Paris, life offering lemons, White rabbits

White rabbits, for July 1st, also Happy Canada Day

 Edith Holden's tribute to July

And a special day for Lucia and her fans

I may reread her in tribute. 

Then life, well Misfits,  literally gave me, well sold me,  lemons, so beautiful I had to take pictures. 

I zested two of them then pitted and sliced them for the freezer. The other two will keep on the counter where I can enjoy seeing them 

Speaking of famous people and streets, more or less, this suddenly showed up on my timeline

This is the street I lived on when I worked in a Paris family as an au pair. I was there in the late 50s.

See the very top floor, under the roof? My private room was a tiny place up there with a marvelous view, much better than my employers ' affluent apartment several floors lower.  The attic floor was the servants quarters when the boulevard was built, dating back to live-in help. Also suitable for starving artists.

Right across the street lived Francoise Sagan, of "Bonjour Tristesse" fame, very young, newly affluent,  and my employer used to grumble at how badly she treated her wildly expensive cars. I used to wonder if a little bit of envy got in there.

Fast forward to now, and this morning I started weaving skirt panel four, 

so happy to be making again. I tried a bit of knitting yesterday, 

and found my neck wasn't quite ready, but getting there.

 Happy day everyone, when life brings lemons, we can try looking for the workarounds. Sometimes there's a workaround.

June's over, Pride isn't.

 

Gilbert and Ellice Islands and other unlikely thoughts

 Yesterday this arrived, tiny package,few inches square 

From a place I didn't know, wondered at first if it was a New Zealand post office, since I have friends in NZ, but no.

So I look it up and discover it used to be a colonial "possession" Ellice Islands. And instantly flashed on my little red stamp album inherited as a kid from older brothers, but what I remembered was Gilbert and Ellice Islands, interesting stamps.

Like these, pretty sure I had a sepia one. As a kid I thought the man a pilot and the boat in the lower right hand image a plane!

Turns out Gilbert and Ellice were businessmen and politicians, white westerners of course. 

Then at independence, the islands renamed themselves, Gilbert and Ellice separating, different names, different decisions.

All these flashbacks and still no idea who sent the package. Turns out an eBay seller was the sender of replacement toothbrushes! One seen installed here.

So I may have brought a little bit of business to a small outfit, good. Seems like a roundabout way of shopping but nothing nearer available, supply chain evidently stopped short of toothbrush replacements.

And today is Happy Canada Day! Also White rabbits

And bears throwing pots on wheels.

The Sock Ministry is benefiting from the hot weather keeping me indoors.

Handsome Son is stopping by this morning with various items including the Rxs, yay. I hope he has time for a cup of tea and a piece of plum cake.

Yesterday I broke out a charcoal pencil and tortillon and revealed the unholy jumble in the drawers of that seemingly orderly coffee table. 

Charcoal is nice for giving a ghost image if you rub the back onto another page

If you don't want it to migrate, you spray with a fixative, either an expensive one from the art supply store or a cheap hairspray from anywhere. Both work fine and don't spoil color, if you're working with pastels, contrary to the art shop assertions.

Now to set up the doings for tea and cake for HS.

Happy day everyone! Canadians enjoy your holiday. Everyone:  it's July how amazing is that. 

Beloved Justice Kagan wrote a blistering dissent to the latest SCOTUS outrage, and the new Justice was sworn in, Justice Jackson, let's hope it's not too little too late.

One good thing: SCOTUS sided with Biden on abolishing the stay in Mexico cruel ruling from TFG. Sparks of hope here and there.

Look for the helpers.

Good wishes of various kinds to us 6WS

It's July 1, so white rabbits to us all.  This one looks as if he's not so sure about this

and it's Canada's 150th, so great good wishes to all our Canajun blogistas and families.  

Live long and prosper!

and we're on the cusp of the Fourth of July in the US, fireworks of every possible kind going off at the moment....wishing us all a peaceful weekend, with good outcomes of all kinds for all of us.

Since the weather is wall to wall torrential rain then suddenly sun, then suddenly rain, our local fireworks are postponed to next Saturday, if we all live that long. 

Meanwhile, I've been improving the rainy hour with a bit of felting, and you can see more here