Hot Wednesday and Misfits box

 

This was Wednesday. I live in the dark red bit. The good part was that Tuesday and Wednesday, the days I had appointments, I was back home before the worst heat. 

It seems to be a change of season, heat starts in the morning and builds to evening, but mornings aren't too trying. It's not like the heatwave when there was no relief day or night. So there's that.

Hard to believe September is here soon. I have enjoyed August, so many hot but nice days, where I could sit out on the deck in the afternoon, it being in shade then. 

Labor Day is nearly on us, to my great surprise, I thought there was at least another week. I'm planning cold roast chicken with pasta salad and something involving chocolate, when I decide what. I might make potato chips with the remaining potatoes.

Misfits box arrived

Small order this week because I have good supplies already. Confectioners sugar for chocolate icing for future chocolate cake. Plums for plum snacking cake. Can of diced tomatoes free, used points for it. 

I usually choose that or cannellini beans or maybe parsley, when I accumulate enough points. It takes a while, not being a big customer.  

Diced tomatoes are endlessly useful, for baking with cheese and egg, or spaghetti sauce, or side dish. This small can goes quite a way for me

Meanwhile the mammo people sent a message that they need to retest one side, they'll set up another appointment. High anxiety time. 

This has happened before, other side and further testing showed it was in fact okay. So I'm fervently hoping this happens again.  Fingers crossed, please, blogistas. 

Doctor's office called to confirm another mammo with added ultrasound "just to make sure", tactful Nurse Christine.

And they gave me good bone density news: spine normal, hips improved, yay, that's the meds' doing. So there's that.

Channeling Picasso 

Blessed rain and other good things

 Where we are 

One of these days I'll be back in circulation, but not quite yet

The second is for those knowledgeable European friends who exclaim oh but you Americans have a dry heat. In Arizona maybe. In NJ not so much.  

Blessed rain, yesterday evening, cleaning the air and the pollen off my car.  I can feel the difference in breathing and my eyes are less irritated. 

The indoor scallions are done, and now there's a colony of fungi. I expect David or Chris or someone will tell us what they are.

New credit card arrived. And they make it very easy to acknowledge receipt, put it in use. Why don't medical people use decent IT on their sites? Yes, I know, they're cheap. Credit card companies spend more and get better work. 

Meanwhile I can now update the various online people who use my credit card for regular donations. One worthy organization has been nagging me since April to update. Many emails. I finally said it's impossible until I get the new card, not even due for months. 

I also said I was thinking of discontinuing membership if they didn't stop harassing me. Whereupon they thanked me for my message and said that in accordance with my query, here was the date of my membership expiration!  Bring on the clowns.

The people actually doing the work of the org.  are wonderful, and the IT people are making them look aggressive and not very bright. 

Remember the missing check to the food pantry! It finally came back. Addressed to the same address as always, now with a big sticker applied by some bright spark in Trenton to say undeliverable, inadequate address. Oh well, at least it wasn't cashed.

Another concern, because of not driving for a few days, was whether my car would start. I tested it after the rain cooled the air a bit. It started, yay. With this car, not being driven much, it's been an issue.

And here's this morning, before the heat comes rushing back again 

Lovely Stella d'oro day lilies. Whoever developed this variety was no businessman. I bought one, thirty plus years ago, whose divisions have brightened two developments, numerous private gardens and a median strip in Trenton. Not much return to the horticulturist, huge ROI to the buyer.

I'm glad you enjoyed the animal tales, more some other  time. Yes, there were moments of excitement, usually from the humans, rarely the animals.  Client management is a big part of a petcare enterprise. Sometimes people would ask about how to start this kind of business because they got along better with animals than people. I had to explain that without people skills,  there's no business! Eighty per cent of the agita comes from the humans.

Happy day, everyone, here's hoping for minimal agita for you today.

Heat, hibiscus, reading and whistling

Here's where we are today

Out early to water plants and pick flowers, then another day inside, reading, stitching, maybe knitting, whistling. Also prepping Misfits food this afternoon.

I noticed lights and decorations at my neighbors' houses and wondered what Indian festival was up. Turned out to be Lord Krishna's birthday, so I shot off greetings to Indian friends, which tickled them a lot. See the greeting below, like that, which means Happy Lord Krishna's birthday.

And, after some discussion yesterday chez Mary Moon about not being able to think what to cook, I just opened the cabinet door, found tuna and cannellini  beans, thought I wonder if these will make a nice lunch? 

Doused with malt vinegar, big bunch of cilantro leaves mixed in, beans mashed down,  it was really good. Then I looked up the ingredients for nutrition information, I like to know, and found

Turns out I'd "invented" a traditional dish. Like when I "invented" basil, mozzarella and tomato and discovered via Joanne and Mary, that it's a classic dish with a name, Caprese salad. Oh. 

I've done this in art, too, thinking I'd invented a technique only to find it's some classic approach for about a thousand years. My teachers were tactful about this!

I wonder if a lot of ideas like this were accidental, just some little Italian lady trudging about in the kitchen, mamma mia, another meal,  what to feed la familia, ah, let's try this. And a classic is born.

Speaking of ideas from other bloggers, I think Jeanie referred to September Song, one of my favorites, and it occurred to me to add it to my whistling repertoire. I know what I'm whistling, but I think listeners would need captions, to know Linden Lea, another fave, from Dead March in Saul. I bet this is why you get programs at concerts, too.

And here's another little known instrument

Take that, Rolling Stones!

I've found a writer I think I'm going to like, police procedurals set in the French countryside, the police officer main character also a good cook, tennis player, dog owner and lover of early music. Checks a lot of boxes. He gets into the Occitan language,  even, and Catalan  politics.  

I learned Old French as a language at the Uni, and had Chastelaine de Vergi in my old Kindle.  One day I'll get into the langue d'oc  and the langue d'oil (add another dot over the i), and be a great big bore about it. 

Anyway back to  Martin Walker,  he's written quite a few books. Great fall and winter reading to come.

I finished Fresh Water for Flowers, 

and liked it very much. There are many affairs of the heart, entanglements, a central huge sad mystery eventually even more sadly solved. It's long but you need to develop an understanding of the many characters and how they came to be who they are. Set in France, it's very much worth reading. France seems to be getting into my reading these days.

Meanwhile, I found a use for the replacement certificate from Breck for those totally failed snowdrops last year. I noticed how successful the neighbor's red hibiscus is, so I've ordered the bottom left you see here, not red, a lovely white.

Arriving in mid October, and I can't wait.  These get wide but not tall, so it won't get involved with the trees. 

Meanwhile this morning I picked zinnias for your morning bouquet.

Happy day, everyone, and let's hope any of today's accidents will be happy discoveries.

Hot,Textiles and Tea, and stitching

 Early evening

Note the "feels like"

Textiles and Tea yesterday featured a weaver who helped found a fiber arts center in North Carolina,  and teaches  there more than she makes her own work, so the pictures are sparse, but she's an engaging person, like most textile people I've met.

The Turkish coat in the illustration is her own next thing to make.

She loves shuttles and has written about them.  Makes me think about upgrading from my simple shuttles.

Back home I amused myself with this composition, showing the photographer wearing her hand stitched skirt, reflection, with a bit of the current stitching, bottom left,  and the knitting to date. The stitch markers indicate I've started to shape the thumb. This yarn has very good stitch definition, as you see from the ribbing.

And here's the current block in progress, stitched to the accompaniment of a Lady Audacitee podcast

To date, where we are with the applique blocks.

The current one still has the  needle and thread in there. It's starting to shape up. There's an earlier one I'm planning to add to at the top. In fact with this kind of work you can go back and add new ideas as your skills get sharper. My kind of thing, modular, open to new ideas. The blocks can be turned in different directions  depending on their neighbors, until I finally stitch them down.

The Haggard Hawks puzzle answer is

OPINION

which is why I said it was very suitable for this (opinionated) blog.

Happy day, everyone, off for lab work this morning, before it gets too hot. One bonus about the return of the heat is that it extends the time I'm able to wear my favorite robe, the one I made from a sheet, before it goes away till the next hot weather.  

Enjoy whatever the weather permits, and keep warm or cool, both hemispheres, this is an inclusive blog!

Speaking of Ukraine, which I have done almost daily since the invasion, here's a bit of resistance we can all get behind. I'm not reducing this one as I usually do, but enlarging it to make the point.

Robe reveal, arpilleras, Suits and hot enough

 Today this is where we are in weather terms

The red bit where you see Trenton, is where I'm typing from. One more day and we hope for better temps.

In good news, I've located and ordered the fridge I wanted, delivery expected early. August. This is from the other suppliers I've used. They'll take away the old fridge, and were happy to hear this is a ground floor delivery.

And the robe is almost ready to wear. I need to add the pockets and belt loops and inside ties, but here's where we are. It's so soft, very comfortable. 

And Tatters, wonderful textile teaching group, is offering a class on constructing Chilean arpilleras in October in New York, well worth your attention if you're local enough.

Arpillera means burlap or buckram, the sturdy base fabric on which this form of textile art is done.

This form follows on the ancient women's tradition of subversive communication via textiles under repressive regimes, in this case that of Pinochet. 

A lot of the early creators were survivors of the disappeared ,  spent much time in government offices trying desperately to trace their men, husbands and sons, who had been disappeared by the regime. It became a form of samizdat, underground messaging,  as well as a record of the daily life of the people under Pinochet.

And since I don't have Netflix, and I'm interested in seeing what's the excitement about the revival of Suits, I'm borrowing it in DVD from the library. It's old enough to be on DVD!

Happy day everyone, whatever the weather.

You know it's hot when

 When it's like this in the evening

And you need to bake something, being all out of bread-adjacent food. So you wait til it's below 90 to make walnut hot biscuits

And till evening to do urgent laundry, so as not to stress the grid. Very civic-minded.

My first week of not making has involved a lot of reading and an unexpected need to try endlessly to get into my rx online website. 

The link they sent me to reorder didn't work, so I went direct to the website, couldn't get in on any link at all. On phone, tablet or laptop. Dm"d them on Twitter, and they've been trying to get it fixed since Monday. 

IT can't trace the problem, and eas ready to blame me, usual procedure in my experience. So i did an end run and got Handsome Son to try on his system, different server, computer etc. 

He got an error message too, saying password and user didn't match their records. Further in than I could get. I've been using the same ones all along no problem.. Which message I forwarded to customer service, who said oh. And promised to continue checking.

If all else fails I'll get the rxs, there are several, locally, but that will cost $,  copays apply. The online service is covered by my premium, no copay..

So that has been an exciting(!) addition to the week. It took my mind off making. The shoulder is down to being a bit stiff, so much better. But I think I'll take Sandra's advice and rest it even after it seems okay. 

I suspect it's like when you get the flu snd start to feel better, rush to catch up then realize you're not actually well, just better than before. So I'll proceed with caution.

Anyway, Sinems and Manchin appear ready to vote as Democrats finally and get the big corporate tax/ environment bill passed. I wonder how Joe managed that. He's a wily old pol,  ever underestimate him.

And it seems DOJ is also working, charges finally brought against Breanna's murderers. I never doubted he was up for it,  but Garland has had to endure a barrage of criticism from people who don't believe anything's   happening unless they've been informed personally. Including some distinguished jurists. Looking at you, Tribe! 

Time for them to walk back their claims DOJ wasn't t going to nail Trump. I think it's coming.

Today is Misfits box day, complete, all being well, with cherries. I have been able to do nothing for Handsome Son 's birthday this year, on Monday. 

What with the heat and the doctor visits and the vision issues,and his work schedule taking all his evenings, it's been fraught.. 

So, as God is my witness I will at least make him a chocolate cherry cake anyway.  That's the plan. And make a birthday card. When your mother's an artist it's more fun to get a commercial one, really, but needs must. And there will be a nice check..

Happy day everyone, fight on, play on, live on, we've got this!

Hot, surprise. Textiles and Tea , glorious Bonnie

The weather is hot again, all week, indoor time

So glad of air conditioning, and food delivery. And despite the heat yesterday, climatic and political, my member of Congress was out there

Along with a lot of other MOCs arrested for protesting at the Supreme Court for reproductive rights. Why did they arrest peaceful protesters? . She's a great Rep.

Yesterday's Textiles and Tea featured a very nice guest who talked rapidly, nervously and inaudibly,  so i give you what I can. 

I could not find out the scale of her work, but she's clearly interested in three dimensional structures rather than color,  And she has a new book out. I'd like to track that down and learn more.

Because art will save us all, here's Milton Avery, the painter's painter, whose influence is seen in all the 20th century painters who became famous, very influenced by his color blocks, simplified shapes and vertiginous composition . 

Few people outside the art world know of him. I used to make visits to his work in the old Princeton Art Museum to pay my respects. I hope when the new buildibg finally opens,  I'll be able to continue.

And continuing on the theme of art saving us all

When I first started learning violin in my forties, my earliest lessons were with a teacher whose summer studio was an enclosed porch.  

As I struggled to learn the open strings and play a few notes, birds would join in. I had numerous teachers, human and avian!  Lovely collaboration.

My shoulder reacted to the cord making yesterday. I'm thinking of learning to make it with my left habd, just to rest the right side! I really would like to continue at least a bit. It cheered me up so much.  We'll see.

Happy day everyone, and tell us what's saving you?