Finally Fall

Fall is one of my favorite times of year......but this year it seems to have come late.  Just two days ago, we were sweltering in the heat.
Then yesterday  it all changed.


I love to pick hydrangeas, put them in vases with no water, and let them dry on their own.
Some people hang them up to dry, but this always works for me.

Dale and I took a walk through the pumpkin patch, where L was driving tractor, helping her brother gather up all the pumpkins.

I wish I looked that good in pink rubber boots.

I had an idea to overdye something that I had already woven.   Since I had dyed the weft before I wove it, you could say this is "double dyed".

Cotton and Bamboo.

My friend for Georgia was up for her yearly visit.
As usual, it went by too fast.
We always have so much fun together.

We decided to tackle a project that I had been thinking of.  The coat area inside my back door has always been atrocious.

We took down that awful old shelf, we found the old front door of the house up in the barn, we hauled it down, washed it, pulled out nails and staples, and made it into a new coat rack.
The hooks are black, and it is much sturdier than what was there.

 Then we did a little organizing...... and I think it is a vast improvement.

She bought me the fluted pans to make taco shells with, so we tested them out with a shrimp taco salad.
Delicious!!

It's been a busy week, not much weaving or sewing got done, but we had a great time.
I thoroughly enjoyed having my old friend here, but now I'm exhausted.

So I will leave you with this picture of a CAT....no, not just any cat.........Sydney Susan, who really doesn't get the purpose of the "ball game/scratching pad".
That's ok, Syd.

Beware: False Friends

My oldest friend is in very poor health, and I worry about her.  She spends winters in Florida and summer in northeast NY.  She's the friend that I can pick up the phone and tell pretty much anything, and she will listen, and give me honest feedback.  Even if I don't like it.
We've been friends since about the age of 5. She insists I threatened her with a laundry pin way back then,  I say she is just trying to get attention.  It's ongoing.
We've grown apart in recent years, our interests and our lives have changed.

We don't always agree, but I never doubt her friendship.  Not ever.

My next longest friendship, is with my friend in Georgia.   She left northeast NY about 30 years ago, and has lived in the south ever since.  We are polar opposites on politics, and a host of other things.
But I know I would only have to call her, and she would be there for me, in any way that I needed, as fast as she could be.  No matter our differences, I never doubt her friendship.  Not ever.

Then there's L, who has worked here with me for the last 7 years, and has become  the friend I spend most of the time with, and the one who knows me best.  Nothing like day after day working and weaving together, and sometimes having fun doing other things, to find oneself completely exposed.
She knows what I am thinking before I say it, and she anticipates my craziness.
And she's helped me through the toughest time in my life, three brain surgeries, and a host of headaches.  She's there for me, and I never doubt her friendship, even when she's grumpy. (sorry L).
Not ever.

That's pretty good, I think, and I am grateful for my friends.  There are others, not as close, that I don't talk to as often.  But they are friends still, and dear to me.  We connect when we can, and it's always a good thing.  They are bright lights in my life.



But I have learned that it is good to make an honest appraisal of people who say they are your friends,  who clearly have other agendas, usually self absorbed.
It brings back that time in my life, when I evicted my alcoholic ex husband, for the very last time.
Sick of being told that it was my fault, that everything was, in fact, my fault.  Tired of the mental toll, the drama, and the feeling of always being on the precipice of falling.

So when so called friends make me feel that way, it is time to take stock.

One good friend spent the day with L and I recently, and I showed her my dyeing routine, and she dyed some of her own.

She was meticulous, far more so than me......

The end result was lovely.
I wonder if I've helped to create another passion here.

I have had a couple of tough months with the headaches returning to their amped up state.  Waking up with a smasher is the worst thing, or certainly feels like it.
I have to feed and medicate the critter crew, make some coffee, put some heat on my neck, and wait it out.  If it's really bad, I eat something so I can take Advil.  That doesn't get rid of it, but it sometimes takes the edge off it, and when you are totally miserable, that's a blessing.

I don't often dwell on it, but to be truthful, there are those days, when I do.  I think about how my life changed 6 years ago, when my head connected with that rock.
They say that it only takes a second, for everything to be different.   That's the truth, but it took me a while longer to acknowledge and then accept that said "second" had actually occurred.

I love my life, and in most aspects I am content with it, but then I am so used to having a headache, every day, that I no longer can tell you what it feels like not to have it.
Most days, I pay no attention to it.  I know that sounds strange, but if you had any kind of ailment on your body, for days, weeks, months, years, you would eventually integrate it into your life.  You would have no choice.  And I have had no choice, so I have made it a part of mine.
And like I said, I am blessed that for the most part I function and do not let it rule my days.

But then, there are the times, when I give in.   Too much, too intense, too awful.  I don't belabor it, I just cave......I do the things I know will help, and I give the rest to a power greater than myself.   And I wait it out.

But I do occasionally wonder why...and lately I have wondered why the last two months have been so unpleasant.  I try to be open to all kinds of things that might affect my fused neck, and therefore my headaches.
One thing is the position of my neck when I sew.......and I have been sewing a lot.

So yesterday I twitched my sewing room around, and put my sewing machine on a table that will allow me to raise it, and perhaps, put my neck at a different angle.  It is a fact, that anything that involves a sustained forward bend of my neck, is a sure bet for more pain.

So we shall see how this works out.


On other fronts, I have long wanted to try some tea dyeing of a warp.  So I did.  Bought boxes of tea bags at the dollar store, put them in a mesh bag, and did my thing.

It's ring spun cotton, and I love the many nuances of shade.

It's on the loom and being threaded as I speak.

I love love love my new Compudobby......after finally getting it to work, I have totally enjoyed playing with it, changing drafts from one towel to the next, and creating this x's and o's one along the way.

Fall is here, thank goodness, so it's time for some vegetarian chili........this one I knocked out of the park..........totally in love with it.......too bad I don't write this stuff down.

And here I am, hair going white, wrinkly neck and all........but hey, I'm 70, and it hasn't been all that easy getting here.

Sometimes I'm hard on myself, but then sometimes I pat myself on the back for pure persistence.

Making the best of it, moving ahead one day at a time.

And there's that Bubba Lee, I still cannot believe that she has let down her guard.

I'm sticking around, I've said it before, and it bears repeating.........

There may, in life, be sharp turns, false friends, tough times, bumps in the road,
but there is so much more.......family, true friends, and flowers, and sunshine.............for as long as I've got on this crazy planet, I'm going to love all of it.

Thanks for coming by.........it means a lot.

And more.

Annoyed is the word of the day.........catching a skunk in a Havahart trap does not mean you are not going to get "skunked".    For the third time in about three weeks.
I can't even talk about it.

I've been staying busy.  Even though it's been hot and humid, the house has been reasonably comfortable, with no AC.

I've been working on my latest quilt, in between weaving and other things.

This one is for my almost 4 year old granddaughter, for her birthday.

Lots and lots of little pieces, Lois says I'm crazy.  I'm inclined to agree with her.

One more after this, and I will have completed my mission this year, to make quilts for my 3 daughters and 6 grands.

Ever since I bought this house, and installed a shower upstairs instead of the tub, we have had issues with the drain leaking.   Of course, that involves the ceiling right below it, and makes for a mess, each and every time.

The problem is that you stand on the drain, and pull the drain away from the pipe.  It's not a huge bathroom, and thus not a huge shower.  It's also the only place in this huge house where the floor is definitely not level.   

Last year, we put an entire new shower in........and still, last month, it leaked.

So I had this idea, and so far I am very pleased with it.  

I just hope it does the trick and keeps the weight of whoever is showering off that damn drain.

It's a teak shower mat. and it fits the space quite well.  

We shall see.

My Compudobby is on its way back to me.....hopefully should have it by the end of the week.  I'm excited.

I did some rearranging, to get the Compudobby closer to the computer tower.   I think this will work. I won't actually be able to see the computer while I am weaving, but I really only need to see it if I want to reverse, and then I can spin around on my stool and do what I need to do.

My view from the loom.......

 I like the blue......

But red's ok, too.

Sea Creature II, a baby wrap, is on its way to London, England.  

Hand dyed cotton warp.  Hand dyed bamboo weft.

Knitting socks is my  evening project, when I can stay focused on it.

Sometimes when it's hot, you just have to give in and throw your paws hands up in the air.

I do question the sense of laying right in the SUN though.

Hmmmm.

I am trying to stay positive, but to be honest, the news is getting me down. It just keeps getting worse and worse and worse.  There's no end.

 Then today, on the phone, an old friend made a derogatory comment about Jews that totally floored me. I never knew she had such bias. I had to get off the phone.  I had a lump in my throat, and I wanted to sit down and just cry.

Why are people so hateful, what the hell is wrong with us?????  

I find myself turning inward, to be safe. Staying in my comfort zone, doing what makes me feel good, productive, worthwhile.

I am so disappointed in people, I can't even describe it.  I'm sure some of you know exactly what I speak of.

I can see these flowers from my bedroom.  Sometimes, when it's quiet, I go up and lay on my bed, and just look down at them.

Sydney's usually purring in my ear.

For a moment, the world doesn't seem so awful.

Flying

Just to update, Miss Puss is doing fine on her insulin twice a day.  We've got a routine going on, and it's really not as hard as I expected it to be.

Sydney isn't concerned.

We had a family get together for my middle daughter's birthday.

It was just for lunch, but it was nice to spend time with my three girls.

Somebody loves her aunts.
  And they are smitten with her.

And now we have another for them to dote on.

I love the bunch of them.

On the way home, I spied an osprey nest on the telephone pole.......I wanted a better picture, but didn't want to bother them.

The first tomatoes of the year........heart be still.

So you know what we had for lunch, right?  yum.....nothing quite like it.

Good news....my Compudobby had a bad processor, they are replacing it, upgrading it actually, and sending it back.
I needed to do something different about the placement of the computer, and how it hooks up to the Compudobby, so Lois and I switched the computer from one corner to the other.....it used to face the other way.....and the cord was in the way.
We thought, to be honest, that this was going to be a very difficult job, but it went very smoothly.
I don't think that there's much that L and I can't do, if we put our minds to it.
I'm going to turn the loom around, so the cord will be along the wall, and I'm going to put the tower in the cupboard.....I may have to take the door off.

I will be so excited to get the  Compudobby back and get weaving with it.

The bonus is that now I can look out the window from my desk.  Now why didn't I think of that before???

 This is my trumpet vine......I planted it here to hide the propane tanks........and believe it or not there's an arbor under it.   It has gone completely insane.   I hate to cut it back, and I know that I can't move it........decisions, decisions.
I will probably wait until the hummingbirds are done with it, then I will cut it WAY back.

I appreciate all your kind comments, and I'm especially pleased to hear that something I've said here has been encouraging, or in any way made your day better.

One thing that I learned in Al Anon years ago, is that sharing our experience, strength and hope is a powerful connection.

I dreamt that I was flying last night.   My mother, the psychic, always said that when you dreamt of flying, your soul had really left your body, and was flying free.  She said that sometimes you felt it when your soul returned to your body.
I can't predict it, but I dream of flying every now and then.  It's always spectacular, and I'm always disappointed to wake up.
I don't know if my mother was correct in her  evaluation, if indeed your soul leaves your body, or if maybe you are dreaming of a time when your soul did fly free.  It doesn't matter.....it's an amazing feeling, and if that's what happens when we die, then I'm not afraid for a minute.
If that's what's in store for me, then the adventure awaits.

Sometime I'll tell you more about my psychic mother........she was a trip.