bee creative

something to do when it's hot

Spent most of yesterday sitting on the front porch stitching and reading Orwell's Roses.  

The brown material (walnut) and blue (fresh indigo) thread I dyed.  The blue and brown was done by someone my mom knows. 

Drank lots of water with lemon and mint.

I added the dot on the lower left hand wing today on my lunch break.

It's a wishing dot.

The thread and base fabric are from Deb Lacativa.

 

primrose

Random fact, or maybe not so random... when there is light chickens lay eggs.  For chickens to lay eggs in the middle of winter they need artificial light if they live where the day is short.

The local chickens are laying without additional light now. 

I got these at the farmer's market yesterday.

They reminded me of something I had in my stash...

She has a name and the beginnings of a hair-do.

A new hair-do can do a lot for a person.

Her name is Primrose.

They are hardy and cheerful.

There is of course the primrose path...

but that's another story.

 

One of today's projects

She's a worrier.

It's in the tilt of her head too.

I stitched a face (not quite done) on a doll head made many many years ago.  It was found during some of my recent cleaning and organizing.

On Saturday our mask mandate is over. 

One of the big surprises is that it included indoors for childcare centers.

An even bigger surprise is that pretty much all of our requirements are being dropped.

It's disorienting...

And... the guppies at work had babies.  They are doing well at the moment.

just playing

Morning stitching.

Spring cleaning means the freezer too.

Roasted grapes in olive oil + oatmeal + maple syrup + walnuts.

Practice, practice, practice... 

Something to consider for the day:

"It's so much easier to blame the grownups than to be one."

Ursula K. Le Guin

 

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...

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