One for the Crow...

...one to die, one to grow.

Just an old gardening rhyme with lots of variations:

"Four seeds in a row, one for the rook, one for the crow, one to die, and one to grow."

"Four seeds in a row, one for the rook, one for the crow, one will wither and one will grow."

"One for the blackbird, one for the crow, one for the cutworm, and one to grow."

"One for the mouse, one for the crow, one to rot, one to grow."

"One for the wind and one for the crow, one to die and one to grow."

...and so many more one could write a book of nothing but these rhymes.

Anyway...that has little to do with this post.

The season to sow is long past. Sometimes I feel like I went to sleep sometime in April and woke up and it was the end of October.

 

Somehow there is less than one week until Halloween.

I've not gotten a fraction of the things done that I had hoped to (including blogposts), but I have gotten some of my Halloween up and a few (small) projects crossed off my list. 

Wow...have I veered off topic. 

Back to "One for the Crow"....

In addition to an old and prolific gardening rhyme, it's the name of this design by With Thy Needle & Thread.

I stitched these designs several years ago but was disappointed in the linen I used. It was the called-for 40 ct "Legacy" from Picture this Plus," but my pieces did not look like the model photos. 

I distressed the linen a bit after I completed the stitching, but they still were pale and sickly.  (These photos make them look closer to the models but they aren't really.)

However, after extended stays at both the Isle of Misfits and Castaways and The Isle of the Unfinished, they finally made it into these little pinkeeps.

Two littles off the list....

Now back to my other distractions.

A Quick Check-in...

Little Crow is getting married this weekend and things have been crazier than normal.  

If my penchant for procrastination and late-onset anxiety weren't enough to deal with right now,  a rogue storm rolled through Sunday morning leaving me without power for over 4 hours and doing a great deal of damage - including, but not limited to, decimating my back-up generator, my pool pump/robot cleaning system, garage lights, wireless remote light switches, and my pc hard drive.

Why me? Why now???

UGH.

Anyways, it may be a while before I catch my breath and things return to the low hum of my old "normal," so I wanted to do a quick check-in to let you know I'm still here even if I won't manage to keep up with checking in on blogs, etc.

Since my photos (and most of the rest of my life) are on my defunct pc, you get some random, unedited (i.e., no attempt to remove blur), photos from my camera roll..and posted from my Ipad which is always a bit of a challenge.

{Love the way the sunshine reflects off my favorite crow's wings...}

{The hibiscus is putting on their final summer show....}

{The moon has been so spectacularly orange it reminds me of those jelly orange slice candies some nights...}

{I tried to disguise a black-and-blue toe (fall down the patio stairs) with a pedicure.  I wasn't entirely successful....}

{A little dark stitching - "Jack's Bash" by Plum Street Samplers....}

{Rajah Roo...pretty much summing up how I feel at the end of each day...and, truth be told, at the start of many as well....}

I have the honor of walking Miss Mia down the aisle.

  Wish me luck.

She's too little to hold me up. 

Of Crows, Moons, and Large Alien Eyeballs

Some would think the days pass slowly in Nod - especially for a hermit.

The winter days, yes, they are interminable...but the days of summer pass mercurially fast.

Many are spent counting crows.

One for sorrow, two for mirth;

Three for a wedding, four for death....

And the nights are spent with Sister Moon.

Every month for a lifetime, I have watched her blossom from a meek sliver into a round, ripe, melon in the sky.

But, lately, I have paid more attention to what a changeling she really is.

July 22nd:

July 24th:

July 26th:

July 27th:

July 29th:

One week... It slipped by so quickly...or perhaps that's what time does when one grows older.

For nights when the moon is shy and keeps to the clouds, I have a likeness of her in  my garden.

In her comment on my previous post, Marly of Samplers-and-Santas asked what the "large alien eyeball" was outside my dungeon window.

I explained that it is a gazing ball...atop of a concrete cat lying on its back, slowly being overtaken by rogue sedum, and promised her a photo.

The dungeon is in the basement and, therefore, the view from the dungeon window is at ground level.

But, yes, I do, indeed, see an alien eyeball.  🤣

Another day, and the moon will be full and a new month will be begin.

And so goes the rhythm of nature and time.

Goodbye July.

Yesterday's Roses

 

The days are slipping by while I am still standing still.  More than three weeks have passed since I last posted and I have little to show for the time, and even less to say.

So I thought I would show you yesterday's roses and a few other random photos.

 

We had one good rain a week ago, and that has been all. This is typically when our drought season starts but this year it has gotten a wicked head start.

Things have been hot and humid - the days smoke-filled and hazy from the wildfires. So, in some of the photos below, you may notice the gauziness of the skies in the background.

{Wisteria on Cornzebo}

{The teeny, tiny, house in Nod}

{Follow the red brick road....}

I continue to stitch a little - mostly on littles.  The Isle of the Unfinished, however, is becoming grossly overpopulated, so I have committed (🤣) to do better at final finishes.  

This is "Keeper of the Pins" by With Thy Needle & Thread.  I finished the stitching over a year ago, but now it is truly finished:

And this is "1864 Sampler House" by Chessie and Me:

Little Mia continues to grow.

And I continue to look up.

One never knows what one might see up there.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Happy July my friends - and Happy belated Canada Day to my friends across the border.

I'm Here...

...and so is the funk.

Hence, there is little noteworthy to share with you and, further hence, why long time, no post.

Thinking a change of scenery might be the antidote, I took a road trip with the Cat down the road (i.e., Cathy Stephan from Red Barn Rugs).  

I spent 2-1/2 days hooking with 4 incredibly talented artists thinking, surely, I would find at least a morsel of mojo but, no...I just ended up feeling like the red-headed stepsister.

I think, therefore, that the hooking project I started at the workshop in January is going to be banished to the Isle of the Unfinished (which is growing as quickly as the Isle of Misfits and Castaways) and I will pick up my needle for a bit - although my stitching mojo hasn't fared much better than my hooking mojo of late.

I did finish the hooking on my Simple Santa.

The above photo is reading washed-out on my screen, but the colors are, in person, more vibrant. 

Now I have a whole year to get it bound.  😬

In other news, this little guy has given me several scares. 

He had 2 emergency surgical procedures within 8 days of each other.

It was the same issue he had surgery for almost 2 years ago:

He gets a blockage in his colon and starts shutting down.

He had been on medications previously and put on a prescription diet -

but, apparently, neither worked.

Given that it had reoccurred so quickly this last time, they are concerned that his colon is not working properly.  Unfortunately, the only permanent "fix" is a specialized surgery in which they remove the non-functioning portion of his colon.

😳

It is not a common procedure and would require many pre-surgery tests.

For now, he is on yet another medication (fun times for a cat with claws).

While my mojo is out on its walkabout, I continue to read - books were my first love and they never abandon me.

I have fallen woefully behind on my posting of recent reads, but will attempt to get back to it soon.  But, in the meantime, I treated myself to this:

{"Records of the Salem Witch Hunt," Bernard Rosenthal editor}

It is a comprehensive record of all the legal documents pertaining to the Salem witch trials, in chronological order.  I had been holding out in the hopes of some day getting the hardcover version, but it is no longer available except on the secondary market at crazy prices.

(The paperback version is just shy of 1000 pages, so the hardcover version is in two volumes.)

Since it will be used primarily as a reference book, I suppose it doesn't matter - and I will feel less guilty should I be unable to resist making notes.

Of all the documents within the covers of this book, I was humbled to see that the editor chose a portion of my grandmother's petition as the preface page.

Hope all is well in your worlds.

Thoughts and prayers to the residents of Palestine.

I can't even imagine.