Thoughts about stitching and Fox and plants

Yesterday was all about laundry and changing sheets and making yogurt and asking the FCC to lift Fox's licence.

Once the laundry was done and the yogurt started,

I had planned to go pick grass to make into ink. Another time I'll explain that. Then while I was busy indoors, the landscapers got busy outdoors, cutting the grass so low I can't pick it yet. 

So, in the time now freed up,  I did a bit online, found the FCC (Federal Communication Commission) in charge of conferring and rescinding US transmission licences for broadcast and cable, has, very unusually,  opened comment on Fox's licence renewal, in response to a public petition.

Fox News (!) as you know, has been purveying flat out lies, particularly about the 2020 election, has lost all its defensive court cases, and a petition has been accepted by the FCC to review its licence. I'm particularly incensed that it's the preset 24/7 station on American military bases. 

So while the milk for yogurt was cooling, I did my bit. As you see, it landed and I have the receipt

This is how I got there. You go to their website, follow the prompts and get to a place to create and send your comment. The docket is Fox.

I imagine it's open to anyone in the US. People are not aware, at least I wasn't till yesterday,  that they now have this unusual right to create their own comment on whether Fox should have its licence renewed or denied, and it's a significant first. 

This is a great chance for good people to do something! Please do. Kitchen table activism. Not many people know about this yet, judging from the numbers of comments filed to date.

In other exciting news, I think this post should have an excitement alert, might be too much for nervous people, I cut the base of the morning glory, after it stopped raining.

I retrieved the potting soil, which I'll remix for other plants, and when the morning glory has withered, it will be easier to remove.

and I moved the coleus out front for a while before it comes indoors to become a houseplant. I'll repot it in this bigger pot, using some of the soil from the mg.

Here it is in an arrangement with the Russian sage, failing a bit this year, after many years of domination.

And I found a new, very cute, physio online with exercises I've started yesterday, all about stretching and staying flexible, at this point as useful as staying strong.

The first was calf stretches, which I already do, so I'll continue. Then there's this great one for my neck issues

And a multi part approach to being able to get up from the floor

You can find him on YouTube, you see the name of his practice in the pictures. Another Australian, I think. I've got all the best physio help from Australia, seems to be the motherlode.

A sad goodbye last night to my entertainment center

My little white tv, still able to run video cassettes, and plugged in to the DVD player on the right, under the lamp, running my collection of DVDs and the current library borrow of Suits, is no more. 

It's about 30+ years old, and has been in failing health lately. Last night it gave a little sigh, switched off and there was a burning smell. Thank you old friend, yes, you did spark joy. Hours of it.

So I've ordered a portable DVD player, the kind with a screen, and I'll offer my old player on free cycle, because it's working fine, and find some way to dispose of the old tv. It's very small, so not a big issue.

I will also have a free surface, the top of the antique washstand the setup was on,  for stuff, maybe a table scape. TBA.

The stitching continues and this morning I got a great idea for the whole thing: instead of a backing, a fronting! A piece of fabric with many varied, organic shaped, cutout windows revealing all the blocks, reverse appliqued. This could be very cool, and it will  have sashiko stitching, attaching the front layer to the stitched blocks.

Anyway meanwhile

Here's where we are. The latest block is in progress.

Happy day, everyone, look out for incoming ideas, they're everywhere!

Celebrating the coming of Fall at the Preserve

Lovely peaceful hike on the Preserve today, to celebrate the arrival of the equinox, taking in the lakeshore, and the farm track and the trail through the beechwood then back up beside the field.

So many different sights and sounds and views in a tiny area of wilderness. 

An artist quietly painting by the lakeside, to my surprise, since she's in what I thought was my own preserve, never saw anyone down that little path to the water before. 

 

And realized that they have widened the trail so much that it can be seen from the farm track, which explains her discovery.

While I was down there, I spotted, far across the water, an egret perched in a tree above the lake.  Unusual to see one there, in fact to see one at all, perhaps a fall visitor on his way somewhere.

Then through the lovely green shade of the beechwood, with birds flittering about ignoring my presence. 

Interesting circles of tree stumps, probably felled because they're about to come down anyway

huge fungi on this old tree, and what look like ferns marked with flags, perhaps they're rare, this being a place with quite a lot of protected flower and plant species.  

 And here's a really aggrieved sawn off tree stump.


Then out along the track where fox and deer like to live.  In fact I saw a doe with two fairly young deer a few minutes before I went to that trail.  I also saw what looked like a fox scat, pretty fresh, but I didn't see the scatter. 

 Fallen leaves starting to turn color.

 
Then back across the edge of the field, full of butterflies -- no big ones this year, but tiny yellows and whites -- and wildflowers.

And so home for a cup of tea and a nice muse over what I saw this afternoon.  And over what I cooked this morning. My life is just one long mad round of unalloyed joy!  and this evening it's "Endeavor" on DVD, with a nice glass of red.