These crazy days

It's all been different lately, hasn't it? The upside is the free time made available to many of us. My yard has occupied the majority of my time. Sewing masks for friends and worthwhile causes has filled a few hours, too. I was never one for going out and being the social butterfly, so I've been perfectly happy staying in the confines of my property these last several days. Of course, I miss hanging out with the gal pals, but thank the lord baby jesus, we have group texting.
Too bad we have that idiot in the White House on tv every day blathering his nonsense.

The soft opening of summer

Just like a new restaurant, the soft opening of this new season is Memorial Day. The real one will be the celestial day of fire and wishes for bumper crops of tomatoes and all the tasty summer veggies! The longest day of the year, before REAL Memphis summer sets in, to remind us how happy we are for air conditioners and wish the guy (or gal) who invented it gets a Nobel prize!
  The past weekend was very good and restful for me. After a night out of dancing to tunes from my youth, wherein I invoked the suggestion of dancing like no one is watching, I had a quiet, unplugged morning. A mind relieved of constant chatter is worth more than gold! Caught up on magazine reading, gave quiet thought to progress of next couple of art works, put my harried world aside for a moment.
   If you read my last missive, you will understand what next transpired. Yes. I jinxed myself. My bad. My firstborn young'un got back into my house. That's my bad, too. As my man friend says, solitudus interruptus. This happened last weekend, with large child promising to stay for only two days. It has been how many now? Which I have given constant updates on just how many?
   After four and a half years in the chair, I had come to grips with inherited enabling tendencies. Tough love was at the forefront, but in a weak moment it all fell to the wayside, and alas, I'm here now swimming in regret. So this day and the few before this one, I am gathering strength to fight the good fight to save my hard won solitude. Most of my lovely life (all the miserable days are distant sad memories now) I have cared for one person or another, and not regretted a day of it. As a daughter, a mother, a wife, a sister, all that time was freely and mostly lovingly given to that care. Those days are past. Time for me now, selfish as it sounds, I don't care. There's a line in the sands of time, folks!
   There's a summer waiting for me. Gardening, art making, dinner plans, lazy mornings and weekends, calling me to wander about in my big old house and yard, alone and loving it!

Okay, kids.

Having recently learned there ARE actual readers of this blog, I shall continue in this endeavor.
Today was a very good day. Work in the yard continues. Yesterday afternoon, the tree guys came to remove a dead limb that was hanging over the house. A couple days ago the wind was mighty and scared the crap out of me, because of the dead tree parts that could potentially crash through the roof into my kitchen, the heart of my home!
  The scare passed, but a phone call from the guy who had cut some tree limbs awhile back, made me think about the horror story of dead tree parts invading my home. So he came by to rid the danger of certain mayhem to my happy home.
   Then there was a big mess. But not for long. With help from the stalwart Mrs. Gleadhill, the leaves and sticks were dispatched to a lovely stick fire and raised garden bed. The driveway is swept, compost spread on the raised bed and plans made to remove another tree threatening to crash into other parts of the hovel.
    This is just another day on top of another where I feel empowered. I have been able to accomplish more than I ever thought I could a few years ago. Yes, some days I am tempted to indulge myself in sorrow and self pitying, especially when I miss my grandson and want to second guess how I could have handled that fucked up situation any differently. But, there's no going back for useless recrimination. I decided to love myself in spite of all that has passed. Looking at an ad in the newspaper the other day, I thought I might buy myself an engagement ring! Dang!!! I spent that money on trees!!
   The next self love fest will be tomorrow afternoon at the opening of collaborations show. Some other people who love me might be there. It will be a great day anyway. Many more good and great days are ahead of me. Seeds have been sown for this year's garden. New art works are waiting to be created. Blog posts will be written for those who are interested in reading about my wonderful, simple life. I love y'all too.

Promised photo

Here's the roaring stick fire from last Saturday. That pile of sticks put off a LOT of heat.

Speaking of heat, summer is definitely here now. 

New quilt

As was the original intent of this blog, here's good news about fiber art! I am halfway done with a new bed quilt. Quite an undertaking, I must say. I haven't worked on anything this big in YEARS!
I made up a "modern" quilt pattern and used some of my precious Japanese and  Asian print fabrics that I have been hanging onto for too long. Of course, I barely made a dent in the stash.....
  The fabric that makes it "modern" is a small grey and blue dotty print. The hard part is at hand...the quilting! It's only full size, but I'm not looking forward to handling all that fabric under my home machine. I did it before with good results and need to quit stalling and DO IT!!!!

In the same vein of artiness (?) I need to push myself to catch up on my Artist Trading Cards. Especially now that I have a little free time, which won't last forever. Here is a photo I'm altering for this month's theme in one of my swap groups. They need to be in the mail tomorrow morning, so I'd better get to getting on this project.

my mama

The Summer Solstice was Saturday morning, and of course, there was fire involved. Photo of that at a later date. It's on my phone....

Happy Solstice

Today is the longest day of the year and the actual event occurred at 12:04am. Of course, I was sound asleep then, so I celebrated around 6am with a flame from a table torch and coffee accompanied by biscotti. A lovely start to this auspicious day. 

Holidaze update

This is the card we sent out this year. Of course, the new bathroom is featured. The caption on the card says "Scrubbing up for the holidays". The decorations are staying up till New Year's.
   Last night I had a lovely solstice fire in the new fire pit and got a really nice photo with my Iphone. Now I have to figure out how to get the photo from the phone to here. If anyone has a suggestion on how to accomplish that, please leave a comment. The only thing I can figure is to send it to myself in an email and transfer it to my pictures folder, but I'm sure there has to be an easier way.
   The fire last night was so nice, I plan on having another one tonight.

Still here

The Mayans were either wrong or their math was flawed or who knows what all the calendar hooey was about or the world will end tomorrow morning.
   In any event, the solstice has arrived and, to honor that moment in time, I was outside at 5:12am Central time, watching flames on a tiki torch. Later today, I will have a proper fire with all the ceremonial accoutrement--holly branches, acorns, and notes to burn, to welcome the lengthening days and chase away the bad juju accumulated over the last 6 months. I upgraded to a better fire pit last week, so Vincent and I did a test run on it the other day. It was a raging success. The new pit is round and has an open top, which can be covered with a screen to prevent sparks from escaping. The chimnea I was using did a fine job for the last few years but I felt limited in flame viewing. You had to look at the fire through those holes. Now, it's kind of like surround sound for fire. Plus it holds way more sticks that the chimnea. All the wind we had yesterday knocked plenty out of the trees, so I can replenish my stick pile with a fresh batch of fuel for upcoming fires this winter. New Year's Eve would be an excellent occasion.