Walking, bee spotting, roses and Cluny Brown

Today's unassisted walk got me closer to the pond, the current stretch goal.  And a long nap when I got home, so I'm still working on stamina. I'm starting Week Five, and all's well.

A new item in This Adaptive Life -- sweeping. I've been able to sweep floors, but not to pick up the debris on a shovel,  too far to stoop yet. 

Today I figured out how to use the ever vital grabber stick to hold the shovel still, then transport the contents to the garbage. Since I sweep the kitchen floor daily, don't like bits of food underfoot, this is a nice advance. 

Soon I won't need to be so careful with hip restrictions, by which time I'll be really expert at an obsolete skill.

This afternoon on the deck brought aerial combat among crows, three of them, probably two males, fighting it out over a female who probably wishes they'd get it over with.

And the first bee of the year, a  shiny-butt carpenter, too big to fit into the trumpet -shaped sage blossoms, but he spent a while working them over anyway.

He's near the rim of the pot.

I notice no insects are interested in the roses

Empty calories. What variety are they? Birds plant them all over. This one's not unwelcome, but it's not earning its keep in pollination.

Yesterday I made some sort of nicoise-like egg salad. It involved capers, bit of vegan mayo, olives, red raw onions, scallions smoked paprika, black pepper. 

I'm not vegan, but I sometimes use recipes that are. This one I basically invented. With toasted red lentil crackers, it was good. 

Then today I added in to the leftovers those black beans you're tired of hearing about,  with tomato paste, and declared it salsa. No picture, you can guess how it looked. 

Gary came flying in this morning to give me an update on the, great, graduation party of his granddaughter, and to give me this party favor, popcorn.

Note the Legally Blonde reference! Joy, we have another wonderful Black woman lawyer starting her career in criminal defense. 

Happy day everyone, I'm into Cluny Brown again, light and funny, just right for where I am.

I hope you have your match in reading. Also everything else.

Billie has yet to meet her match.

Meanwhile prayers and good thoughts for dear Joe. He never let us down. Stand by him now. And Jill.

Proxy gardening, dyeing, the old time movies

Neighbor Gary has extended his vegetable garden along my fence, cucumbers and peppers.  He needed more acreage, so I suggested he just continue along the fence.

When the sage flowers fade, this lovely housing is what they leave behind

Then natural dyeing happened, to the tee I got the blueberry juice on, and, since I had only a few blueberries, I added in a bag of red onion skins from the freezer, similar color.

I just simmered everything together for several hours

Then rinsed off the debris from the shirt,  till the water ran clear

I'm going to do white sashiko stitching, with swirls around the original blueberry stains 

It's a pinker color than you see here. I didn't use a mordant so we'll see how colorfast it is in practice. The color is pretty solid, not patchy, surprising, since I didn't use any preparation.

Later I left the share of chocolate dipped cookies next door and visited, lovely people, and how I wanted to be home and not have to talk...Aditha is going to replace the curry plant which died, from her flourishing collection.

And I came across a old Lubitsch movie from a novel I'd read many times, Cluny Brown, what a gem. Funny, old fashioned in a "nice movie" kind of way, stars galore. Perfect lightweight summer watching.

I seem to have found a whole lot of this era of movies, from the black and white period, mercifully not "colorized". So I may see more.

Sashiko stitching today, bit of knitting, maybe stitching on my vest which is patiently waiting. 

Happy day everyone, with art from survivors of colonial oppression. Art saves!