crafts – The Hermits' Rest

No more fried foods

Sigh. My lovely meal last night, which featured a cream-based soup, fried oysters, French-fried potatoes, and collard greens swimming in grease was a recipe for extreme discomfort for me, since I no longer have a gall bladder to spurt out extra bile for fat/filled meals. Needless to say, I didn’t have a fun night of sleep, or was I up for another nature day today.

Morning view was not bad. I looked for dolphins.

But Anita and I made the best of it by taking it easy this morning until I felt better. We then went to the Market Commons shopping area, which is like most such places, losing tenants. But we found Chico’s, where I could get a second pair of jeans to make up for forgetting to bring any. Um, and some shirts and shorts. We also enjoyed talking to the staff. They always have such nice old ladies in those stores (in other words, women our age).

We then visited an art gallery for local artists of varying qualities. I enjoyed some of it a lot, and of course, I got to chatting with the two women who were there. One was crocheting some simple dolls that she makes for the gallery (I forgot to get a photo). The other was creating cute coloring pages of the whimsical characters she paints.

The doll lady got me all interested in Sumi-e painting, which she studied after being told she had no talent for watercolor (what kind of teacher tells students that?). I may get a book and practice pad.

These practice pads look cool for any technique practice.

She was starting a doll and when I expressed interest, she told me exactly how she makes the bodies, which is ridiculously easy. But I wouldn’t have figured it out myself. She even sent me out with a crochet hook and some t-shirt fabric yarn to practice on. What a generous soul she was! I even have an idea to make similar items with knitted outfits.

I did buy two coloring books from the other lady, one as a gift for Ruby the goddaughter.

To make it up to Anita for sitting through the craft talk, I took her to a pleasant bistro near the gallery, where I had a sensible salad. She had a crab cake sandwich that she declared was good as one from Baltimore.

We enjoyed a nice beach walk, which I really needed. We wondered what the globs of clay-like stuff on the beach were, but assumed it was from dredging that’s going on. They are weird sights.

I’m reading a lot so I got another book at Barnes and Noble. I finished a book of Steve Martin’s writing, so I needed a longer queue. Eek, I now need to write two book reports! Two in the queue will take a while, Michael Pollan’s latest and Kevin’s history of Americans being mean to Cherokee people in the late 1700s. It’s important to learn these things to remind myself that assholes have been trying to put down others since this country was founded. (And yes, others had great ideals.)

On that note…off to bed in anticipation of fun tomorrow.

Now I understand modern art

What do you love now, that you hated when you were younger?

When I was young, I was all for art that looked pretty and looked like it was depicting something. It’s probably another one of my mother’s aesthetic choices that influenced me (she also hated tattoos, and while I don’t love them, I appreciate some of them). Mom was an artist and she had strong, if (now I realize) kind of bourgeois preferences.

She did like florals, and I’ve stuck with that, more because I love flowers than because I love still life.

When I was learning as much as I could about art, music, and literature in college, I was more fond of painting and sculpture up through Impressionism. After that, I could intellectually appreciate those Picasso shapes and angles, and the Mondrian squares, but I didn’t enjoy them. I could read about interpretations, but nothing moved me emotionally.

I can still remember the day it finally clicked. I was with a friend visiting museums in Houston in the 2000s. We went to the Menil Collection, which is housed in a modern building surrounded by a sculpture garden. First, I was so entranced by a large installation outside that I could barely go in.

I was so intrigued at how it was in the lawn. Menil Collection.

Then, as we walked around I came to be standing in front of a painting by Mondrian of white, yellow, and blue rectangles. I could see every detail, and was fascinated by its depth and warmth. This abstract piece moved me. I got how the simplified presentation could help your subconscious form its own associations. Ah.

Composition in yellow, blue, and white, Piet Mondrian, 1922, Menil Collection

So, now I’m more far ranging in my art appreciation, and that’s good at least for me. I’m not an art historian or connoisseur, so I could be making stuff up, of course. But I did enjoy the whole collection of “modern” art that day.

By the way, I’m reading a novel that’s also an art history class. I’ll review it when I’m done, but Mona’s Eyes is quite fascinating!

Birds of radically different feathers

My day today started off with spending a good while just watching a pair of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds flitting around and hanging out.

Usually if there are two males, they chase each other to defend their territory, but this male and female were just hanging out and maybe flirting. It was very calming to observe.

Bunnies were hard to distinguish from Lee’s mowing clumps.

The day (very long) ended with Kathleen presenting me with one of her diamond painting crafts. I knew she made them, but had never seen one before. I guessed (correctly) that she wasn’t surprising me with beautiful flowers, because she was suppressing a laugh as she came up to me, holding something behind her back. What was it? Well, she knows how much I like birds, so she tested my love of my avian friends by making me a bird I couldn’t like.

He’s watching me from the fireplace now.

I laughed so hard. It’s so nice and sparkly! It’s just the perfect gag gift! I love how we can poke fun at each other and enjoy stuff like this. We can all use a good laugh to keep us going.

Meanwhile, I did my nails all patriotic in preparation for a weekend trip. This polish looks like those rocket popsicles.

I’ll try to write tomorrow. I’m stepping out of my comfort zone.

Wish I was a spinner and a weaver

If you could instantly master any skill, what would it be and why?

You know what? The blog folks are asking different prompt questions now. That’s good, because my current work project is mind numbing and after two days of it, I’ve got a pretty good headache. I should finish by tomorrow, hopefully with my brain intact.

I did enjoy the first blossom on Lee’s canna lily.

So the best I can do for you today is answer the question of what skill I’d like to master instantly.

I’ve tried to learn to spin wool over and over. I know I CAN learn it, but I’ve never had the patience to keep trying with a drop spindle, and never had enough time with a spinning wheel to get a rhythm. I would truly love to just know how to do it and start enjoying spinning my own yarn minus the learning curve. Yeah, that’s cheating, I know.

Same with weaving. I can weave with a rigid heddle and know how to make tapestries. However, if I could instantly master a big ole loom and all those complex patterns…I’d be set for life. But that’s not happening. I should go make some placemats and not let Lee wash them in the machine (fate of my last woven placemats).

Good thing I do know how to knit and crochet well enough to make things I enjoy.

Speaking of crafts, today was the first day over 95° this year so I got to use wine in the temperature blanket today.

What else is in Waco?

We’ve been to Waco a number of times before, about once a year. It’s one of the closest cities to us and is in a pretty setting. We also go to Bryan/College Station sometimes and Temple, but Temple has no very interesting spots to visit, while the other two, having large universities, feature museums and a lot of Texas-y stuff. We avoid most of the yee-haw places and still find plenty to do.

You know you’re in Waco when you see this. Like they always show the Eiffel Tower in France, the Alico building symbolizes Waco. I don’t know much about it other than it survived a hurricane.

Before you delve into your travel advice, we know all about Dr Pepper, the Texas Rangers. those down-home Gaines people, and such. We didn’t go to any Baylor museums, since I figure I’ll go there at the October Master Naturalist annual meeting. It’s right here at this hotel.

Where did we go? First we went to the Lake Waco Wetlands, since I’d really enjoyed it there on a field trip a few years ago. Back then it was lush and green and filled with aquatic plants, insects, and birds. The lake was full.

My Master Naturalist group—this was my first field trip.

This year, it looked very different.

There was no boardwalk, the lake was dry, and typical prairie plants were growing everywhere. All the systems that used to filter the water were broken. I didn’t have the heart to photograph those. So, the visit was different. Nonetheless, we enjoyed walking around. I got many plant and bird observations, including an Indigo Bunting duet.

I pondered and hypothesized about what had happened to this place. I knew it was probably in the news. Yes, back at the hotel I read that flooding two years ago took out most of the infrastructure of this fascinating natural water filtering system. Please read this excellent report from last March about the plans to rebuild it so the equipment is less vulnerable. The article also gives the history of the wetland. Worth taking a break to read.

The second place we went also has an interesting story and is a ways outside of Waco. It’s Homestead Heritage, an intentional community that has been going for 50 years. Being near Waco, one’s first thought might be, “Run! It’s a cult!” And there are spiritual aspects and they do wear simple clothing. But really it’s a community where they create and teach old ways of doing things.

Each building is a renovated old one of a different style.

There is a cafe selling farm-to-table food, a cheese place, glass blowing, pottery, a forge (real!), leather work and so on. You can even take quick classes in most of the trades. (They also have longer classes.) I met a lovely birder/water colorist who’s doing a series on Texas birds. And I loved the handmade brooms. But my favorite part was the mill.

This mill is hundreds of years old and was moved to this location.

I could have watched it slowly create flour for hours, with all its wheels, belts, and pulleys. They grow the corn and wheat in the community. I got some grits after we enjoyed some delightful lemonade. Mine was watermelon mint, and I got to watch the young woman make it by hand. Lots of watermelon squishing. The lemonade concentrate was pre-made, by them.

The woodworking area was so organized and perfect. The woodwright was sharpening a set of chisels to give his apprentice so he’d stop using his. Ha! They have some really intense woodworking classes. I know my coworker would enjoy that part of the shop area. The hand tools were fascinating.

Of course I saved the best for last and had lots of fun at the knitting, spinning, and weaving shop. There were so many huge looms making complicated patterns of cloth. A spinner patiently showed a little girl how plying worked, much to the girl’s delight. I wish I had photos of the place, but I was too busy looking.

I really enjoyed this place. It reminded me of Silver Dollar City in Branson, but with just the craft parts. it wasn’t crowded, so you could really talk to the community members. They were friendly but not in a scary way. You get a good feeling from them. I later read they are pacifists. That kind of old-fashioned Christians. Hmm. Read more about Homestead Heritage for yourself on their site. I’m glad Kathleen mentioned finding this place.

After a nap, we ate a lot of sushi at a little restaurant across the street from the hotel. I enjoyed a boba tea, too.

I went for a walk by the river and observed many unhoused people enjoying the river view. There were also plenty of invasive plant species, bits of garbage, and endless loud motorcycles and farting tiny sporty cars. I’ll stop complaining about loud pickup trucks at home. This is worse. Still, the Brazos is beautiful. I also enjoyed walking around the convention center area.

All in all, we had a fine day in the Waco area! There’s lots to do beyond the obvious.

Broken Nail? Tea Bags to the Rescue

I wrote up instructions for my group of Color Street nail strip enthusiasts that I thought might be useful for some of my other friends who enjoy medium to long nails. Feel free to share by attribution and link.

I like my nails long, because I have short fingers. I wish I had another set of these strips.

No matter how strong fingernails are, accidents do happen. Sometimes nothing can be done, but more often a nail just breaks a little. Many times, unexpected pressure can cause a little break below the quick that you’d like to have grow out to keep your healthy nail bed covered.

Warning: If you break a fingernail and it bleeds or shows signs of infection, please get it looked at and treat it as a wound, not an inconvenience. Keep it clean and protected so it can heal. Don’t polish an infected nail or cover it with a press-on.

So your nail is healthy but broken and you want to grow it out a bit. That happened to me a couple of months ago (February kidding from the photo below). I looked down, and a straight cut on my left middle finger looked back at me, metaphorically. Of course, all my other nails were looking good. The break was about halfway between the quick and the cuticle, so removing the rest of the nail would have hurt and perhaps damaged my nail.

So, next time I changed my nail color, I protected the break with regular tea bags. You’ll find different kinds of paper holding tea, but they are all little meshes, and those meshes make them strong. They also allow nail polish to soak through them. And one bag lasts months, so you don’t waste tea.

Example

This nail was broken WAY below the quick, as shown above, too) but I’ve managed to grow it out to where it could be clipped. But, once it grew, the tea bags have held like iron. And it’s not very noticeable. The trick has been TWO layers of tea bag.

The poorly drawn arrow shows how far down the break originally was. It has grown out from there.

One layer works fine in many cases, especially on pinkies or if you don’t type and ride horses a lot (me). That’s why I do the following.

Method

2. Tear (do not cut) two pieces of tea bag that will more than cover the break. You don’t want it huge, but large enough to strengthen the broken area. If the break has grown out a bit, one piece should be able to wrap around. The edges will be a little jagged, which seems to help disguise the patch.

2. Put a layer of clear base coat on the nail.

3. Immediately place one of the tea bag pieces centered over the break. Be sure it covers the broken edge, where the patch gets the most pressure.

4. While it’s still wet, press the patch down to make the break area smooth. Yes you’re messing up the base coat, but it gets covered again.

5. Let dry.

6. Add another coat of base coat and place the other layer on it (this should not exactly match the first one, to make it smoother). Press it down. Make sure the tea bag is on smoothly.

You can see the tea bags, but the base coat gives a smooth (ish) surface for your pretty manicure.

7. If the break has grown above the quick, add a bit of base coat under the nail and fold the overlap under and smooth. I press it down with a nail stick. You don’t need much polish, and try to keep it off your finger—not easy.

8. Let it dry.

9. Add one more base layer to smooth the nail.

10. Let it dry.

11. Finally, you can put your strips on or paint your nails.

12. Then add topcoat.

Finished. It helps that it’s black, but honestly I can’t see the repair. This one worked!

Whew. This sounds more complex than it is. And it does take a while to do the drying. But by gosh, that repair sticks. I often find it hard to remove the tea bags when I reapply!

This is last week’s. You can see a little irregularity but only if you look hard.

Hints

I find that when the break is growing out, the repair can loosen, especially for the first few weeks. The break may even get a little bigger. Don’t give up! The layers of mesh and polish usually hold well.

Once past the quick, repairs hold really well. I type for a living, pull weeds, and mess with horses, and I have few problems.

If you have the option, dark or patterned nail colors disguise repairs best.

If a break covers more than half the nail, it’s less likely to successfully repair. Try to buff the area smooth before even trying.

Usually I just grow a break out long enough to trim smoothly, then shorten the rest of my nails, but it’s been fun to grow this one out.

The thumb in this picture is a break I grew out long enough to trim smoothly and cut the other nails down to match.

Additional ideas are welcome; this is just what works for me with fairly strong nails. Repairs are harder on weak nails or ones damaged by gels, dips, lacquers, etc. This I know from experience!

What’s Good?

It’s not totally rosy here at the land of hermits. But it’s never all bad. Today we focused on being a kind and supportive family. That’s good!

Other good stuff? I found more new wildflowers and many blossoms popping up. Such brave and hardy things they are.

And I got to wish my ever-youthful step-sister a happy birthday, only wishing I’d been there to share an old fashioned with her and her family.

Hmm…I must say this blanket project is pretty! That’s my final good thing.

Go hug your loved ones.

Hanging Out

My throat is still annoying and my nose is runny but I didn’t feel too awful today. I was able to go for a pretty good walk this morning and found some new wildflowers have popped up.

I also enjoyed lots of butterflies, even though our fields that are usually covered with a variety of flowers are heavy on the false dandelions.

I enjoyed spotting interesting things on the roadside other than trash that I picked up. There were some bursts of color and hidden beauty.

The horses are searching for green grass, bless their hearts. It’s way early for the soil to start cracking, but it is.

But HA! The skeet shooters didn’t stop the bluebonnets from blooming when they mowed the field. Yay!

Most of the day I relaxed and crocheted (a whole row of the wool blanket!) while chatting with Kathleen. We told stories, watched weird television shows, and spent time talking to the horses. Both our husbands were off working (Lee is in a writing groove upstairs and hasn’t been coming down much), so we filled the afternoon with conversation. It was a pleasant and stress-free interval of hanging out and recuperating! The big thrill was getting into her car and visiting the latest KCC Construction project and enjoying a Dairy Queen treat. That’s the best we could do for excitement, but it was good enough and kept our spirits up.

I’m sure these ladies were jealous of our fun.

My hope is that I’ve built enough strength to get my paid and volunteer work done next week and Kathleen has enough strength for all her doctor visits. It may be a challenging week.

There’s Always Time for a Story or Two

I broke my blogging streak yesterday, but I just didn’t have the brain power to do it. My brain was too feeble to put together even my usual simple sentences. I’m still dealing with this virus today, but I have more energy, so I’m gonna say I’m on the mend. (Yes, I know there’s a new COVID strain, and yes, I will get the booster because I’m at risk due to my advanced age.)

This is my picture from yesterday when I felt sickly.

It’s story time, nature observation time, life update time, or whatever. First, I’m cheered every time I go outside these days, because some of my favorite sounds are back, Barn Swallows and White-eyed Vireos. I’ll be tired of them eventually, but right now, those songs convince me it’s spring.

White eyes! Photo by Brad Imhoff. These guys hide in trees, so I rarely see them.

I’m looking forward to seeing hummingbirds soon, because our red yucca are starting to bloom. These are good signs when all the grass is brown and crunchy.

This stuff is nice and green, but the Bermuda grass beside it should be green, too.

Second is another tale of rural living. Yesterday I didn’t feed the horses their supplements, and neither did Kathleen due to recovering from her recent issue. Today I felt up to it, and marched into the tack room (which smells good because it’s the WOMEN’S room and we can turn on the Scentsy diffuser. I digress.

It came time to give Dusty his two scoops of bran powder, and when I reached into the bin, the bran moved. I guess the lid on this bin needs to be very securely attached. Yep. A mouse. One of the little ones. I tried to scoop it out and that’s when the whole dang bin began to move. More than one mouse. They started to try to fling themselves out, as they do. I did not want them in the tack room!

I did NOT take pictures today, so here’s the henhouse mouse.

So I bravely dragged the bin outside, grateful that the bran stuff isn’t very heavy. I did my best to encourage exiting by angling the bin downward, but of course the rodents tried to climb up or bury themselves in the bran. My goal was for zero mice to crawl up my arms. I succeeded! In the end, SIX mice scampered away. I hope something eats them.

Maybe they went over to chicken world where there is corn.

How did six of them get in the bin? There’s not any mouse poop around since Kathleen cleaned the room. Maybe they were in there when the bran was put in? Mystery. Even AI can’t solve that one. I do assure you, though, that I put the lid back on very tightly.

Lids must stay secure or critters will get in. Stock photo.

Later, Kathleen helpfully offered up the theory that if they’d kept eating the bran they’d have gotten all swollen and died. Eww. Now that’s in my head.

Boom! Note mouse has 3 tails. Quality AI.

So, to change the subject, I want to share how happy I am with a work development. Today I was meeting with a colleague on my new project and we got to talking about our previous lives. And talking. And laughing. And blathering away in geeky grad student language about our original fields of study, linguistics and folklore. At some point we were practically giddy about how much we have in common. And some of it is pretty niche far left cultural stuff that you usually don’t get to talk to random coworkers about.

I didn’t mention crafts to her, but hey, five rows of my blanket!

Then she told me the other woman running the project I’ve been brought in on is secretly a cultural anthropologist. I’d never have guessed.

I’m quite thrilled to have gotten to know someone just as weird as me who speaks the same quasi-intellectual language I used to speak. Sometimes I do miss aspects of my earlier years, and learning is one of them. My new friend and I both admitted we could stay in grad school the rest of our lives. I’d just keep getting Master’s degrees to go with all my interests!

I guess today was not all bad. It was quite interesting and satisfying. Hope yours was, too.

Truly Enjoyable Day

Every so often you get to enjoy a whole day where there’s peace, beauty, fun, humor, and a little accomplishment thrown in. Today was such a day. Why was it so good?

Walking! I didn’t walk all that far today, but I enjoyed it. On my first walk I noticed all the grass and such is already crunchy and brown thanks to scant rain and that freeze a week ago. But there were white evening primroses, which are even more delicate than their normal pink friends.

These are just pale versions of pink evening primroses, not a different species.

Later in the afternoon I went out again with Kathleen, since walking is helping her recuperation. I showed her how big the puffball mushroom in the front field has gotten, and we found a thick patch of verbena next to the rye crop across the road. Apache would sure love that field.

Calves! There are many cow-calf pairs in the field behind us right now. The babies are getting more adventurous and frisky, which is always entertaining. I love the brave and curious ones who try to get the dogs to play. This one with the white spot had a lot of fun with Penney and let me talk to her a while.

Crafts! We watched some television this afternoon and evening, which gave me time to work on my patchwork blanket. I got through all but one square on the fourth row. It looks pretty cute. I have some ideas for it once I join all the squares.

Funny things! I have two funny things to share. First happened yesterday. I went to the birding hut to re-start Merlin after it had been running a while. I wanted to write down the new species in my notebook but I couldn’t open it. That was odd. I finally peeled the pages apart, and I really perturbed a bold jumping spider who had managed to build a web nest in the book in just over an hour! I encouraged her to relocate.

Second story was from today. When we went to feed the poultry, I once again found no eggs in the boxes. You could see someone had been sitting in them. But none were chosen for egg laying.

You may remember that last week Kathleen cleaned the henhouse. New pine shavings were put in the boxes and on the floor.

Before we went to the horses, I got a notion and had Kathleen wait while I checked something. Sure enough, there were four eggs in the old nest boxes we still have up for when we get new hens. I guess Cindy and Cathy don’t like the pine shavings. I’ll have to get them some straw. No photo because (gasp!) I left my phone in the house!

We prefer the little nest boxes, with no nesting material.

Well, okay, Cochins. Lay wherever you want to.