Misfits and a Shilling for Candles

Yesterday's misfits included a wild extravaganza of berries -- out of season raspberries and the usual blueberries. The raspberries are wonderful with good honey and homemade yogurt 

I always marvel at the beauty of brown eggs, and these are so fresh, they rest right at the bottom of the pot when you boil them. I often have a boiled egg and whole grain toast for tea. Or pita bread filled with spinach and egg salad.

And the cranberries are already sauce. I make this very simply, berries, sugar and lemon juice.

And I've been serving it for years in the glass container my sister gave me many years ago, one of the few things she gave me, and treasured accordingly.

While I knit, I've been listening to this old, a bit dated, but still good, Tey. I like all her work, particularly Daughter of Time, which rehabilitated Richard III using actual research, not the wildly inaccurate pop version by Shakespeare.

 

And when I need to read words, because I can't knit endlessly, poor me, I'm doing a weird alternation on Kindle between the Jane Seymour book by Alison Weir and Crampton Hodnet by Barbara Pym. 

The second one is an in-joke, Crampton being part of Pym's family name. And it's one of the best of her novels, with marvelous comic scenes, very movie-like. The Weir, with its social rules and expectations in dress, deportment and food references, has a lot more in common than you might think, with the humor absent. Also no violent death in Pym. At least not physical death. Social death is another issue.

A lot of interesting observations on friendship and falling lately,  thank you all. I learn from you all the time.

Happy day, everyone, I'm off to throw the Thanksgiving red cloth over the incomplete puzzle on the table, then set it up, but simply this year. Tomorrow we celebrate, on Handsome Son's day off.

In Thursday I'll be alone, neighbors mostly away to relatives for the week, but I'll be taking part in Spoutible online high jinks for other people alone on the day.  Or maybe medium jinks, we'll see. It's all good.

More winnowing, friendships

In the  course of looking for other things, I came across more winnowing fodder -- fabrics. This includes the rest of those donated sheets I didn't use because they're mauve, which I don't like, though I did make skirts and a robe from the rest, and a bunch of sari and other fabrics, some with bling,  left over from projects.

Due to be picked up today. I hope it works out for this taker, because earlier their schedule fell apart and they missed the art bag, but were very courteous about keeping me informed.

I'm trying to be realistic about how much I can use these days and what  items can go to better hands. It's not easy, to be honest. It's not about the stuff, it's about saying goodbye to the plans for it. Well, that's why parting with things is hard, not exactly breaking news. It's easier when it goes to nice people.

And having finished all my other reading, I'm now kindling this

I do like Weir's narrative style, and I think her historical settings are pretty accurate. Seymour's the Queen who died after giving birth, just to situate her in the Henry story. 

It's possible that kindling is why I'm not getting on with stitching, hence the freecycled fabric remnants..

I've been thinking about kinds of friendship lately, largely because a rl friend is going through some sad times with family illness, and experiencing some of what I did in a similar situations.

There are people who will drop you, heck, Andy's nurses used to tell me of partners who were abandoned when they got sick, but even friends might do that. They can't handle it even at second hand. 

Then there are people who hang in, very kind and helpful. Then when things start to look up for you, they go away. They're better equipped at having the upper hand, I think, and don't know how to navigate a more even relationship. 

And there are what I call activity friends, who want to share a group or activity, but not want any contact outside of it. 

All this is just part of the tapestry of life, nothing bad about it. But it took me so long to grasp this, that I've been disappointed quite a bit,  expecting to buy eggs at the hardware store, so to speak.

I do think it's a mistake to think your real friends are the people who support you in hard times. I think your real friends are those who are supportive and happy for you when things are going well. That's not easy, considering how fast envy can get into the picture.

Anyway, a few musing thoughts, and I'd welcome yours, too. I learn a lot from your comments, thank you.

Happy day, everyone, oh, I just found out we're doing Thanksgiving on Wednesday next week, Handsome Son's day off. He usually works Thanksgiving. This is the nearest we've come in recent years to the official day.

So enjoy your day, even if it's not on the national schedule.

Leaves in progress, Misfits quirks, and soup

 I've been on an Alison Weir trip, with this rather dry history

and this much more lively historical novel same characters

Between shopping in the freezer and making soup.

I used up a couple of quarts of homemade vegetable stock, plus the cooked butternut squash and most of the carrots from the freezer to make this. Since the weather had dropped to the 80s f. I rationalized that it was soup weather. 

It's a favorite meal, with pita bread toasted with sharp cheddar, as seen here. 

And the wall hanging is starting to take shape, here with a couple of blocks tentatively in place

 

current blocks close up, top left in progress

I love working on one block at a time, completely engrossed in the intricacy of it, working in hand. You can see the size from the measurements on the cutting block they're resting on.

The little open work yellow leaf on the blue leaf is the same one as the orange insert under the yellow leaf, just cut with more detail.

I do like modular, in art and gardening. You get to continue designing as you go, many chances to change and reorganize. I've made some big artworks consisting of small components.

My gardening is similar -- containers beat planting in the ground for me. I do both, but I know which I prefer.

I notice a new Misfits quirk. It used to pay to order as soon as the window opened, because they would sell out so quickly. So I'm in the habit of checking in promptly. 

But now I'm finding most produce  labeled sold out even before I get started, within minutes. This week the entire fruit section was sold out. Nothing to buy. So I started my list anyway. The window is open for a couple of days before they close it and charge you. Then I had an idea, went back in later. The whole fruit department was now stocked.

I think whoever opens the window is faster than whoever stocks the shelves! It's like unlocking the shop door while they're still running items onto the floor. 

I had a similar situation years ago, when people still did bank operations manually. Every check I wrote one month on our local country bank, into which my husband's salary was deposited, was bounced.  Written a  full day after the deposit. 

I hared in and demanded the manager explain and grovel. He explained that the lady in charge of bouncing checks was faster than the lady in charge of posting deposits! 

I made him write and sign a handful of letters  explaining their blunder, for all the people now charging us for nonpayment, and swallow the fees for me.  He did all this but was noncommittal about my suggestion he switch the ladies over to avoid this kind of snafu.

Misfits is simpler, just wait  a day!

And if there's anyone still wondering about the dad riddle, well, if he had a  widow he'd be dead! So it's unlikely he'd marry her sister. Many times people start up figuring the degree of  relationship, the law etc., reading widow as wife!  Not our sharp blogistas, nooo.

And justice continues to roll down on tfg. Georgia is the most likely to be crushing. He can't get out of state charges even if, God forbid, he gets reelected. Between the New York, the Florida, the DC and now Georgia charges and indictments, the walls,  I pray, are finally closing in on him and his gang.

Happy day everyone! Continue to take care, covid is still around, though not in the news.

Fridge Delivery is done

So the fridge is home and already working as a bulletin board, complete with POLST form, emergency medical directive to emts. It's almost the first thing you see when you come in the front door. 

I had to have them reverse the doors because the factory setting has them opening left to right, which doesn't work in this kitchen. But it's running a treat. 

And, yet another bonus, right underneath where the old one stood I found a hand stitched napkin, part of a set I made years ago, which vanished some time back. No idea how it got right under the fridge. Anyway 35 years of dust and crud is now gone. The napkin is in the laundry and all's well.

And today I can fill the freezer then, sigh, defrost the chest freezer, oh well.

see how nature keeps going. Who knows how spores get around, but here's a sign of fall right in the house

and I don't know what these little wildflowers are, more violet than they appear here, but not violets. Does anyone know, from this not very good pic? While I was out I checked where the baby bluejay had been, not there, also no sad little heap of feathers, so I guess he's fine. 

 

And here's my current reading. What a relief to read good, tight, literate writing after the cotton candy stuff of hot weather. Also I do like well researched historical novels.

And Suits continues to be my evening viewing, interrupted by Gary wanting to show me plants, very proud of the corn patch, which is now taller than everyone.  Suits is also full of fashion. The men in posh suits, the women apparently dressed for cocktail parties in the office. Some great stuff though. Especially the boss lady, name escapes me, whoa, stylin'. And I can sing the intro, but I can't do the voices, I'm much too clipped.

Speaking of today, 78th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, a day I remember. I was young but knew something terrible had been done. And I remember how young Gary and our neighbor are, when they went to see Oppenheimer, and said it was excellent. I couldn't possibly relive that. 

They also went to see Chappaquiddick a while back, invited me, and I couldn't imagine wanting to relive that Kennedy crime. I'm only a few years older than they, but it's like a generation in experience. 

Happy day, everyone, I hope your surprises are good ones today, but do spend a moment on our past and resolve not to go back there, please?  Preaching to the choir, I know, bear with me.  I can't let it pass without some attention paid.