Clearly my actions don’t match my intentions. On a regular basis at the end of the day I am clueless about what I actually did, about how things like balancing the checkbook and mowing the lawn could suddenly fill so much time. Somehow things do get crossed of my to-do list, although they’re not very exciting, and certainly not photo-worthy.
Someone in my BuyNothing group announced that her sour cherry tree was in fruit and offered anyone who was interested to pick. Isn’t it beautiful?! Last year the tree had much more fruit, but I did pick 3 scan quarts and made some jam.
I managed to get just one batch of towels woven in June.
Too much outdoor work to do, which called to me much more than the loom did. Like this…
This is an area of my front lawn…much of which is a hill. You’ve seen images of the corner garden before, sometimes just individual plants but I THINK occasionally the whole thing. When I started it, my plan was to expand it each year, to continually minimize the amount of hillside mowing I had to do.
This year I really dug into that goal (pun intended). This area is roughly 7′ x 7′. That’s a lot of grass that had to be dug up, the dirt shaken off to the extent possible, amendments added, plants put in the ground, and the area mulched heavily. I added several more plants and a drip hose after I took this picture. It’ll still take a few years to fill up nicely, but it’s on its way.
Meanwhile, out back a calla lily I planted last year and chose not to dig and bring in, decided to return. Probably because it’s right next to my foundation. Although that part of the foundation is just a crawl space, it surely is still better than being out in the open.
Around the corner from the calla, I’ve had these 2 mallows for years. Often they get eaten by bunnies or otherwise barely survive and don’t bloom at all. This year I’m happy to see their beautiful flowers.
I find this light colored one particularly beautiful.
And here’s a lovely fragrant honeysuckle I put in a few years ago. I do love flowers with fragrance.
Although I didn’t get any bead bags made in June, I did make a batch in July. Now I’m trying to get in touch with the children’s hospital that uses them. The woman from the Guild who used to collect them and drop them off doesn’t do that anymore.
I also decided to try some new things with my sourdough starter. I made two batches each of bagels (no pix) and ciabatta rolls with 100% sourdough – no commercial yeast. I was happy with them both, despite their…rustic…appearance. Their taste and chewy-ness were right, at least in my opinion.
In May I showed you my embroidery for submission into an exhibit. The opening of that exhibit, in the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, NY, was Friday night. I was very impressed with the entries and tried to get pix of them all. Some just couldn’t be appreciated in the images I took, so I’m only sharing a few here.
A friend of mine knit a ballot box and created 3 little felted and embroidered issues going into the box.
I was really moved by this piece. I’ve heard this poem before, always powerful, and it stitched into the back of a very wearable denim jacket…wow.
Being a weaver, I was of course impressed by the work in this long vest, woven in rayon chenille.
This seemingly ‘simple’ piece spoke well to the fact that women still hold such as small percentage of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives (29%) and Senate (25%). So much lower than many other countries, so woeful, so in need of change.
Women’s health is in so much danger. I am fortunate that I live in NYS, but so many women, especially women in poverty, do not have access to comprehensive health care. Both maternal and infant mortality are rising as women are forced to carry pregnancies that are not viable and that threaten their lives.
Meanwhile, I continue to write postcards to get out the vote. The exact message varies from week to week, and is of course dependent on where those postcards are going. Although it’s certainly not everything, writing these cards is something. It’s something I can do. And who knows – maybe it’ll inspire me to do even more.
When I picked up my postcards on Friday there was a woman there selling necklaces she’d made. I made a spur of the moment decision to buy one, and I’ve since committed to wearing it constantly until November 5, election day.
I’ve seen a meme that I hesitate to post here, given my prior experience posting images that I do not own. But the sentiment is too good to not include. RBG is in the center of the frame, wearing her robe and one of her signature crocheted collars. The words are, “I want you to pivot your sadness and worry into numbers and strength.” Indeed, Justice Ginsberg. Indeed.
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