slowly she turned

Living the Slow life in North Carolina

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  • Thanks for your well wishes – they seem to have helped because I am much, much better today. In fact, I feel better than I have been in months, so I must be careful not to go crazy and overdo it in the garden!

    During my down time, I created a new Etsy shop. There won’t be anything for sale in it until after I get back from vacation (so, late July, early August) but I’m excited about it. I’ve looked seriously at three different shop sites and I ended up coming back to Etsy because it seems to be the most attractive and user-friendly. I’ll post a link here when I’ve tested it and loaded some items for sale.

    I guess I’ll need to renew my North Carolina sales tax license since I think that the state gov is about to crack down on Internet sales tax.

    Bought a new carry-on bag at Target. I decided that it was time for me to get one with wheels instead of dealing with a worn-out duffel bag for a change. It’s purple with polka dots. It cried out for me to take it home, I swear.

    Dug up some tiny new Yukon Gold potatoes in the Back Forty, to go with the few green beans I’ve picked. The Green Zebra tomatoes are leading the way with the first tomato. The dill is going to seed now. It is so good to have fresh dill with egg salad, or green beans, or fish, or anything, really.

    The Violetto artichokes are blooming. I just can’t bring myself to pick them because they are so beautiful. I’ll have to plant some more ordinary ones for eating next year.

    We put down pine needles on the paths where the wood chip mulch washed away in the flood earlier this month. I’m not sure that this will be helpful for the Ph of the soil, but it is certainly much easier and will be less likely to wash away. There is the added bonus that this seems to make my husband much happier, and he seldom takes any interest in the yard or garden.

  • Holy cow, I kinda hate to complain because I know a lot of people who deal with a lot worse read this blog, but that steroid shot in the hip was a real muhthah. I had myself convinced that it might be a little worse than a normal shot in the hip because of a pep talk that my department head gave me about his shots in his knee. Boy, was I wrong. The doctor said it hurt so bad because it was so inflamed, and that I did good because sometimes they have to hold people down!

    I had to stay in the office a while because I have a history of passing out after shots, and with this one I was nauseated and every time I tried to sit up I went right back down. At least I didn’t have a panic attack, because I sure felt like one was imminent. That would’ve been frosting on the cake for sure. I hate a panic attack worse than any pain.

    So, I tried to go back to work, but kept feeling worse, and finally Dawn drove me home where I’ve been laying on the bed bored out of my skull. I wish I had a great book to read but I’m grateful for the laptop.

    I hope that I don’t have to have another shot. He said that the next one wouldn’t be as bad, but I’m not sure I believe him! Maybe this one will take care of it. I have to take a course of oral prednisone starting next week.

    The good news is that the hip joint itself is structurally fine. It’s those damned useless little bursa sacs that have been causing all the trouble since last September.

    Anyway, once I get healed up, I’m gonna show all y’all how to get down. I’ll practice up on my moonwalk.

    By this time less than two weeks from now, I’ll be on a cruise ship off the British Columbian coast, hopefully in a hot tub with a Captain Morgan drink of some kind in my hand, watching the sun go down.

  • Travel Journal

    Finished a slim altered book that I think would make a nice travel journal. The map was already part of the book. The first and last pages and the painted paper on the inside covers is from the batch of artichoke paper I made last fall. The inner paper is mulberry paper that I bought for my printmaking class that didn’t get used.

    I made a lot of covers in this style, so now it’s time to get crackin’ on putting these babies together.

  • Slept a good part of the day. Sometimes it’s as if I just have to stop and recharge my battery.

    I’ve almost finished making a book. I’ll try to get a good photo tomorrow. The binding is very simple, but it is wildly and beautifully painted. I’m going to tie some beads to it and it will be done.

    I’m heavily influenced right now by the hydrangea, echinacea, alliums, bees, and fireflies in the Back Forty.

    I think that the bird that sang so loudly in the very back was a ruby-crowned kinglet instead of a Carolina wren. I looked up a photo of a Carolina wren and it did not match at all. I haven’t heard it lately, so they may have moved on or I might not be attuned to it, since my attention is more on avoiding bugs.

    I’m no longer an Amazon affiliate- they cut off all of us in North Carolina because they don’t like a tax law that is expected to pass. It pisses me off a little, since I’ve been one for ten years. But I wasn’t making any money at it; it was just a fun little bookseller fantasy.

    I made an A+ in my class. My first A+ ever, since they didn’t give them when I was last an undergraduate, and quite frankly I probably wouldn’t have tried hard enough to get one back then anyway.

    Feeling pretty impatient for these tomatoes to speed up and give me that mater goodness. I’m spoiled when it comes to tomatoes.

    You may have noticed that I’m posting every day. I’m trying a different idea – posting in Facebook kind of snippets and really trying to write something about my day every day, even if it is just that the weather is hot.

  • Best comment seen all day: “Thank you, Michael Jackson. Love, Mark Sanford.”

    Headachy, probably allergies, I hope. Came home early and took a nap.

    Green paper is dry and is in my super-technological paper press – a stack of boards and books. The one with the ginkgo leaves embedded inside is nice and I’ll have to press some more leaves this fall and winter for use in paper.

    Things to do:
    Clean the bathroom.
    Admire myself in the mirror.
    Finish laundry.
    Watch MJ videos on VH1.

  • A cappella I’ll Be There

    If you only watch one Michael Jackson video, this should be the one.

  • The first cassette tape I ever bought for myself was the Jackson 5, I guess around 1970-71. My mother wasn’t very happy, but it was my allowance money.

    I loved Michael Jackson, and I think that he was a truly great artist. My heart twisted with every new photo of him and every ugly news story that cropped up from the late 80s on.

    But I never thought that I’d feel this sad.

    Every girl wanted hair (and body) like Farrah Fawcett.

    Not a good day for 70s icons.

    Paper drying in the gazebo.

    I don’t think that I’ll work in the studio any more tonight. Will bury myself in a book.

    Baked unlocal organic chicken breasts with Annie’s Baja lime marinade, local organic salad, and cantaloupe. Not local or organic but cool and refreshing.

    Hip hurts. I’ll go to an orthopedic surgeon on Monday morning. Hopeful about a steroid shot to end this misery.

  • green paper made from mostly green scraps of paper, leftover pulp from other batches, tiny bits of aqua cotton flake yarn

    swarmed while cleaning mould and deckle with hose, killed mosquito, not before it drew blood

    book titled “The Wind and the Rain,” covered with sweet smelling brown basil blossom paper, what now – collage? leave alone?

    picked five green beans, other beans I am leaving for shell beans

    birds are stealing figs as they ripen, but I got the first one and it was luscious

    baseball haiku

    Holy Grail on mantelpiece

    final exam went well, back to reading for pleasure

    picking glue off fingers

  • Wendell Berry picks jail over NAIS

    Go, Wendell, go!

    Looks like a great website, too.

  • Saturday morning coffee pot post

    I guess this is what happens if you make it to your fifth year of blogging – you start feeling like you’ve said everything before. That’s the way I feel about the subject of food, pretty much.

    But, since I’ve run off most of my readers and most of my hits come from Google searches, here goes.

    In the Back Forty I am harvesting green beans and new Yukon Gold potatoes. I don’t buy seed potatoes. I cut up potatoes that have sprouted and plant the sections. Maybe I’d get a better harvest if I planted seed potatoes? Does anyone have any words of wisdom about this?

    I would have spring onions if I dug them up but this time of year Vidalia onions are in season and I am truly in love with Vidalias. So I’ve let my onions and leeks go to flower. They’re pretty in the garden and make good pollinators. They also reseed themselves and I transplant them for a new crop for harvest in winter.

    I didn’t plant squash this year since I wanted to dedicate most of my space to beans, field peas, and tomatoes. I don’t have a lot of luck with squash but other people do, so I tend to get a lot for free or can buy them cheap. This weekend I’ll make a squash casserole, and it will all be for me since my husband has a psychological aversion to squash. Summer squash and sweet onions is a great combination. When I freeze squash, I include Vidalias with it.

    When we were at Lake Waccamaw, we went to Dale’s a couple of times for lunch. Dale’s speciality is Calabash-style seafood, like most places in Southeastern N.C., but we were mainly there because of the fried summer squash. They deep fry thin slices and they are sweet and delicious. I have overdosed on fried squash before – seriously. When I cook it for myself I totally overeat it and get sick. I just dip very thin slices in a mixture of flour, salt, and pepper and saute it in oil in a skillet. They are really yummy if you can get them crispy like chips without burning them.

    It is really hot and steamy here after the deluges of rain this month. Today the forecast is for 95. Miserable. We turned on the A.C. Thursday night for the first time. We always wait as long as I can stand it. One year we made it to July 12. That’s my goal.

    Miss Jazz is making me crazy. She gets in the litterbox, and then sticks her butt over the side. Where is the logic, I ask her, but she just whines to be petted. And she is shedding like you wouldn’t believe. Throwing up hairballs. I can barely keep up with it. Today I started brushing her and now she won’t leave me alone. Her head is resting on my left hand right now. Makes it kinda hard to type.

    I had a meltdown about the trip to Alaska this week when I noticed that there is only a 45 minute layover in our flight schedule before the last flight that will get us to the cruise ship on time. Totally lost my temper with the customer service supervisor and nothing was resolved. They wouldn’t change it to an earlier flight gratis. It would cost over $100 for us to change it, plus we’d have to rent a hotel room or spend the night in the airport. So I’ve been trying to breathe and let it go. I get crazy before any big trip so giving me a reason to lose my mind is just plain cruel.

    I gleaned a lot of quality paper from the printing studio trashcans at the end of the semester, and I’ve been putting together text blocks for several sizes of books. Plus mining the free shelf at Ed McKay’s as usual. What I’m noticing is that I get these cool books that I plan to pull apart and find that I’m extremely reluctant to do so. So I’m trying to pick some books that I have no interest in other than the size and quality of the cover. I’ve covered a lot of them with crumpled tissue or other paper to give them texture, and yesterday I painted. I think that I’ll start binding some books today.

    My neighbor across the street is an abstract painter and has a nice studio. I asked him if he’d be interested in having a home show together before Christmas. I think that our work would combine nicely. He reacted positively so that gives me something to work toward.

    Okay, coffee pot is empty. Time to get moving and get to the farmer’s market before it is too hot to stand it!