fraying knotwork

in which our plucky heroine pushes back against despair...

Last week I found out that my sister and her husband have COVID. So far they seem to have a fairly mild case, and are quarantining at home. Her husband is now in a clinical trial for monoclonal antibodies, and I have my fingers crossed that he was one who received the treatment and not the placebo... time will tell.

Then, this morning, I found out that my mom has also been diagnosed with COVID, and is being moved from the rehab center where she has been since December 27 to a different rehab center two towns away, where they "put" the COVID patients. I spoke to her yesterday and she didn't seem ill, just sad, lonely, and wanting to be at home. Today we were supposed to have a conference with the rehab staff about mom's care, treatment, and future plan for return home, but that has gone by the wayside.

Now I am simply terrified that she, elderly and frail, with asthmatic lungs, will either die alone and afraid (at worst) or at best be trapped in rehab without hope for recovery or any contact with any of her family. I don't expect that any facility busy caring for Very Sick Patients will also have the time to encourage PT and OT for a weak elderly confused patient. While I know that even were I or my sister there, we could do no more than we can now from thousands of miles away, it is still excruciating. And the pain in my father's voice this morning broke my heart.

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beauty in the time of isolation - day 298:

the decapitated top of my birthday turnip, sprouting green leaves
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January SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	postcard for Mom	cardigan mended	excess dust rhinos
2	candied grapefruit peel	-	recycle bin
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
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 gratitude -  an excellent new steam iron showed up on my doorstep, thanks to the kindness of a friend. That will help with future sewing projects!

Sunday snippets

in which our plucky heroine gets off to a slow start...

...but gets somewhere nonetheless.  During CraftyEvening, while zoomchatting with Riia in Sweden, Raven in Eugene, and Ursel over in SE PDX, I was able to finish mending my most venerable cardigan, which was showing a few threadbare patches from the reknit/refurbishment it underwent in 2000. (originally it was made back in the early 80's, and almost twenty years after that, I unraveled the very worn yarn and Mr Dawson respun and plied it so I could use it again) With care, it will see me out...

SWAP 2021 - Yesterday I decided to cut out another winter turtleneck, and use the other mushroom print cotton lycra. It will be more fun to have clothes to wear than to simply have shelves of full of decorative stashed fabric, and I'm currently feeling a lot of love for teal/turquoise. Since there isn't much any more fabric on hand in those colors, I may have to indulge myself with finally making up a pair of turquoise earrings instead.

Today also was complete the belated holiday rum balls, and move the grapefruit peelings from the blanch stage to the simmer in sugar syrup stage. Hopefully by the time the post office delivers my shipping boxes, I will be able to mail a (somewhat late) birthday package to my father...

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~ 100 day creativity challenge - day 81 ~

Instead of breakfast to begin my day, I wanted to create a decorative postcard to send my mom (before the postman arrived)... Friday I had found some papercuts I made last year prior to isolation, and with a bit of marker magic for the background, and some packing tape to laminate the surface, hopefully this little blue bird of happiness will wing its way to her so many thousands of miles away...

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beauty in the time of isolation - day 294:

  never get tired of mossworlds

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January SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	postcard for Mom	cardigan mended	excess dust rhinos
2	-	-	-
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
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 gratitude - a bit of sunshine and moderate temperature (48F) meant that my sanity stroll was rather pleasant, and coming home to the French onion soup for my lunch (that had been simmering in the crock pot for a day and a half) was a treat. The oxtails bought at the farmer's market a year ago turned into stew last week, the drippings cooked the onions for the soup, and the leftover broth from that one small package of locally grown beef has given savor to another three meals at least.

daily resolution - mend heraldic cardigan

Friday folderol

in which our plucky heroine considers modest hopes...

I don't plan on deciding on any overarching goals or resolutions today, but am rather taken with the idea of "one-day resolutions"... which connect rather neatly with my personal motto "Proficere lente sed proficere" (incremental progress is still progress). Am wondering how a year of one day resolutions would turn out... Wake up in the morning, make a resolution, and have the whole day to fit it in.

Today I dealt with my shoe shelf/bench, took everything out of it, vaccumed up the dust rhinos, and made it all tidy. (which then led to my also chasing away the underbed dust rhino herd as well, to greatly benefit my being able to breathe a little easier tonight, I expect.

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(homegrown perennial tree collard leaves)

well that was a successful and hopefully repeatable experiment! As there is no cornmeal in the house, I decided to use masa instead in the recipe for Sister Gigi's Sweet Corn Pancakes... Masa has a distinctive and IMHO stronger corn flavor, and is much less "crunchy" (as well as having more of the nutritional value accessible to humans), all of which were an improvement on the original. I shall be updating my copy of the recipe.

Sweet corn pancakes (as in made with sweet corn, not "sweet") are a savory treat, and I had a few hot off the griddle for breakfast. The remainder will be frozen for future meals, with a few more part of the ritual New Years meal, along with black-eyed peas, carrot "coins", and some well cooked collards and kale from the yard... Wishing all of you a year of successful experiments!

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I probably will not make more thumbhole cuffs in the future. The concept works just fine, but when the cuffs are not being used in that way, the cuffs look "odd" with either an opening that shows the wrist, or if turned back and "cuffed" they have a weird layered gap where the thumbhole is. OTOH my turtleneck experiment turned out just right, and the paper pattern piece has been transferred to cardboard and strung on the hook with the rest of that pattern in my TNT pattern storage

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January SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	-	-	excess dust rhinos
2	-	-	-
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
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 gratitude - homemade condiments, such as salsa verde, or awesome sauce, which add so much savor to everyday meals. This time of year, the newly arriving seed catalogs do much to encourage dreaming of harvest times to come, and preserving for the future... I enjoyed briefly chatting with Ariadne about possible things to grow in the year ahead