last day in June, or enough is as good as a feast

in which our plucky heroine perseveres...

I had today left to finish up the sewing projects that are part of SWAP 2020 (an online long-term challenge, to sew an 11 piece coordinated wardrobe, which started on Dec 26 last year). I am the coordinator this year. Since this is probably my last year* participating in that particular challenge, and since I volunteered to coordinate it... I want to do it well, and also hopefully complete the challenge myself, as I set out to do last December.

Didn't plan on a pandemic sapping all my mojo. I am part way through just about finished with the grey linen pinafore, and need to come decided it did not make sense at 10 PM to come up with a something I can make in a day, that will coordinate with my SWAP wardrobe, and also that I will wear.

I am, however, very pleased with what I did sew for SWAP this year; all the garments I made went into immediate rotation in my everyday wardrobe: grey wool capelet, black rain capelet, grey linen pinafore,  black/grey gingham flannel shirt, grey cloud collar top, grey knit leggings, light blue horses print blouse, teal floral blouse, and the turquoise/teal cotton/linen pinafore.

* My long range plan for years has been to create enough clothing that I can go a week between doing laundry, which I have finally achieved. I now no longer need to sew as many garments for myself, but rather to sew to replace things that get too worn to refurbish (yes I do mend my clothing) which will allow me to sew more "slowly", and to take on some other more complicated projects to fill in certain voids (raincoat I am looking at you!, ditto canvas chore coat!!)

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beauty in the time of isolation - day 101:

trying to believe...

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Kanopy, the public library film access site, has the film Worlds of Ursula LeGuin that I really wanted to see last year! Movie night soon!!

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The Dixie Chicks just changed their band name, and have created this powerful anthem video...

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June SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	5½ pints rhubarb sauce	apple tree pruned	rotten beams
2	20 masks for Tullia	apples thinned	frozen blueberries
3	2¾ pints blueberry sauce	aphids soaped	yard waste bin
4	3 half-pints bramble syrup	peas harvested	yard waste bin
5	turquoise linen pinafore	pea plants pulled	yard waste bin
6	2 more masks	moar peas picked	recycle bin
7	tiny Nandina	x	-
8	Nandina shoes	x	x
9	Nandina overalls	x	x
10	grey linen pinafore	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - I have enough sense to know when to stop. At least some of the time, and more now than when I was younger.

not last night but the night before...

in which our plucky heroine was bitten by something...

I am going to assume it was some kind of tiny spider, of which there are a vast number and variety here in the PNW, that found its way into my bedding when I foolishly plunked the dried laundry from the clothesline onto my bed to fold it two days ago. I woke up with two painful bites, (definitely not mosquito bites (which itch)), one on the side back of my neck, and one on my cheekbone. How do I know this, because I was worriting away at them in my sleep, and when I woke up the burning pain was very disturbing.

I did my best to not mess with the bites yesterday, other than gently dabbing on some Benadryl cream, and a couple of times holding an ice pack in place. The one on the back of my neck is slightly easier to ignore, there is more flesh to absorb any swelling. The one on my face has developed a blister, and is quite painful, and makes wearing a mask even less pleasant. I am going to watch it carefully, it isn't all red, so not likely infected, but it reminds me much of the painful blistered bites I got a year or two ago, that took forever to resolve.

Tonight, some friends reminded me that bentonite clay is of some use in dealing with spider and other insect bites, which I had forgotten. I do have a jar of the clay, fortunately, and will see if poulticing the bites is of any help.... and now the blistered area is oozing, so I am trying to create a bandaid from papertape so I can apply antibiotic ointment, (since regular bandaids pull my skin off).

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~ 100 day creativity challenge - day 24 ~

just a little bit of garb refurbishment... her apron-dress now has brooches. I found a box of sequins, and stitched down with gold metallic thread, they give the effect of the iconic paired brooches. I also found her a necklace, made from a bit of plumbers chain. She may still get some additional bling, an embroidered forepart, and I think a Useful Satchel of holding would not be amiss...

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the return of hot weather is a signal to my body to return to crepuscular biorhythm, since I am still attempting to go out for walks in the very early morning or late after sunset. Not always managing, but today I did almost three miles before it was too crowded outside for my comfort (and breakfast was necessary). If there were no pandemic, I would go full nocturnal, but currently there have been a number of days interrupted with a long midday siesta.

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beauty in the time of isolation - day 97:

about a half mile away from here, someone is growing potatoes in their front yard and parking strip... these lovely purple flowers mean that the tubers will also be purple, if I am not mistaken.

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Every day some weeds are removed from the backyard. I still need to fill the planter and get the zucchini outside. I have managed to keep the bok choy and the tomatoes alive and looking well.

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June SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	5½ pints rhubarb sauce	apple tree pruned	rotten beams
2	20 masks for Tullia	apples thinned	frozen blueberries
3	2¾ pints blueberry sauce	aphids soaped	yard waste bin
4	3 half-pints bramble syrup	peas harvested	yard waste bin
5	turquoise linen pinafore	pea plants pulled	yard waste bin
6	2 more masks	moar peas picked	recycle bin
7	tiny Nandina	x	-
8	Nandina shoes	x	x
9	Nandina overalls	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - last year we managed to get cardboard and wood chips down covering about half the backyard, maybe a bit more, which makes it much easier to pull weeds out from that part. My goal had been to do the whole yard, but even as much as we did complete is helpful.

wishful Wednesday

in which our plucky heroine tries to make a difference...

Since summer has icumen, it has been heating up outdoors, and this morning there was enough temperature differential that it was time to start running the window fans for the first time this year. Monday was a scorcher, heating up even before 8AM, and I think it reached over 90F.

This is the season when weeds go berserk in the backyard. I miss my monthly garden helpers, currently laid low with COVID, and even were they not ill, visiting from faraway is not a good idea, not now, not for a long time. I keep chipping away at the weed pulling, and have made a start at putting together some planting places for the zucchini. If I had more tolerance for hot and sunny, I could do more. It is getting close to the end of peapod season, but I went out this morning and managed to pick another half pound, yum yum!

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Probably the strangest thing seen in the last year or two, this morning I saw a crow playing with large drink cup with lid attached. Not sure if it was trying to open it, or just enjoying the sound of it, but it kept repeatedly grabbing the cup, flying up in the air with it, and dropping it to the street. I could see it for probably five lift-and-drop attempts before it was too far away to see

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~ 100 day creativity challenge - day 23 ~

Since I (with too many risk factors), cannot march or protest publicly for social justice and change, this is my way to do what I can as an artist in isolation: blockprinted cards of HOPE...

I want this artwork to be accessible to most, so my thought was to ask for $5 as a minimum, and for those who want to/can pay more, that would be great. The prints are on 4 x 5 postcards, and are available with either a solid red, or a rainbow background. I will be sending the proceeds from this fundraising project to Don't Shoot Portland.

For one (or more) please contact me at fjorliefartist@gmail.com

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Since block printing can be messy, with ink and all that, I figured it was time to refurbish my old kitchen apron. I cut down the edges and removed the old straps, which were always annoying, and will be making some new detachable cross-back strapping, but for the moment, just tied some twill tape to the new loops and called it good. Eventually a new apron entirely will be needed, but this one has a few more good years...

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beauty in the time of isolation - day 95:

I'd not seen this plant since I was a child in Los Angeles... we called it the bottlebrush plant, as the flowering portion resembles nothing so much as a red/pink bottle brush. Later on in the year it has hard nodules along the stem where the flowers were, and as a child, I loved harvesting those for dolly "food", but then as a child my best friend and I did a lot of rambling around foraging for faux food and other survival supplies. Other little girls may have played "fashion" with their Barbie dolls, but ours were usually marooned on a hostile planet and had to create places to live and find edible foodstuffs.

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Nandina gets eyebrows, and new shoes
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June SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	5½ pints rhubarb sauce	apple tree pruned	rotten beams
2	20 masks for Tullia	apples thinned	frozen blueberries
3	2¾ pints blueberry sauce	aphids soaped	yard waste bin
4	3 half-pints bramble syrup	peas harvested	yard waste bin
5	turquoise linen pinafore	pea plants pulled	yard waste bin
6	2 more masks	moar peas picked	-
7	tiny Nandina	x	-
8	Nandina shoes	x	x
9	Nandina overalls	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - Did I mention that I love the internet? I have already had two people want to buy one of my cards of HOPE... which is a great validation of my artwork.

Monday musings and a bit of no-mo-fo-mo

in which our plucky heroine plays catch-up...

when I step away from posting, usually it is because I've no need for me to spread gloom, nothing particularly positive to share, and am feeling disheartened... Still, when making the effort to write here, it does help shift focus to a more positive outlook, however ephemeral. Times remain difficult. Hope remembers that births are messy things, and humans may manage to birth a world with greater justice and lovingkindness, if we are extraordinarily lucky.

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~ 100 day creativity challenge - day 22 ~

Nandina wanted some more appropriate gear and clothing for marching in, so some indigo linen turned into overalls from the new Ann Wood pattern. I am particularly chuffed with how a scrap of vintage jacquard woven cotton trim was exactly the right dimensions to complete her own little mask. Now I want to figure out how to make a pair of little Doc Marten's for her to wear...

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I've been thinking about what if anything about the current situation (having to be isolated from all that I care about, in any way other than via pixels and electrons) had in any way anything good or helpful about it. The only thing that comes into my mind is that for me I have less of a feeling that I am missing out on fun activities (FOMO), since most everyone I know is also stuck in isolation at one level or another.

Last year I didn't get to go to ATWW because of sudden appendicitis, but all my friends went, and had fun (whilst I languished in hospital). This year, no one gets to go, which is horrid in a completely different way, if more evenly awful. While I do have flares of intense envy of those of my friends who are in quaranteam bubbles with other humans (either housemates, or even groups!) or those who have animal companions, I mostly manage to keep that damped down to a dull background ache. On a good day, I wonder at how this extending isolation will affect me, and on a bad day, how it will be to spend the rest of my life this way...

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would that there were several of myself, so that part of me could rest, while part of me got work done, and part of me did housey chores, and part of me was creative... but alas, is only one to do all those things, and it feels as if nothing gets done to completion. I sleep poorly these days, which impacts all else, and then fall asleep in midafternoon for several hours.

This morning I paid the bills, and then rode my bike to the post box to mail them. 9AM is too late in the day to ride about, already getting too warm and sunny, with too many people on the street and sidewalks, and impossible to keep properly distant from the unmasked, which is most of them.

I recently was chosen to make some enameled regalia medallions, and so will be firing up the kiln in the next week or so, which will necessitate a fair bit of workroom clearing. I have a few other bits of work that were put aside for a long while, and also had some nibbles of inquiry about regalia possibilities that combine a rainbow background with SCA motifs. It will be good to get back to my actual work for a change, and perhaps help with the feeling completely unstuck in time/space/culture

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beauty in the time of isolation - day 93:


breadseed poppy, growing in an alley
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To see that your life is a story while you're in the middle of living it, may be a help to living it well.   ~ Ursula LeGuin

1st of 6 episodes by LeVar Burton

When you want to tell deep truth, you make up stories   ~ A. M. Brosius

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The first sowing of snow peas was ready to be put in the compost, since the heat stopped their flowering, so no more peas from those pots... the tiny tomato starts will go in there tomorrow, and hopefully the extra nitrogen from the pea roots will be of help. I will scatter some more ground eggshells and supplemental nutrition in the top of the pots to help renew the soil. The second batch of snow peas are now taller than my head, and still have quite a lot of peas to pick and eat and freeze. Tomorrow will be homegrown stir fry again, yum!

The nasturtium, though still in a small pot, had this amazing flower yesterday, and will go into a salad for special delectable spice! I will be planting it in the yard, in the hope that the plant will continue to flourish!

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I've not been much inspired to finish up my SWAP sewing, but managed to pull out the grey linen, the TNT pinafore patterns, and the TNT pattern for my loose-fitting woven shirt. Maybe this week a waft of mojo will appear and help me get the last two pieces completed. Truth to tell, I am more interested in my printmaking project lately than in sewing. It is feeling a bit odd, now that I am approaching "enough" in my wardrobe, that my impetus to sew for myself is diminishing. I am, however, going to make some aprons for the Mud Bay crew, as well as refurbish my own work apron - if there is printmaking and other messy arts in the future, then some protective gear will be needful... ditto with making preserves in the kitchen... we shall see

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June SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	5½ pints rhubarb sauce	apple tree pruned	rotten beams
2	20 masks for Tullia	apples thinned	frozen blueberries
3	2¾ pints blueberry sauce	aphids soaped	yard waste bin
4	3 half-pints bramble syrup	peas harvested	yard waste bin
5	turquoise linen pinafore	pea plants pulled	yard waste bin
6	2 more masks	x	-
7	tiny Nandina	x	-
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude -have I mentioned how much I love my SIL... not only is she the best thing that could be imagined for my big little brother, but she has sent me two packages of Sharpie pens in the last week, I now have 36 different colors to play with... seriously, it feels like when I was a kid and got the Big Box of Crayolas (the 64 pack, with the sharpener in the front and the gold and silver metallic crayons)

wishful Wednesday - more tinyworld time

in which our plucky heroine took some time off...

...in times of isolation, a tiny world can be a place to rest and recover equanimity. And so, I made a new little housemate for Acorn Cottage, because the little bed I made was asking for someone to sleep there.

I'd made a few of these tiny rag dolls earlier, Hazel and Zinnia, who ended up going to Olympia to live with little Kestrel's other dollhouse people... Ann Wood creates wonderful and whimsical well-written patterns that are a joy to use.

"

I decided that stripey stockings would be a fun change from my previous attempts, primarily because some micro-stripe fabric turned up

Her name is Nandina, and since her older sister Zinnia left behind her SCA clothing when she moved North, I was able to dress her right away...

Her SCA clothing still needs a bit of detailing (tiny brooches, and some other bling) and she really needs shoes, too...

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I miss and wish for a time when touch is possible, when a strong and gentle hug can go on and on, soothing and enlivening to all involved, when a passionate kiss between dearloves is not potentially deadly, when something as simple as sitting close and holding another's hand as support during an emotional time was/is not fraught with unintended consequence. May those days come again.

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~ 100 day creativity challenge - day 21 ~

Nandina may be only just over 5" tall, but she still has something to say! She needs her own face mask, and some modern clothing... I think she is getting a pair of tiny overalls next.

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a wonderful take on a favorite song...

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beauty in the time of isolation - day 88:

an amazing allium, about as big as both my hands outstretched...

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June SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	5½ pints rhubarb sauce	apple tree pruned	rotten beams
2	20 masks for Tullia	apples thinned	frozen blueberries
3	2¾ pints blueberry sauce	aphids soaped	yard waste bin
4	3 half-pints bramble syrup	peas harvested	yard waste bin
5	turquoise linen pinafore	x	-
6	2 more masks	x	-
7	tiny Nandina	x	-
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - so many kindhearted gifts this last week... a multicolor set of Sharpie pens, some cut-to-size lino blocks and lino ink, a delivery of produce, and a USB webcam so I can use the laptop instead of squinting into the cell phone for zoom-time!

Tuesday tidbits

in which our plucky heroine is struggling with how to be of help in the current situation...

Like, I always felt like the best thing I could do is live in a way that caused as little harm as possible to the planet and other living beings, and now that isn't enough, if that makes sense. Like I need to be doing something actively healing. Which feels sort of impossible given my lack of resources and need to keep hiding in my house isolated.

So I have been spinning my brain and cogitating... so far, what I have come up with is the idea of making some kind of artworks that can be sold, to raise money to donate. And I realised how often I choose to do nothing, because I have no idea what the right thing to do is, and it has felt like doing something not-right is somehow worse than doing nothing at all... Which is completely not true, particularly now, but probably always.

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~ 100 day creativity challenge - day 20~

Today I have been working on designing. A postcard-size artwork, made with block printing, is affordable in a way that jewelry is not, and is a size that can be mailed easily. I have decided that although I feel pretty helpless to make a difference, one tiny action I can do is to make little artworks, and donate the payments to Useful Causes. So I am going to do that...

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A minor but definite improvement: magnetic towel bars. I've only been living here fifteen years (eep!) and only just now figured out a way to have kitchen towels conveniently to hand at the kitchen sink... Because all the Acorn Cottage kitchen cabinets are steel, it finally occurred to me that there was a way to effectively do this, and I decided to go ahead and put a little bit of dosh towards an improvement that would make my doing everyday chores a little bit better. One of my design goals overall is to have things be in the first place where you reach for whatever it is. Not always possible (see the gorram light switches and other infrastructure fails) but in this case, every time I reach for a kitchen towel it is now finally right in the correct spot.

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Finally managed to finish my turquoise linen pinafore... now only have two more things to complete by the end of the month for SWAP 2020. I'd planned to make a grey linen pinafore as well, and since there are lots of times when I miss my grey corduroy pinafore, I think that will be next up. Torn between the planned grey canvas chore coat and the possible grey canvas "jean jacket" that is my newest idea. I'd need to double check the pattern measurements of the former pattern against my current TNT blouse pattern, and see if it would work. Otherwise it is time to actually start making a toile of the new chore coat pattern...

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beauty in the time of isolation - day 87:

whenever I see positive vernacular art, it gives me hope....
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Found out my blood type is A, sister has blood type O, which means that a. I do not have the extra protection from COVID of being type O blood, and that b. parents must both be carrying type O, but at least one is type A... I find this sort of genetic thing fascinating, takes me back to Junior High science classes and those little "Punnet squares" that simplified how genes are expressed (I have the only blue eyes in my family)

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June SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	5½ pints rhubarb sauce	apple tree pruned	rotten beams
2	20 masks for Tullia	apples thinned	frozen blueberries
3	2¾ pints blueberry sauce	aphids soaped	yard waste bin
4	3 half-pints bramble syrup	x	-
5	turquoise linen pinafore	x	-
6	2 more masks	x	-
7	x	x	-
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - being old enough that we got a reasonably good education in public school.

reframing isolation and silence

in which our plucky heroine thinks more long thoughts...

Isolation as a fairy tale experience, in that purposeful or accidental time away from the world can be transformative. Lots of stories, both mythic and fictional bear that stamp. Perhaps now after almost three months mostly apart, I can begin to do more than grieve for what I have lost. What are the gifts within this? I have no idea, yet...

I grew up holding tightly to keeping silent as a way of safety, learning as a very young child that being other was dangerous, even deadly. That has ever been a painful part of who I am, but buried deeply. Any sort of visibility was endangerment. I cannot know what it would be like to have a difference always visible. Now, I wonder if the collective we can create a world where none will need to keep silent, a world where difference either visible or invisible is not just accepted but celebrated. That would be a true renaissance indeed.

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~ 100 day creativity challenge - day 19 ~

Yesterday was Crafternoon-zoom, and it was a long afternoon into evening of online hanging out with assorted friends. I chose to finally return to my long-neglected rubakha embroidery project, and while chatting and listening, I managed to make excellent progress on the elaborate cuff decoration (arched designs in the lower left of photo). While I still have no idea when there will ever be realtime SCA events, and strongly doubt that there will be a 12th Night 2021 to wear fancy garb to, just making something exist that could be worn in an unknown future is a kind of prayer to the possibility of improvement.

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Appletree appletree, three bags full! This week I pruned the apple tree and thinned the fruit sending three big bags into the yard waste bin, though a second glance made it obvious to me yesterday that there were still some areas on the tree that needed a bit more pruning and thinning. I do not want to have a repeat of what happened last year, where a third of the tree cracked and broke off because too many apples! I would rather get smaller numbers of apples but large and tasty ones, and have the tree continue to survive. That poor tree has had so many problems (with grafts dying, assorted apple diseases, my novice pruning attempts, losing a third of its limbs, and a large crack in the trunk) since I planted it fourteen years ago, but it persists, blooms, and fruits nonetheless

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beauty in the time of isolation - day 85:

Seen yesterday while out walking... I keep holding on to a belief that within and beneath all the necessary turmoil and disruption of the former reality is hope for a just and loving world for all. Birthing is painful and messy, but change has got to happen.

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All the bramble fruit from the freezer, which wasn't much, since there are no feral blackberries nearby, turned into bramble syrup. Annoying as it is to strain out the seedy bits, I'd rather not get bramble seeds wedged in my teeth, as a trip to the dentist is somewhat fraught in this time of contagion.

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June SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	5½ pints rhubarb sauce	apple tree pruned	rotten beams
2	20 masks for Tullia	apples thinned	frozen blueberries
3	2¾ pints blueberry sauce	x	yard waste bin
4	3 half-pints bramble syrup	x	-
5	x	x	-
6	x	x	-
7	x	x	-
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - Terri Windling, of the most excellent blog Myth & Moor, as well as author and artist, has always given me food for thought and delight, as well as time and again had exactly what I need to be brought to my attention

wishful Wednesday

in which our plucky heroine is feeling thoughtful...

It sounds dumb, but I really wish that there was not a pandemic, not just because deadly pandemic, but because I wish that there was a way to get together (in person) with a few friends and be able to talk about racism, and prejudice, and oppression, and intersectionality. I know I am not the only one that is thinking about these issues, and were many of us not also social distancing and/or isolating I would try and set up a get together, rather like the "consciousness raising" groups back in the early days of feminism.

I recently read this article, and saw a graphic showing a "matrix of oppression" which definitely gave gave me additional food for thought. Racism is one type of oppression for which there is no respite, as skin color is always visible. I'd not really thought much about my own areas of oppression, aside from the daily issues of being and appearing female in this world. I just figured that since I was white, that was that...

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~ 100 day creativity challenge - day 18 ~

I've come to realise that if I do not start out in the day by purposefully doing something creative, that chores and tasks will expand to fill the time. And by the end of the day, there is no mental bandwidth left. Maybe tomorrow...

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Today made a total of 2¾ pints of blueberry sauce... learned that adding cinnamon was a bad idea, that batch had to be tossed as it became horrid and bitter, and there were two bags of berries in the freezer from 2010 which at this point had no flavor at all, so they became compost without guilt (if with sadness that they were lost at the bottom of the freezer for so long). I think that going forward, the freezer contents will be managed better, as it is a freezer, not a stasie.

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beauty in the time of isolation - day 81:

to me this looks a lot like acanthus foliage, but in truth I suspect it is either cardoon or artichoke, since we are in the middle of artichoke season here, if local plants are any indication!

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I made a thing, last month, a floral blouse. Still feels frivolous, just a little bit. I am making a teal pinafore to wear with, since the dark indigo and black ones in my closet do not feel very summery. Of course, when I started SWAP sewing, it was Boxing Day, just after midwinter, and warm dark corduroy was just the thing. Now that we're on the slide into midsummer I think that a teal linen/cotton pinafore will actually get a lot of wear...

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June SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	5½ pints rhubarb sauce	x	rotten beams
2	20 masks for Tullia	x	frozen blueberries
3	2¾ pints blueberry sauce	x	-
4	x	x	-
5	x	x	-
6	x	x	-
7	x	x	-
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - after much searching, a box of wide-mouth pint canning jars was located, and Wanda very kindly was willing to pick them up for me, so now I should be able to continue the process of turning my frozen fruit into pantry foods. Still to come, berries, and plums... berries may become either jelly or syrup...

Tuesday tidbits

in which our plucky heroine had a very slightly better day...

Started on preserving fruit from the freezer in shelf stable jars for the pantry instead. My goal is to free up space so I can order a half lamb or a whole lamb. I found two large bags of rhubarb pieces, so strawberry rhubarb sauce is the first up.  (blueberries will be next, and then plums)Two pounds of organic strawberries from the co-op were chopped and added, but since they weren't really all that ripe, I also added in a cup of cranberries to help make the color more red and less khaki. The cranberries add a bit of extra pectin as well. Five and a half pints, plus a little extra. It makes a great yogurt topping, and it would also be delightful in the middle of shortbread, like I made on Saturday...

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beauty in the time of isolation - day 80:

wasn't quite sure if this was in honor of Pride Month, or as part of the "kids find rainbows" challenge, or just random neighborhood artistry. Still, it made me smile on a day when there is very little indeed to smile about.

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June SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	5½ pints rhubarb sauce	x	rotten beams
2	20 masks for Tullia	x	-
3	x	x	-
4	x	x	-
5	x	x	-
6	x	x	-
7	x	x	-
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - a day without curfew, and afternoon where I can rest, and an evening when I can walk outdoors (though for safety sake I only paced back and forth up and down my own street, as it was full dark before I managed to get outside)