Amid bad news, art goes on

 I can't talk  in  here about the disastrous decisions from SCOTUS Monday, strategizing next steps elsewhere online with lawyers and other actual experts, so I'm keeping my balance here with the daily round.

Laundry done, floors swept, good lunch of turkey burger, pancakes and broccoli. It's important to eat well in stressful times and these are stressful times all over the world.

And I continued with Lucia and Mapp, still as funny as ever, that timing never gets old.

The sock goes on, too, the heel now turned 

It's particularly important to keep up supporting the knitting ministry, because the recipients are already suffering and the SCOTUS decisions can only make their lives worse. So the little bit I'm doing is all the more needed.

Winnowing goes on -- I Freecycled a huge pad of drawing paper to a deliriously happy receiver, and two artworks to another

It's such a pleasure to send pieces off to new homes where they'll add to the lives of the new owners. I got a charge out of making them, and now they'll have new life.

Happy day everyone, as far as you can manage it. Good news: the praying mantis is still on the hibiscus, looking a bit bigger and is now pale green, fast growth. I think that means she's finding insects to feed on, or she'd have moved on.

My tiny life, strike back, and eat well!

Yesterday's Misfits box included  freebie oat milk, which I suppose is good for people who can't drink cow's milk. I can, but I'll try it anyway.

Along with wonderful summer food, so much fresh produce, not a lot of cooking this week. I think it's going to be more assembling than cooking.

Except for processing like zesting and chunking those lemons. They're heavy, so probably juicy.

And the last couple of days have been like this

So I'm currently cribb'd and confin'd in the house,  because I'm old enough to need caution, dangit. Local wise parents kept kids in, too, I noticed, no basketball going on out back.

So, amid terrible SCOTUS decisions, the good ones serving to butter us up before the truly wicked ones came down, I make my tiny life meaningful with making

And here's a great idea I'm planning on applying today

To these newly arrived shoes, comfortable but the color not as nice (!)  as shown online 

And enjoying a beautiful breakfast 

And using this space to have my say, in the words of people more eloquent than your humble old blogger lady

Happy day everyone, especially to the  many of us whose rights are up for grabs. I've got your back!

Sad, but grateful to allies

Sad today, feeling betrayed, and besieged by the SCOTUS leap back to the world of my youth, when friends died of desperate abortions.

First, a shout out to allies Franklin Habit and Steve Reed. I knew we could count on you. You didn't fail us.

Then Gladstone Mog sums up the day and the mood

It's May the Fourth, for those needing Star Wars footnotes.

And on the lifelong belief that even the worst days have glimpses of joy, here's beautiful steamed asparagus with the lemon butter sauce at the ready, with chicken and a green salad.

And a new sock with a new design. This is a tube sock with a spiral variation. 

After a lot of arithmetic and testing, I settled on this, five knit, three purl repeat over an odd number of stitches. The odd number and the even repeat number cause the spiralling to happen. 

This yarn is very soft and grainy in appearance, so stitch definition is hard to come by, but seems to be working here. And it's a lot easier to keep track of  than the previous six knit two purl variation I did in earlier versions.

Non knitters: you can wake up now. 

Today's one foot in front of the other. This afternoon there's a a fun interval, a Downton Abbey movie at the library. So I'll do that. 

Meanwhile to everyone in the world under siege one way or another, try to be like Ukraine.

Fight back the forces of darkness at home and abroad.

Happy day despite all, everyone. We won't let ignorance and cruelty win. 

Opening day at the farm and other excitements

Early May is the opening of the asparagus season at the local farm. First day today, 10 this morning till sold out, that's usually about an hour later.

So I showed up at 10.30,  saw an even earlier bird leaving as I arrived.

Picked this morning from the field you see  across the street.

Now on the menu for this evening. Steamed, dipped in lemon butter sauce. Doesn't get much better.

Meanwhile, Handsome Son is visiting this afternoon, to test the new patio chair and whatever baked goods are on offer with his pot of tea.

Yesterday I tried the idea of ganache (my word recall not being too swift at the moment, I ran through soutache and gazpacho before landing on  the right word). using cocoa instead of chocolate, which I didn't have, and heavy cream powder instead of whipping cream which I also didn't have. 

It didn't exactly come together as something you could spread between layers, so I added cornstarch and brought it to the boil and made a really really rich and lovely chocolate sauce, to pour over slices of the chocolate cake I was also making.

So he'll have a choice of plain chocolate cake, or enrobed (!) chocolate cake. Or both if he wants.

Full disclosure: I tested this for breakfast this morning, why not, I had a wonderful bill of health from yesterday's annual Wellness Visit, Medicarespeak for physical. 

It was definitely good, the cake and the physical. I'm struggling to be nice enough not to reserve the rest of the helpings to myself. 

I'm definitely not giving oxygen to the current apology for a Supreme Court, supreme? as if, draft decision. 

Other than being profoundly glad my State this year enshrined reproductive rights into the State constitution, as a firewall against the current dumpster fire known as the judiciary.

Meanwhile Nancy Pelosi and other Dems, Republicans refusing to make the trip, made a hazardous and timely visit to Zelenskyy in Kyev. Showing up is a big part of being an ally.

As is men speaking up when other men slag off women and make rhetorical speeches about reproduction,  men refusing ordination to a religion which denies it to women, that'll be the day, or anyone speaking up when your immigrant friend isn't being served lunch when you are, at the same table, yes, this happens.   If you don't walk the walk you're not an ally.  Please remember to notice, act, be an ally 

One last note about brave young immigrants, this from today's local obituaries. She died a while back, but this just appeared.

Isn't she great? Someone who brought value!

Happy day everyone!

Spring, Edward Tulane, Everything pizza

 Spring's nearly here. First crocuses

I give them one day before robins tear them up to get at the delicious pollen 

And I finished the Ann Patchett essays, just wonderful reading. About people who seem a bit different to outsiders, particularly to relatives, I speak as one, she points out "It's not who we're trying to be, it's who we are." So true in many contexts. One of those comments that stay with you.

I particularly like a writer who refers to other experiences  I can explore -- Donna Leon and food and opera references,  Barbara Pym's Protestant church protocol, and anthropology, here Patchett's references to writers. 

I read the wonderful poet Lucy Nealy as a result of Patchett's writing about her, and today I listened to The miraculous journey of Edward Tulane, by Kate di Camillo because Patchett pays attention to her (a Newbery winner, Steve!).

It's a so-called children's book, but good writing is for everyone, and I listened and knitted and cried and knitted and smiled and knitted and was glad I'd met rabbit Edward, alias various other names,  on his adventures. 

It reminded me too, that in our own lives some episodes read as adventures later, but seem to be anything but at the time. Our lives don't have a fictional arc, or any discernible shape usually, so the story arc of fiction is such a satisfying gift.

I have another diCamillo to read on my Kindle, too. 

Meanwhile, food is always needed. Today it's pizza with everything. A Misfits dough, tomato paste, the rest of the garlic spread, meatballs, spinach, mozzarella, mushrooms, Parm cheese on top. 

Everything but the tomato paste was Misfits, come to think of it. And I saved the oil and butter mixture from cooking the mushrooms, full of flavor, for future use.

A comment in passing on the current effort to seat a new woman, a WOC at that, on the Supreme Court

So familiar to any woman who has worked in a male dominated environment.

But hope springs eternal

Slava Ukraini! 

We.Will.Fight

We're ready. Pussyhat time.  Ursula (which means little bear) pointed out that small isn't powerless. And asked where her pussyhat was.

 She's ready for the SCOTUS fight.  Along with Ruth Bear.