Aqua fitness was fun last night but the pool water was ice cold, colder than Lake Michigan according to KW, but once we started jumping around it was bearable. There were probably 40 of us in the pool. The instructor was in the pool too so all the splashing of water and chat of the surrounding people made it hard to know what to do but we swung our arms and flung our legs this way and that and by the time a half hour had passed KW and I waded out. I could tell my calves weren't going to be happy and, boy howdy, I was right. Crawling out of bed this morning was a treat but I did my daily yoga and stretched out those complaining muscles and feel fine now. Next week will be better.
On my way home from the pool I passed our pitiful raspberry canes and found this lone ripe one that I picked to take to Durwood today.
I'm sure by now you've gotten the hint that I had to move Durwood into a nursing home ("Baba lives at the nurse house," says OJ) at the beginning of the month. His needs have surpassed my ability to take care of him and keep him safe. Sad but true. DD noticed that there's a birdfeeder outside his window so I took some seed with me on Sunday and within 15 minutes we'd attracted this squirrel. It didn't eat all the seed so, so far so good, and I dug out another hummingbird feeder to take the next time I go, along with a spare crook. It's a nice place, barely a mile from home, and I'm in charge of doing his laundry and making sure that his little bottles of gin stay filled. His doc wrote him an Rx for a daily martini and they're very good about delivering it around 4 PM along with a small glass of ice--and his pills. I'm slowly getting used to my new normal.
Speaking of hummingbirds look what sat long enough for a photo this morning. Gotcha.
This afternoon while doing laundry I sewed. I'm calling this the Two Brown Linens Shirt no. 1 from 100 Acts of Sewing. One of these days I'll find a length of fabric in the stash big enough to make the front and the back the same. Or maybe I'll decide to lay two different fabrics on top of one another and have them be side by side instead of front and back... Hmm.
Last night as I closed the shades I glanced at the sky and saw the crescent moon so even though I was staggering I was so tired I grabbed the camera and went out to take its picture. You'd think my zodiac sign was Cancer, aka Moon Child, instead of Virgo, which I suspect means persnickety or pain in the arse.
I didn't write the prompt last night. I fell asleep in the couch before 9 o'clock and as soon as I'd taken the moon picture I lay down and that was that. Maybe tonight I'll manage to pick up my pencil.
--Barbara
I got a call from T & BD this morning saying that they were in Door County picking sweet Bing cherries and did I want some. They said that the trees were so full that they could stand in one place and pick a pail full barely moving their feet. I said I'd like a few. Well, they come with a huge bag of cherries and since they aren't pie cherries I didn't think I'd be able to eat them all before they went bad so they left me a bowlful. I think Durwood and I can make these beauties disappear.
DD and I were sitting at the table this morning when I glanced out to see a hummingbird at the nectar feeder. Do you think I could get the camera up and running in time? Of course not, but she saw it too so it counts.
I picked the first two strawberry tomatoes this morning and DD took them to Durwood. He always gets the first few tomatoes all to himself. Later on when the harvest is bigger I'll lay claim to a few of them but he loves them so he gets the first ones and doesn't have to share.
In the afternoon I knitted the heel flap of the pink & gray anklet and turned the heel so the next thing to be done is pick up the gusset stitches and then start decreasing down to the stitches needed for the foot. I also worked a couple rows on the back of the Montparnasse cardi but it doesn't look all that different so you're spared a photo.
DS, DIL1, LC and OJ took DD and I out for lunch today. We went to Kroll's which is a local favorite for juicy hamburgers topped with a pat of butter and served on a hard roll. We all ordered battered and deep fried cheese curds too. Nothing like a bit of fat, cheese, and fat for lunch. Mm, I can feel my arteries hardening even as we speak. I do believe I will try to hover over the scale come Monday morning weigh in time. Or maybe I'll just draw a line through the past couple weeks and ease my way back on track once I get used to my new lifestyle.
July 14--Maya Civilization, Bonampak Site, Mexico, Dressing Ceremony of High Priest. He started naked, his brown skin shiny with scented oils. One by one attendants brought the trappings of his position, his ceremonial robes. As they lowered the feather mantle to his shoulders he thought of all the birds that gave their lives to make it. "Oh, Great Mother," he said, beginning the ritual, "we are grateful for your generosity..."
Once again that's as far as I got before sleep overtook me. DD goes home tomorrow, too soon, but I'm so glad that she came. I needed to see her and she needed to see both me and Durwood. Tough times all around.
--Barbara
I walked into the kitchen about an hour ago and gaped at the color of the light outside so I grabbed my camera and scampered out the front door to find the sunset. There it was hiding behind the neighbor's house but I managed to capture a bit of it before it faded.
Last night I finished the right front of the Montparnasse Eco Cardi, got it soaked, spun most of the water out, and pinned it to blocking squares to dry.
Then I got out the red Eco yarn and cast on the back. That piece starts with a single stitch, then you cast on a few stitches at the beginning of each row until you have the number your size calls for. Now that it's as wide as it needs to be the decreasing toward the neck begins on the next row. Woohoo, downhill!
While DD visited with Durwood I sat and got the "even it up" anklet started and most of the cuff knitted. I'm kind of disappointed that the gray and yellow keep meeting up as does the pink and pinkish. I have a couple more rounds of cuff to knit and then it's on to the heel. Another Eye of Partridge heel, I think.
Today DD is 37 years old (how can that be?) so yesterday I baked a Wacky Cocoa Cake from a recipe in an ancient Hershey's Cocoa cookbook I got, probably in the late 60s. Anyway, you make the cake with oil, baking soda, and vinegar instead of butter and eggs. I stirred up some powdered sugar glaze but once again put in too much milk so it ran right off the cake to pool on the cake plate. One of these days I'll make glaze that sticks. Today was NOT that day.
July 13--Edgar Degas, Jockeys on Horseback Before Distant Hills. They braided themselves together like bright silk and brown hemp fibers. The brightly clad riders on the mostly brown horses milled around on top of the rise across the valley from the small collection of buildings that were the village of St. Etienne. Old men sat in the shade and debated which horse had better breeding, which was fastest, and which jockey had the courage and stamina to bring a winner back to the valley.
I thought Degas only painted ballerinas. This was a nice surprise. DD arrived this morning for a short visit. It's great to have her here even for a couple days.
--Barbara
DD is coming for a weekend visit so I wanted to make a couple things that she likes. She loves Olive & Nut spread (I do too) and I already had the cream cheese, pecans, mayo, and olives so I toasted the nuts and softened the cream cheese. She also loves Pimento Cheese, or maybe just I do, anyway I went to Walmart for cheese and a jar of pimentos to make that. Then I was surfing memories on Facebook (don't know why) and recipes for fruit and veg infused waters popped up so I grabbed some lemons, limes, and a cucumber at the store, picked some mint from the garden, took out a couple green tea bags, and got those steeping. I'll taste them tomorrow and report.
The other day I got the Montparnasse Eco Cardi sleeve and left front soaking in wool wash so today I sent them through the spin cycle in the washer and pinned them out into shape to dry. It's so much easier to seam up sweater parts when they're blocked, plus they fit together better.
On Friday night at Goodwill I found three more pairs of the light cotton lounge pants Durwood likes to wear and was quick to sew a strip of binding--onto the left pocket (which is the wrong pocket) instead of the right, that's the pocket he keeps his handkerchief in. So this afternoon I sewed binding onto the right pocket so he can find the pocket when he's sitting down. He's lost feeling in his fingertips because of a compressed disk in his neck so stiffening the edge makes it easier to feel. It's not a fashion statement but both of us seem to be leaning more toward comfort and convenience over style in our modes of attire.
More daisies are starting to bloom and the ants seems to be leaving them alone. I don't know what drew so many of them to that one flower but I'm glad they found something else to interest them.
Tonight was the caregivers support group at the ADRC and when I was driving downtown to the meeting I saw three big cranes towering over the buildings along the river so I kept going a couple blocks to find an opening where I saw this big freighter unloading something at a warehouse on the other side of the river. This is one reason why I like living here. Green Bay is an international shipping port so ships from all over the world come down the river in the center of the city and I get to look at them sometimes. I feel like the ships bring the world to my little corner of Wisconsin and blaze a trail that I could potentially explore. It's like maps. I look at maps and see people living there and new experiences instead of lines and dots on paper. I'm sure that there are people who'd rather that the ships didn't come right into the middle of town, wish that they'd stop out near the mouth of the river so commerce didn't interrupt their view but I like it. I like that there's sculpture and condos and cool looking apartments along the river trail and warehouses and coal piles and ships all mixed together. It's interesting and sometimes messy and always lively.
July 10--French, 18th Century, Louis XV Shoe. Isaac picked up the shoe. It was gold brocade with a big fancy buckle on the instep and a one-inch heel. He took a closer look and thought it might be handmade.
On the line below that there's an inch long pencil squiggle that is all that I wrote in the hour between the last word up there and turning out the light. I was tired. Even better, I slept until 6:15 this morning even though I woke up at 4:00 to go potty. Maybe I'm getting the hang of this sleeping thing again. I hope so. Fingers crossed.
--Barbara
My writer friend, Lala, stopped this morning on her way back to Milwaukee from visiting her mom Up Nort' and look at what we found when I showed her my garden. Some of the "thanks for the tomato cages" tomatoes are starting to turn red. I can't decide whether to tell/show Durwood or just wait until they're ready and surprise him with them. It won't be long now.
I finished the map & suiting Shirt no. 1 this afternoon. This neck opening is a bit big too so I'll have to do a little redrawing on the pattern for next time. Maybe I'll just sew an extra inch on each side tomorrow... I should probably pin it first before sewing. Yeah, that's a good idea. I like it, though. The map fabric is meant to be lining and the back is gray polyester suiting. Sewing from stash can be interesting.
For supper tonight I sliced up the shiitake mushroom caps from Saturday's farmer's market, sauteed them with some diced onion, then I cut up the last half of the giant, Dolly Parton-esque chicken breast I baked last week (it was over a pound, that's one big breast), and warmed it all together while the carrots steamed. Yum. Although it struck me as rather cruel to eat cooked chicken off a plate with a chicken pattern on it. Ah well, I've always known that I have a strong streak of Philistine in me...
On Sunday LC and I tried to make pinwheel cookies with a roll of sugar cookie dough from the dairy case. We tinted half of it purple which was a lot of fun to mix and watch the colors blend, then we rolled and patted the two parts, laid one on top of the other, rolled it up, rolled the roll in sprinkles, then wrapped the too warm dough in freezer paper and put it into the freezer to firm up while we had lunch. I sliced the dough and baked it. We agreed that some of them looked kind of pinwheel-like but they tasted pretty good so we counted it a success. The crunchy edges are especially tasty.
July 9--Erastus Salisbury Field, The Garden of Eden. It was the birds that woke them. High in the trees above the cottage a trio of macaws squabbled and screeched. Adam groaned and threw his forearm up over his eyes. "Why can't doves live there?" he said. "Doves coo, they're soothing." Eve rolled toward him in the gray dawn light and laid her head on his shoulder. "How about I make us some waffles?" she said. "Fry up a macaw or two and you've got a deal," said Adam. She snorted, patted his chest, and rolled out of bed. "Sorry, no fried macaw today. I'll fry up some sliced apples with sugar and cinnamon instead. You like apples." She headed to the kitchen and the birds' squawking seemed to fill the room.
Hahaha, apples for Adam's waffles. Ironic, don't you think? No fried macaw today. Sorry, dude. Man, it's hot and humid again. I'm beginning to wonder if there isn't a way to bribe Mother Nature to slip a little cooler and drier in one of these days. DD's coming for the weekend on Friday and I'm hoping it'll cool off a bit for her. Fingers crossed. My pee pee alarm woke me at 4:30 again today. That's getting real old. I'm about ready to hit the hay.
--Barbara
Aqua fitness was fun last night but the pool water was ice cold, colder than Lake Michigan according to KW, but once we started jumping around it was bearable. There were probably 40 of us in the pool. The instructor was in the pool too so all the splashing of water and chat of the surrounding people made it hard to know what to do but we swung our arms and flung our legs this way and that and by the time a half hour had passed KW and I waded out. I could tell my calves weren't going to be happy and, boy howdy, I was right. Crawling out of bed this morning was a treat but I did my daily yoga and stretched out those complaining muscles and feel fine now. Next week will be better.
I'm sure by now you've gotten the hint that I had to move Durwood into a nursing home ("Baba lives at the nurse house," says OJ) at the beginning of the month. His needs have surpassed my ability to take care of him and keep him safe. Sad but true. DD noticed that there's a birdfeeder outside his window so I took some seed with me on Sunday and within 15 minutes we'd attracted this squirrel. It didn't eat all the seed so, so far so good, and I dug out another hummingbird feeder to take the next time I go, along with a spare crook. It's a nice place, barely a mile from home, and I'm in charge of doing his laundry and making sure that his little bottles of gin stay filled. His doc wrote him an Rx for a daily martini and they're very good about delivering it around 4 PM along with a small glass of ice--and his pills. I'm slowly getting used to my new normal.
This afternoon while doing laundry I sewed. I'm calling this the Two Brown Linens Shirt no. 1 from 100 Acts of Sewing. One of these days I'll find a length of fabric in the stash big enough to make the front and the back the same. Or maybe I'll decide to lay two different fabrics on top of one another and have them be side by side instead of front and back... Hmm.
