at the top to better balance the geology at the base... Today I plan on finishing up the starry sky, which will complete this colophon page.

(Saturday) Day 93/100 (page 19) - finished stitching the various hillocks in place...

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Saturday I took a small adventure and went to see my friend's display at an outdoor "art picnic" in one of the local parks. It was a treat to see them, and their artwork in person, as well as to get a sense of the hyperlocal and mostly youthful art scene. There was a wide range of media and imagery, of course, and it rather reminded me of my youth, when folks would gather on Cambridge Common on Saturdays to vend and be social.

I was totally wearing my P100 the whole time, and the middle of the day on a Saturday afternoon the bus was not terribly crowded. It felt fairly safe as the location and layout meant that there was plenty of fresh air, and enough distance between folks for comfort. Almost no one these days seems to be wearing masks, which makes me sad though.

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well dang... making haste slowly would have been better! Trying to clean up the kitchen by carrying all the jars of quince jelly to the pantry shelves, and I dropped one. Glass shards mixed with jelly are a Big Mess. I hope I got it all; wiped repeatedly with damp paper towels until I couldn't see any more "sparkle"... And I still have the rest of the putting away and washing dishes left to do.

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April SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	page 15	taxes done	jars to Mud Bay
2	custom Tullia daypack	shoes painted blue	recycle bin
3	page 16 and 17	shoe elastics transferred	extra plant pots
4	page 18	roses on shoe toeses	yard waste bin
5	-	-	grapes to compost
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. The roses for my shoes turned out just fun as I imagined them
2. Avgolemono (aka demonology soup)... always good
3. The person I hand embroidered a label for their quilt was quite happy with my efforts. And I learned how to better estimate how long it takes, and managed to get a successful result on double gauze, which is not trivial.

Time of Isolation - Day 1041



* This is the concert poster I had in mind...

Tuesday tidbits

"practice makes proficient" - not perfect, not necessarily progress...
proficient* = competent or skilled in doing or using something

So make good choices about what and how you practice, whether with hand or brain or spirit, because repetition makes whatever you repeat more likely to happen again. Some of the things I have practiced over the years/decades have really made my life easier, like I am much better at soldering than I was when I started. Some of the things I have practiced over the years/decades have made my life much more difficult, like assuming danger all the time, which has limited my life in uncounted ways. We most often think of practice in terms of trying to learn new skills, but we are practicing continually in all the different spheres we exist in. I continue to attempt to notice what I am practicing, and to practice by choice and not by default. This is way harder than it sounds, and is in itself a type of practice...

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Every time I've ridden the train between Boston and points west, this curious structure has fascinated me, and this trip I managed a few decent photos...

.
as seen from the train, and enlarged to show facade

The water visible in the photos is Farm Pond in Framingham, the terminal end of the Sudbury Aqueduct, which was built between 1875 and 1878, and was in use for over 100 years. The small building is not an unusual home site, as I had imagined, but rather a "gate house" that houses part of the machinery that controlled the flow of water.
Here is a photo from 1910, looking in the opposite direction, and the rail line is clearly visible in the background.

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May SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	earbud case	replace button patches	chicken house
2	Ursa pullover	pruned parking strip	chicken waterer
3	x	renewed raised planters	lots of yard waste
4	x	plant salad table	paper recycling
5	x	plant tomato starts	-
6	x	grapevine pruned	-
7	x	green onions planted	-
8	x	I-cord edging	-
9	x	x	-
10	x	x	-
11	x	x	-
12	x	x	-
13	x	x	-
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - the internet makes doing research eversomuch easier, as only those of us who grew up before will ever appreciate

*late 16th century: from Latin proficient- ‘advancing’, from the verb proficere, from pro- ‘on behalf of’ + facere ‘do, make’.