December 26, 2021 Boxing Day

 We had lots of fog this morning, the day after Christmas Day, Boxing Day.  Now it’s sunny and 64 degrees.  Projected high for today is 68.  Definitely does not feel like Christmas to me, weather-wise.  The previous two days, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, were abnormally warm too.  It’s hard for me to really get into the Christmas spirit when it’s not at least cold.  So different from most of the Winter temperatures at this time of year— until the last few years.  It has given beautiful sunsets (the middle picture on Christmas Eve) and Sunrises (Christmas Eve morning).  The whole month of December has gone by so quickly that I only got several batches of sugar cookies and several batches of fudge made.  So I have plans to make my Tasty Kake and sausage balls this coming week. 

So it’s all done and dusted for another year.  I really don’t know how I feel about that except it was fast.  They are all so different for me now.  Not bad—-just different.  

I have a lot of fabric close by, and I have been stitching a snowman.  Just simple backstitch, but it feels so good to have a needle and thread in my hands again.  It’s been ages since I’ve felt like stitching again.  And the kittens haven’t been interested, so far, in what I’m doing, which is a great thing.  

I hope that 2022 holds less virus, less contention, less emotional pain and stress than the last two years for all of us.

Christmas Eve

 

Merry Christmas!  May Santa find his way to your house and heart tonight.

Christmas Is Coming

 

I really have to get with a program!  I haven't even really started thinking about Christmas in terms of baking or shopping for the few gifts that I will give.  The older I get the more likely I am to be 'asleep' when special days come around.  :D  I do want to make some old-fashioned fudge, the kind you actually cook on the stove with cocoa, sugar and milk.  And I always want soft sugar cookies and Tasty Kake.  My friend, Joanie who is from PA, introduced me to Tasty Kake years ago, and it's my 'have to have' treat for Christmas.  Yellow cake with a thick layer of peanut butter on that, and then melted Hershey bars poured on top of the peanut butter.  What's not to drool over???  I admit not having a Christmas tree or any other decorations out does make it exceptionally hard for me to remember that Christmas is only a little over a week away!!

So Much Devastation

 I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around the total devastation in Mayfield, KY, from a tornado last night. And the other cities/states that were hit as well.  So many lives lost, and so many others who lost everything but their lives.  Heart-wrenching.  We had some hard rain and wind today but the predicted wind speeds missed us.  Climate change is wreaking havoc in so many ways.

This sunrise was on December 9 (I think).  I just stood, totally enchanted by the beauty.  December has gifted us with some glorious sunsets as well.

It’s impossible to believe that Christmas is two weeks away.  I am not putting out any decorations this year because of the kittens, but I have been in the Christmas spirit, and watching lots of Christmas movies.  I will do some baking soon.  

Frosty Mornings and Turkeys

 

Yesterday morning and this morning, 27 degrees and 26 degrees, respectively, I marveled at the heavy frost both mornings.  On the rooftops, at a quick glance, you would have thought it was a light snow.  There were turkeys in my neighbor's yard eating the berries from her Dogwood tree.  So strange to see them in the middle of a city, and so fun to see them so close to Thanksgiving.  I hope they stay safe from the cars that whiz up and down this street.

I am FINALLY feeling like I'm recovering from whatever I have had for over two weeks.  I feel like it has been going on for two months rather than two weeks.  So grateful to be seeing light at the end of this tunnel.  

Thanksgiving is this coming week.  I have gotten a turkey breast in the house, and I plan to cook my favorite things while watching/listening to the Macy's parade.  It's tradition and comforts of home to do this.   Will share with my sister and BIL but have no elaborate plans for the Holiday---just the way I like it.  

Fall Light and Still Sick

 

I am still sick.  Went back to Urgent Care last Friday, and they now say Walking Pneumonia.  I finished a round of antibiotics today but still not much better.  My pharmacist said there is something going around here in our city that the doctors aren't able to definitively diagnose.  Oh yay.  Fortunately, I don't have to be anywhere or do anything, so I'm good just staying home and doing as little as I can get by with.  

So hard to believe that next week is Thanksgiving.  The time absolutely passes in a blink.  

We have had some breathtaking sunsets this week, and the morning light has been such a delight to photograph with the last of the year's golden leaves being lit up.  A magical quality to the days...

 I woke up around 3 a.m. on Saturday morning so sick that it scared me.  I was coughing continuously and couldn't breathe for coughing which led to vomiting and feeling like I was going to pass out.  Miserable!  I hung in there until this morning then went to Urgent Care on the advice of my pharmacist, who also said it sounded a lot like...whooping cough!!  Whoa, wait, I thought had to do with kids and has been off the worry radar for a whole bunch of years!  So I was tested for Covid, Flu, some other SARS somethings and Whooping Cough, along with 2 chest xrays.  Negative on flu, Covid, and other SARS stuff.  Won't know about the the Whooping Cough thing for 2 to 3 days.  Oh, and I don't have pneumonia either, but I do have acute bronchitis.  So the raising of 3 kittens just became a little bit more challenging.

Wow! November 1, 2021 This Year Gobbled Up By Kittens

 

I am having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that it's November 1.  Lordy, can you believe I have spent the whole blasted Summer in this house raising these three kittens!!!  And I really really wanted to find a groove with my bicycle this Summer.  That didn't happen.  Now we are racing into cold weather.  Oh well, at least I have a huge stash of books that I'm looking forward to hibernating with.

My brother-in-law, Fred, had his 80th birthday yesterday.  He's a spook baby.  He is the least likely 80 year old that I have ever met or known.  The man looks, moves and acts as if he's in his early 60s---at the oldest.  He's a live wire, and is always working out in one manner or another or on the bicycle.  May there be many many more years ahead to enjoy.

I had 5 teeth implant bases put in place last Wednesday.  Not a fun few days afterward but I'm much better now.  Will have a follow up in three weeks and find out what the next step will be and when.

Today was absolutely gorgeous!!  Tonight the low will be around 34 with rain/cold on the way for the rest of the week.  May even get into the upper 20s the latter part of the week.  Need to pull out some thicker clothes for these aging bones.  

Happy Halloween!

 

Natural Dyeing

 From a Beautiful Mess, Experimenting with Natural Dyes, and well, they are dyeing linen, which I would love to try. 

Avocado Pits=light peachy pink on linen, light peach on silk, light blush on wool
Marigolds=light yellow on cotton and linen, olive green when used with iron
Turmeric=bright tangerine on linen, bright yellow when mixed with white vinegar
Yellow Onion Skins=warm orange on linen
Red Onion Skins=grayish purple on linen
Madder Root=bright rust on linen
Cochineal=bright cranberry on linen and silk
Hibiscus=a cool pink on linen

 
This book look like an interesting introduction to the process: Botanical Colour at you Fingertips.
 

This is from Kiliko.com 

Yellow 
chamomile - pale yellow birch leaves - pale yellow
goldenrod - sunny yellow
purple budleja - sunny yellow
marigolds - sunny yellow  

Green
marigolds - olive green with iron
birch leaves - olive green with iron
nettles - pale green, pale grey with iron
ferns - light green to red-pink  

Orange and pink
rhododendron leaves - pale orange (toxic)
willow leaves - orange-red
firethorn berries - orange-red
bracken fern
hibiscus flowers - orange-red to light blue-green 

Purple and Blue
mahonia berries - purple
elderberries - pale purple
oak galls - grey-purple with iron
ligustrum berries - blue (toxic)
black hollyhock - blue to grey

Brown and Grey
oak leaves - beige, grey with iron
acorns - brown-beige, grey with iron
alder cones - brown-beige, grey with iron
walnut leaves - deep brown
walnut skins - deep brown  

Kitchen waste
turmeric - yellow
pomegranate skins - yellow
onion skins - orange
avocado skins and pits - pink
black tea, coffee - beige-brown
rosemary - grey
sage - pale green
….and two lovely but very fugitive colors
red cabbage - purple
black beans - grey-blue 

Feast your eyes on these dye colors!

NatureColorsEU on Etsy. Dyers’ Coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria) over on Wild Colours, also lots of history on dye colors.

Lots of fun dyes on Hooked and Dyed, Hollyhock, carrot tops , mushrooms! Who knew!

I Believe that Climate Change is a Real Threat

 

Reposted from another blog...

Climate change is real

I Could Be Wrong always has something importand to impart. 

"I have an old 17’ powerboat that my wife and I take out to the Intracoastals a couple of times a week. Yesterday we were drifting in Tarpon Bay and I took a picture that I posted on Facebook saying that we need to work to preserve this. Every State has there treasures and our lakes, rivers and oceans have always been part of them. All my life I have lived near water and could not imagine life without them. I grew up in Kenosha, Wisconsin right on the shores of Lake Michigan. On a clear day we could see some of the Chicago skyline form our shores. We had a sailboat and we enjoyed the lake as much as we could. Moving to Florida to be near the Gulf just seemed to make sense. I have been down here now for two years and it seems that the Red Tide and the Green Algae are still a problem. I read an editorial from an Orlando newspaper that stated that if you treat your state like a toilet you can’t be surprised when it backs up. We have a beautiful recourse here that we need to do more to preserve for our future generations. 

When I was a kid we did a lot of swimming in Lake Michigan. There was an area that we use to call the cove that was at the end of 68th street that we would go swimming there quite often. It was not really a cove, it was just an open area for the storm sewer run off could flow into the lake but we were kids so what did we know. Also there was the pumping station for the American Brass where they would pump water out of the lake to use in the fabrication of their copper products. Sometimes you could see the green discharge oozing up from behind the pumping station. When I was growing up the water quality of the lake was not monitored like it is now so we had no idea what we were swimming in. I always wonder how many sicknesses were caused by that water. The Great Lakes have come a long way in the last 60 years. One reason there was a comeback with Lake Michigan is because we started monitoring what we were dumping in the lake but the other thing was that the industry that was causing a lot of the pollution is just no longer there. It is good to not have the pollution but the loss of the jobs is really sad.

In many ways we have cleaned up our environment but, in many ways we are still lagging behind the rest of the world. We are still trying to save coal jobs that should never come back and we are still too dependent on oil, two of the largest polluters of today. They are also two of the industries that lobby the hardest against a green economy. Not pursuing a green economy is just making us fall farther behind the rest of the world. Those lobbies that are bribing our politicians don’t care about the future of our country and in some cases the future of our planet. They care about profit and the future of their corporation and many times it is a foreign corporation. Do you really think that a Saudi Prince or a Russian Oligarch care about the future of any of our grandchildren. They use your own hate against you so they can keep on making huge profits. The saddest part of all of this is that our own government knows that all this is true but too many of our own politicians are just getting to much money to help promote change. 

Climate change is real and it is not going to go away. It may actually be too late to reverse a lot of it. We can pray for rain out west to battle the drought conditions but we need to start preparing for that not happening. The solution, let’s start preparing to move people to places that have the water is to support the people and move the industry that will be needed. Science is not going to change what is happening out west. Science can only at this point help us prepare for what is going to happen and we need to start preparing for. At the least, we need to start talking about it. We need to get people to the areas that can sustain the population. I don’t mean that we have to abandon California but get it to the point where the water supply and the people can sustain themselves. The same with Vegas and many other parts of the west that are suffering the effects of climate change. 

These are really hard discussions that have to happen and with today’s political climate will not happen. We need to get the climate deniers out of Washington. We need to have election reform to get the bribery out of Washington. Those two things are holding us back and are making us lose our standing as a leader in the world. When it comes to climate change a strong military will not help us. A green economy is the economy of the future. We can either lead or we can follow. We use to be leaders."

Temps Dropping to 40 Tonight

 We are going from 60s for lows at night to 38 to 40 tonight.  Time to turn the heat on.  I'm ready for sweaters, and sweat pants, and soups and stews.  I'm ready for snuggling in watching college football games and reading books.  We had wind today, and the leaves were falling like rain.  Speaking of rain, we had a hard rain this morning, then it cleared and the afternoon was gorgeous.  Blue skies with fluffy clouds floating by.  And the moon tonight is so beautiful.  Won't be long until it's full.

The kittens are growing by leaps and bounds.  Marlee is no happier with them being here.  I try to give her extra attention, although these rampaging little dervishes are hard to ignore.  :D  

I ordered some Fall fabrics to make a table topper.  Maybe I will get a picture of them within the next few days, and I will share it if I do.

Have to go and have a nervous breakdown over this Tennessee v. Ole Miss ball game.  

Kitten Update September 1, 2021

 

What's Up With the Kittens?

 The Little Scrap of fur at the top was rescued by me and my neighbor from under her deck.  We couldn't get to it, so we called my brother-in-law to bring a crowbar and rip up a board in her deck so we could get it out.  She is a dog person, knows nothing about caring for kittens, so of course, it came home for ME to figure out how to bottle feed the little scrap.  This took place Wednesday evening.  My days right now are filled with trying to figure out how to take care of it (maybe 4 weeks old?), and these growing kittens, and Marlee.  Marlee is seriously wondering what has happened to her calm and peaceful world.  I'm praying someone will want to adopt the little bit.  

Sunshine

Sunflowers make me smile.  This is a volunteer that came up in my flower bed.  It brightens the world around it.
 

Summer 2021

 Marlee is not amused by these kittens. But she is slowly, grudgingly adjusting to them being in her space.  :)  They are growing and into EVERYTHING.  The first half of the day is the most hectic with them bouncing off the walls.  My first cup of coffee in the morning is no longer peacefully enjoyed as I peruse the headlines or blogs or watching the Tour de France. 

Just...Practicing Living

 Gosh, I had no idea it had been so long since I had been to this blog or posted anything.  Nothing new or dramatic going on, just haven't had much to say.  The lockdown time has made me even more introverted and antisocial than I was pre-pandemic.  I THINK about writing, I THINK about sewing, I read a LOT, a lot of blog visiting---mostly not commenting, but showing up every day for a great number of regular blogs.  They all give me creative things to think about.

Someone in the neighborhood showed up on my doorstep last week with these two really young kittens and said I 'had' to take them.  I don't know this person very well, but she seems to think she knows me well enough to do something like that.  I had brain-freeze and didn't refuse at the moment.  I love animals and believe they need to be taken care of if you're going to have them. I need my head examined.  My life is really complicated enough with just trying to (still) sort things out from Randy being gone.  I am struggling with what to do with the kittens.  I have taken them to the vet for initial checkups and shots.  They were only 6 weeks old.  What to do?  They are adorable for sure.

Inauguration of Light

 THE HILL WE CLIMB

When day comes we ask ourselves,
where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
The loss we carry,
a sea we must wade
We've braved the belly of the beast
We've learned that quiet isn't always peace
And the norms and notions
of what just is
Isn’t always just-ice
And yet the dawn is ours
before we knew it
Somehow we do it
Somehow we've weathered and witnessed
a nation that isn’t broken
but simply unfinished
We the successors of a country and a time
Where a skinny Black girl
descended from slaves and raised by a single mother
can dream of becoming president
only to find herself reciting for one
And yes we are far from polished
far from pristine
but that doesn’t mean we are
striving to form a union that is perfect
We are striving to forge a union with purpose
To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and
conditions of man
And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us
but what stands before us
We close the divide because we know, to put our future first,
we must first put our differences aside
We lay down our arms
so we can reach out our arms to one another
We seek harm to none and harmony for all
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true:
That even as we grieved, we grew
That even as we hurt, we hoped
That even as we tired, we tried
That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious
Not because we will never again know defeat
but because we will never again sow division
Scripture tells us to envision
that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree
And no one shall make them afraid
If we’re to live up to our own time
Then victory won’t lie in the blade
But in all the bridges we’ve made
That is the promised glade
The hill we climb
If only we dare
It's because being American is more than a pride we inherit,
it’s the past we step into
and how we repair it
We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation
rather than share it
Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy
And this effort very nearly succeeded
But while democracy can be periodically delayed
it can never be permanently defeated
In this truth
in this faith we trust
For while we have our eyes on the future
history has its eyes on us
This is the era of just redemption
We feared at its inception
We did not feel prepared to be the heirs
of such a terrifying hour
but within it we found the power
to author a new chapter
To offer hope and laughter to ourselves
So while once we asked,
how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?
Now we assert
How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?
We will not march back to what was
but move to what shall be
A country that is bruised but whole,
benevolent but bold,
fierce and free
We will not be turned around
or interrupted by intimidation
because we know our inaction and inertia
will be the inheritance of the next generation
Our blunders become their burdens
But one thing is certain:
If we merge mercy with might,
and might with right,
then love becomes our legacy
and change our children’s birthright
So let us leave behind a country
better than the one we were left with
Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest,
we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one
We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west,
we will rise from the windswept northeast
where our forefathers first realized revolution
We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states,
we will rise from the sunbaked south
We will rebuild, reconcile and recover
and every known nook of our nation and
every corner called our country,
our people diverse and beautiful will emerge,
battered and beautiful
When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid
The new dawn blooms as we free it
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it
If only we’re brave enough to be it

Amanda Gorman
Biden-Harris Inauguration Youth Poet Laureate
January 20, 2021 

America? Or Venezuela?

 Dear Gussy, Molly and Moses---are we in America?  Or are we in Venezuela?  Randy said it would come to this.  I could never envision this day.  But here we are.  So how did this happen with such ease, when since 9/11 no one can get near this area?

January 2, 2021

Christmas Day 2020 photos

 

Happy New Year -- 2021

 'Another Year'  2021    

"The old year is gone, the new year begun, and those of us who set store by the calendar draw a line to sum up a total, since it is man's habit to count the minutes and the days and try to map time.  Nature, of course, has her own map of time, and although man's calculations may approximate it, they miss the mark repeatedly.  If we insist on starting the year in mid-Winter, the solstice would be the logical moment, and the solstice occurred nine days ago.  The ancients, being practical people, started their year with the vernal equinox, the beginning of Spring.

But, being insistently illogical, we follow long habit and ingrained tradition and give this day unwonted significance.  We draw a mythical total line, hoping somehow to stop time long enough to sum up.  But even before we have totted the first column, time has gone beyond us.  Time doesn't wait for totals.  Only the tax collector can command time, and even he can't check the sun in its course.  The sun already leans toward Spring and another Summer.

A new year begins, as we say.  And the latent bud on the branch doesn't stir one whit, the blossom in the bulb sleeps undisturbed in the frozen ground.  The woodchuck's hibernating pulse doesn't quicken one beat, and the deer in the thicket is just as hungry as he was yesterday.  Man is the only animal to whom this new year is important.  All the others live by the day and the season.

The old year passes.  We draw up the totals, and the stars wheel and the sun slowly widens its arc, creating their own years.  Spring is already on the way, the Spring that knows no calendar."     Hal Borland, Sundial of the Seasons

Sending wishes and hopes for a kinder, healthier New Year--for us all.