Never say "I'd give my good right arm for..."

Thanks for all the good wishes and healing energy. I've no idea why this year has had so many medical incidents. Am on the road to recovery, with a hand and arm that look more human every day. The mixture of three medicines that I am taking definitely alter my state-of-being, as well as continuing to reduce the effects of being stung. Kind of a wierd mixture of sleepy-floppy combined with too-much-coffee-man, and a turrible case of cotton-mouth. It is a bit difficult to maintain my focus, but should be done with medication by the middle of next week.

Yesterday the good folks from Growing Gardens came by and I now have an improved (bigger) worm bin, and a compost enclosure made from three wood pallets, which should be great for all the garden vine bits and the leaves form the front yard. I will be thinking about putting some kind of "roof" over the top so the plant-stuff does not get completely waterlogged during the winter, eventually, as it looks really raw, and blue tarp is not really my aesthetic. I will have to take a better look at how Mr Dawson added a roof to the compost bins up in Olympia, the next time I am up there, or just kludge something together....

The garden in back is looking rather tatty, the only things still growing are the tomatoes, and I'd better pick them soon, before the weather gets much colder. I'm hoping to make some ketchup from the romas, if I can find where I put the recipie I copied out. I haven't weighed out the potatoes that I dug up, the purple ones are the most tasty, and the rose fingerlings look like alien food, very branched and lumpy. I have been able to pick a bunch of plums from a house about three blocks away, and have been slicing and freezing them, with the thought of plum sauce to be made in the future as well. Once the weather gets cold, I will feel more like heating up the kitchen with preserving and conserving, and i have no desire to faff about with boiling water with my head so unfocused. but I predict an autumns-worth of condiments sometime soon.

Have started making some new jumpers, using fabrics already in stashland, and also re-fashioning some thrifted garments. Not too sure about the most recent one; as a switch from my everpresent indigo and black fixation I re-made an fifties housedress. The fabric is a lovely smooth cotton, grey background with little dry-brush roses in pinky purple and golden yellow. I haven't decided if i like it or not... it seems really colorful... Maybe for later in the year with a black knit top? The next jumper will be made from the denim duvet cover which keep threatening to ooze off the top of the fabric stash tower. My most favorite denim jumper is totally wearing out, but I can salvage the fun strip-patched hem border and transfer it. I'm also tempted to re-construct my denim overalls into an overall-jumper. I remember doing that in high school...

yet another reason to fear spinach...

On Friday I was stung on the index knuckle of my right hand, by what was most likely a yellow jacket that was in among the stems of a store-bought bunch of spinach.

I have the most awesome friends, who have been incredibly helpful. Just after I got stung, I called Aelfflaed to let her know that I wouldn't be making the rendezvous to caravan to our household encampment. I know I wasn't thinking too clearly, as I was in a lot of pain, and quite frightened. She reminded me to take benedryl, and came over to drive me to the emergency room. Stayed with me the whole time, and made a scarey experience less traumatic, fed me yummy YaHala lunch afterwards, and before heading back out to what I hope was a fun weekend camping, even thought to take the Benadryl capsules out of their little blister packs for me.

Which turned out to be a good thing, since my hand continued to swell up, and by the next morning, despite meds and intermittent ice treatment, the swelling had passed my wrist and was heading up my arm... After calling the nurse consulting line, I called my friend Ellisif, who lives a few blocks away, and asked if she could drive me to the Urgent Care clinic, where the doctor examining me said to take the Benadryl every four hours, and to call again if the swelling went past my elbow. Every four hours, I woke up to take more medicine, and marked on my arm where the normal-reactive line was...

By Sunday morning I could no longer use my right hand at all, it looked like a pink balloon, and the fingers couldn't really bend, though I kept trying to flex them to keep the circulation going, and the elbow joint was quite puffy. As it was early morning, I decided to take the Max line to urgent care, as the few folks I called were still asleep. So this visit, I get a prescription for a fresh epi-pen, a prescription for prednisone, a prescription for Zantac?, and a painful shot of some anti inflammation steroid in my bottom! ( yuck) The hope is that all this medicine will turn the reactive inflammation around, and allow healing to begin. My friend Rafny came and collected me from urgent care, and drove me home, after a stop at New Seasons for some lunch, and more meds from the pharmacy. She also very kindly brought me a stack of DVDs, as watching movies is about all I'm good for right now...

This morning there was some noticeable improvement, my hand is slightly less swollen, and I can move my fingers, hence I can type this. The good news is that there doesn't seem to be any secondary infection, and I didn't go into anaphylactic shock. (I did have my epi-pen in my dress pocket on the trip to the emergency room, and the doctor gave me a prescription for a new one, as my old one is several years old.

SO instead of the fun weekend I had been looking forward to for the last six months, I got to spend the weekend repeatedly going to the medical world, interspersed with medicated sleep... Oh well. There will be other camping trips...Am grateful for the help of friends, and that there actually is medical care, unlike many parts of the world.

In the next day or so I should be be to resume my regular daily life, goodness knows that the home and garden are both needing attention.

I am thinking about hosting a Monday evening open project night at my house, anybody interested??

a time to every purpose

I 'm back from not posting much lately... have been feeling rather discouraged, amidst all the busyness of my life, about how little actually gets accomplished. I have been busy, really, taught two weekend enameling workshops up in Seattle, and did a demo at Art in the Pearl, but poor little Acorn Cottage is still in a state of major demolishment, and I am tugging at the proverbial bootstraps to maintain balance. The more disorganised my environment is, the harder it is for me to focus and actually get things done, (I tend to run away to the Library, or Powells, and immerse myself in imaginary worlds), and until progress happens in rebuilding the house, organisation is very difficult... and around... and around.

I realised about a month ago that some where in my heart-of-hearts I kept hoping imagining wishing that some magical hero would show up on a white horse with a chopsaw and saddlebags full of tools, to put things right. Well guess what, that hero is out on the prairie somewhere, along with the pony that I wished for when I was eight, and a whole bunch of other phantasms, and if things are going to be rebuilt, I'd best get off my duff and begin the work...

The first and always challenge is to figure out what needs to happen first, and then to break it into small enough pieces that it is actually doable. With the workroom, I decided that I could begin with the far wall, which will eventually become the Storage Wall of Crafty Goodness. The window trim project has taken about a month, but is now mostly complete, with two narrow bulletin boards on either side. I just found two long bits of 1x6 to use for pseudo-baseboards, so once those are painted, and I figure out how to attach them to the lower wall above the concrete, I can paint the wall, and start the process of attaching the shelving I have and creating more shelving. All the wood for this has come from the ReBuilding Center, and the bulletin boards are Homasote(a condensed recycled paper board) pieces, which I had cut to size at Mr Plywood.

So here is what the wall looked like before all the demolition, but with almost everything in the room already moved out 'cos i knew that demolition was imminent. The wood structure is the stand that my kiln (now on workbench in living room) usually lives on...

And here is the room in the middle of demolition...

Here is how the wall looks now, about a third of the way towards what it needs to become...

I think I can...I think I can....

in which the answer to a mystery is uncovered

Yesterday some impulse caused me to look down as I walked through my garden gate. Holy Shit! My hens have been laying eggs after all... very sneaky! An enormous mounded nest under the arborvitae next to the downspout. There were seventeen eggs! Sadly, I had to throw them all away, as there is, of course, no way to know how old they are. I never saw the hens anywhere near that shrubbery, and it is right next to the pathway into my backyard!

So, Ive gone to the craft store and brought home a wooden egg, which will live in the nest box in their henhouse. Maybe that will give them the idea that the nest box is where eggs belong? After all, I have been "stealing" the eggs from the nest box for months, no wonder if they decided to find a safer place...

better health is just around the corner...

Thank you to all who sent me good wishes...it helped. My arm is much improved this morning. Still has some symptoms, but definitely better than yesterday, I can bend my wrist now, and the red streaks are fading. I will try the bentonite clay, I've got some in my medicine box.

On a different topic, the Japanese anemone that I planted last year has blossomed. I'll try to find time to take and post a picture, but it is lovely in a big galvanised pot near my front door.

Now I'm off to do all the things (that had been put off due to pain) to get ready for my demo tomorrow at Art in the Pearl. Cloisonne street art! Woo hoo