Fridge Delivery is done

So the fridge is home and already working as a bulletin board, complete with POLST form, emergency medical directive to emts. It's almost the first thing you see when you come in the front door. 

I had to have them reverse the doors because the factory setting has them opening left to right, which doesn't work in this kitchen. But it's running a treat. 

And, yet another bonus, right underneath where the old one stood I found a hand stitched napkin, part of a set I made years ago, which vanished some time back. No idea how it got right under the fridge. Anyway 35 years of dust and crud is now gone. The napkin is in the laundry and all's well.

And today I can fill the freezer then, sigh, defrost the chest freezer, oh well.

see how nature keeps going. Who knows how spores get around, but here's a sign of fall right in the house

and I don't know what these little wildflowers are, more violet than they appear here, but not violets. Does anyone know, from this not very good pic? While I was out I checked where the baby bluejay had been, not there, also no sad little heap of feathers, so I guess he's fine. 

 

And here's my current reading. What a relief to read good, tight, literate writing after the cotton candy stuff of hot weather. Also I do like well researched historical novels.

And Suits continues to be my evening viewing, interrupted by Gary wanting to show me plants, very proud of the corn patch, which is now taller than everyone.  Suits is also full of fashion. The men in posh suits, the women apparently dressed for cocktail parties in the office. Some great stuff though. Especially the boss lady, name escapes me, whoa, stylin'. And I can sing the intro, but I can't do the voices, I'm much too clipped.

Speaking of today, 78th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, a day I remember. I was young but knew something terrible had been done. And I remember how young Gary and our neighbor are, when they went to see Oppenheimer, and said it was excellent. I couldn't possibly relive that. 

They also went to see Chappaquiddick a while back, invited me, and I couldn't imagine wanting to relive that Kennedy crime. I'm only a few years older than they, but it's like a generation in experience. 

Happy day, everyone, I hope your surprises are good ones today, but do spend a moment on our past and resolve not to go back there, please?  Preaching to the choir, I know, bear with me.  I can't let it pass without some attention paid.

Weaving, warping, wrangling

 Yesterday the appliance store called, fridge was in, when could they deliver, including today. So I chose today.

There ensued a frenzy of emptying the fridge freezer into the chest freezer. This involves dumping art materials, natural dyes, from the bottom of the chest freezer where they've been

for years, I made a lot and used some

And still just got it to close.

How you ask, can a single old lady have this much in the freezer? This old lady wonders the same. A lot of makings of stock, bunches of herbs, cooked items waiting their turn.

Anyway they called to say expect delivery this afternoon.

So here's the state of the old fridge, and the chaos of the kitchen.

I'm wondering if I'll have the energy to defrost the freezer once the new fridge arrives and I can move food into it. 

Meanwhile, I wound the warp for the upcoming rug, once the upcoming heddle gets here

And washed and rinsed and patted and left to dry the finished skirt panels and pocket 

Did I mention I finished the positively last skirt of the summer?

And here's today's flowers

Happy day everyone, hoping all your deliveries work out.

Issue resolved, new visitors, new flowers

 Yesterday Gary brought over some houseplants to stay with me during his upcoming trip, whenever that happens, one family emergency needing him to stay here, another requiring his presence in Florida. Meanwhile it's improved the decor of the patio for now

This was after my walk to the pond and the jewelweed neighborhood

And finally I seem to have got ahead of the bounced and replaced check situation with the credit card people. They're very slow to process, and as of yesterday, the replacement payment had still not been credited. 

I got an email referring me to the secure messages area of their website, with an urgent request to send a replacement payment. Which I had done five days ago.  

Finally today my bank alerted me that the payment was completed. Still not showing on the credit card website. Talk about slow. Meanwhile of course, there's a large new charge for the second refrigerator. This too shall be paid.

While Gary was here we talked fridges and how he'd had to remodel his cabinets because his new one wouldn't fit in. He measured for me and decided I wouldn't have that problem. And explained they could always take off the fridge doors to get it in, then replace them. News to me. He'll probably be away when it arrives, otherwise he'd supervise the whole thing, knowing him.

And thanks to Caro and her latest weaving caper, I'm thinking about how to create a little rug for where I sit on the sofa, cold floor in winter, currently my bedside rug is there.

This rug is a cotton warp, roving weft, see her sparkling merlot blog for picture.

It's going to be a great way to use some beautiful organic cotton roving, very short staple, difficult to spin for that reason. Two experienced spinners tried and gave up, gave it to me to use in art. Spinning short staple cotton is niche.

I've stuffed art dolls with it, and the comfort dolls I used to make for ICross Canada. Clean material, fine for little children, unbleached, undyed. But I still have quite a bit. 

So maybe here's where it can go, along with wool roving. I have to figure out the logistics, since I don't have a big heddle. I might have to use a heddle stick and strings, not a favorite technique of mine, but maybe it's needed here. And maybe I need to fashion a new loom to size. All to come.

All this thinking is happening while I get breakfast wearing the lovely new robe, now complete with pockets.

And the Haggard Hawks solution is:

ELSEWHERE!

Happy day, everyone, here's your flowers

Robe reveal, arpilleras, Suits and hot enough

 Today this is where we are in weather terms

The red bit where you see Trenton, is where I'm typing from. One more day and we hope for better temps.

In good news, I've located and ordered the fridge I wanted, delivery expected early. August. This is from the other suppliers I've used. They'll take away the old fridge, and were happy to hear this is a ground floor delivery.

And the robe is almost ready to wear. I need to add the pockets and belt loops and inside ties, but here's where we are. It's so soft, very comfortable. 

And Tatters, wonderful textile teaching group, is offering a class on constructing Chilean arpilleras in October in New York, well worth your attention if you're local enough.

Arpillera means burlap or buckram, the sturdy base fabric on which this form of textile art is done.

This form follows on the ancient women's tradition of subversive communication via textiles under repressive regimes, in this case that of Pinochet. 

A lot of the early creators were survivors of the disappeared ,  spent much time in government offices trying desperately to trace their men, husbands and sons, who had been disappeared by the regime. It became a form of samizdat, underground messaging,  as well as a record of the daily life of the people under Pinochet.

And since I don't have Netflix, and I'm interested in seeing what's the excitement about the revival of Suits, I'm borrowing it in DVD from the library. It's old enough to be on DVD!

Happy day everyone, whatever the weather.

Shakshouka, fridge and check updates, oh well

 Yesterday's mood improved dramatically after I made and sampled a lovely shakshouka.  The original recipe in Meghan's Grenfell cookbook, involves bell peppers which I never have.

But I used spinach and lentil sprouts, and got a terrific result.

The flatbread is essential, to help get all the sauce.  And there's enough for two more meals.

Accompanied by a glass of sun tea, this one raspberry peppermint

The investment company returned my Twitter dm,  asking for a phone call because my question was so account specific, I sighed, been there before. 

Kyle, probably a third grader, defensively stonewalling. Unless you can surmise the answer and formulate the question to fit it, they're useless. I think people in the financial world are deeply passive aggressive!

So I tried again, saying this is not account specific, and did they void the checks when they switched management to brokerage style? Basically my original question reworded. 

This time Debbie, it's always a woman who actually reads the question and answers it, when the men are claiming nobody can help,  answered saying yes.  

The old checks need to be destroyed, and I need to apply for new updated check writing arrangements.  So if you can guess the answer, you'll get a confirmation. If you can't fathom it, they'll never help.

I'll destroy the old checks and go from there.

In other news, I heard back from both fridge retailers  I've used and been pleased with in the past. They're out of stock, of anything in the size I need.  Earliest availability will be late September. 

One other retailer I tried refuses to deliver, curbside pickup only,  meaning they won't take away the old one either. So I hope the current fridge keeps limping along till I can replace it. Oh well. 

The robe's coming along though. Just as well, because here's where we are

Good weather for a new lightweight robe and sun tea.

Happy day, everyone! Keep your cool, in all senses.

Robe in progress, via reading, and future food

One of my knitting buds says she thinks about future knitting while doing current knitting. I find that reading a quiet work such as this

means that another part of my thinking is busy designing the Next Thing. So after a while I found I was drawing out the plan for my sheet robe, 

then laying it out on the spare bed, only available biggish surface. 

And cutting, and trying on.

This is a twin size flat sheet. And the sleeves end in selvage, the hem already hemmed. This saves a bit of stitching. 

Also there's a big chunk of fabric left for facings, belt and pockets.

It's pinned together wrong sides together, because I'm doing French seams. 

I used a favorite robe to figure out sleeve size and how to cut the front neckline. I'll cut the center front, then attach facings, after I've stitched the side and sleeve seams, easier to manage for hand work.

So I have  Celia's House to thank for this progress.

And yesterday Madhur Jaffrey  showed up,

for future great cooking ideas along with a lot of information about India and all the cultures there. 

In other news, I texted the appliance store to order another fridge like the one I got for the condo, to replace my own, 35 years old and showing its age.  I've been postponing this for years but it's time.

Happy day, everyone, I already, early this morning had Gary over asking for an id of insects, worried about Billy, would she be stung. 

I doubt it, they look related to dragonflies uninterested in biting people or animals anyway, but he's unconvinced. 

So let's worry about the sting when it gets here, hm?