A bonus Friday poem | 8.23.24

A bonus Friday poem | 8.23.24

This week I have not slept a lot! But! The reason is not insomnia… no instead I have watched every minute of the DNC each night. There were so many amazing speakers and last night Madam Vice President was the capstone of the event. (If you missed it, you can watch it here!)

However, one beautiful poetess really captured my attention. (Okay, Tim Walz and his family did too… don’t we all just adore Gus Walz?)

In case you missed the glorious Amanda Gorman… I am sharing her new poem, This Sacred Scene. You can find the text of it here… I have been reading it over and over. But hearing and watching her recite it is a real treat.

Have a great weekend everyone! See you all back here on Monday with my word update!

(almost) Mid-July RIFFing | 7.12.24

(almost) Mid-July RIFFing | 7.12.24

After a week of unbelievably steamy, hot weather which drove me back to my “indoor” desk… the past two mornings have been a welcome change. Cooler temps and the lack of humidity found me back on my porch… ahhh! (Never fear, that hot, oppressive weather is due back any second now!)

All week I have been contemplating what to post on Friday… with no inspiration at all! But!! I have not done a Friday RIFF in a while… so let’s get started!

Reflecting —

July is a very good month for me to do some reflecting! My word, time, continues to be an engaging word for me and a bit of review in my journal reminded me that there is a book I want to (re)read before the summer is over. I might have forgotten it had I not done some reflecting on where I have been! I did some honest reflection on my closet…  (those things I was keeping because I might someday be able to wear them again… ) well, I am happy to say that all those things are making their way to new homes! I pulled out my knitting last night and found comfort in the familiar rhythm of making one stitch after another. It was a pleasant way to pass the evening watching something on CreateTV with Steve.

Immersing —

Last December, I began a weekly practice with Margaret Renkl’s The Comfort of Crows. Each week, I read her essay and then I write down my thoughts about my backyard. This practice has been such a life altering thing for me. I feel “in” the season and have spent almost no time wishing for the next thing to arrive. And I am really loving the things I am realizing simply by paying attention to my ‘backyard world’. Steve is not a reader, but he has loved hearing essays and our discussions about them has been equally fun! (I guess we are officially old as birding is THE THING in our lives! LOL) I was more than a little bit excited when I saw that Margaret has me covered for next year as well!

(epic) Failure —

As in the MSM’s “Pundit’s” failure in coverage of President Biden. (I’d also add in here the elected White Men and White Women who have also showed their hand as well!) If you are wondering what I am talking about, just Google Brokered Conventions and see the results (cliffs notes: we lost every election where this happened!) When all this nonsense started, I had this niggling thought in my brain that what this was really all about was VP Harris… and I fear I am right.

and finally, because I don’t want to end this on that low note…

Feast —

Today I am baking something with some amazing Michigan blueberries! (Yes, I think Michigan blueberries are THE best!) and I put the ice cream maker back in the freezer to make a second batch of peach ice cream! (the first batch was amazing!) So there will be some summer feasting going on here! And now I am going to start the dough recipe that Carole shared a few weeks ago! Pizza happy hour FTW!

That’s all from me, have a great weekend and I will see you back here on Monday!

 

Things I learned this week | 2.9.24

Things I learned this week | 2.9.24

Happy Friday!

Yes, February is moving on… rather rapidly! (too rapidly?) I am thinking that our little run of gloriously sunny days might be the reason why… because the normal sunless winter we usually get… well, those days just seem to drag, don’t they?

But this week was for learning… and learn I did! So let’s get started!

I had no clue that I really needed a Fast Car duet coupled with a rousing rendition of Both Sides Now… every. single. day. The most delicious ear worms. Who knew that songs from what feels like a lifetime ago, suddenly have new life in my head!

I had forgotten how much I enjoyed Foyle’s War… I needed a Seaming Companion this week and Christopher Foyle and dear Sam were just the ticket! Two episodes “done” and I have just two seams to go on my sweater! The seaming will end soon (today maybe) but I think that I will be spending a bit more time with the Foyle Crew!

And speaking of seaming… I had forgotten how magical mattress stitching is! Although sleeve caps remain one heck of a challenge! They are the Main Culprit for my Seaming Angst. But down the “straightaway” … well, it might be the most fun of knitting!

In the ongoing search for “Horse Books” for Genevieve, I discovered Elaine Heney! (and there are LOTS of books by her to grow Vivi’s library!)

And there you have the things I learned this week… Happy Friday, Everyone! See you all back here on Monday!

 

(almost) Mid-July RIFFing | 7.12.24

January… or April… a RIFF | 1.26.24

It has been a topsy-turvy week here… we went from having temps in the teens on Sunday… to this morning an unbelievable 63°F. It smells like spring outside… and the birds must be thinking so as well because there was so much singing as Sherman and I trekked out this morning. The best thing might have been CLEAR SKIES!!! Those clear skies afforded me a glance at a Wolf Moon that was slowly setting.

So with a topsy-turvy week, my thoughts are sort of topsy-turvy as well… but an every once in a while you just need a good Friday brain dump, right?

Wolf Moon in pink skies…

Re-thinking —

This week Bonny posted about The Barbie Movie… which I have not seen. Then Kym sent some more encouragement my way about how I just might enjoy it…  because it is fun! And then the icing on the cake came this week with the Oscar nominations… of course Ken was nominated… Which seems to me to highlight life for women… we do all the hard work, make all the things happen (and generally on time) and our reward is… no notice at all. So, this weekend I will be tucking in with my Great Cabled Sweater and watching The Barbie Movie with thoughts of solidarity for women everywhere.

Impetus (reignited) —

Speaking of that Great Cabled Sweater… well, I fanned the flames on it a bit yesterday and cruised through the button holes and made a LARGE dent in the shawl collar… I have a few repeats of increases and then a tiny bit of straight knitting before arriving at the Short Rows Portion of the collar. I am thinking the other band will go much quicker as I won’t have to make button holes… and I am thinking that The Great Seaming will happen in early February!

(a mighty) FINE (sewer) —

One of you asked earlier this week what I was going to do with my “pages” when I am finished sewing them. When I went to pull fabrics for this 100-day journey… I stumbled across all sorts of bits of fabrics from things I had sewn for Heidi’s kids… things that no longer fit (as happens with growing children) and I thought that putting them all together for her in a sort of a memory book would be special to her. Page one turned out so well… and page two is looking mighty fine as well (of course, I am biased) but I think it fits for Heidi’s “farm!” I am having so much fun with this project… most especially the timeframe… 15 minutes a day. It is a wonder what you can accomplish in just 15 minutes.

Days One and Two… and I think you can see my faint pencil lines of where I am heading later today…

Finding (answers) —

There has been a mystery that has puzzled me for a few months now… at first I thought it was a “one off” and the toilet paper scoring machine was having a moment. But then the next package had more of the same strange scoring on the TP… waves… ripples… not straight. (And honestly, I thought it was because we bought our TP at the Costco… so I thought they might be getting the “imperfect” lots.) But no… that is not the case at all! Leave it to Slate to uncover the toilet paper perforation mystery!


And there you have it… I am itching to get back outside in this unbelievable January April weather! See you all back here on Monday!

(almost) Mid-July RIFFing | 7.12.24

Last RIFF of Summer | 9.8.23

I had other plans for today post but life got in the way yesterday… bigly.

A small-ish issue with Sherman required some extra attention yesterday morning and a rather lengthy vet visit yesterday afternoon. But we have some new meds to try and I am hoping he is feeling better soon!

My plans for reacquainting myself with my painting spot did not happen … and it might not happen this morning either. I will have to see how Sherman is doing today… but it is absolutely on my radar!

I am falling back on the simplicity of a bit of a Friday RIFF… so let’s get started!

Re-adjusting —

Kym shared some links this week that I had been contemplating one of them until I saw this fun little knit from Leila Raven and I realized that this is exactly what I need.. fun, stripe-y, and I have the yarn in my stash! This is the motivation I need to finish my Pressed Flower wrap because I want to knit this next!

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A post shared by Leila Raven (@leila_raven)

Investigating —

This week I saw a *new-to-me* butterfly in my back yard, Google told me it was a Great Spangled Fritillary… a member of the Nymphalidae family of butterflies. It was so fun watching it hang around for all of Wednesday afternoon. A lovely addition to the plethora of Monarch’s that are in love with my butterfly bush this year!

Hello, Lovely!

Fresh (air) Poetry —

You Are Here… Yes, yes Ada Limón, The Library of Congress, and National Parks are getting their Poetry ON! I discovered it on that site formerly known as Twitter this week and yes… I am super excited for the anthology of poems! (Especially since poetry has been in the spotlight this week… and if you are a member of the Armed Services who writes, reads, or recites poetry… well done you!) I will be reading some poetry this weekend… it is the best sanity-saving thing I do!

Finally —

Today I am going to hope that Sherman has a good day and I can spend some time refreshing my painting spot. But… I am not beating myself up if I don’t because outside of that my week has been very productive. My *computer desk* has been decluttered and I have used it! My calendar got some “face time” with me… and that felt so good! We even had a bit of rain yesterday… not enough, but some is better than none.

That is it for me this week! I will see you all back here next week. Have a great weekend everyone!

 

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