the last BLT of the year

in which our plucky heroine savors the taste of summer...

My neighbors in the house next door have been gifting me occasionally with some of their homegrown tomato goodness, and the last one just met it's final destiny at lunchtime. Said tomato was so large that it had been part of two other sandwiches and a salad already, being large enough that it covered not just my palm, but my whole hand. A good BLT on lightly toasted sourdough is probably my favorite of the summertime treats, and at practically October, summer is about to say goodbye

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beauty in the time of isolation - day 187:

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Just tried out the white "Saral" transfer paper for the first time, and it works a treat... I will be able to transfer my designs onto the lino block, with the simple expedient of first coloring over the block with dark sharpie. The white lines then show up brightly, and the transfer seems pretty smudge-proof. Extra benefit is that the dark background will give the effect of the eventual printing ink!

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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Gwen sunhat	removed oven door	old underwindow
2	dozen EQUITY prints	clean one bedroom screen	dead cold-packs
3	tiny deer hat	clean studio screens	yard waste bin
4	Gwen knit cardigan	10# plums processed	recycle bin
5	Nandina coat	felt cover for exhaust fan	favorite saucepan
6	Nandina boots	doors taped closed	oven door glass
7	Nandina felt skirt	15 # plums processed	yard waste bin
8	Nandina red clogs	some tomatoes dried	yard waste bin
9	8 jars asian plum sauce	underwindow foam + tape	recycle bin
10	x	many pears dried	yard waste bin
11	x	wanda plum pruned	x
12	x	some apple pruning	x
13	x	begin plum pruning	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - my burden cloth, a canvas square with webbing handles on each corner, that allows me to do things like rake up windfall fruit, or fallen leaves and handle them easily. I've never seen the like for sale, but made it for myself years ago, when yardwork first became needful. It is a good partner to my flexible rake.

Monday miscellany

in which our plucky heroine thinks about adaptation...

yes, I still miss seeing my friends, seeing other humans, going to the shops and markets, and all the other good parts of urban life, not to mention being able to spend time in nature unbounded by urban houses and grids. But it seems like I am probably adapting, at least a little bit, to this much more constrained existence. I don't feel contented, indeed how could anyone, in this time of travial, trouble, and transformation... but I am able to get through a day now without spending a significant portion of the day in tears.

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~ 100 day creativity challenge - day 57 ~

initial sketch for 3rd postcard size blockprint for tiny cards of hope series... stillneed to adjust the line spacing, and then draw in the foliated border, before transferring the design to the lino block for carving... time to do a bit of study of acanthus leaf border designs

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in the last few days some progress has been made:

in the yard: pruning apple tree and removing the rest of the apples, and several careful bouts of raking up plums underneath the Plum Thicket (careful because Danger Bugs; once the sun is all the way up and it is warming, they activate) With luck, another few early morning efforts will have all the windfall plums removed and it will be possible to a bit more helpful pruning of the thicket.

in the house: canning spicy asian plum sauce* happened, in the last few days, four pounds of plums turned into eight 8oz jars for the pantry. This is my DIY version of hoisin sauce, being dark and thick and spicy/rich, a good condiment to add interest and savor to future meals.

One long range housey goal is to have cloth storage bags for the down puffs, and it occurred to me after making Nandina's tiny quilt from scraps, that some of the larger scraps could be turned into a patchwork, case, so I've been using my online time to also cut out fabric squares, and now have enough to stitch up one case. Yes it would be easier faster to make cases from whole cloth, but I am continuing with the "use what you have" mode.

Additional hunting this morning and I found the wayward tracing paper pads. Now progress can continue on the new blockprinting design.

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beauty in the time of isolation - day 186:

I never tire of moss worlds
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who were the Diggers?: in the 15th century... and in the 1960's...
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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Gwen sunhat	removed oven door	old underwindow
2	dozen EQUITY prints	clean one bedroom screen	dead cold-packs
3	tiny deer hat	clean studio screens	yard waste bin
4	Gwen knit cardigan	10# plums processed	recycle bin
5	Nandina coat	felt cover for exhaust fan	favorite saucepan
6	Nandina boots	doors taped closed	oven door glass
7	Nandina felt skirt	15 # plums processed	yard waste bin
8	Nandina red clogs	some tomatoes dried	yard waste bin
9	8 jars asian plum sauce	underwindow foam + tape	recycle bin
10	x	many pears dried	yard waste bin
11	x	wanda plum pruned	x
12	x	some apple pruning	x
13	x	begin plum pruning	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude -  A well stocked pantry, and a bit of additional gratitude to B, who when coming by last week to pick the feral grapes, brought me a jar of ground ginger

* One of my kitchen tenets is to put effort into making high-flavor condiments that can then be used to add savor to simple meals throughout the year; plum sauce takes the place of things like ketchup, and hoisin sauce, and if homemade, has no weird ingredients that require a chemistry degree to decipher, just things like tamari and garlic and vinegar and cayenne, and plums...

Chinese Plum Sauce:

2lbs. fresh plums - pitted and quartered 2½C sugar ½C vinegar 3T soy sauce 1T ground ginger 2 minced garlic cloves 1/8tsp cayenne

Combine all, and bring to a boil, then simmer til the fruit is very tender. Puree, then cook till very thick It will take some time to cook down... Keep watch so it does not catch and burn When suitably thickened, jar and process ≈4 8oz jars - ¼" headspace - process 10 minutes

recipe can be multiplied

Careful observation

in which our plucky heroine takes effective actions...

I was able to go out (in the rain) this morning, and remove the piles of windfall apples, and the remaining grapes from the vine, into the yard waste bin for pickup today. The apples (which I tackled first) were not a real problem, as I could see no insects around them, the rake has a long handle, and raking them onto the burden cloth kept me quite distant from the damaged fruit.

That accomplished, I turned my attention to grapes. Some of the grape clusters were obviously vacant of wasps/hornets/yellowjackets, so I carefully cut those away and removed them. There were not many insects out in the strong rain (unlike yesterdays perfect autumnal weather, when simply standing adjacent to Feral Grapevine was hazardous), but I could see that some of the grape clusters had at least one inhabitant feeding.

Observing and thinking, my hypothesis was that the exposed grapes, being drenched by rain, had been safe to remove, but the ones more sheltered by leaves had Danger Bugs; it seemed like removing the leafy umbrellas might cause the grape clusters to be abandoned. And so, an experiment: it was possible to carefully and gently cut away the overhanging leaves a bit at a time, without causing any change in behavior, but once the grapes were exposed to the rain, the little buggers flew away. (And they flew away OUT of my yard, which leads me to believe that they are not nesting here)

Following the experiment on the one bunch, I then carefully repeated it for each of the remaining grape clusters, all now disposed of in the yard waste wheelie bin. It was interesting to see a few insects returning after grape removal, them seeming baffled by the loss of their sugary treats and then flying away... Next year I will do some pruning away of sheltering foliage earlier in the year.

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~ 100 day creativity challenge - day 56 ~

"Footwear" is the challenge of the week, and this pair of clogs is my response. Carved wooden soles, and uppers made from a scrap of red kidskin. Tiny Rag Doll Nation (on Ravelry) has a two month long weekly creative challenge, this is week 4.

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I love this poem "The Mushroom Hunters" by Neil Gaiman. First heard it read by his wife Amanda Palmer, then found the illustrated version, with drawings and text lettered by Chris Riddell, and now just found the video...

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beauty in the time of isolation - day 185:

Most of the backyard apples became windfalls in the high winds before the toxic smoke rolled in, but there are a very few still on the tree. This is one of the best.

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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Gwen sunhat	removed oven door	old underwindow
2	dozen EQUITY prints	clean one bedroom screen	dead cold-packs
3	tiny deer hat	clean studio screens	yard waste bin
4	Gwen knit cardigan	10# plums processed	recycle bin
5	Nandina coat	felt cover for exhaust fan	favorite saucepan
6	Nandina boots	doors taped closed	oven door glass
7	Nandina felt skirt	15 # plums processed	yard waste bin
8	Nandina red clogs	some tomatoes dried	yard waste bin
9	x	underwindow foam + tape	recycle bin
10	x	many pears dried	x
11	x	wanda plum pruned	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - My heart is still open to feelings

connectivity restored

in which our plucky heroine finally has internet again...

It has been awful being exponentially isolated, as part of what had made strict isolation since March bearable has been the ability to send messages, to zoom with family and friends, to purchase groceries and supplies online, and to use all the myriad options that internet offers for research and amusement...
Having all of that shut down, right on the heels of spending days literally closed into the house because of high levels of toxic smoke, was a double whammy to my normal equanimity. While I could have done without the 3am robot phone update telling me that "as a valued customer you will be pleased to know that your service has been restored", it is a great relief to be back in the pixel world again!

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~ 100 day creativity challenge - day 55 ~

finished up week three of the Tiny Rag Doll world challenge with the completed skirt, made from embroidered wool felt. Not sure what I am going to do for week four, (the challenge is "footwear") since Nandina already has a nifty pair of boots. Maybe bedroom slippers? Tiny garden clogs? (mechanical pencil included in photo for scale)

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I did get some things accomplished in the intervening aeons... all the first batch of plums, picked before the smoke rolled in, have been processed by drying or freezing. The Big Bag of Pears from Gersvinda has mostly been dried, filling a large Fido jar, and the last round are currently in the dehydrator right now.

Managed to get the tree collards planted, in the small gap between Too Much Toxic Smoke, and Much Rain and Wind. When Gersvinda returned from the south, she brought me small plant starts of winter greens, a few garlic cloves to plant, and from Eleanor de Boulton, a larger start of perennial broccoli, and a young skirret. I will need to find places for these in my yard, and protect them from the depredaceous tree rats (aka resident squirrels)

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beauty in the time of isolation - day 183:

this amazingly pretty shelf fungus showed up on a tree in the parking strip on the next block. I think, but am not sure, that it is "Laetiporus gilbertsonii"

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the other thing I managed to do recently was to make a bit more progress on the cardboard future residence for Nandina Flora et al... which now has a laminated cardboard base. I intend to perhaps also add shed dormers to the roofline, so as to increase the internal lighting, before paper-mache smooths the edges of the basic structure. I am eager to create a "stone" fireplace and chimney, using this tutorial from Ann Wood and the stack of saved egg cartons... there may be a "flagstone" floor as well, we shall see...

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 September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Gwen sunhat	removed oven door	old underwindow
2	dozen EQUITY prints	clean one bedroom screen	dead cold-packs
3	tiny deer hat	clean studio screens	yard waste bin
4	Gwen knit cardigan	10# plums processed	recycle bin
5	Nandina coat	felt cover for exhaust fan	favorite saucepan
6	Nandina boots	doors taped closed	oven door glass
7	Nandina felt skirt	15 # plums processed	yard waste bin
8	x	some tomatoes dried	x
9	x	underwindow foam + tape	x
10	x	many pears dried	x
11	x	wanda plum pruned	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - Eva gave me a new word of the day: sesquipedalian... (of a word) polysyllabic, or, characterized by long words

extravehicular activity

in which our plucky heroine perserveres...

I had to/chose to go outside. NOAA forecast for rainshowers 100% tonight and tomorrow. Before the smoke rolled in last week, I removed the damaged lower trim around the east-facing window, leaving empty space where the rotten wood had been (the plan had been for Mr Dawson to come down here and repair whatever needed to happen, but what happened instead was Hazardous Smoke.)

I was outside for probably 20 minutes, had carefully planned what to do beforehand, to fill the gap using those foam pipe insulating tubes, and use duct tape to seal it to the edges... which seemed to work pretty well as far as I can tell, I don't want water pouring into my house walls, eh?...

Came indoors, clothing off and in washer, drink a glass of Emergen-C (potassium ascorbate (1000mg vitamin C plus b vitamins and electrolytes) and immediately into shower) Oh, and I'd tripled up my masks, for extra filtration. As Bill Dawson said this afternoon, when I called him for advice re window... "I was positive I signed up for the non-smoking section of the end of the world...."

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~ 100 day creativity challenge - day 54 ~

week three of the Tiny Rag Doll challenge, and this time it is to "create some sort of Bottom/Skirt/Pants..." I decided to take some closer looks at some of Salley Mavor's decoration techniques (which are what is inspiring this two month challenge and her book which is the random prize drawing at the end), and was charmed by her tiny decorative embroidery, and by her use of pinking shears to add additional details. I’ve started on a new skirt for Nandina, again using what felt I have on hand, and assorted strands of DMC embroidery floss...

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beauty in the time of isolation - day 177:

some of this years tomatoes were run through the food dehydrator as an experiment. They are pretty, but the experiment shall not be repeated.

Even after removing their skins, they are still not my idea of a real treat, though they will surely be a good addition to wintertime soups. And tomatoes contain a lot of fluid, which required frequent attention to the dehydrator lest the lower level overflow into the machinery!

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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Gwen sunhat	removed oven door	old underwindow
2	dozen EQUITY prints	clean one bedroom screen	dead cold-packs
3	tiny deer hat	clean studio screens	yard waste bin
4	Gwen knit cardigan	10# plums processed	recycle bin
5	Nandina coat	felt cover for exhaust fan	favorite saucepan
6	Nandina boots	doors taped closed	oven door glass
7	x	15 # plums processed	x
8	x	some tomatoes dried	x
9	x	underwindow foam + tape	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 -  I have multiple masks, which made HAVING to go outside in the smoky bad air a little less awful...

in the catbird seat, sort of...

in which our plucky heroine remembers a childhood visit to the zoo in Central Park...

The colors outside initially looked a bit more like an ordinary misty moisty morning, the sort where several miles of walk along the bluff would be delightful, but the haze obscuring the street and easing my eyes is not water, but toxic smoke, and as the day wore on, the colors resumed their jaundiced tinge. I can take no more than ten steps in any direction.

"why the smoke situation is not improving..."

NASA predicitive smoke map

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beauty in the time of isolation - day 176:

I picked alley fruit back when walking around outdoors was still possible. Alley pears will ripen in the refrigerator, very slowly, but they will gradually turn from green to yellow. I suspect that then a day out of the fridge would be of benefit. Pears are odd. They must needs be picked fully grown but still green, and finish ripening off the tree for happiest human food. Pears tree-ripened have lots of gritty "stone cells", which are much reduced if they are picked before fully ripe, and allowed to ripen off the tree... weird eh?

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This might be one of my two favorite songs ever... it hit me like a hammer in the middle of my chest and I started sobbing, sitting here in my little cottage with the doors taped closed.

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~ 100 day creativity challenge - day 53 ~
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A small improvement for Nandina's boots... using some of the original felt, I filled in the front opening, and added a horizontal band at the top edge. This keeps them more securely on her feet, than the first iteration, which had front opening slashes and were more like ankle boots. To get a better sense of the scale of the boots, they are just about an inch tall, Nandina is just over 5" tall...

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When it is once more safe to attend to assorted house repairs, one thing that will happen is better weatherstripping around the external doors. For right now, masking tape is sealing the back door closed.

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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Gwen sunhat	removed oven door	old underwindow
2	dozen EQUITY prints	clean one bedroom screen	dead cold-packs
3	tiny deer hat	clean studio screens	yard waste bin
4	Gwen knit cardigan	10# plums processed	recycle bin
5	Nandina coat	felt cover for exhaust fan	favorite saucepan
6	Nandina boots	doors taped closed	oven door glass
7	x	15 # plums processed	x
8	x	some tomatoes dried	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 - Today I am grateful for my pet kitchen worms. I have been keeping a little indoor worm bin for years now, as an adjunct to my outdoor compost bin. They eat my kitchen produce scraps, which has become extraordinarily important the last week, when going outside to the compost bin has become impossibly hazardous to respiratory health.

Monday maunderings...

in which our plucky heroine has an old question answered...

All those instances in past years when (in response to various and sundry troublesome incidents) the saying "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" led me to reply wtf am I going to need to be so gorram strong for...  I had thought that my cancer journey was the answer when it came, but now it seems that was only a rehearsal.

The reality we are in now feels like the sort of apocalyptic SF I gave up on reading decades ago, the sort of stories that end without hope. None of them included it being too dangerous to even be any closer than six feet to our cohorts. Perhaps, somehow, we humans will learn the lesson (cooperate or die) to heal ourselves and our planet, so that our species can continue to exist

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Last night I went to bed, and the AQI had risen to 618. Which is basically off the chart. Overnight went to a high of 688, and currently at 472 is still deep beyond "Hazardous - everyone may experience more serious health effects, everyone should avoid all outdoor activity". I've not been outside at all in three days.

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today's gratitude - I am alive, my relatives and friends are mostly all still alive. Where there is life, there is hope.

"Hope is a discipline, Mariame Kaba said, and it matters most when it's hardest. Right now it doesn't mean envisioning rosy futures; it means knowing that the worst case scenarios are not inevitable, and every day we are choosing together what direction we head in."

~ Rebecca Solnit

Saturday snippets

in which our plucky heroines air has gone from bad to worse...

Fire continues to ravage the PNW, with over a million acres burned, local AQI 376, ramping up to 466 so far today... what can I say? The very air outside appears jaundiced, the sky a dark yellow grey at midday, and I am grateful I had not yet given in to my dream of having hens again. 

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~ 100 day creativity challenge - day 52 ~

Nandina will have to model her winter coat indoors, standing under one of the few garden plants (tree collards) I brought inside before closing the doors to the outside; initially to protect them from squirrels, and now very glad I did, as the new transplants would surely have died from neglect without hand watering. Someday, it will not be September, someday Oregon will not be on fire, someday I can open the doors to the front porch and the back yard again... but for now, as it remains too dangerous for human lungs to even set foot outside, creating new miniature delights is a good distraction.

I already had the little hat, made from an Ann Wood free pattern, and thought a coordinating coat would be good. I used some finely woven felted wool for the body of the coat, some scraps of blockprinted rayon seam binding for the cuffs, and overcast all the edges with embroidery floss. Decided to not line the coat, as the fabric was not prone to fraying, and it would hang better (be less stiff) without a lining. Originally was going to add more embroidery, but I liked how it looked with just the edging, and instead, decided to add pockets. Tiny functioning pockets, should Nandina want to put something in them...

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before the smoke rolled in, I managed to pick about 28# of plums, which now need to have something done with before they all become overripe and moldy. Mostly they get cut in half, frozen on trays, then stored in freezer bags to be used over the rest of the year. This year I am trying a new experiment: cutting some into eighths and running them through the food dehydrator, in the hope of ending up with faux raisins. Last year I tried drying halves, and it was not a success, but perhaps smaller pieces will take less time to dry. We shall see...

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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Gwen sunhat	removed oven door	old underwindow
2	dozen EQUITY prints	clean one bedroom screen	dead cold-packs
3	tiny deer hat	clean studio screens	yard waste bin
4	Gwen knit cardigan	10# plums processed	recycle bin
5	Nandina coat	felt cover for exhaust fan	favorite saucepan
6	x	x	oven door glass
7	x	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 - Counting my blessings that I have internet, and have a way to connect to it, to my friends, and to the wider world outside the confines of Acorn Cottage... One example: earlier this month I had posted on FB about the tripling in price of canning supplies, in the few places they were even available, and how much I regretted not stocking up on lids back in March, when I did the massive shopping before going into isolation. In Friday's mailbox, a package arrived with a box of a dozen lids, courtesy of my northern pal Countess E, from her farmstead to my little urban cottage!! Cheered me up no end, it did.

This is not the ring of fire you are looking for...

in which our plucky heroine ties a knot at the end of her rope...

Well that felt really creepy, walked out to the end of the driveway Wednesday night to look at the sunset, as there seemed to be a break in the wind. We had comparatively clear skies Tuesday, unlike Monday, (much of the PNW is under dark clouds of smoke and ash (or on fire)). But visible wind currents from the south in the upper air were bringing dark clouds of smoke like fingers across the western sky, and when I turned to the south, it appeared almost an impenetrable wall. This is not good, and eversomuch worse for those caught in it...

This morning the air quality degraded again, woke up to yellow-grey skies and visibility is affected, but I am running ran the fans anyway for an hour or two to try and cool the house down some - it is forecast to be over 90. The AQI will only get worse from here on out; between 6AM and now, the score went from 62 to 162... Bad as it is here, it is eversomuch worse elsewhere. Compare the fires map to the left with the AQI map below (AQI covers mostly OR in , fire map covers WA, OR, and parts of CA)

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~ 100 day creativity challenge - day 51 ~

a new handknit cardigan, for Gwen, the doll who lives next door...

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The Kitchen Saga:  found out some information from the gas company:
they do not install appliances (though they have a store that sells appliances. The contractors they recommend charge 115 + parts + labor. There is no need to also install a new range hood and ventilation system, what currently exists is good enough (yay tiny bit of good news!). Have not yet found a combination of cooktop and base that is appealing and meets my cookery needs.

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beauty in the time of isolation - day 169:

larkspur, I think...

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I'm tired, and crave sleep like a caffeine-based life form craves coffee. Pandemic life is wearying all in and of itself, and combining that with everything else is like being hit when you are down already. There might be a nap in my future, though I hate to give in to such weakness.

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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Gwen sunhat	removed oven door	old underwindow
2	dozen EQUITY prints	clean one bedroom screen	dead cold-packs
3	tiny deer hat	clean studio screens	yard waste bin
4	Gwen knit cardigan	x	recycle bin
5	x	x	favorite saucepan
6	x	x	oven door glass
7	x	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 - my friends love me, even ones I don't really know... Martin set up a fundraiser for my exploded kitchen, and fifty people donated! This will facilitate the eventual replacement of the damaged cooker

when the going gets wierd... the wierd turn pro

in which our plucky heroine continues resolute, moment to moment...

not even day to day, as each day seems wierder than the previous one. Although Sunday just involved cleaning up the broken glass, which was tiring, but not peculiar. Monday was started fairly pleasantly (see below) and after the class ended, I went outside to pick some of the plums before the forecast windstorms arrived. I filled two tote bags as the wind picked up speed, and noticed that my throat was feeling raw, and the sky was an odd shade of yellow-grey. Went inside to check the AQI websites, but they all said that air quality was "green = good (20 AQI)" which wasn't true. Some kind of time lag in the updates, or a glitch, since the next time I checked it was "red = unhealthy (180 AQI)". In the interim, I shut down the house fans and closed all the windows, as well as preparing the candle lanterns and matches in an easily accessed space, and clipped the mini flashlight as a necklace.

As the winds increased, and news reports began coming in about trees coming down, I decided that I would set up my camping bed in the kitchen, that being the spot furthest from the big tree next door, and the big trees in my front yard. Might be overkill, but better safe than sorry. Aside from the howling of the wind, I slept fairly well. The magnetic towel racks made a useful spot to hang my glasses and the flashlight above the head of my cot...

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~ 100 day creativity challenge - day 50 ~

Monday I took a six-hour online SCA Ithra class on making your own gloves, and my (successful) goal was to fit a pattern, so that I can actually make work gloves etc that will match the shape and size of my hands, which have very short fingers, but are otherwise an ordinary women's medium/large. I have never had gloves that fit me aside from handknit homemade ones; inch long floppy empty ends of fingers rather reduce the functionality of work gloves for yardwork or handling rough objects. I am eagerly looking forward to trying this pattern out in suitable leather in the future (once I manage to acquire some deerskin, or goatskin leather)

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Jesmyn Ward's essay articulates a personal connection between tragedy, COVID and BLM in an intensely beautiful and heartbreaking way. I read it and wept, and remain determined to do what little I can to work for change...

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beauty in the time of isolation - day 167:

so, Friday my young neighbor brought this over to my front porch, they have been working on this surprise for Nandina: a little pup tent complete with zip up sleeping bag, pillow, and plenty of cushiony camping pad! I am not sure who is more charmed, me or my tiny housemate...

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The Kitchen Saga: Removed the oven door yesterday, as suggested by a friend; turns out that lifting the door straight up slides it off the brackets that hold it to the internal door springs, who knew? Now it is in the carport waiting for a trip to the transfer station. Been trying to get through to the gas company to find out what might be needed to convert the cooking appliance here back to a gas appliance, (which is the first step in the process of gathering information) but having real difficulty getting through to the customer service department. Persistence is needed.

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lyrics here
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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Gwen sunhat	removed oven door	old underwindow
2	dozen EQUITY prints	x	dead cold-packs
3	tiny deer hat	x	yard waste bin
4	x	x	recycle bin
5	x	x	favorite saucepan
6	x	x	oven door glass
7	x	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 - no trees fell on Acorn Cottage last night

a terrible horrible no good very bad day*

in which our plucky heroine is unscathed...

I was trying to test out how the pears that Gersvinda brought me yesterday would taste if they were cooked (since raw they are closer (in texture) to quince than pear) Do not put things on the stove to cook, and then get distracted by noticing how much the carpet needs vacuumed. Or at least, do not then start vacuuming. One pot that needs the carbon scoured out, some cooked pear chunks that taste heavily of smoke, and one clean carpet later....

A while later I decided to take care of the pan and remove the burned carbon. (If you simmer a mixture of baking soda and water, eventually the carbon lifts right off, sometimes takes two go-rounds) What could go wrong?...I notice that the compost needs taken out (usually a chore of less than three minutes).

Into the backyard to take out the compost and check on the plums (are they ripe yet, they have been getting close...) and the rustling/shaking in the tree was not a squirrel, but a mid 20's? white man that had climbed way up into the plum thicket inside the backyard and was picking all the plums!! Not okay! And when I hollered, because it startled me and I was mad, he got all defensive and gave a lot of excuses. I don't care that some people have more fruit on their yard trees and don't use any of it... you didn't ask first, just stole!! I don't care that you think that there are still plenty of plums on the tree.. I was waiting for the plums to get ripe before picking them. I don't care that you said that the tree was overhanging the public alley.... you climbed up and were actually trespassing in the back yard stealing my plums, not in the alley. (I do not mind if people pick the plums from the branches that overhang the alley, but climbing up ten feet in the air into someone's yard is not the same thing, (plus hella dangerous because skinny tree branches break)

call to file trespassing police report, try to catch my breath, etc, forget entirely that there is a pan on the stove (for the second time) and when the bad smell reminds me, there is molten aluminum. I use the pitcher full of cold water to douse the liquid aluminium which is melting into my kitchen floor and the plastic handle of the oven.

Spend the rest of the day recovering from that alarming incident, had a pleasant Crafternoon-zoom online with friends, and finally get around to cooking dinner at around 10 pm. Sitting at dining table chatting on laptop and eating dinner when there is an explosion noise from the kitchen...

a cautious glance round the doorway into the kitchen and I see that the glass front of the oven door has exploded. Where I had been standing not even five minutes prior! There are shards of glass EVERYWHERE, and the shards are continuing to shatter, with a sound like popcorn. This is peculiar, disturbing and not something I want to keep watching, because hey, flying glass fragments! I share the alarming news in chat with friends, and though no one has ever had an oven door explode, it is apparently a known problem according to the internet. (I suspect in this case that the interaction of molten aluminum, cold water, and an old probably scratched glass door was the cause, but it took hours between that incident and the explosion)

as I paced back and forth last night up and down the driveway for several hours to walk off enough of the adrenaline so I could go to sleep, I talked on the phone with a dearlove, and was eminently clear that despite what happened, that my own bodily integrity was unharmed, not burned by molten metal or pierced with shards of glass. The rest of it is unfortunate, and will be challenging to deal with the cleanup and eventual replacement(s) but it is just stuff. Stuff can (sometimes) be replaced. I am just hella tired, and not looking forward to the cleanup, which will be done Very Carefully, but I am okay.

* title from this story

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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Gwen sunhat	x	old underwindow
2	dozen EQUITY prints	x	dead cold-packs
3	tiny deer hat	x	yard waste bin
4	x	x	recycle bin
5	x	x	favorite saucepan
6	x	x	oven door glass
7	x	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 - I am unharmed, the rest is only stuff, and stuff is replaceable

Friday folderol, with an intention of future maamoul

in which our plucky heroine is surprised...

This morning a small package was delivered here, with no accompanying paperwork an email address in the paperwork that gave me a clue as to who sent it to me... from Kalustyan's emporium in Manhattan. Inside were two packages of semolina, one fine-ground and one coarse-ground. This was mysterious, but not baffling... the mystery was who sent it; the reason most likely because of an earlier conversation online about pistachio maamoul. Which now I shall most definitely have to make! Once I get Heather to bring me some pistachios from Trader Joe's, I will now have All The Ingredients, (including orange flower water, and an actual maamoul mold (all that I had been missing was the semolina))

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~ 100 day creativity challenge - day 49 ~

This morning we headed out together on my sanity stroll, where she decided that climbing trees was what she wanted to do:

After dinner last night I had continued stitching together the deer spirit hat for Nandina... once I combined the antlers and the ears, it really began to take on the form I had seen in my mind's eye:

Sometimes projects just demand to be made, and this one certainly did... though my initial idea for "hat and headgear" was very different. I could not stop working on this until it was completed, staying up far past my usual bedtime last night to stitch stitch stitch... adding an overcast border, a shiny embroidered deer nose, and two long twisted ties to the corners of the headdress:

Here Nandina tries on the finished piece in the light next to the computer, where a Grateful Dead concert from almost forty years ago had kept me company while I stitched. (was it that far in the past?; I remember C and I dancing in the aisles that night for hours...)

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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Gwen sunhat	x	old underwindow
2	dozen EQUITY prints	x	dead cold-packs
3	tiny deer hat	x	yard waste bin
4	x	x	recycle bin
5	x	x	-
6	x	x	-
7	x	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 - I have friends that love me, and surprise me with gifts... plus I have a very odd pantry indeed, and kitchen tools equally uncommon

Assorted Art Activities

in which our plucky heroine...

well it was too good to last, and now am stuck in New Version Blogger hell. So  many of the functions I used all the time are gone. Hopefully I can still put a post together, but everything takes twice as long, as I need to constantly toggle into the HTML, and the whole process is pretty buggy.

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~ 100 day creativity challenge - day 48 ~

I remembered, years ago, seeing Tiny Owl Knits "Deer With Tiny Antlers" hat on Ravelry, which seemed to fit both with the overarching theme of the "New Adventure Challenge" in Tiny Rag Doll World as well as with this week's theme "hat or headgear"... but I have no desire to handknit any more than necessary at a 1:12 scale. I am no Althea Crome. It did occur to me that creating a variation on the free hat pattern from Ann Wood, and combining it with some Sally Mavor techniques, would be a fun approach. First off I needed to make some tiny antlers, as that would affect the shape and fit of any little hat that included them:

Well, it all looks a lot easier when the expert does it, but I was able to get the basic effect I hoped for, and the next part will be figuring out how to attach the little wire rack of antlers to a felt hat, and create all the other details (like ears)... stay tuned!

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I may have solved the blockprinting issues, by changing back to the former ink. Before Tamra gave me some actual block printing ink, I was using my fabric ink, which is oil based (but water cleanup) and was getting good results. The water based ink behaved poorly, and switching back gave me a dozen good prints. They need to cure for a few days, and then hopefully a few will find new homes. Must needs do some research to find out if there are other oil-based water-clean-up block printing inks, as apparently oil based ink just plain works better...

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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Gwen sunhat	x	old underwindow
2	dozen EQUITY prints	x	dead cold-packs
3	x	x	-
4	x	x	-
5	x	x	-
6	x	x	-
7	x	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 - Zoom however frustrating, is better than never seeing family members again...

Upson-downs

in which our plucky heroine has a clumsy day...

It seems like the rhythm of my time in isolation is alternating, one day may be almost productive, and the next is basically a washout. Trying to find the good in each day is my attempt to counteract that, with varying success.

There was a difficult/sad phone call to start off today with. Then I knocked over the little table, and smashed my Taylor and Ng mug with the f--king bears on it. And foolishly burned my arm with the hot glue gun (a tool I almost never use, I had to wipe a THICK layer of dust off it prior to turning it on) And then when attempting to make lunch, I dropped the full bowl of egg salad down the cabinet onto the kitchen floor. Deciding against working on my enameling today seemed like a good call... Tomorrow will be better.

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~ 100 day creativity challenge - day 47 ~

Frustrated with the problematic blockprint issues, so started building a house for Nandina, using the corrugated cardboard I've been laminating. This still needs a roof, window openings, and a base, and there will be a porch/balcony off one side of the ground floor.

The structure is already astonishingly sturdy, considering it is cardboard held together with hot glue. The attic space will get a roof with dormers, once I figure out how to create dormers! I am thinking about using paper mache to smooth over the raw cardboard-y edges, as an alternative to the glue/spackle mixture suggested in the video that inspired me...

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I've been thinking about how the telephone poles and powerline poles on the street are our new "commons". The old commons, the newspapers or the evening news, are no longer anything like universal. We consume individuated information, and there is no source that easily reaches a neighborhood any more. Online access is not universal, however it seems to be. I have noticed over the course of the pandemic, that there are more than just the lost pet flyers, and while the "our band is playing at this bar" flyers are gone, there are notices about a farmers market at the elementary school community garden, notices about what to do about tear gas, notices about mutual aid, about upcoming protest actions, about candidates for local office, and an assortment of exhortations both positive and in favor of thinking clearly about social justice issues...

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beauty in the time of isolation - day 160:

"may the horse be with you..."
(never know what folks will put in their yard as decoration)

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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Gwen sunhat	x	old underwindow
2	x	x	-
3	x	x	-
4	x	x	-
5	x	x	-
6	x	x	-
7	x	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 - My lovely neighbors brought me some of their homegrown tomatoes. Just like with rainbow, no such thing as too much! (Now if I can get some of the hot peppers that are red, rather than green, there will be Awesome Sauce in the pantry at some point)