ephemera

Today's clothing: black/grey polkadot dress, navy corduroy jumper with embroidered hem, handknit shoulder shawl (Noro Kuryeon +Noro Silk Garden yarn), handknit fingerless mitts (salvaged merino worsted)

Fingerless mitts are a good thing to help keep hands warm in a cold drafty cottage. I wear them often, until the temperature moderates, which does not usually happen here in March; while they look rather 19th century, they are really practical. The first pair I made were only wrist length; these, my second attempt, come halfway up my forearms. The next pair will come almost up to elbow height...

Other than wishing I had more long-sleeve knit tops, there really are enough dresses and jumpers in my closet to keep total clothing boredom at bay. Though it was a great disappointment that my indigo ikat jumper, which I'd hoped to wear today, started disintegrating. Though both the jumper and the fabric are almost new, the black stripes started shredding in the laundry.

Black is a hard dye to get right, and requires usually at least four times the dyestuff to get good color. I've no idea what was used on that particular fabric, but the actual fibers are noticeably weakened, (only the black, not the indigo). This is not the first time that I have had black fabric disintegrate after only a few washings; maybe I should think again about choosing that color, though it is a favorite of mine...

~ ~ ~≈:::≈~ ~ ~

I've been thinking a lot recently about the ephemerality/survival continuum. The Japanese earthquake is looking to have had pretty horrific effect, and that in a country that is far more advanced than our own in standards and preparation for such events. My heart is grieved at the devastation there. Living as I also do on the edge of the ring of fire, I've never been able to be complacent about the ground staying put, or the built infrastructure holding fast. To a great extent, survival in an earthquake is dependent on luck, but it is also possible to have made Useful Preparations, should luck find one at home at the time (rather than, say, on a bus in the middle of a bridge that should have been upgraded years ago)

With that in mind, I've been just mentioning to the various folks I talk to in my daily errands and such, that having a shelf with ready to eat foodstuffs, and some stored water and suchlike, is a good idea. Some agree, some already have done that, and some just scoff... Methinks that a Neighborly Roundtable meeting about this topic might also be good. Having spent more than half my life on the far western edge of North America, and having been in several noticeable earthquakes already, simple preparations just seem prudent. Yesterday my friend M posted this link, showing the geologic structure that underlies the west coast.

"The Cascadia Subduction Zone*

...is a very long sloping fault that stretches from mid-Vancouver Island to Northern California. It separates the Juan de Fuca and North America plates. New ocean floor is being created offshore of Washington and Oregon. As more material wells up along the ocean ridge, the ocean floor is pushed toward and beneath the continent." This is the same kind of fault zone that is off the coast of Japan... and there is no reassurance about the same thing not happening here, any time at all, (could be today, could be a hundred years from now...)

*(do check this out, The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network site is full of clear information)