Honestly, I’m not up to much writing or deep thinking right now. I’m not interested in discussing what’s going on with myself or in the world. So…let’s talk plarn.
Here it is.
I mentioned last week that my friend Steve’s cousin had made many balls of plarn, which is strips of plastic from those ubiquitous plastic shopping bags. The cousin had been very busy, and made them much more even and consistent than my early attempts. I brought them home and promised to make something to give to a charity. But first I had to experiment.
Actually, first I had to do my Independence Day nails.
I got caught up to today in the Temperature Blanket, so I played with the plarn this afternoon. I looked for patterns but mainly saw bags, baskets, and mats for unhoused people or however you say it.
My first test was crochet with a giant hook
Most patterns I saw were for crocheted projects. I tried to start the circular thing above but it didn’t look so great. I needed a slightly smaller huge hook, but who knows where that might be. So I gave up on crochet for today.
First knitted sample
That seemed to be a religious fabric, because it was certainly holey. Ha ha, I mentioned religion. I am afraid my giant purple knitting needles were too big. I always have to go down a couple of sizes.
Okay, that’s better.
This sample was with 10.5 US needles. It looks at least somewhat solid. So I keeps going with this one, enjoying the slight color changes as she changed bags. every so often she threw in a colored bag. I’m glad I made a sample, because I can tell I got more smooth at knitting with the plarn as I went along.
I’m sure future projects will have smoother edges.
I found that edge pretty ugly, but I came up with a plan to pick up along the edges. That was fun. I think this project is a MAT. It will be built up log cabin style from here on.
Note how the ugly edge is gone. Heh heh.
Maybe it will be an item for dogs at the pound or something. It would be easy to clean…
It’s hard to come up with fun things to make, because you can’t make classics like hit pads, place mats, etc. it would melt. I’ll be honest. I don’t know how practical plarn items will actually be.
Today didn’t go quite as planned, but it ended up okay. After an enjoyable rainy morning chat with Kathleen about what’s going on and her plans for the immediate future, I got some work done.
Isn’t this moth beautiful? It’s apparently a blackberry looper moth.
The sun came out soon enough, so I went out and found some more newly emerging wildflowers and a very cool fungus in the woods. I love my nature breaks.
Baby blue eyes! Bristle mallow Fan-shaped jelly fungus
The afternoon was supposed to be spent looking at potential four-wheel drive vehicles to tow behind Seneca the Motorhome, then some grocery shopping. Indeed, much car and truck looking ensued.
Truck that is $120K new. It has a built-in cooler.
I guess we lucked out, because exactly what we wanted was at the dealership, which was a used two-door Jeep Wrangler. Best of all, it was a 2023 with, get this, 1700 miles on it. The previous owner probably didn’t want such a low-frills vehicle. But for bopping around campgrounds and exploring nearby sights while Seneca stays parked, it’s ideal.
Beep beep
Though small, Lee can get in it easily. That’s good, because it will have to be his daily driver until we get a farm truck or something to pull the horse trailer. The trade-in on Lee’s previous vehicle was more than the purchase price of the Jeep (and that was way off its original price), so we aren’t out anything, either.
A Suna-sized car. No weird graphics or exterior bling. Good.
And, we enjoyed talking to Mark, our salesman, who is our age and has more horses and dogs than we do! That commonality helped pass the endless car-buying hours. His paint horses were so beautiful. I got his business card. Also there was knitting. Thankfully.
Temperature blanket through today.
We still have to get the towing hitch put on the Jeep and finish some things up, so Lee will get to talk to ole Mark more tomorrow. I tell you, I was pleasantly surprised at how quiet and comfortable the car is on the inside, compared to ones I’d ridden in before. And it’s pretty peppy. I never was a huge fan of these cars, but this one will be just great. It’s a bit rough in the suspension department, but it’s an off-road vehicle. It’s supposed to be rough.
Simple interior.
Another thing I’ll tell you is that I do NOT plan to take the thing apart. Maybe the front roof panels, but that’s it. I’m not mechanical enough to put pieces back together correctly!
By the way, we never made it to the grocery store.
This question intrigued me. And answering it is way more fun than talking about my anxiety attack from today. Ugh. I let something get to me today. So, hmm.
1. My glasses. I rely on my eyes so much! How could I read, write, look at birds, and knit easily without them? I’m so glad eyeglasses were invented.
I want to see things like this amazing swamp privet in the back pond area near the spring (Forestiera acuminata). I had no idea it was there.
2. My car. Not only is it pretty (red leather!) and zippy, but it’s my only way to get to food, friends, and non-ranch fun. I don’t want to hitch Fiona to a wagon to get supplies!
I’m relieved.
3. Knitting Needles. Weird but true. I need to knit to stay even semi-sane. I’d say I need a pair of circular size 4 US needles and I’ll be set for life. I can knit with any yarn-like stuff. String, strips of cloth, wire…whatever.
This is the progress on 2023 for my friend. The dark are isn’t very pretty from a distance.
There you have it. I am sure my answers aren’t typical!
Today, other than dealing with mental challenges, Lee and I went to Temple to look for containers to put in my “new” nonfunctional freezer that will store horse food and foil those darn mice for good. Thanks to our neighbor for painting it red just before it died. It looks good. Now we just have to work out the storage method.
Latches were added to prevent creatures from breaking in.
Lee even treated me to an early birthday lunch, which was fantastic. Seared tuna with a great salad. And I got free dessert!
Other than that, I mostly hung out with the birds and plants. That brings peace.
First dewberry blossomOld bird nest Bluebonnets!Gulf fritillary Wandering pond turtleYeah. More spring beauties. Look at the pink stamens!Wood sorrel. I love the patterns on these thistle leaves. Mushroom cap with dew.
There is good news! Apache isn’t mad at me today. He even picked up his feet so I could take his boots off. I think he should only wear them a couple days at a time. It’s rubbing off his hair.
It’s still all rainy, but I managed to do nothing but stuff I enjoy. There was no horse fun, just slogging through mud and arguing with Apache over his medicine. I had bird and plant fun, though. Whoopee, the bluebonnets are coming in strong.
The Star-shaped leaves are them.
I indulged my boring American self and watched football coverage most of the day. I especially enjoyed the segment on the history of football on CBS. It was interesting to see the women and people of color highlighted. Jayne Kennedy also is a role model of grace and cool hair.
While I watched all the coverage and the very close game, I finished the third row of this year’s temperature blanket. I like seeing a more normal winter range.
January 1 – February 10
Today isn’t shown, but will get 4 rain chains, since it rained another inch. Luckily we just got lots of standing water, and the creek stayed within its banks.
It’s getting greener, but we can still get another freeze.
I needed to get some movement in today, so I wound some pretty yarn into cakes. It’s a soft merino 4-ply in a DK or sport weight. I’m glad it’s not sock yarn or I’d have had to double it. My friend Ray at Knitivity dyed it, and I just love the colors. Here’s what I made:
It’s mitered granny squares. They will look cool when there are more of them. Since the yarn is thin, the fabric will be light, yet warm. I think this will be a rectangular wrap, unless I have enough yarn for a lap blanket. Well wait and see.
The first one.
I’ll still keep working on the two temperature blankets, but the 2023 one for my friend will finish sooner rather than later, and I can then crochet this.
As for the Big Game, I enjoyed it. I’m glad it was close so both teams can be proud of themselves. The commercials were good. As long as a couple make me laugh, I consider it a win, and I certainly laughed enough. The music was all good, and a nice variety. I like that Reba didn’t overdo the National anthem.
And Usher was such an athletic guy, all while singing. The roller skating, too! The guest performance singers were also enjoyable. I’m sure there were famous people I didn’t recognize, but I’m bad with pop music.
I knew eventually I’d stop being able to keep up! I feel like my dad saying all my music sounded alike to him. On the other hand, I’ve never really liked pop music, dance music, or the hip hop as much as folk and rock (and classical), so I’ll cut myself some slack. Maybe one day I’ll immerse myself into the last 20 years and learn what Beyoncé, Taylor, and all those folks sang.
Are there any activities or hobbies you’ve outgrown or lost interest in over time?
Probably many of us have waxed and waned in interests throughout life. My hobbies have remained pretty darned consistent, though. I did stop sewing (mostly quilts) for some reason, around the time when my other upheavals were heaving (divorce and nonprofit organization going up in flames). I still like reading, knitting, horses, nature, and hiking. Oh, and fingernail polish. That’s a weird one.
The amount of doing of any one thing goes up and down, of course. It’s part of the carousel of time. Oh wait, that’s some old song.
Speaking of carousels, my horses have made me feel like I’m on one lately. Up and down. But hey, today the horsies are on the up side (by the way I read that PETA wants to ban representing horses on carousels because that encourages people to think of them as conveyances — oy).
I vote for snapping turtles on carousels. (I ran into this one while bird watching in the woods.)
In addition to receiving their charming custom halters in the mail today, Apache and Drew both are doing better.
Tarrin came here again today for training and we ended up having a lot of fun. First she worked with the Problem Child, Droodles. He was much less reactive today, and after a bit of work on politeness, was able to get in some good ground work, including cantering (some even good cantering).
I laughed at how disdainful they appeared. He seemed to look forward to his massage. Looking goodAh, look at that rounded back. He stopped nice and straight. So did Tarrin.
I had no trouble working with him, either, though he had a little canter meltdown that I took care of just fine. I’m improving.
Apache seemed glad to get back in the saddle today. Like he did yesterday, he did groundwork with glee. Tarrin said his canters were impressive, and that he did flying lead changes, like a fancy horse. He had so much energy that it was catching.
We did have to calm down when I got to ride him (yay!). Luckily all that rushing around tired him out a bit. We had some nice success working on a relaxed walk and some smooth trot transitions. That was so much fun to work on.
We’re both a bit old to be doing this but we don’t care.
It appears he didn’t lose what we’d been working on before the abscess. That doesn’t surprise me. He’s always been able to pick right up where he left off. I’m so proud of him.
After we finished, Tarrin, her cousin, Lee, and I all went in the tack room and went through some of the stuff that came with the trailer. Some things there were so many of that I donated them to the prize collection for Working Horse Central shows. I should have thought of that sooner.
Tarrin was great at spotting what was trash (mechanical hackamores, stud chains) and treasures (this custom bit I’m trying to clean up).
It’s signed!
She also encouraged me to take parts of some of the fancy bridles off and see if they would work on Apache’s bitless bridle. Now he has a fancy brow band. I can’t wait to try it on.
It will look better on.
By the time they left, the prizes took up lots of space in Tarrin’s truck, plus I was able to give her cousin a horse blanket and other things. I got some really nice brushes I didn’t realize were in there. Pretty exciting stuff!
Daily Bird
I was saddened to see that my big bird recording got trashed this morning, but I was able to remember most of what it heard. Besides, my walk in the woods was fun, since I got to see plants, fish, and the snapping turtle.
I’ll give you this photo and not one of the hairy fungus growing on cow poop. You’re welcome.
I’ll let those cheerful red-winged blackbirds be bird of the day, since I talked about their pals the cowbirds yesterday.
My dad hated these guys. The males would always go after him at our South Florida house when he was mowing the grass between our property and a Corps of Engineers canal. He also said they never shut up. That’s sort of true, though the house sparrows have them beat.
I didn’t realize the females arrived before the males until this year. They just make a clicking sound as they fly overhead in large flocks. The males show up around Imbolc and perch in trees or on wires loudly singing their distinctive songs. They make me think of wildflower season. Of course, there aren’t many of those yet. Just the tiny ones.
This speedwell blossom is about 1/4” wide.
I hope you’re able to find an up part on your life carousel. But it’s true that getting to a high point is more fun when you start low. I think.
Dang. These blogs would be a LOT better if I wasn’t always writing when I’m sleepy.
What do you enjoy doing most in your leisure time?
This answer will be pretty boring if I give the same answers I’ve given to three or four other blog prompts. Yes, indeed, I enjoy knitting and looking at birds and horses. Most of you know that if you’ve visited this blog before.
Look, a bird. It’s a loggerhead shrike.
But, is there another leisure activity I enjoy? In warm weather I hang out by the pool. That counts. And I read about horses, architecture, and home decorating. The latter helps me deal with what a jumbled mess my own house is right now.
What I’ll read when I’m finished writing this
I think my favorite leisure activity is socializing these days. After staying away from people for so long, I am enjoying seeing friends again. I want to do more of it, but I forgot a couple things this week. Lunches, coffees, meetings, etc., are so nice for breaking up the work day!
Today my friend came over and I did her nails for a party. They look good!
Keeping in touch with friends online is another favorite. Yes, I admit I visit Facebook and valiantly scroll and scroll until I find posts from friends. It’s so great to stay in touch, get advice, and learn that way. Most importantly, I can provide support to others by being available online to listen. I do a lot of that lately.
Yeah, not too exciting, is it? But damn, this is what I’ve looked forward to my whole life: a time to enjoy the little things and the people I care about. I hope it lasts a while.
Now for stories. I went out to feed the horses and saw Drew standing by the fence, staring intently. What? I went on up to get the feed dishes, and something caught my eye behind me. It looked like this:
Hello!
The horses weren’t at all happy to see Fiona wandering around eating fresh clover. I just wondered how she got there.
How come SHE doesn’t have to stand in the mud?
When I took their food to them I saw that the lower wire on the temporary electric fence had come loose. The big horses were still held in the pasture, but Fiona could walk right under the live wire. Clever donkey.
Easy exit for a short animal.
The wire is fixed now.
Speaking of wires, little Carlton got the staples out where he had a lump removed. Lee found out the biopsy results, too. The lump was a completely encapsulated stick, probably a cactus thorn. It had gotten infected, so he has antibiotics, but should be fine.
However, Goldie managed to nearly rip out a toenail today. It must have hurt a little!
And I do have daily birds today. The rain finally let up, which pleased the birds a lot. We even had two birds returning from their winter hangouts! I heard and saw a purple Martin, and I heard a whistling duck. Cameron residents better get ready for lots of trees full of chattering ducks. Love those guys.
Sure, I can list five things I do for fun. But let’s make it more interesting and find five fun things to do on a very wet and soggy day.
1. I can listen to birds. Ha, I do that fun thing most days. Today my phone survived listening for birds in light rain, for which I’m grateful. There was a heck of a lot of singing and calling, along with flitting and swooping. Even the owl and kingfisher joined in the chorus in the late afternoon.
Everything glistened.
2. I can inspect the creek to see if it’s flooding, really flooding, or the floodiest. It was really flooding. The water didn’t go over the bridge, but it sure spread out. All sorts of islands had formed.
I can’t even see the other side. These trees washed up. Islands in the stream. Looking north
I also had fun seeing how the water flowed. I discovered that the big cedar elm I enjoy is so big because it’s in a springy spot.
Also check out the cool pink lichen.
3. I can hang out with wet horses. Oh my, I have a lot of grooming ahead of me when it dries. But everyone was friendly and didn’t mind that they all got the same food and supplements this one time.
Apache had been refusing his medicine, but I tried burying it in a new cranberry apple pill pocket treat today and it went in. I wish I could talk to him and explain how much he needs the meds. I should have mentioned that yesterday.
We still don’t trust you after that umbrella incident.
4. I can cook warm and nutritious foods. Yes, I am trying to cook more. Today I made a thick bean soup with beef and veggies. The beans were some dried kind that started with an “a” (I discarded the bag too soon). They had a creamy texture I liked. But wait, I found them. They’re Peruvian beans or canary beans. Peruano Mayacoba in Spanish. They do not start with “a” after all.
I used some of that new-ish “Better Than Bouillon” stuff for the base. It’s quite tasty and doesn’t appear to be full of harmful ingredients. I’m figuring out recipes that don’t use sugar and carbs that my household will eat. It’s a fun challenge, especially since I’m a big fan of carbs. But I also eat anything, so I can adapt.
5. I can knit. Knitting is always fun, especially the temperature blankets. The soggy day had so little temperature change that I almost ended up with a solid colored square today. But I got two greens! 50-56°.
Soggy, very soggy.
This isn’t a very imaginative list of fun things. It’s stuff I do most days, if you categorize looking at floods as analyzing the weather. But that tells me something: I have fun every day, rain or shine, summer or winter. Simple pleasures for the win!
Well, that’s a question with a lot of assumptions behind it. Who says all bloggers go to college? I’d have preferred something like, “Where did you get your education?” (From where?) I realize there are people would give flippant answers, like “the school of hard knocks,” but you’d also get interesting insights into folks with non-traditional paths.
Mother Nature is also a great teacher.
I was VERY traditional. After four years of attending a large high school in suburban Ft Lauderdale, Florida (unfortunately named Plantation High School), I spent four years at a large state university. The years at the University of Florida had a lot of good parts. I learned a lot, screwed up my personal life irreparably, and thoroughly enjoyed living in my home town again. My studies focused on linguistics, Japanese, and cinema studies (my boyfriend’s major). I’m extremely grateful to the National Merit Scholarship system, which allowed me to attend college even though my family was not well off and my mother had many medical bills.
See the bright spot under the sun? That’s the bit of flooding we got last night. It was a good rain.
I then went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for graduate school. Fun fact: both the schools I attended have orange and blue as their school colors. At least gators add green to the mix. UI are the Fighting Illini, which I was shocked to discover pronounced the last two vowels like “eye,” not “ee.”
There I studied pragmatics, syntax, and semantics. I learned to write well and to teach adults. I loved teaching. Academic writing, not so much. My topic got really boring, which is why I’m not a professor right now.
My favorite thing on campus was the beautiful statue of Alma Mater welcoming students and graduates, by Lorado Taft. It was always a happy sight.
Image in Public Domain
If you’re still awake, I can give you my highlights of the day. First, I finished my giant three-part 2023 temperature blanket.
Part 3, on a chair.
The last square is a handy key to the colors. I included the white, silver and purple that would have indicated 0° to 25° even though it never got that cold. Maybe this year! Or not! I could do without the Polar Vortex they keep threatening us with.
Far left is 105-109, far right is 0-4.
I’ll write up an official summary once I figure out how to get a photo of the whole thing.
Daily Birds
Second, two birds made me happy today. One was the first bird Merlin heard, a yellow-bellied sapsucker. I think I’ve now recorded all the woodpeckers that live here.
When I lived in Illinois, we had a sweet gum tree in our back yard. Every year one of these little guys would come and drill a new row of holes in that tree. It was so much fun to watch it working away, and the holes were a wonderful remembrance.
The other bird that brought joy today has already been the Daily Bird, but I was excited to actually see the great horned owl today. Yes, that blob in the photograph was hooting.
I also enjoyed my sparrow buddies a lot. The Harris’s sparrows were singing and playing this afternoon. I hadn’t heard them in a few days. They fed in the trees next to me for a while, so I got good views, though obscured by branches. Here are some photos of them, the other sparrows, and cardinals in the brush and trees. Yes, it’s a brown world right now, but I like brown.
Do you play in your daily life? What says “playtime” to you?
I’ll answer this: yes, often. We all should play.
I hang out with birds and plants every day, just for fun, and nominally for research. I’m not doing it for seeing the mist or the rarest birds. I just want to understand what lives where I do.
Loggerhead shrike looking at me.
I mess around with horses. It’s because I love them. They are fun to play with even when things don’t quite work out. Like today, when it rained throughout my lesson, and Drew was not feeling good for some reason. But it worked out and we learned that he pays attention to me! I’m not in it to be the best, but to enjoy improving my skills and keeping my horses happy and healthy.
The storm clouds heading my way.
I craft, mostly knitting and crocheting. It used to be serious for me. I wanted to be known for my skill. Now I make things to enjoy or to experiment. I don’t care if anyone copies my patterns, if I’m making the trendy thing in the trendy yarn, or if I churn out 20 sweaters a year. I just have fun playing with yarn.
Next-to-last square on the 2023 temperature blanket. This one is the highest high and lowest low.
I hike! I walk! I hang out with friends! I blog! I play! It’s all for fun.
Because it’s fun.
I hope you’re having fun in this, the only life you’re going to have this time around.
What’s this? I’m knitting with hand spun yarn (by a person named Genevieve) that’s distinctly not acrylic sport weight. Why, it’s wool, silk, and sparkles! It’s not making a mitered square. It’s in the round!
I’m enjoying doing something different, using my pretty wood yarn bowl, and feeling natural fibers. It’s a K1 P1 cowl. I need one for all this outdoor stuff I do. But I’m not being unfaithful.
September and most of October
The thing is that I finally, after all this time, caught up to today! And since a cold front just blew through, I’m not sure what today’s low will be. You can see the last ten days were pretty okay. Not over 95° so I didn’t have too much heat trouble.
However, as you can see, we’ve finally had a rainy spell. And with rain came humidity. So sweating had occurred. You can easily spot the 6” of rain we had this week!
So, from now on, I’ll knit a square per day. I’m looking forward to the cooler colors for the next few days. I even ordered more blue, optimistically. And I’ll make a few little things. I seem to have lost all my fingerless mitts or moths ate them, so I guess that’s next.
Here’s the cute label for my cowl yarn.
I can’t write about much else. I’m pretty anxious right now. Send me good thoughts. Knitting helps some, as will a visit from friends this evening.
The Hermits' Rest 