bee creative

mending time

This morning I've been mending the shirt I want to wear today.

I wanted to stitch a message on the seam but there isn't enough time so I went with a star on the sleeve.

It's a little crooked.

Make a wish...

some thoughts

This morning I finished reading The Overstory.

For me it's the kind of book that is savored slowly. Read a bit and then put down.  And then as always happens at a certain point, a rush of reading until the end. And then that kind of hollow feeling when you don't know what to do next.

It made me cry a little bit (I cry easily when it comes to sad parts in books and movies). And I thought, the stories that feel most true hurt at least a little bit. This is not a book that would be classified as "entertainment."

I started thinking about the ability that exists to create worlds so real that we become a part of them, absorb into them. The connection of language and imagination, how our brains function to make worlds created from words or images become real, at least for a little bit.  The ability to create.

I paused as I read this book a little more than usual.  There are sentences that just need to be sat with for awhile. Like this one, "Civilized yards are all alike.  Every wild yard is wild in its own way."  And another one, "When you cut down a tree, what you make from it should be at least as miraculous as what you cut down." 

Some pauses were more personal. 

What do we feel so passionately about that we will protest a stand taken by someone else, and to what degree? 

Thinking about family history and "family trees."

The simplest description I would give of The Overstory is that it is about whether we are a part of the natural world or whether the natural world provides resources for us to use.

I am wondering, what will someone 50 years from now think reading this book?

 

back to the blues (not the sad kind)

It's still about an hour before sunrise.

Stitching in the dark...

Two more hearts added to the Peace and Plenty blanket.

Imagining them in the dark.

More playing with clay resist and the indigo vat this weekend.

More ideas.

More experiments.

And hopefully a walk down by the bay.

It's been awhile.

Parting at Morning

Round the cape of a sudden came the sea,

And the sun looked over the mountains rim;

And straight was a path of gold for him,

And the need of a world of men for me.

Robert Browning

 

time not spent

Yesterday morning was a hard one for any kind of making.

The time I had for that was used considering headaches...not mine but someone else's.

As I was looking at the squares laid out on the floor, I realized that another way of considering how they lay is not just that they are crooked (which I actually love) but also that they lean against each other.

This made me think of support and building, Dominnios and structures build with playing cards. 

A "House of Cards."

And there's that word "mend" again.

Last night I was able to stitch some more squares together.  Looking at the grids formed by the quilting. Maps of neighborhoods. Scaffolding.

This will all be covered with another layer of cloth which I will tie to the other two layers, or perhaps do a larger grid of quilting. 

And here is the Widget Moon.  A completely different kind than the other two, more cautious and careful.

time well spent

The satisfying thing about hand sewing is that just sewing one or two needles of thread feels like an accomplishment at times.

Next up, joining this strip of three, to the 6 patch that already been assembled.

Later.

time spent

Not sleeping again, this morning listening to Ezra Klein interview Ruth Ozeki.  There were so many ideas that were intriguing but this especially, Ozeki describes books as being a rhizomatic network, meaning that they talk to each other.  This is something I believe, something I know.  No thinking required.  So many things do this...including the things we make.

A few days ago, the podcast of choice was Jerry Colonna and Krista Tippet, On Being:

There’s this notion of Carl Jung, the psychiatrist — ”I am not what has happened to me; I am what I choose to become.” And the focus of your energy and your vocation is how that manifests in leadership and at work. I think it’s really important that you acknowledge that — that work gives us means to create the safety upon which our lives depend; that it feeds and shelters us and those we love; that work can give meaning, but work can also be a means of our suffering. And in fact, without self-knowledge, work — which most of us struggle with; it’s not like that’s ever complete — that work is a place that we play out and replay what has happened to us…. Krista Tippet

I now have two more books checked out, two on hold, and two more on my wish list.

This is why I never catch up with my reading.

"Tell me what is it you plan to do with your one precious life?" Mary Oliver, The Summer Day

The Gibson Moon, he sleeps just fine.

losing track of time

Just a few stitches to keep holding it together.

And question of the day:

"How do I get down from here?"

filling in the gaps, to be transparent

This weekend I have been working on, among other things, my Good Enough Covid 19 quilt. Sometimes I avoid working on this quilt because I don't want to think about Covid.

I put these two squares together because they had two edges that fit. 

There is a little gap that needs to be filled where I missed the seam.  It feels good to have a problem that is easy to solve, that even has multiple right answers.

Making can be a refuge.

 

I've worked in the garden, it's a refuge too. 

Someplace where I tend to just be present, absolutely in the moment.

There was wind damage to prune from the recent cold snap. I will probably prune off the top leaves of this bay tree in early spring, when it is safer to encourage new growth, encourage branching.

And there are signs of spring; bulbs starting to emerge, the rhubarb. The hazelnut is blooming.

I started to work on cleaning up the chicken coop.  Henny-Penny died during the cold snap.  I think she was about 12 years old.  While I loved having the chickens, there won't be more, at least not for now.

This afternoon I will start to check the work email for messages.  Will someone be out sick and need a sub? Will someone have  Covid and a classroom need to be closed?

This article on NPR is pretty much my work life at the moment. It's the the most comprehensive article I've read yet about childcare right now. It's worth sharing with anyone who is a parent of a young child or a caregiver...to know we are not alone. Mostly, I think that's what we all want.

community

This morning, out just after sunrise.

I expected the seagulls, crows, and small birds but not the swans.  A small flock, heading north.

Yesterday I saw the Merlin again, swooping out of the neighbor's Douglas Fir.

I noticed the moon, something that many of us share a love of.

Decided to add a moon to this, for Rod and Mo.

Thinking about how our world is vast and yet so small.

an unexpected day before me

I still need to check email and respond to anything Covid related, but today I am home and the sun is supposed to shine.

Planning on working in the garden, cleaning up and pruning.

This morning started with knitting and coffee.

A few more inches to go on this sleeve.

This sweater will be about the woods as much as the sea, reflective of where I live. 

I've been walking the trail near work on my lunch break most days.

It helps keep things in perspective.

Last night as I was pulling my blankets up around me I found the other side of a mending heart on the blanket I named "Peace and Plenty."

A lovely last thought for the day...

as well as one to start this day with.