wistful Wednesday

in which our plucky heroine remembers the Before Times...

This morning I got up early to ride over to the bike shop, to drop my trusty steed off for the remaining needed refurbishments (and I asked if they could add a kickstand to my bike while it was in there getting work done anyway). It was already quite warm before I arrived there at 10 when they opened. It took me about 1¾ hours to get home on transit, since it required three different transfers, and the heat and sunshine were really opressive by the time I returned to Acorn Cottage.

While I was walking along Alberta to the first bus stop, I was washed over by a wave of sorrow, remembering the comparative ease of how it was when I first came to the city, when exploring and adventuring were an option, when I didn't have to ration my entry into shops and buildings with exquisite care to minimise the time spent indoors, when if there was something particularly appealing for a snack, my only concern was "can I afford this luxury" and not, in addition, is this luxury of a restaurant treat something that I can carry home so I can safely eat it, and that will still be edible after several hours in my day pack?...

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~ printmaking project ~

day 17/100 Yesterday was, as always "tinyprint Tuesday".  Had this image in my sketchbook for a while, so turned it into a little 1" square linocut print. It turned out better than I expected.

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I just finished adding the first grey layer to my Akita print, and I think I made an error with the color of the ink. It looks much too dark to me, and I may need to overprint it with a lighter grey before adding the two final layers, in order to get an appropriate value range. Ooops! Or, maybe I could call that layer the dark grey, cut that away and print the lighter grey and then the black?

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Made such a yummy slaw for dinner: red cabbage, yellow peppers, carrots, green onions, mango, avocado, with a lime/rice vinegar/fish sauce/olive oil/mint/thai basil dressing, and cashews as a garnish.... (Instagram inspired, but using what I had on hand here, though I picked up a mango on the way home from the bike shop). This was good enough that I will have to make it again!

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May SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	grey canvas hat	front yard mowed	apple tree prunings
2	tiny pomegranate	hooks on drying rack	more dead ferns
3	print drying hooks	scarf printed	recycle bin
4	layer 1/5 linoprint	re-done engraving	-
5	layer 2/5 linoprint	-	-
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 bike shop requires masking!
2. It felt a bit easier today to ride the three miles to the bike shop than it did last week
3. I have the resources to make myself healthy food, and a kitchen and tools to make the food in, and a safe and quiet place to eat.

Time of Isolation - Day 1064

a bird list for Kestrel: House Finch, Scrub Jay, Crow,...