Whatever happens to strike my fancy, but surely some sort of fiber content.
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| Like The Queen Whatever happens to strike my fancy, but surely some sort of fiber content. |
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0 Comments:Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Thursday, May 22, 2008 It's Thursday, which means it's time to hear from the Creativity Jar. This week I made sure it told me to: Drink my morning coffee on the pier. We've had the longest coolest spring, with lots of rain alternating with crisp blue days. This has kept the mayflies away, (wicked biting flies that usually show up mid-May and pretty much ruin the outdoors for the next 4 weeks) which is nice, but it's made the mornings both too cool and too damp with dew for sitting on piers to watch sunrises. Sunday is supposed to be 80 and sunny, warming up both air and river, so Monday morning, a delicious Monday holiday, ought to be the perfect time to settle down with cup, camera, and maybe a little cotton knitting. Here's what the bird flock has to say about this.  As for last week's directive, to research and write about bald eagles, I have done a good bit of reading about them but till last night I couldn't figure out how to write about them without sounding like a 4th grader. I've got an idea now though and this weekend, this happy glorious holiday weekend, I'll take the time to put it all down in pixels and share with the curious. Good thing I've had the creativity jar, though, since I've been decidedly uncreative and unproductive with fiber lately. I'm still knitting on the cabled clutches – when I knit at all – and I'm totally inspired by C's sweater from her handspun yarn and wishing I were as productive and thinking I could be and, alas, not being so. I will blame it on dog hair and computers, since I'm using the creative parts of my brain to learn how to use the new software at work and my beloved dogs have decided that shedding will be the next New Olympic Sport and they want spots on the American team. My house is white with dog hair – and Priss hasn't even begun to shed yet. She always waits till last, when the real hot weather gets here and we haven't had a day above 80 all spring. So. Rug cleaning happens on Saturday, along with all the other household chores – but the next two days I plan to fill with fiber and creativity and leisurely mornings on the pier with my coffee. posted by Bess | 7:44 AM 1 Comments:
Hmmm...first read your Monday post late last evening, when I was feeling anything but powerful. Went to bed. Woke to pouring rain and wind. A studio day, methinks...and perhaps that's the best 'change' for now. :-)
By Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Monday, May 19, 2008 Oooh la la! Watch out Virgo, here comes a full-on week which brings with it, not only a Full Moon but a couple of massive transits to your Love Zone. In other words, while it's may be not quite as powerful as the eclipses which changed your life in recent years, it is a week when you can do anything as long as it doesn't involve standing still. Harness the powers in the ethers and look at where you want to make a change. You know it's not going to happen by itself, so… This is from MsHoroscope. Hope the stars will point out the fun path to me – I'm all for a little change now and then, but I want it to be good change. Like the changes we made for Mama the past 2 weeks. Unlike the first time we moved her, all hurried and resisted and at the same time that Daddy was so sick, this time Sister (and her wonderful husband) and I had time to shop and organize and move and hang pictures and make her room totally ready for her so she walked into a lovely space with Brand New Furniture bought Just For Her. Presents are important for mama. I weeded her clothes, which have suffered for their bouts with a commercial laundry. There will have to be a day soon when I do some mega-shopping for her – but I am an inordinately lucky shopper. Evidently it's not limited to wedding shopping – I found all the furniture last weekend in one outlet place and merely had to point it out to sister for her approval. I suspect it's a Virgo gift. She, being a Libra, has to weigh things a bit more than I do. Of course moving is a slow tedious process and anything involving Mama is about 6 times slower than the anything involving the rest of the world. I'm not really frustrated by this, but sometimes I do forget. We worked straight through yesterday from 8:30 to 3:30 without a lunch break. I was wiped when I got home – 2 hours of driving later. She called around 9, tired but happy in her new surroundings. In a few weeks I will go back and putter about a bit. So now I get to shift gears back to New Computer Programs. Gosh! Just think of all the brain cells I'm creating as I push my little cerebellum to accept New Ideas. And yes yes – I have been reading up on bald eagles. Next weekend, when I have cleaned the pit – I will write all about them. I'm off to hang out the next load of laundry now – Ta. posted by Bess | 7:01 AM 1 Comments:Sending good vibes for moving Mama right back to you! Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Saturday, May 17, 2008 Staff has had their first training on the new software and they'll be back today for self-study and to put away all the books that have piled up in the book drop the past 3 days. They're to put special emphasis on dealing with fines and overdues since we're having a fine free week next week. For the most part, they like this new software a little bit better than the old program. I also see that they're stimulated to pay attention because they're working with something new. They're energized and a little excited. I understand the feeling – I feel it too, though I'm still stumbling all over the back room stuff, like getting the machine to read patron barcodes, when it happily reads the item barcodes. I got a help desk guy yesterday who not only didn't know how to solve the problem, but couldn't keep the exasperation – and disdain – out of his voice as he worked on his last call of the week. He kept telling me what my problem was – which I already knew – and not telling me how to solve it. I knew ...I could sense when he no longer knew the answer but didn't want to admit it to me nor ask for help from higher up. He did at last and the answer isn't pretty but it's still an answer. At least I didn't “feed” the answer to him. Have you guessed? I'm probably going to have to reenter every patron barcode in the system. Reenter, as in type each one individually. Off now to move Mama to her new digs. Be back sometime tomorrow. Ta. posted by Bess | 6:56 AM 1 Comments:I think my totem animal is the bear. But, at least around here, they tend to wander around and knock over garbage cans. OTOH, that does sound relaxing. Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Thursday, May 15, 2008 You got it Cathy – I have a series of at least 8 planned already, with a few sketches in a notebook along with written ideas. And yes – they just might become wall decorations. I'm getting pretty excited about it all. Be sure, I'll share it all here. The good news is that all the databases transferred from one program to the next. The expensive, laconic, computer wizard finished up his part of the job by 4 o'clock. Today I wade in and begin setting up parameters: days closed, circulation limits, fines, etc. Later in the afternoon my second in command will come in and we'll practice using everything. Tomorrow the rest of the staff comes in to learn how to work the system. Saturday they get more practice all by their lonesomes – and check in all the books that have been left in the book drop while we've been closed – because I'll be back in Richmond this weekend, moving Mama into her new digs. We'll open on Monday with a Fine Free Week. Because no matter how much we publicized that we were going to be closed this week – most people didn't know. This will mitigate their disappointment some. There's a new member of the Bird Family. He came from Culpepper, VA, purchased at a darling little shop: Sara Schneidman Gallery. I love shopping in Culpper – and dining there and the beautiful drive west, out Rt. 3, once you get past Wilderness. He joins the flock as they comment on what the Creativity Jar has to say this week.  “Research and write something about Bald Eagles”. I live within a corridor that is chock full of these majestic birds. Any boat trip up the Rappahannock River, between Tappahannock and Fredericksburg will thrill you with views of their soaring performance as they wheel about overhead, serenading you with their distinctive call. A pair lives on our farm and I see them daily – perching in the pine tree on the bank of the marsh, swooping down to catch a fish, sometimes, just watching me when I'm working in the garden. I know where their nest is but I stay away from it because I want them to live here always, feeling safe and honored. I take it as a tremendous compliment that they choose to live so close to me. If I were to have a totem, I am sure it would be the Bald Eagle. But I don't know that much about them – their habits, their needs, their meaning in folk lore. I've always intended to find out about them, but like so many good intentions, that project has remained a paving stone in my life's path. Till now, that is, thanks to the CJ. I'll post my piece here next weekend. posted by Bess | 7:26 AM 1 Comments:You're going to wind up with a closetful of such gorgeous little purses -- you might just have to hang them on the wall instead, where they can be admired all the time. :) Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Wednesday, May 14, 2008 If you really go with what you feel deeply, you have less choice than you previously thought. You also, though, have a lot less to worry about. Doubts will soon give way to inspiring certainties. Thank you MrHoroscope – you do have an uncanny way of putting your finger on the nub. I am nervous about this network upgrade and yet there really isn't anything left I can do. It has to go alright – but I will be glad for those inspiring certainties sweeping away my doubts. The good thing is I can dress casual the rest of the week. Today is a glorious crisp spring day – a wee bit cool, as this whole spring has been – and at last I've slipped out into the yard to see what's going on. BD always complains that our yard is too big and too difficult to cut – but he is wrong. It's full of little rooms  and hidden surprises just down this little tunnel  or behind this little green wall  . I am a sucker for paths that snake off into the woods and I have lots of them, both in the yard and in the woods. Along with being energized by the glory that is May in Virginia, I am also inspired. Among you quilters out there, I am sure Janet Crowther is a familiar name but she is new to me and it's not her quilting but her felting that I have fallen in love with. I discovered her in this magazine  and am challenged to try my hand at needle felting by this lovely purse.  I am thinking of a series of bags – with their flat canvas of felt just waiting to be embellished. Perhaps an ocean scene in blues and greens – or some other crowd scene that begs for layers of colors. Perhaps this could be a summer project. We shall see. For sure, I have made copious notes of the flood of ideas that washed over me as read the pages of this article. Honestly – there is nothing quite so exhilarating as being inspired by a fellow fiber enthusiast. Happy fiber joys to you all today. 1 Comments:
Postie genes, eh? My great-great grandparents' farmhouse has a PO in the foyer, just to the right of the parlor. Hmmm...
By Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Monday, May 12, 2008 How Green Was My CountyOnly, it's King and Queen County, but heck, I've got plenty of cousins in K&Q too. This is what it looked like on Saturday when I rode over to help sister buy furniture for Mama's new place.  Plenty of green tunnels  This is Beazley, where Essex, Caroline and K&Q all come to a point. The building is the new Rappahannock Indian Baptist Church. That name always makes me smile.  And this is Helmut - just up the road from Newtown - where Cousin Teddy used to be postmistress. BD & I stopped here when we rode our bikes from Richmond once, lo those decades ago.  Here's where the Alexander's used to live - and where we used to buy butter made from Lily the Cow.  Not picturesque, but yet another post office where another cousin is postmistress. Hmmm. Evidently it runs in the family. And proof that you don't have to go far to get rural (click to enlarge):  Happily, the rain had stopped by the time I got to Richmond and Happiest of All – we found everything we needed to buy at the prices we wanted to pay. Evidently I'm not just a lucky wedding shopper – I'm a flat out, all 'round lucky shopper. When we were done, sister took me by the new place and then I spent the afternoon with Dad, going over old files and just spending time together. He's weaker physically, than he was last year, but less depressed and he's been making measurable progress with physical therapy this month. This is because sister takes him to PT (held in the building next door). She says she'll stop doing this at the end of May though and it'll be up to him to keep going. I did the Mother's Day thing yesterday. This is not a holiday my own household celebrates, though we can't help responding to the constant promotion. So when I got home and BD asked “what do you want to do for Mother's Day?” I told him I wanted to brush out all the dogs, vacuum the rugs and spend the rest of a rainy afternoon in bed. Got to do all three. Minuscule knitting progress and no spinning at all was accomplished this weekend. posted by Bess | 7:30 AM 0 Comments:Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Saturday, May 10, 2008 Thanks Cathy. That's just what I thought too, when I saw the single box of rovings in the Peavine Hollow booth. I bought a third of what they had – about 24 ounces of it – enough for a sweater. It was the colors that really drew me in, rich, luscious, like something dug out of the earth. I haven't had much time to spin them but I'll plug away at them each week and by fall I can begin knitting. I'm off to help sister buy furniture for Mama's new apartment, because Mama is moving next weekend from one AL place to another. Long story – not worth telling, probably not the last one either – but the new place comes unfurnished and neither sister nor I have ever bought furniture before. Yes. 50+ and ++ and we're furniture store virgins. We don't need much – fortunately she already has a bed and a lifting recliner, nor does the stuff have to be furniture for a lifetime – but it must all be wheelchair accessible. I'll spend the night, visit Dad and do the Mother's Day thing tomorrow morning. And my cyber twin is, of course, going to be doing the Same Thing this week! So for you, dear C, I offer you this good astro-news: Mars, the planet of action, moves into marvelously show-y-off-y Leo today ... overall it means we are all going to be a little more out there, a little less defensive, we might spend less time worrying about our families and more time working out how to shine, personally and professionally. For Cancerians and Capricorns in particular, this Mars move is a welcome break, for Leos and Aquarians, it means the Mars madness is just beginning! Here's what I've been knitting on  There will be a bright red one too - and there will be three of us sporting our clutches around town in a couple of weeks. - and here is something I might knit out of that Spirit Trail silk I bought (lo those many years ago).  See y'all later, alligators posted by Bess | 6:16 AM |
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