Sunday snippets

in which our plucky heroine enjoys a visitation...

Today was excellent. Despite setting the alarm for an early morning family zoom meeting that had actually been rescheduled to next week. So I had a few extra morning hours to do chores, and got the dishes washed and laundry moved around before it was time for my crafternoon/brunch zoom.

After that weekly pleasant online social time, there were actual live human visitors here this afternoon! B & K showed up, after kindly picking up some things for me from Ikea while on their way. We stayed outside and masked, and after the exchange of various gifty objects* and things to be transfered between here and there, K spent hours with loppers and bow saw cutting apart the downed tree parts.

The largest bits, and much of the long straight branches were loaded into their car to go back to OlyWA, pretty much all the stuff that was too big for me to easily cut into chunks. The smaller branchlets and twiggy parts she piled and stacked up all together, which will allow me access to most of the front yard again. I was truly amazed at how much she accomplished, I had thought that she might cut off a piece or two for her woodworking, not that she would clear the space so that I can rake and mow! (The third broken branch is still unsafe to access from the ground and needs professional help)

Eventually it was too dark for yardwork, so we ordered our favorite sushi takeout, and had dinner on the front porch, bundled up in cardigans and hats, and well separated, because you cannot eat with masks on. They enjoyed the results of my meringue experiment. This visit was about as close to the hospitality of the Before Times, with conversation and conviviality. I was really sorry to see them off on their way home, but so very very glad to have had the chance of visiting time.

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time in the tinyworld:

a new notebook, a miniature trowel, and a watering can

A few minor bits are all I managed to add this weekend. I am most pleased with the spiral bound notebook, inspired by a pen that ran out of ink, from which I salvaged the retractable spring. A piece of notebook paper with extra lines added with a blue micron pen, the covers cut from a manila envelope, and the whole of them cut to size with holes drilled to thread the spring coil through...

The small hand trowel, (initially made from some pie tin foil and a toothpick) needed a somewhat larger handle. So I removed the toothpick, and substituted a piece of a very worn out paintbrush, with part of the ferrule making the join, and the very dilapidated wooden brush handle piece a convincingly worn garden trowel handle.The small watering can was a gift. It was originally a charm, with a loop at the top of the handle, which I cut off and smoothed over. It is a little too small for an outdoor garden, but rather just right for watering miniature house plants

the improved miniature trowel
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Saturday, (yesterday) I spent almost three hours today lopping off branchlets from the two huge broken tree pieces on the ground in my front yard. Now my yard waste bin is full to the brim. That is, best estimate, somewhere between a fifth and a quarter of what is small enough for me to handle. Doesn't include the larger parts of the branches, OR the third, equally huge, chunk that is still hanging from one of the trees. But it is noticeable progress, however incremental. ...

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I am afraid that my CrankyTooth TM may be developing an abscess. My distal gum next to #19 is becoming puffy and sore, in a way it hasn't previously. Time to call the dentist tomorrow morning. I have an appointment at the beginning of May for the extraction, but not sure what this new problem will require...

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April SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	tiny Euphorbia	jacket snaps added	yard waste bin
2	tiny moth orchid	moar wood chips in planter	recycle bin
3	Countess scroll	weight closer for back door	tax forms mailed
4	Laurel enamel	tiny drawer handles	broken tree parts
5	sunflower enamel	tiny trowel handle	-
6	x	x	-
7	x	x	-
8	x	x	-
9	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 gratitude - I have the best of friends.

* there were assorted gifty bits: some vintage books for collage pictures, a bundle of fairly thin hardwood scraps from a woodworker they know, a small replica of one of the Ikea blue tote bags, and perhaps best of all, a little bag with ten Maneki Neko beads, all in blue and white porcelain and barely more than a centimeter tall!

Time of Isolation - Day 763