slowly she turned

Saturday morning coffee pot post

May 20, 2023

I see that it’s been nearly a month since I’ve posted. I was busy and anxious, then we went to Mexico for 11 days, and now I have the “back to real life” blues. I’m going to post the Mexico trip in about a dozen posts, postdating them as has been my practice for our travel in the past few years, but I have photo editing to do, and right now I want to do my coffee pot post instead.

I did post pretty faithfully to my personal Facebook account and a few photos went to Instagram and from there to the Slow Turn Studio Facebook account. I enjoy looking at my memories on Facebook, especially from May when we tend to travel the most, and the main reason I post about my travel here is because I enjoy looking back at it later. Also, when we disagree about a memory from a certain trip, I can look back and find the answer.

One thing I am grateful for here at home: I don’t have to worry about the safety of the water that comes out of the tap. At least, not yet. I usually filter our drinking and cooking water anyway.

I’m going to say this now instead of referring to it later in the travel posts: Sandy has got a lot of physical challenges when it comes to traveling. At least this time I was prepared for it, unlike the trip to Portugal which surprised both of us and scared me half to death. This trip was better because he is not in heart failure, but his polymyositis causes pain and weakness. This time I scheduled in lots of rest time and we called Ubers to take us uphill and then walked downhill with lots of breaks. I didn’t even consider any tours that involved walking. One afternoon he got on a bus and just rode around Saint Mike, as some ex-pats call it.

The art in Mexico, especially San Miguel de Allende, was so amazing and inspirational that one of the first things on my list, now that the laundry is done, is to clear off my studio table. Then I’m going to warp up the Mirrix and the other small metal frame loom for tapestries. I’ve got a tapestry workshop with MJ Lord in 10 days and the theme is Birds, Bugs, and Butterflies. Trust me when I say that I’ve got plenty of ideas!

But mainly I want to do collage and book binding again. I bought some wonderful sheets of amate paper. Also painting. Just before I left I ordered a couple of bottles of Golden High Flow Acrylic Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold, which is magic paint. I stopped putting it off because I learned that Golden’s supply of quinacridone has dried up – it has been bought by the auto industry. Once the supply out there is gone, it’s gone.

I’m sad about my garden. The pepper plants and one of the tomatoes never really recovered and their growth is probably too stunted to produce. Two died. Most of the wildflower seedlings have been eaten or died and few of the second round of planting have germinated. The lettuce didn’t germinate and a few carrots did. I do have sweet peas tumbling out of a couple of containers now. I don’t know why I bother sometimes. I spent a lot of money on those plants.

The cats are happy that we’re home and as usual they want to eat paper and plastic instead of their expensive dried prescription food or the canned Fancy Feast food. I have never had such picky cats. They won’t even eat Pill Pockets or treats any more but I can pill Diego quick as a wink if I catch him asleep. He looks at me very confused and then settles back down.

The art in Mexico, especially San Miguel de Allende, was so amazing and inspirational that one of the first things on my list, now that the laundry is done, is to clear off my studio table. Then I’m going to warp up the Mirrix and the other small metal frame loom for tapestries. I’ve got a tapestry workshop with MJ Lord in 10 days and the theme is Birds, Bugs, and Butterflies. Trust me when I say that I’ve got plenty of ideas!

But mainly I want to do collage and book binding again. Also painting. Just before I left I ordered a couple of bottles of Golden High Flow Acrylic Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold, which is magic paint. I stopped putting it off because I learned that Golden’s supply of quinacridone has dried up – it has been bought by the auto industry. Once the supply out there is gone, it’s gone.

I’ve got a massage scheduled this afternoon, and I need to grocery shop. It’s been at least two weeks since I have cooked anything.Reading: I finished “Here Be Dragons,” which I loved, and “Black Leopard, Red Wolf,” which I didn’t love, but I bought it for a Marlon James event here at UNCG. It was too gruesome for my taste in books. I can take some violence, but too many body fluids and bug/body infestations and demon possessions are not my thing at all. I am a wienie when it comes to that, and have been known to walk out of movies.

I haven’t had the focus to watch much TV or movies, but we did watch this incredibly long Mexican farce while in San Miguel de Allende that was pretty funny. I’m looking forward to getting back to Ted Lasso, finishing Picard, and a few others now that life has calmed down for a couple of months.

Okay, next I’ll be posting the trip, probably beginning early next week, but right now I need to catch up on ordinary life stuff.
Sunday Sweep – Collage and Life

April 23, 2023
^A book cover collage I made ten days ago at a craft event at Oden Brewing Company.

I’m starting to feel the relief that comes with the wind-down of the academic year. At this point, I am done with a lot of the major budget stuff. Handling the budget for large amounts of money is not something that I thought I’d ever do. Now I’ve calmed down enough to turn my mind toward some art-making.

Lately I’ve been using old book covers as substrates, sometimes with the cover intact, and sometimes with the covers stripped of the book cloth. You can get a lot of interesting colors and textures with the parts of a book cover and spine. Sometimes you find paper from an older book under the spine. The endbands and mesh holding the covers to the spine are nice elements. Flip over the pieces of the book cloth and papers underneath and the old glue sometimes has a scaly texture and occasionally a bit of sparkle.

The challenge I set for myself for these collages, using an old library copy of The Origins and Growth of the English Constitution, Part I, pub. 1897, was to use only the elements that were on the covers and the spine, which had split away from the textblock. I’m hanging on to the textblock for now since I’ve developed a passion for English history. From the library “card” it appears that it was never checked out, but it landed in a used book store at some point. I occasionally visit free and trash bins outside used book stores for collage fodder.

I didn’t use the back of the cloth in these two, but it has a very nice mottled light blue color. I have a few pieces to save for another. The first collage came together magically in only about an hour of moving elements around.

The second one I played with all day, taking photos, walking away, moving something as I walked by, walking away, and so forth. Here’s one of the drafts, showing the light blue back side of the book cloth. I kind of wish I had used it now, but it’s done.

And here’s the final piece:

Now wondering if I should spray it with something to protect it.

Here’s a skink couple for you, holding “hands” while sunbathing.

I’m pretty happy about this week. I actually got some yard work done, including getting our yard guy to come back to mow our “weeds”! Last Sunday we went to the plant sale at the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market, where I bought tomato and pepper plants. Naturally, the most expensive tomato plant that I bought, mainly to support the vendor who sold some unusual varieties, is not doing well at all. I think it is flea beetles. I just brushed all the plants with water and Dawn dishwashing liquid. The tomatoes and peppers this year are: (drum roll)
- Cherokee Purple
- Better Boy
- Sungold
- Roma
- Black Plum
- Sweet Banana (2)
- Fish
- Poblano
- Red Bell
In the back, where I’ve nearly given up, I planted most of this packet of seeds in half of the womb garden. A couple of asparagus survived.

Reading: well, I’ve been slogging through Black Leopard, Red Wolf. At times it goes fast for me, at others, I lose interest. I’m reading “Here Be Dragons” at the same time, and I’m happier with that. The Marlon James book club and event is over and I haven’t even finished his first book, much less the second I was given. I have a lot of great books on tap.

Techie stuff: We switched from Spectrum Internet to T-Mobile Internet and got a higher speed for half the price with zero problems and a seamless, easy transition. Spectrum tried very hard to keep us with an almost matching offer, so if you’re not interested in leaving Spectrum, you might want to give them a call and threaten to leave. Be sure to have the information for a better offer on hand, though. T-Mobile had a 15 day free trial but we made our decision much earlier than that. And Sandy bought a new all-in-one computer yesterday. His computer was old and having problems, but he built it himself and it lasted for many years. This new one has the added value of taking up less space.

TV: I watched “Lucky Hank” for free and then bought the season. I love Bob Odenkirk in this role. It’s an academic comedy that I can relate to very much. As for the other shows, I don’t watch a lot of TV, but we both wept through “1883” and are watching “Ted Lasso” and the second season of “Picard.” I subscribed to HBO Max but so far I don’t think we’ve watched anything on it. There are a lot of good choices right now for us: the new season of “The Last Kingdom” (I think it has a different name, though), “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” and I understand that the final season of “Better Call Saul” has finally popped up on one of our streaming services. I don’t have a long enough attention span for a movie right now, but I’m looking forward to watching “The Banshees of Inishiren.”

Okay, back to the outdoors for this pleasantly cool day to plant peas, carrots, and lettuce. Maybe I’ll get one of my small looms warped. Starting to think more about our San Miguel de Allende trip in a couple of weeks, which makes me a bit anxious.
Lake Waccamaw Easter

April 23, 2023

From a couple of weeks ago…1) one last photo of Bernie and Liz and the ducklings from Jerry. 2) In front of the Tipsy Toad Gallery at Cape Fear Winery, photo by Jerry. 3) Another photo by Jerry. I had to include this one because I was making a face in the first one. I cropped out my sister because she would not have liked this photo of her. 4) Peacock ain’t skeered, at Cape Fear Vineyards.

A couple of days before Easter weekend, we encouraged our friends Susan and Jerry to come down while the weather was still gorgeous. We enjoyed this outing with my sister to Cape Fear Winery for lunch and cocktails with Cape Fear Distillery liquors. I’m always fascinated with the art on the walls here…celebrity artists, photos, memorabilia, and master artists…everywhere. The owner owned a restaurant in Hollywood and had many celebrity friends. As a Joni Mitchell fan, I took this pic of a fairly recent addition to his collection.

But my real joy was seeing two paintings, with NO identification, by Donald Roller Wilson hanging in the gift shop. Not for sale, but on display. I fell in love with Donald Roller Wilson and his surreal Southern gothic stories and paintings in the 80s back in my bookselling days, when an artist book of his came through the store. I’ve seen his work in person one other time, in a Santa Fe gallery.

I bought some of Cape Fear’s really fine liquors, even though I’m not much of a liquor drinker. They are very good. Everybody was fond of a coconut cream rum mix called Beach Blast. The other night Sandy mixed it with almond milk and I thought it was tasty.

Whiteville, North Carolina, surprises me constantly. For most people it is maybe a stop on the way to the beach, and the county has some terrible politics. (I mean, they RE-ELECTED this guy.) But downtown Whiteville has some very good restaurants. My sister took me out for lunch at The Chef and The Frog, a French Asian fusion restaurant, on Tuesday, and then on Friday morning we went to Penn’s Grill for a great breakfast. We liked it so much that we went again for lunch on Saturday when our friends Robin and Don were there. Of course we went to Dale’s Seafood in Lake Waccamaw for lunch one day.

On the weekend the weather was rainy and cold and the mayflies were pretty awful. We are all game players so we played Ransom Notes and Quirkle Cubes for hours. The weather cleared on Sunday and a mayfly hitched a ride back with us to Greensboro. I named him Henry. Here’s a haiku about Henry.

My mayfly Henry

Abides on my fingertip

Time has no meaning
Catching Up

April 13, 2023

Here’s where I spent the last part of March and the first part of April – at Lake Waccamaw in Columbus County, North Carolina. I took a photo of this wonderful map from 1915 (Field of Operations, Soil Map) at Penn’s Grill in Whiteville, where we liked our breakfast so much, we went back for lunch the next day.

I went to Lake Waccamaw for my brother-in-law’s memorial party. My sister did a great job arranging it all, renting a large AirBNB home that accommodated most of the out-of-town guests, although this was mostly meant for the community of Lake Waccamaw. She had not meant to have a large event, but people kept asking about it. Tim was very, very loved.

She included some of the music that he requested for it, including Lucky Man by ELP. She told a lot of funny anecdotes about Tim, two of his best friends from different eras in his life spoke about him, and then Brooke, his daughter, read a poem about him. There was a ton of great food and a bar on the porch. I’m sure that he would have been pleased.

A few days before that, a poetry reading was held in his honor in Whiteville. Many people did not know about Tim’s love of poetry and support for other poets. One day I’d like to print a handmade book of his poetry.

I hung out with my sister and watched Bernie and Liz, her favorite duck couple that she raised from ducklings, bring their first brood of sixteen ducklings to her back yard! We got to see the babies on their first day out, then the next day we saw them take their first swim, close enough that we could see their little webbed feet paddle under the water. We knew that it was likely that not even half of them would survive with all the predators about, and a few nights later, five of them were dead or missing. Lisa thinks it was an owl.

Lisa and I were very laid back. We relaxed and read and played games and ate mostly leftovers from the party. The weather was gorgeous. One afternoon, on the ducklings’ first day, I sat in a chair outside reading and watching them. That’s when I think that I was eaten up by fire ants. I didn’t notice the bites until later, about two dozen! Fortunately, my sister has some good meds for them and so after a week I was not itching any more.

The lake has its beauty and its sadness – the circle of life took Bernie and Liz a couple of days after we left. They simply disappeared. We assume they were protecting their babies from one of these guys, since Liz hatched her babies across the street in the canal:

The good news is that the eleven ducklings were still alive as of yesterday, and one of the mallard drakes who can’t fly because of a wing injury seems to have taken over their protective care. Lisa is feeding them, as she does all the ducks that come to her yard.

More beauty – no one has mowed the back yard of our family house:

More in the next post.
Wednesday Waiting for Ted Lasso Post

March 23, 2023

I went to Asheville with my sister this past weekend to the Tapestry Weavers South get-together at the Folk Art Center exhibition of “Follow the Thread.” She drove from Lake Waccamaw, we had lunch at Sushi Republic, then she drove us to Asheville. That’s a lot of driving in one day! That evening we had dinner at the Red Rocker Inn in Black Mountain, a place that held fond memories for her as in past trips with Tim. After seeing it I’d like to stay there with Sandy one weekend. We really love Black Mountain and I would love to be able to live there one day if I don’t emigrate to another country.

We relaxed on Saturday morning before driving to downtown Asheville where we did a bit of shopping before eating lunch at Tupelo Honey. The shrimp and grits were delicious, and those biscuits…wow. That evening we had dinner at Rendezvous, a French restaurant in a converted church, with April and Don. We were still stuffed from eating lunch and goodies at the TWS reception so we ordered small plates. I had smoked duck breast with a blueberry compote and Lisa had a stuffed portobello mushroom. Both dishes were divine.

Here’s a better photo of “A Place You’ve Never Been” which was sold.

I forgot my phone so I don’t have photos, but Lisa took a lot of the exhibit. She was very impressed and we tried to recruit her into the tapestry weaving world but couldn’t lure her in. I broke my rule about buying new pottery at the Folk Art Center Southern Highland Craft Guild shop, which means I have to get rid of something, but come on, how was I supposed to resist this cup with Diego and Pablocito on it? Update: the artist is Ann Gleason of Tryon, NC.

I was asked about what I am working on now, and I realized for the first time in many years I do not have a work in progress on a loom. But I have ideas!

While we were gone, Sandy sold one of our reenactment tents so the purging continues.

I finished “Lessons in Chemistry” and started “Here Be Dragons” by Sharon Penman. I’m related to many characters in the book. Now I want to go to Wales. A large branch of my family tree immigrated here from Wales around the turn of the 18th century. However, I was just given a copy of “Moon Witch, Spider King” by Marlon James for a book club discussion on March 29. I didn’t realize it was the second in a trilogy so I downloaded “Black Leopard, Red Wolf” and will switch over to that right away.

We’re halfway into the second season of “Picard,” which is great, and Sandy started watching “1883,” which I intend to do but I can’t watch but so much TV at a time. I’d rather read. Now we are eagerly waiting for the second episode of this season’s “Ted Lasso.” I really like having to wait a week for a new episode. I’ve never particularly cared for binging. Part of the enjoyment is in the anticipation.
Sunday sweep

March 12, 2023

I can’t think of anything much I did this week that was very interesting, but Sandy and I have gotten some stuff out of here to various thrift stores and charities and sold some of our American Revolution reenactment stuff. This was the weekend of the Battle of Guilford Courthouse reenactment, and as it often happens, the second day was canceled because of weather. Sandy packed up a woven basket backpack and trooped out there yesterday afternoon hawking his wares, but everybody was taking down their camps at that point and getting on the road. He did sell a few items and then one person from in town came to our house this morning and bought some items.

I threw out a LOT of food and found some in the freezer that I would have eaten had it not gotten buried. I need to keep on top of this from now on. My anxiety tells me that I may need something one day. I need to tell my anxiety to relax and shut up.

It was too warm for the snow to stick this morning. I slept through it anyway. In my dreams I was back in classes, searching for the right art class for me. I also failed college algebra twice and finally passed it with a D. I shouted to a friend, “I never made a D in my life!” The funny thing was that I was rather proud of failing that class. It was like an opposite school anxiety dream.

We socialized this week. I went with a friend to Oden mid-week and had a couple of brews and food from a great taco truck. Then Sandy and I met some friends from way back at Potent Potables in Jamestown – I’m talking early 80s – and then ate seafood for the first time since the pandemic shutdown at our favorite oyster bar across the street.

I’ve been feeling very weird about all this back to the past stuff – “like a pigeon from hell” as the Pretenders put it. I was a very fucked up person at that time with substance abuse and undiagnosed mental illness, and I haven’t remained friends with hardly anyone from high school or college because of embarrassment. But friends from that time keep getting in touch so obviously it isn’t an issue for them. I keep reminding myself that if we are still alive and in touch, then we all have moved on and become better people. But the memories plague me.

Now I’m heading out for my monthly massage. When I get back, I’ll cook and probably watch some TV, since we just canceled Hulu and Peacock and substituted HBO Max and Paramount Plus for a while. I watched “Women Talking” the other night and was blown away. There are many good movies I have missed because of my difficulty in paying attention to videos. I’m looking forward to catching up on the Picard series and the whole Yellowstone thing as well.

Books: I finished “When Christ and His Saints Slept” and “Rules of Civility.” I shot through “Rules” like a bullet and then found “A Gentleman in Moscow” at the used bookstore. I also found “Here Be Dragons” by Sharon Penman, which is a Welsh saga and so I’m pretty happy about my reading future. Currently I am over halfway through “Lessons in Chemistry.” At first it was seriously upsetting me and I wondered if I was in the mood to read it right now. But the dog and the kid saved it for me and now that I’m past some of the most infuriating and sad parts I am enjoying it very much.

There are used tenor saxophones at the used book store that I am so tempted by but so far I have resisted. I used to play baritone sax in our high school jazz band. I wouldn’t even know how to play any more. We have a house full of unplayed, lonely musical instruments and I’m not inclined to add another. I’m not musically talented (believe me, I tried) and choices had to be made. I can’t do (or try) to do all the things I want to do. However, I have heard “Pick Up the Pieces” by the Average White Band in my head ever since I noticed the saxes for sale and my fingers itch. “Baker Street” was taunting me the other day.

Next weekend I’m heading to Asheville with my sister and a friend to see the tapestry exhibit at the Folk Art Center. There are lots of photos on the Tapestry Weavers South Facebook page.
Public Education, Inc.

March 7, 2023

A long time ago, in my first job working for a large corporation, I was tasked with putting up a display. I saw that the display featured products that were discontinued and out-of-stock, so I ordered some new signage and substituted products we did have in stock. Then I was told that I had to change the display back to what some person in an office far away had decided. So up went the discontinued products, and then we had to explain to the customers that we actually did not have these products “on sale” in stock.

When I left that job to go work for a local bookstore chain, I idealistically swore that I’d never work for a large corporation that employed faraway clueless people to make illogical decisions for people who actually did the work to carry out on a local level. Life taught me it was not that easy and I had to start getting used to it, but my half-Vulcan brain always rejected it, and that made for some difficult work situations at times. I don’t handle cognitive dissonance well. I want logic to prevail. I want people who understand the situation at hand to be a part of the decision making.

I thought that when I went to work in higher education, I wouldn’t have to deal with that business model. Sadly, I was wrong. And I get proof of the micromanaging from above without understanding the nuances at the base level all the time. Often reasons are given that make no sense and/or you know are not true. It literally makes me crazy and it’s why I need, not want, to retire early.

I remember overhearing someone in a coffee shop who I recognized as being in administration at UNCG confide to her companion, “The worst part of being in administration is all the lying you have to do.”

Education should not be run like a large corporation, but that’s where we’re at. It’s a fucking shame, and I mean that. People should be ashamed of what this state is doing to its public education system on all levels.

Budget reductions at UNCG punish it for serving disadvantaged students
Sunday morning coffee pot post

March 5, 2023

The latest stitchery:

I’m really enjoying stitching in this section. This piece has changed in my mind from purely abstract to ruminations about paths, choices, obstacles, and flow. What we do to stitch the fragments of our lives together while attempting to create balance. Sometimes you can, sometimes there is too much disruption in the fabric, but we still give it a try.

Now that I’m considering these aspects of it, it has become more meditative and much less frustrating. At the moment I’m thinking about mounting it on another piece of fabric and making it into a scroll. Next week I’ll probably have a different idea.

Last night I spent a lot of time looking through the different workshops that Stitch Club has to offer and making a list of which ones I’d like to do next. I’ll probably not stay subscribed to the service however. Not that it isn’t worth it but I need to mind my budget if I’m going to be able to travel and do the in-person workshops that I enjoy more.

I bought the program Deep Art Effects for my computer a while back and took a very simple photograph of water that I took during one of the last boat trips I took with my family at the lake through all the different filters. I loved so many of them and now considering – what if I warped up a long warp and wove the same design with all of my favorite versions. Separately or together? I think maybe separately, and hang them as a series. I’d weave them horizontally but hang them vertically.

This is a very good sign that I’m breaking free of my artist block.

Here’s the personal life stuff.

I pay attention here to the small cleaning tasks I get done around this house because after five years of serious depression and a spouse whose health concerns limits what he can do, it looked for a while as if it was too awful to ever catch up. Now that I’m feeling better mentally, I realize that we can do it in small chunks. So it’s a celebration when Sandy cleans out a closet, and when I clean a ceiling fan. When I look around and start to feel despair, I remind myself that it IS getting done, slowly, as is our style here. The deep kitchen cleaning is almost done.

Now our ants are invading the bathroom. Why? What do they find to eat? Honestly, it seems like they are just moving from one hole between the molding to another gap under the window. Sandy is going down to the basement to see if he can find clues. I finally got them out of the kitchen, and then the washing machine. ???

Here’s the thing. I am fascinated with ants. Especially when I go to the lake and there are still so many kinds hanging out on the beach. I can sit and watch them explore and maneuver around and over obstacles for a long time. I was about to write “hours” but I’m not that mindful. I do hate fire ants and now that they have finally made it to my street I hope that they don’t chase the other ants away.

Once I was stung by yellowjackets that had made a ground nest under a tree next to our driveway where we step out of the car. That simply won’t do, so I identified the hole, and waited until after dark when they had all returned to their nest. I put window screen over the hole and weighted it down all around with bricks. Then I poured a pot full of scalding water into the hole. That took care of that problem with no poison involved.

The next day, I witnessed the large ants who occupied the tree carrying boiled yellowjacket treats straight up the tree vertically. The yellowjacket bodies were more than twice the size of each ant.

I miss that tree, mainly for the ants and the woodpeckers.

If you read E.O. Wilson’s work about ants, you will discover an amazing world that no one ever notices.

Anyway, I had a busy workweek, and then I volunteered at the CVA gallery again yesterday morning. I noticed that now that my Achilles tendinitis is much, much better, my hips are protesting my lack of activity, so I’m going to get out for a long walk this afternoon.
Sunday evening

February 26, 2023

Here’s the stitching from this week. It’s fun to do this with no deadline and the faintest idea of a “plan.” I’m especially fond of the yellow lines I added on the left, with silk thread I dyed with broom sedge. Most of the rest of the thread is embroidery floss. The project is from a class with Gwen Hedley on Stitch Camp. It’s howlingly funny that I once thought I might finish it in two weeks. Maybe by the end of the year, but that’s the fun and beauty of it – it doesn’t matter. I’m much more pleased with it with the yellow and gold threads and I’ve been finding people in it. Who knows what else might appear? I like the flow that is starting to come together.

Meant to write a blog post yesterday morning, and then this morning, but I had a late Friday night hanging out with my buddy Beck yakking and laughing, woke up without a hangover, and then gallery sat at the CVA Gallery again for the great fiber arts show there. I met a couple of artists who just moved here from Buffalo, and reinforcing that, ran into them after I closed the gallery at Deep Roots Market. I’m getting back out in the world, gang.

Also, on Friday, we had a dryer delivered so hopefully my near future will have less wrinkled clothes with less cat hair on them. I went to bed really early on Saturday night and slept twelve hours, so today I’ve been knocking out the laundry that’s been piling up.

Sandy cleaned out a couple of closets because a guy came to our house that was just starting to do American Revolution reenactments and was interested in buying gear and clothes. We have a ton of it, and were hoping he’d buy more, but it was a good start in getting rid of stuff we don’t use anymore. We might have to set up a trade blanket at the Guilford Courthouse reenactment, but man, that will take some energy and I don’t want to camp.

I continued to concentrate on cleaning out cabinets and drawers in the kitchen, including cleaning the insides, and purging and moving our stashed pantry food into the kitchen. Now I hope that Sandy will have room in these closets for some of the boxes he has stacked up. Unfortunately it kicked my allergies into high gear and I’m struggling with a persistent headache. But mentally I feel great that I’m making headway on all this mess.

I found the perfect solution for my stashed fabric scrap collection. Bryant Holsenbeck is teaching her recycled mixed media textile animal sculpture class at John C. Campbell Folk School in July when my work isn’t heavy. I’ve wanted to take this particular class for a while. I admire her work and her ethics, and I’m really excited about it!

This means I’ve pretty much booked out my vacation days and money for the year, but you know me, I’ll probably find something else near the end of the year because I won’t be able to resist it.
Sunday morning coffee pot post

February 19, 2023

I turned 62 on Friday, so I can now take Social Security early if I really crashed and burned and had to do it! So I guess that’s a milestone of sorts. Even if I do retire early from my current job, I’m going to try to wait to take my social security payments until I’m full age at 67. I’d probably try to find a part-time or remote job.

Sandy took me to Elm St. Grill in Greensboro and surprised me with four of our friends showing up. The food and drinks were great, and we all agreed that we were a really fun crowd. Joseph cracked me up with a version of Happy Birthday that was very dark and twisted. And I got to go through the tequila torture, TWICE, because the owner said the first time was a practice run. I panicked and got confused about whether thumbs up meant I had enough or to keep going. I could not let that go straight down my throat! Filled up my mouth and almost had to spit it all out. But it was good tequila, and it was payback of sorts for when he did it on his 70th birthday. I slept well that night, and didn’t have a hangover.

I promised to show my stitching since the last time. I didn’t get a lot done, but I started adding buttons and I will be adding some lighter contrasting stitching much later. It is fun because I’m just following my nose, really. Many French knots are on the horizon.

Yesterday I had a much needed massage and my neck feels so much better today. I went grocery shopping and made a big pot of soup. Instead of the stitching, I mostly went down the rabbit hole of switching between my book and my family tree again. Boy, did I have some evil ancestors, but I have found whole new branches of the family to explore those threads back to Scotland and Switzerland. The Welsh branch is fascinating and a bit hard to decipher. So many Owens and Davids and Thomases and Williams, and then they start turning to Owains, and Dauids and Dyfdds and Gwilyms and Gwyllams.

My neighbors made a couple of repairs to the siding that came loose in a storm at the top of the front of the house. I suppose I should be happy to have such great neighbors, and I am, but it also freaked me out and made me feel a little, I don’t know, ashamed? I finally had to go hide so I wouldn’t have a panic attack. (No need to tell me I shouldn’t feel this way, I know that. I am mentally unwell.) We were asking for recommendations to get someone to fix it and they decided that they could do it for us. One of them told me that he didn’t want to do it, but if he didn’t, the other guy was going to do it, and he didn’t want him to do it because he was afraid he would get hurt. Men, I swear. But, hey! That’s one thing off the to-do list.

They clipped out the branches in that area and around the utility wires coming into the house too, and it was a beautiful day, so I got a little front yard clean-up done. My favorite flowers are beginning to bloom and the eucalyptus does not seem to have survived the Christmas cold snap, so I’m going to cut it down and see if I can get some dye out of the leaves.

Little by little I am getting this place cleaned up and less cluttered, although I don’t think anybody would see the difference. I’ve been concentrating on the kitchen drawers, cabinets, and refrigerator. I have squirreled away a lot of food for the dystopian future, and it’s time to use or get rid of a lot of it. Sandy wants to switch my studio to the front room again. Just thinking about it makes my back and neck hurt. But it would force us to go through a lot of the books and knickknacks and art supplies and make decisions. I’m good about keeping my book collection under control, but Sandy has a hard time letting go of even his old computer manuals. My biggest hoarding issue is fabric and paper. I think that I’ve purged my yarn as much as I can go.

I’m looking that that Dorothy table loom across the room, and thinking that it needs to go. I’ve never even warped it up. I think I know the perfect place to donate it – my friend is an art teacher at a school for refugees. The refugees haven’t arrived yet, but hopefully it will happen soon. There’s been a lot of controversy about it.

Latest fun thing: listening to public radio WNCW on Alexa. This morning they’ve been playing old-time country, along with some pop and soft rock from the 50s-60s. I am not a big pop country fan, but I do love the old stuff and “Americana.” Now they’ve switched to Celtic fiddle.

The church bells are signaling that it is noon-time, so I’ll close. Have a great week!