bee creative

feild notes at the end of August

A hummingbird moth came to visit and spent two days on my screen door (my is it dusty!).

I saw a kinglet for the second time in my garden. 

I hope it comes back.

And after two record setting hot days, it has finally rained (you can hear it here). 

Not much but enough to soothe. 

This dahlia continues to be beautiful.

There are tomatoes, a few small cucumbers, kale, grapes and apples in the garden.

My mother found me some roving that makes me think of sunlight, sunset, sunrise, and blue skies.

But this morning it was gray...

 

 

measuring

Inspired by Knit the Sky

(checked out from the library, it's a delightful book),

I've planned a few projects...

It's time to knit socks on the bus again. 

I decided to alternate colorways each day.  The stripe will measure whatever knitting on the sock that I do that day.  I'm not going to worry about knitting every day, it's just the measure of whatever knitting I do that day.  This was settled upon after I hopelessly tangled two balls of yarn in my work bag. 

I did have a little help from Lola with the tangle. 

Lola's also been helping in the garden. Here she is taking the compost out to bury. 

(The tomato was one that I grew.  Something ate a corner of it so I had picked it and put it on the walkway while I was tidying up a few other things.)

This project is intended to last the year. 

My goal is to measure the difference between sunrise and the actual moment the sunlight comes through my east facing windows every Sunday morning.  I'll knit one row for each minute.  Today it was 54 minutes. Another way to make field notes visible.

The purple/red mix will be for the majority of the minutes and the yellow-green will mark the moment the sun comes through the window. 

 

I'm starting with some Spincycle yarn (Slumbering Hearts and Greed).  For days that it's gray and there is no measurable difference; I'll knit 30 rows of gray yarn that I will spin.  Spincycle yarns work well with handspun, so this should work well.  If this yarn doesn't take me through the year I'll probably spin yarn for the rest. 

The pattern I decided on is "Candy Stripes Kerchief" from an issue of Interweave Knits  (Holiday 2007), with a few modifications.  It seems appropriate as I can do increases for half the year and decreases for the other half and it should work out.  I may rework the amount of gray stripes depending on whether the scarf will be big enough. 

And because there must be a name, it's my liminal scarf. 

Liminal for thresholds and margins.

  (Thanks Mo Crow for mentioning Mandorla and Vesica piscis). 

pickles

The first batch of icicle pickles molded because it's too hot!

The method starts with soaking the cucumbers in a salt water brine for day one, two and three.  They are supposed to be kept below 75 degrees.  We've been somewhere between 75 and 80 for the last week or so and are heading towards 90 on Thursday and Friday.

I have more cucumbers and will start a second batch...they will need to soak in the refrigerator! 

Move over pickled peaches (they are tangy but tasty). 

 

in season: food for hot weather

From the garden.

From the garden and the farmer's market and the co-op.

Zucchini noodles + diced peppers + basil + mozzarella + olives + walnuts + olive oil + vinegar.

the day's work (warning, spider alert)

Yesterday I was gone from home for a long time...

Lola has kept a close eye on me today. 

Her work for the day I suppose.

The spider's are busy this week, will be busy now. 

It's the season.

This morning one wove a web across my entry way. 

I needed through so I broke the web, but felt bad about it. 

The spider had worked hard all morning creating it's web. 

I am stitching a quote by Herman Melville on to a piece of cloth.  It's one that I keep in my side bar:

"We cannot live only for ourselves.  A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men, and among these fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects."

Today I discovered a new poem to add to my favorites while listening to an interview with Naomi Shihab Nye.

From "Cross that Line" (which can be read or heard here):

"What countries may we
sing into?
What lines should we all
be crossing?"

not balance, something else

This is one of the busiest times of year at work for me. 

It is important for me to remember that "work" (a word that never seems like quite the right descriptor to me)isn't my whole life.

There are other things to notice and do.

I was given a bit of wool as a gift. 

I spun it into a bit of yarn and used it for part of a baby octopus.  It's not quite done. I'm going to needle felt the ends, crochet some more legs and add a bell to it's "guts." The yellowish stripe is wool I dyed with onion peels. 

 

There is chicory along the alley to appreciate. 

That blue...it's the sky come down to earth.

There were walnut sized peaches that I needed to do something with. 

One solution, a small batch of pickled peaches. 

Haven't tried them yet.

I need to remember to eat.  An oven pancake/Dutch Baby in honor of fruit gathered at my parents.

And of course, time to sleep.