bee creative

goodbye summer

"Everyone is an artist. Each person brings sound out of silence and coaxes the invisible to become visible." John O'Donohue, Anam Cara

Sometimes it's easy to get lost in silence but really there are still things to say.

 

butterflies and beasts

I recently found this video and think all that love Jude's beasts and strays might enjoy this...

 

The buddleia is blooming and the hummingbirds and butterflies are regular visitors.

Maybe this all inspired me seeing a butterfly here...

I'm thinking of making a good supply of patches for mending.  

fieldnote #36

Blossoms can be found everywhere now.

Starting to plant things.

Mostly I grow mint in containers but this one I'm letting loose on a corner of the garden. 

Hoping it will spread.

I am spring cleaning.  Going through things and working to take any found projects to the next step. 

When I first started this I think I was thinking beast.

But turned another direction I saw something different...

I like it like this, where it could be either.

Liminal and in transition. 

l (and friday fieldnotes related)

light, lettuce, limit

Light: energy from the sun or created with electricity or a flame that makes something visible.

Sunrise:7:36

Sunset 5:11

Lettuce: A green leafy vegetable.

I’m going to plant some this weekend as a micro green.

Limit: The point where you have to do something different. 

There are so many lovely "l" words, such as letter, luminescent, loquacious, and liminal; but I am at my limit for the night and can do no more...

 

friday fieldnotes #18

Last Sunday morning while Lola was outside I heard a very distinctive noise...

I wish I'd thought to try video.

It's been a week of fog and glorious sunny afternoons. 

Perfect weather for walks on my lunch break.

My favorite wool sweater has been mended. 

Cold weather on the way, maybe even some snow...

Okay, I'm skipping over pumpkins but a snow person could start with a dot (inspired by Jude). 

 

 

liminal & altered

Liminal: thresholds, transitional.  Something I've been considering for the past year. My thoughts gathered while spinning and knitting. 

Started a year ago, with the original intent to measure light on Sunday mornings.  Around December I realized if I continued as planned it would be an immense scarf and adjusted my rows so that it would be more reasonable.  In July I decided to stop,  I saved the last rows for last Sunday. 

I keep thinking about the need to alter. As we move through liminal spaces we don't necessarily exit the same as when we enter.  There is the opportunity for change.  We emerge altered.  That's the word/concept I'd like to explore for the next year. 

Altered. It’s the change you make on a piece of clothing to make it fit better. The correction you make to a sentence to make it flow and be more easily understood. It’s when you move something in the garden from a place where it’s struggling to thrive to a place where it may bloom. The line that you draw a bit differently to make the image stronger. Or it could be the change you make to your diet to make you feel better, to have it be more sustainable.  It's the photo you've added a layer to so that it tells more of a story. 

The project that I am choosing for the next year is to make a blanket.  I have a fleece that I need to do something with and random roving that needs to be used, altered, transformed.  So...fleece or roving (carded wool), to yarn, to knit fabric and then probably fulled/felted.  Fulling the wool would make for a surface that would invite stitching and needle felting. 

The plan to start:

Spin for at least 15 minutes each day.
Knit everything that I’ve spun for the week each Sunday.

Alterations to follow...

assignments

A couple years ago we did a personality inventory at work. It’s official, I am highly motivated by play.

One of my employers likes to tease me about this when it comes up. But she also has observed that at some point I must have been taught techniques to balance my need for play with the need to meet goals.

There is some truth to all this.

I’ve recently realized that one thing I do as an adult is to give myself assignments:

• Weed for two hours each day.
• The liminal scarf: spin and knit each week.
• Photo challenges: Choose1word

 

 

For July I'm taking on another assignment. 

I think I discovered Rowdy Kittens/Tammy Strobel through my interest in tiny houses.  This month she has a photo prompt for each day, "A Month of Everyday Adventures." 

One of the things that I feel strongly about is that looking for adventures close to home is just as, if not more, important than looking farther away. 

It comes back to choosing joy daily...or maybe a desire to play. 

Prompt one: gather your tools.  Think I'd better add a sun hat. 

..........

Liminal scarf

I'm behind a few rows but will catch up tomorrow.  The parameters that I set last August didn't work (it would have made an immense scarf) so I'm just matching color to weather each Sunday.  Gray for overcast or rain, a bright color for sunshine. 

.........

Today's project

I've had this fabric for over a year.  It was time to commit to something (another assignment, to clean up the stash)...so a summer skirt.  Self-drafted pattern.

A form of play.

It makes me smile. 

more gray yarn

There seems to be a reason I've been making a lot of gray stripes on my liminal scarf.  It seems that the city I live in has the least amount of sunny days in the continental United States.  Hmm...

we just have to look for blue other places.

Liverwort (Hepatica).

 

choose joy

I have been chanting to myself over the last couple weeks.  I even wrote it down on a piece of paper to tape where I usually sit at work:

"I choose joy."

And as it seems to happen, when something is on the mind, it appears in other places.

This morning it was on Myth and Moor, a quote from Joanna Macy, "Even a wounded world gives us moments of wonder and joy.  I choose joy over despair."

...

I found this photo while looking for another one:

My brothers and one of my cousins. Northern California, mid 1980's.

I think this is one of favorite days ever.

I choose joy.

...

I shared this a couple other places but am going to post it here too...

a favorite song that I recently rediscovered:

 

 

...

The photo I was looking for:

My first quilt, early 1990's.

It was a gift for a friend's baby girl. 

Flannel with a purchased binding,

a lot of babies like that silky stuff. 

...

Maybe this is a digital prayer flag (I've experimented with this idea before),

one for joy.

comfort zones

Example #1 I didn’t learn to swim until 5th or 6th grade. At that time, the curriculum at the public school I attended included swimming lessons for a month or so each year. We were bused to the community pool.

I have a memory of standing on the end of a diving board sobbing with one of the instructors in the water encouraging me to jump. I really can’t remember how they got me that far, probably because at that point in my life adults were to be obeyed. Eventually I jumped and they made me do it again and again, thinking that would get me past my fear.

It’s a miracle really, that I am not afraid to be in the water. In fact, I love being able to be in the water as long as I can put my feet down and stand. I can swim laps as long as I do a backstroke or don’t put my face in the water. I still have absolutely no desire to jump in to a body of water (although I did once again in college as part of a sailing class).

Example #2 I am afraid of matches. I have a feeling this stems from a very early understanding that fire can burn down houses. One of my first memories includes seeing the charcoal footprint left by a house that had burned to the ground during the night.

I can bring myself to light a wooden match because I love candles and have made myself practice. I would use a paper match if it was life or death. If I had a wood stove, it would be used because I love them and would push myself past what is an irrational fear.

I am wondering...

is it good to push people past comfort zones? What do we learn when we are pushed into trying something new? Who is in charge of deciding when an adult or child should be pushed into something that may be good for them but is uncomfortable or scary? These are some of the questions I am pondering right now.

Fear of failure is part of this. But failure can mean different things to different people and in different situations. Failure can mean life or death, potential injury, or judgment by others.

Other times failure it is just a learning tool. It says, “go another way.” Failure is not always a bad thing but an opportunity.  This is part of creativity for me. 

I recently finished reading Messy, The Power of Disorder to Transform our Lives by Tim Harford and this is one of the questions that has lingered for me. In general, it was a thought provoking book that I really enjoyed reading.

...

The Liminal Scarf (a place outside of comfort zones)

Lots of gray stripes for gray Sunday mornings. 

I should have had a stripe to mark snowy Sunday mornings, this is the fourth I think.

I've lost count.

...

Comfort foods

 

Loosely based on this recipe for Samosa Sheppard's Pie (101 Cookbooks).

I will make this again and again.

For this version I substituted spinach for the peas in the recipe and used a slightly different mix of spices.

It did look like Sheppard's pie when it came out of the oven. 

And for Grace especially...

Potato pizza.

For this version I used mashed potatoes (extra from the Sheppard's pie), kale, walnuts, and Teleme Cheese (thank you Granny!).  Usually I put some type of blue cheese on potato pizza but had the Teleme to use up.  No red sauce for this, just a drizzle of olive oil on the top after it came out of the oven.

I first had potatoes on pizza in Italy. The potatoes were sliced very thinly and laid across the top.  It's good like that too. 

I've been experimenting with starting pizza on the stove top, using a cast iron pan, and then finishing in the oven (idea found here at Root Simple).  I think I've got it down and am ready for guests...