bee creative

framed

Off work today to catch up with overtime from dealing with snow days (we don't close).  Yesterday morning another 4 or so inches of snow.  And then rain, lots of it.  There is a bit more snow in the forecast, but mostly we are transitioning back to the normal winter weather: gray, wet and mild.

I am not sure how to describe what swans sound like but while outside on Wednesday I heard them, and looked up to see a small flock fly by.  With their long necks, it is easy to tell them from geese, both winter in the fields around here.

Another Merlin sighting, this time at work on the trail across the street.

On Thursday, 5 minutes of stitching to frame the words,

"The matter of quiet is important."

under revision

From my journal yesterday morning, the second entry after writing at 1 AM:

7:34 AM Never went deeply back to sleep, cat napping between reading, listening to an On Being podcast (Gordon Hempton on silence) and Laurie Anderson’s “talks.” One fragment (from #3) caught me, Laurie Anderson says something about how to read is always to translate, to decipher code. Not quite how she said it, but that’s the idea. I am thinking…it’s not just words we “read” but images as well. (Another train is going by. It is quiet, but not really.) It will be sunrise soon, almost there.

(Organizing again, a fragment of project made over 10 years ago.  Under revision.)

And then this morning:

7:00 AM the next day. The wind has been blowing most of the night, as forecast. Gusts between 40-50 MPH, from the south. The gutters dripping, snow sliding off the roof, crashing, startling the cats. An hour before dawn.

Just after dawn, seagulls, crows, and, far to the East, an eagle circling round and around.

And a robin.

I am a builder of boats

I've made about 30 of them. 

Next week they will be filled with chocolate and branches and will sail away.

I have added what we called jelly fish and are now called jellies to my Peace and Plenty blanket. 

I really have two memories of them from childhood, dead blobs on the beach that needed to be avoided and tiny little white ones with something like an "x" on them. We would see around the docks, maybe baby moon jellies? 

That and it wasn't good when they were on the fishing lines...jellies can sting.

 

Some day I am going to go and watch the Jellies

 

 

pieces of me

There was soup.

Homemade tomato base + tortellini + dehydrated kale, carrots, peppers and spices. A drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of cheese.

And stitching.

I loved Liz's idea of outlining a hand on a blanket she had made so am adding a set of hands to my "peace and plenty" blanket. It might need to hold a snow globe...

There is a tiny, tiny dusting of snow out there.

(Not altered just the reflection through the window.)

Imagine that.

pause between storms

 

Leaves, rain water, reflection.

(Not altered.)

Sun today.

Spent time outside tidying and gathering: windfall branches, ivy and rose hips.

More stitching, from my journal: "I have listened to the rain and to the train whistle."

From the last On Being interview:

"So I also had previously learnt the value of, don’t be confrontational. So I told them stories, because I don’t believe that people change because they’re bullied. I believe people change because they change from within. So I didn’t blame them for what they were doing, I just gave stories and showed pictures of the Gombe chimps lazing around and grooming and playing and swinging through the trees. Then, in their minds, they’d probably never even seen that before. So that’s how I dealt with them."

Jane Goodall

sweet dreams

Last night I woke up at 2 AM, not able to go back to sleep, I decided to stitch "Sweet Dreams" on my blanket. Got as far as the "D" and then was ready to go back to sleep. It wasn't great sleep, but it was a little more and now I have a list of things that I want to add to this blanket... words and shapes that are about hopes, intentions, wishes and such things. 

 

#84 stay in motion

From my journal: 

Arrangement, how things come together. To make one arrangement, and then cut and rearrange. To rearrange the furniture. To change you mind about how you want something arranged. To be fluid and flow with the current. Current: what is timely or what is the motion of water or air moving in a similar direction….

Earlier this week I finished rearranging the pieces I had cut and found myself really liking this arrangement...not quite what I had in mind. 

Okay.  Let it be something else. I am going to use it as a book cover.  A bit more stitching to add and I will start gathering pages.

Widget and the boy band have had a few meetings.  Mostly going well.  They want to explore and Widget wants to play chase.  Sometimes I let them both out for a bit, other times one at a time.  It will take a little time but I think it is going to be okay. 

Field notes:  first storm of the season on the cusp of summer and fall.

Rain.  Wind 17-22 MPH with gusts possible to 33 MPH tomorrow. Possibly thunder showers. Temp: 52 F.

Sunrise,  6:49 PM               Sunset, 7:17 PM

 

#82 advice to a stranger

Sometimes when I journal I write to myself, other times to an unknown person. Thinking about that.  Adapted from a journal entry:

At the farmer’s market on Saturday, I was talking with someone I know about Alaska. Their family goes up each summer to fish. The person next to me commented about our conversation and I asked her if she had ever been to Alaska or lived there. Her reply was no, but that she had just moved from Hawaii and was finding the transition difficult. That where she had came from was small and a close community.

Even though it has been such a long time since my family made that move, I knew exactly what she was talking about. Living on an island is different.

It made me think about moving to Seattle in my twenties, something that was out of my comfort zone and seemed overwhelming at times. I moved to a neighborhood I was somewhat familiar with, into an apartment for the first time (it had great light for houseplants).  The first weekend there, I went to a park I had been to a few times before.  

I don't know that I was very brave, but I was brave enough. 

And the only thought I have, is start small and build from there. Know your neighborhood and move out further, go a little further, and then farther, but not too far all at once. And maybe only so far.

Boundaries and edges are not always a bad thing.

#80 comfort

Reading:

Preparing:

(in the dehydrator)

Making:

Imagining:

 

 

#63 just cut the sleeves off

The arm holes were a little bigger than I wanted so I cut the shoulder seams as well and will resew.

Also adding a third pocket to cover a bleach stain.

Now to get some thread.

P.S.  I don't sew facings anymore but love the pattern piece for altering necklines, arm holes and some other things too. More on that later, 'cause I just realized that's something I need to look at more.