Day after thanks

 Thank you for all the good wishes yesterday, in fact

I had a lovely day, warm at home reading and knitting and receiving good wishes by text and ecard and email and blog, including Sparkling M's inspired foray into Arabic!

I had to be out in the morning to leave a clear field for the cleaners, who left me a Christmas card and this lovely little plant

A Christmas cactus, so long since I had one and I hope it will keep its buds. It's now out of the cellophane and foil jacket. So I did get flowers.

Then later Gary came over to visit, bringing this

 

A large share of his own birthday cake, from his daughter, his birthday being two days ago. He also was given a seafood dinner, eerie similarities. He's much younger though, s kid in his seventies.

So that was a lovely day, and more greetings this morning. 

Let's celebrate, while we're thinking women and Arabic, this wonderful scientist 

I finished the third pair of gloves 

and they'll go off as soon as the minor flooding in the neighborhood from the last two day rainstorm has abated.

Happy day everyone, enjoy your day, birthday or unbirthday. It's someone's birthday somewhere, may as well celebrate.

Boys 'n Toys, Soup, Socks and Molas

 Happy Valentine's Day!

On to boys and toys. Remember the tree I showed my neighbor knocking down the giant paper wasp nest from? Awkward grammar, awkward situation.

After doing the worst pruning over the years, the boys showed up and in no time it was a pick-up load of sawdust.

Meanwhile I was occupied with making what turned out to be a great soup, butternut squash, cashews, sweet potato, milk added. Here's the result, and the containers for the freezer, and the process.

The onionskins added to the broth gave it a lovely rich color.

Also a lemon blueberry cake happened.

And, fortified, I knitted on and tried on the current Ministry Sock

I try  on over another sock, out of respect for the future owner. Next some ribbing and I can cast off ready for Ministry Sock Two.

Here come the molas, presented for the New England Rug Society,  by collector Tom Hannaher. 

He provided a lot of explanatory slides of the history, culture and techniques of the mola. I was surprised to find it dates only back to the mid 19th century.

It's an intricate form of applique, reverse applique, in repeated layers, skilled stitching. One of the slides illustrates the sequence.

The  Panamanian women who make them seize on all kinds of ideas, from traditional to current pop culture, great sense of humor.

Anyway here come the molas, created by the Guna women of Panama and Colombia. The captions are very helpful.

It was a detailed presentation from Tom Hannaher, an enthusiastic collector, who really appreciates the art and social awareness of the artists.

Handsome Son coming to dinner tonight, and we get to tackle that lasagna I wrote about lately. Also cake.

Happy day!