Lyft maiden voyage, art in the gallery

Monday the house cleaners were scheduled so I booked a Lyft ride to the library, just to get the hang of it. Nice driver Mamadou showed up bang on time, and we had a quiet ride. He was listening to a radio program on public radio, all good!

This will work. I managed to navigate the app, update my payment and from now on I won't book ahead, just when I need the ride. Like going home today. I can try Uber too, and compare prices. So I Lyfted home again, prompt pickup.  Next rides I'll try Uber to compare prices.

The exhibit in the gallery is Liz Aubrey,  an artist I probably ought to have heard of but oh well. Evidently well known around Trenton. I included the qr code for more info. Please let me know if it works for you. I tested it using my phone to scan tablet image and it worked for me.

I was a little underwhelmed but did make a few pictures for you.  You may love her and follow whatever she has online.

The two upper are small acrylic works, and the last two are tiny, mixed media on coffee filters.  I don't know anyone who uses coffee filters for their purpose. I've dyed and woven and spun and knitted them.   And here's a painter using them as a canvas.

Her acrylics are very American in feeling, and the coffee filter paintings are oddly European in affect. 

Meanwhile winter painting is on the library windows 

Happy day everyone, I hope there's a lift in your day, too.

I got another lift when I got home and found my cleaning family had hung gingerbread stars here and there, in spaces where I'd had art but never removed the hangers.

 So they've started my decorating 

And freecycle continues to supply comic relief

Frozen ponds, goalies and holly

Sunday's walk to the pond yielded the first freeze of the year, the pond iced over, resting 

And I remembered scissors so I was able to cut a couple of holly branches, the only greens I can bring in 

After I'd spotted the concrete rabbit, now very hard of hearing, trying out for goalie.

With a cheering or jeering section squirrel criticizing his form 

From a safe distance. The squirrels are manic just now, leaping around, mating rapidly between scarfing berries and seeds, nature in action.

Now that I've exhausted the Ruth Galloways currently available, I've retreated to Tudor times and Alison Weir, with Jane Seymour.

This is not as far fetched as it seems, my people still fighting the Reformation. Still loudly reminding everyone that those cathedrals were ours, and we took care of them without GoFundMes. 

I perfectly understand the mentality of people still arguing the outcome of the Civil War.

Happy day everyone, remember to take your hobbyhorse out for a trot around the paddock. What's your ride or die hill to die on, to scramble a couple of metaphors?

Ted and Big Ursy have a few of them 

Still my flag, a whole class of hobbyhorse.

 

Not quite a murmuration

 Walking today was easier, temperature up to the 40s, and the trees were decorated with starlings, who rose up as I passed then settled back.

It's the time of year when flocks arrive, every tree branch with its occupants, all shouting, when they're not dive bombing the neighbor's feeder. See that lovely sky? We get a lot of dappled skies.

We have flocks of juncoes, too, who arrive in November and leave in spring, to summer elsewhere. Maybe they like cold, but not too cold, weather.

It's also the season where people start bringing cut trees and greens home to decorate for the holidays, and I have to proceed with caution. I'm deathly allergic to live cut greens. 

Not if they're planted, but that moment when cut branches start to smell wonderful is when my throat seizes up, I gasp for air, and lose my voice so I can't explain what's wrong! 

I used to work in a women's nonprofit, where the volunteers would decorate the buildings every year. They agreed to keep the doors leading to the area of my office closed -- and a sign saying no greens in here! -- but even so I'd lose my voice and have to keep getting outside to try and recover.

It was the time of year where I had to speak officially at many parties and end of year events, not a good time to be croaking at best.  Nowadays I suppose I'd have an EpiPen, but I don't think they were much known then, the main advice being to avoid the irritant or have shots six months before you knew about it.

All the years growing up I was very sick over Christmas, which my mother thought was bronchitis. Nobody ever caught the connection until, in our married house, I had the porch glassed in and set the tree out there in view of the street, for everyone to enjoy, front door closed.

That was the first Christmas I was well, and we realized what was up. After that I knew how to stay well over the season and it was a big improvement. It involves very brief visits to greens-infested buildings and some people who don't get it, oh well.

This week is also the return of the ants. A little column of them showed up in the living room. I suppose the cold snap has made them look for warmth. Not willing to get the $$$ Exterminator back in December, I checked out ant repellents. 

Some highly rated indoor-safe $$ sprays and traps show their active ingredient is -- borax plus sweetener. Well, I don't need expensive methods, so I reverted to my old mixture, before we found the ants nest under the siding,  that is. That needed John the Exterminator. 

So here's a container of borax mixed with confectioners sugar.

There's another one where I saw other ants. If these work, fine. I'll soon know when casualties appear. I already keep food in screw top glass jars or in the freezer. Sweep allll the time, all that.

Up to now Boud 0, ants 0. I'll keep you informed on the score.

Happy day everyone, what a cheery holiday post, all about deadly greens and creepy ants. Off to read now, maybe the last Ruth Galloway I haven't read.

It's about the pandemic. Another cheerful topic.

Winter is icumen in

 

This was a layered up walking day, but I still only went about 15 minutes. It takes energy to walk in the cold, but I needed to get out there even for a while.

So Monday the cleaners come and I have a ride service set up, to the library, where there's a new exhibit. 

I can walk from there to the PO.  So I plan to finish the second glove and I hope a lanyard, but at least gloves and socks, will be ready to mail out.  Then I'll set up a ride home one way or another.

I'm figuring out the strategy of getting errands accomplished using a mix of ride services and friends' help. You can organize more than one stop with ride service, as long as they're brief. Like dropping off items at the food pantry. This will work. I want to ask only infrequently for friends' help so as not to wear out my welcome. Everyone's very generous now, but that could wear a bit if it's overused.  

 There's a Marlow audiobook newly uploaded to YouTube to accompany my weaving and knitting, great timing, Murder on the Marlow Belle.  

It's a boat, small occupancy, so it provides a limited number of suspects and location, in true classic crime fiction tradition. Amazing how many shady characters you can find in a small region. They never run out.

Happy day everyone, shady or not. I suspect everyone. I suspect no one. 

 

Lanyards and Misfits

I'm about two thirds through the bandwoven lanyard to go with the anti-ICE whistle.  

You see here how I've improvised a way to advance the warp and keep it from unrolling as I work my way up. I've rolled and tied it on a handy shuttle, the ends of which I slide through loops on my backstrap (in fact bathrobe) belt, to keep it taut. 

You have to do this to be able to  reach the heddle as the work lengthens, while still keeping tension on the warp threads. 

And Misfits, it's Thursday as of this writing.

Rameer, with a seasonal hat and a cheery grin and wave as always 

And here's the haul. Canned goods for the food pantry, rainbow carrots to steam, a surprise since I expected the regular, Tony's Chocolonely, to share with the soup-bringing neighbor, broccoli because it's been a while, feta cheese to sprinkle over steamed broccoli.

Bananas because I can, beautiful brown free range eggs which I now have a lot of, not realizing I'd ordered them again, plenty of coffee because I got to the last grain yesterday and that wasn't a good thing, pure cane sugar, fair trade, to beat into yogurt with banana slices and for other purposes, as they say in Congress.  Aren't those apples beautiful? One-a-day morning break. 

As usual it's hard to know why these foods are discounted, because they look fine to me.

I'm getting used to seeing a space outside the door, no longer thinking my car's been swiped. The refund for the auto insurance arrived, very welcome. 

Gary came to collect his begonia and it's looking good. I suggested a bigger pot, because it's really outgrowing the one it's in, and he may or may not do it. Then a few minutes later came dashing back in search of car keys he dropped somewhere, but not here 

Happy day everyone, sometimes it's good when there's nothing there, car, begonia, whatev,  you know. This doesn't apply to car keys.

Real mail, soup and rides

 Today's mail brought a lovely postcard artwork.

which I'll treasure. Thank you M. I studied the stitching for a long time before setting it on the mantelpiece, where I can see it.

And there was a visit of a neighbor with  soup to share, very good too. We had a good chat about all kinds of things from soup to transgender children to selling cars to wills to Gary's sister.  And she offered rides whenever, just ask.

Meanwhile I have housecleaners coming next Monday, so I'd booked a Lyft to the library, to get into practice for ride booking. Maybe I can get a ride home another way. Anyway I'm getting the hang of it.  This will work. 

Happy day everyone, it's good to be a passenger sometimes.

Yes2next, Knitting Group, Textiles and Tea,

Heavy rain Tuesday, so instead of outdoor walking, I did an interesting 20 minute yes2next walking video

April, the trainer, daughter of 84 year old Aiko, seated there, is very good on warm-up and cool down, and reminders about a sip of water now and then.  Much better than when I do it without their instruction.

Two offers to ride to the  Tuesday knitting group, it's like a polite bidding war!  

Despite pouring rain, the regular members showed up. With all kinds of work in progress.

The two pictured above are hand spun yarn created by the knitter, who has resolved to use her stash of hand spun before buying any more yarn. 

Note the Icord edging 

Wearing one sweater while knitting another for her niece.

Talk ranged over teaching writing, blogging, freelancing,  teaching music, transgender relatives, giving away art -- invitation extended to group to come here and pick -- dermatology, pet care, houseplant care, the urge to make, the pandemic, the way we washed and sterilized everything, and more. It was a lot funnier than it reads.

Then at the close of the meeting, the member who'd driven me arranged with another to drive me next week! I felt like a parcel, but they're so determined to keep me going, it's lovely.

Home to a pot of tea, with honey toast and Textiles and Tea with 

Rebecca studied tapestry with the iconic Archie Brennan, and practiced it before moving into transparent weaving, where you can literally see through the work, which casts shadows onto the wall behind.

She also incorporates beads into freestanding weavings, and uses the transparency of the glass as part of the work. She's written a book which will be out next year, currently the only one which gathers the knowledge and skills of transparency weaving in one place. 

See the Anni Albers quotation from her upcoming book. Albers pioneered many weaving approaches and patterns in her Bauhaus and Black Mountain College days. What she says here is so true. In the making comes the shape and meaning of the work.

Happy day, everyone. Leap, and the net will appear! That's my policy anyway. It's worked up to now.