Weary....Just Weary.....

I know many of us are weary of many a thing of late.

Weary of the same walls around us, weary of being told how far to stand from others, weary of not being able to share a good meal with good friends, weary of not being able to "touch" our loved ones, weary of wondering how long this will last, weary of there being no toilet paper or cleaning supplies when you finally find your bra and go to the store.

And weary of being weary.

Easter morning greeted us with another round of the white stuff....I can't even be sure of the totals...I know it could have been worse...but it certainly couldn't have been at "all" in my book. That, of course, was followed by bitter winds and unseasonable cold (as in single-digit kind of cold).

And, yeah....I'm weary of that too.

Snow Dog, however, seems more than content.

I have no finishes to show you...and trust me when I say my WIPs aren't worth showing right now.

I did splurge on a 9.5 cutter blade for my Townsend cutter....I am seriously considering undertaking a simple, but large (ok, large to ME), hooking project (I can't believe I am thinking of doing this)...and know I will need a very wide cut to even give me the courage to THINK I want to do this.  (I know torn strips would go faster and be more economical but while I love the look of torn strips, there is something about tearing them in less-than-precise widths that rubs my OCD personality the wrong way.) 
 Someone talk me outta this.

I know this may come as shocking to you, but I have not much else to say.

So I will leave you with this photo of my niece and the "new kid on the block."

Doesn't get much cuter than a girl and her goats. 

Hermitage Interruptus

I interrupted my hermitage this morning to exercise my great American privilege of voting.  

Our town hall is not far...especially as the crow flies...so there is not much to see along the way.  I neglected to take a photo of the town hall.  I suspect many of you would find it amusing if not charming....all 1 room of it.

But I can never pass this old homestead without a pause.

I know I am not alone wondering what lives were lived here...what memories were made....and why did it end like this? Will the good earth just swallow things up again someday??

(No one even bothered to remove the license plate.  Next time I go by, I will need to look more closely for a year on the plate.)

(These were just two of the many vehicles "resting" here.)

The old "suicide" doors as they were called (like the doors in the car in the above photo) are not much seen these days, although they are making somewhat of a comeback with new safety features of course.

I have always found them intriguing - if only for their namesake.  They actually harken back to the days of horse-drawn carriages and were convenient for the ladies and their large (often hooped) skirts.  They could simply "back into" their seats and easily step out at journey's end. 

They were particularly popular during..and are most usually associated with...the 1930's and the era of the "gangsters."  They were an easy way for rivals and undesirables to be "disposed" of, shall we say?

I also believe that these were the types of doors on the car that President Kennedy was riding in when he was assassinated. 

The doors today that open in this manner are obviously no longer referred to as "suicide" doors...and car manufacturers are chagrin at the reference I am told.  Those bold enough to include them call them "coach doors," "rear-access doors," or "freestyle doors."  And, as I mentioned, there are now safety features. Most won't open unless the front door is opened or if the vehicle is going more than a minimal speed.

Stick with me....you never know what kind of useless information you will pick up LOL and you can never know what to expect with my posts, can you?

How my mind wanders these days.

In any event, I have voted.  I only found two typos in the ballot.  A new low record for our county.

Even with my lollygagging, I was home in time to "finish" finish this little piece.  I punched it years and years ago, but never "did" anything with it after the punching was done.  After I framed it, though, I realized that I was going to do a decorative stitch on the wool around the punched area.  Oh well.  Serves me well for taking so long in the finishing I guess. I love the French knot "flowers" on top of the blooms.

("Night Burglar" by Sean Williams/Threads That BindSean )

Until next time, be well, stay well.

A Different Kind of Quiet

It's day whatever of the lock-down in Nod.  Yes, the indiscriminate reach of this new plague extends even to places as cold and forlorn as Nod.  When asked how I am tolerating the isolation, I respond that it really isn't much different for me than life was before the Plague.  I am accustomed to spending my time alone...and, specifically, at home alone, so that is nothing new.  I am also easily entertained and amused and, heaven knows, I have enough projects (fun and otherwise) to keep me occupied for several natural (and otherwise) lifetimes.

And life in Nod has always been, for the most part, quiet. 

But even this Quarantined Crow must admit that it is a different kind of quiet.

It is too early for the farmers to be in their fields and, apparently, we don't have too many "essential" workers living out this way because there are few, if any, cars that pass.

It is too cold to do outdoor things and that "ugly" adolescent-ness of spring is upon us so that nothing is green, but nothing is really white anymore as what snow remains seems dirty and used.

It is as if life was suddenly "paused."

We do not have children here that need to be schooled and I imagine life is quite different and not so serene in those homes that do....but that happy chaos does not reach here.

So, I carry on doing what I have been carrying on doing for so long now.... 

No - no closets emptied, no drawers organized; no purging, no downsizing, no tossing....No spring cleaning, no rearranging of furniture, no painting. No. Nope. Nada. 

I am, after all, a creature of habit.

I have not had much inclination to decorate for Easter. 

But a few things have found their way upstairs....

{Wax chicks by the talented Misi from 1890 Gable House Goodes}

{Felted carrots I made years and years ago in one of my favorite bunnies}

My plan to get binding wool to finish my Gillford runner...and perhaps a new hooking pattern and wool...was thwarted by the lock-down.   So, I have continued to stitch until I get up the nerve to pick up my Welcome Cat rug again.  This week I bit the bullet and actually made this stitching into the pinkeep it was supposed to be:

The pattern is from Scattered Seed Samplers and was part of the Birds of a Feather Handworkes club.  It is appropriately entitled Set Free. 

I know many are longing to be "set free" and my heart goes out to those who are much more affected by this pandemic than I:  Those whom the illness has touched directly and/or indirectly, those who have lost their jobs or been laid off indefinitely (including my Little Crow), those who are on the front lines in health care or "essential" job functions, those who have been thrown into uncertainty of having their life savings and retirement accounts reduced to a mere fraction of what they were, and those whom this plague has isolated.  I worry for my mum and those others who are in assisted living facilities, nursing homes and the like and are not allowed visitors. Dementia is cruel as we know, and my mother can be told 100x a day why no one from her family visits her, but she cannot remember.  All she must feel is total and utter abandonment.  Our economy, our country, and our world will not be the same.  But I hope that some of the "difference-ness" that results will be of the good sort.

And despite all the hardships, fear and uncertainty that has accompanied this plague, I hope a little piece of each of us can be grateful that we live in a place where, despite a pandemic of epic proportions, we can be safe and warm in our homes, work and attend school from our homes, communicate (albeit not in person) with loved ones, and have food in our pantries and refrigerators.

  Maybe not toilet paper...but, hey....life's never gonna be perfect.

Rajah Roo practicing "social distancing"

Stay well and stay safe.

Dia Duit

Dia Duit to all my Irish friends....

and top o' the day to all you non-Irish folk.

("Basket O' Luck" from Pineberry Lane's Little Shamrocks)

 There's 3-6" of snow headed our way and I am sick so I will have lots of time to catch up on your blogs....provided I can stay awake for more than 15 minutes at a time.

I hope you are well and safe, and that the day has been good to you. 

Bits and Bobs

Every now and again, the book I choose to read is by a British author. It seems to happen quite frequently actually.  Among my recent favorites are Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel, both by Daphne Du Maurier.  (Once I like a book, I seem to search out other titles by the same author and read until I am satiated, or get over it.) Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel are not recent books (Rebecca was actually first published in 1938), but well worth the read.  

(Both "Rebecca" and "My Cousin Rachel" have been made into movies....several times)

Anyways...where was I going with this?  Oh, yes....  For some reason, the British version for certain words and phrases resurface in my head at the oddest of times. I find some of their words amusing...like "boot" (a car trunk), child-minder (babysitter), people carrier (minivan), lie-down (nap) (as in "I think I will have a lie-down") and perhaps that is why they get "stuck" up there in my head; but why they come to mind when they do has me nonplussed.  It seems there is a magnet in my mind that attracts the most useless of information.

So, the phrase that got stuck and regurgitated today is "bits and bobs"....and that's exactly what you're getting in this post: Bits and bobs about what's new in Nod.

Nothing.

Absolutely NOTHING is new in Nod LOL.

*************

  We have had several days of mild weather (today I think we are to break 50°) (aren't you impressed I figured out how to make the "°" symbol??).  But mild temps or not, we still have a thick layer of snow on the ground...and it snowed just this past Thursday.

While others look to cheery daffodils and the return of fair-weather birds as the harbinger of spring, here in Nod, we need to manually push ourselves into spring mode.  So, to that end, I did a bit of spring cleaning...and even a bit of rearranging.  

Unlike most of my blog acquaintances, I rarely rearrange because, despite WWR, our house is still quite small, and there are rooms, such as the living room, where furniture only can go one way.  And, when I find a place for my non-furniture junk stuff treasures, they often stay put....for a long, long, time.  Oh, I change things out for the holidays...(ok, I used to change things out for the holidays) but, for the most part, when something lands someplace, it puts down roots and that's where it stays.

I, however, forced myself out of my "box" this weekend.  I have an old horse tricycle that Daddy Crow bought for me when we were first married.  It is, however, awkward to display and landed in the basement.  While there, it acquired some not-so-happy associations (another story perhaps another time) and so where it landed, it stayed...to be moved only to another room in the basement as a result of The Great Flood during WWR.

But, I saw it the other day and decided it was time to try to find the joy in it that I felt when Daddy Crow first gave it to me.

It did not work in the space I originally thought it would so, as part of Plan B, I had to move the treasures stuff junk that had "landed" in the space I decided to put it.  And of course that meant finding new "landing" places for those treasures that stuff that junk.

 (Corner between the bathroom and Little Crow's room the guest bedroom)

I am not particularly ecstatic over the end results, but I do like that it opened up a bit more floor space in both spots.  I will live with it a while and see what I want to change .... in another 10 years.  😮

And please don't ask what happened to the treasures stuff junk that was in this corner.

*************

Other than that (and reading too much), I finished the hooking up on my Guillford runner (an Edyth O'Neill design). 

 I haven't located the box I stuffed my whipping wool in don't have any whipping wool, so I will have to wait on the binding of it.  

Please remind me that when I go back to hooking after an unduly long hiatus, NOT to choose a pattern with symmetry involved....particularly when said pattern is not very carefully drawn. Grrrr....

*************

I also finished up a few little diddies that have been hanging around in various states of unfinish for far too long.  This little scissors pouch is a design from Teresa's Prim Treasures.  

I must have been on a scissors kick, because I also finished up this scissors block:

Each side has a different design, but I obviously have a bird thing going. Go figure.

I may make some more of these....If I can find where I stashed the other wood blocks I had made. The design is by La-D-Da.

So, that's a wrap on my bits and bobs for the day.

I hope your week ahead is filled with smiles...and a few shenanigans of course.

Cheerie-Bye!

Silent Words

Actions speak louder than words, so it is said.

But the Yupik (Eskimos) also believe that thought is equally as important as action.  Just because something is not said out loud doesn't mean its intent is not articulated or received.  In other words, silence is an act and you don't have to talk to say something.

So there you have it.... Just because I have been silent does not mean that I have not thought of you...for I have....and my thoughts have spoken volumes.  

Not buying it, huh?  Ok...well, consider it your anthropology lesson for the day then.

In any event, I am truly still here...although most days I feel like this.

It is winter in Nod, and I hate winter.  'Nuf said.

Late summer this past year, we purchased a (vacation) home on a lake "north of Nod" (yes, there is, indeed, something north of Nod).  We had little time to enjoy it before winter was upon us, but I still go there when I can to hear a different silence.  I need to make the house of it more "me" and so have spent a great deal of time trying to figure out which me that's going to be, since it seems to change on a dime. Those of you who recall "The WWR Chronicles" may remember that I have a devil of a time "visualizing" and that attribute, like so many others, is not improving with age.

Aside from that, I have done a bit of stitching....and a bit of hooking.  (I sincerely hope Lauren, Saundra and Kim were sitting down for that last part.)

I was trying to recall what I have stitched but it occurred to me that, while I have finished STITCHING several (small) pieces, I have neglected the "finishing" part of them.  I did, however, (really) finish this little needle roll:

A BlackBird Designs pattern from their "Ooo La La" booklet

I had to laugh because when reading Marly's post from yesterday, she mentioned a counting error she had made.  As I told her, usually I am a stickler for exact counting...I count several different ways from different reference points so no errors are made.  Except...near the very end of stitching, I realized I had made a 1-stitch error in this one.  I wasted 2 good nights of stitching time looking for it.  When I finally found it, I realized I would have to literally rip out everything other than the last motif since the mistake was in the bird with which I had started and used as my main reference point for the first motif... I knew that much ripping would test even my patience and likely ruin the fabric.  Since I intended to actually use this piece myself and it is, after all, a "primitive" piece, I threw exactitude to the wind and finished up the final motif and moved on to the border.

It was then that I realized the 1-stitch error made in the beginning would affect the border.  But I forged on, compensating for that first error  with another stitch adjustment.  So 1 stitch off, became 2 stitches off.  (You know where this is going, right??)  Then, when I got to the next side, it had to become 3 or it would not work..... And one error compounded into I think 5 or 6 by the time I was done. 

It would not have been so bad, but I had to stitch the piece together so the borders were next to each other.  Holy Hallelujah. 

Well, guess what...it's done.  And done is good.

But, when I look at it, I always feel the need to confess my mistake(s).  Guess it's somewhat like a lie that compounds itself until there are so many the liar has no idea of the truth anymore.

I also finished up this hooked snowflake: 

Pattern by Catherine Stephan, Red Barn Rugs

and this little hooked heart pillow:

Pattern by Catherine Stephan, Red Barn Rugs

I managed to cover my own little button for the flower and, while my backs are nothing like Lauren's, I did manage a little "fru fru":

Well, that's all for the written words and thoughts for now folks.  Remember that your silence speaks....so make sure all your words..and thoughts...are kind ones.

"Kind Words" by Lori Brechlin of Notforgotten Farm

Keeping Up Appearances....

Merry Christmas Eve Eve Everyone....

We have the snow

...and a bit of Christmas greenery 

The Christmas deer (and Snowdog) are in place

Even the "lady" seems dressed in her finest for the upcoming holiday

But inside, one can barely tell

This is as "Christmas" as it is going to get this year.

At least we look normal from the outside.

North of Nod

North of Nod, there is a place where tall pines whisper.

If you listen closely, you can hear their secrets....secrets from many yesterdays ago, and secrets your heart does not yet know.

It is a place where the stars caress the lake and the moonlight dances with the water.

It is a place of paradoxes.

Time moves slower, then so achingly quick that you cannot account for the minutes, let alone the hours or days, behind you.

It is a place where things end,

...and where they begin.

Here age is worn regally

...and youth lingers longer than the seasons.

It is a place where the tall pines whisper and my soul listens.

Welcome June (and Other Stuff....)

Happy, Happy, June!

It's finally lilac season here....one of my absolute, all-time, favorite flowering shrubs.

At this rate, we might have hollyhocks and foxglove by October.  No...wait....By then there will be snow on the ground again.  😬

I considered boycotting planting annuals this year, but made the mistake of stopping by a greenhouse.  EEEK.  They are one of my major weaknesses.

Now I have bunches boxes (and boxes) of plants to plant.

That was my plan for today...except it rained buckets last night and all my planting receptacles are once again waterlogged.

So you get a blog post from me instead.

 Lucky, lucky, you. 😆

There isn't much new here, other than it is, indeed, GREEN here instead of white.  I did go on a little shopping excursion a few weeks ago with my friend/neighbor, Cathy (of Red Barn Rugs fame).  One of our stops was at a favorite store of mine, The 13th Colony & Elizabeth's Woolery, as Cathy sells some of her patterns and gorgeous hand-dyed wool there and they were in need of more wool. (Aren't we all??)

Among other things, I picked up this little applique pattern.

I haven't appliqued for a while, so it was fun getting back to it.

 (The mat is backed in the sweet Moda bee fabric in the background.)

Hopefully it will get me back in practice enough to tackle some of the more "ambitious" applique projects I have been hoarding neglecting saving.

I have also picked up my hook again.

And not just any hook, but this fun one by Hudson Valley Rugs.  (Thanks, Lauren, for the enticement....)

And, yes, I have started a project.  As you all know, my hooking mojo has been MIA for a while.  I left off in the middle of several projects...a Christmas stocking, a Valentine heart, and the largest project, "Welcome Cats" (an antique adaptation).  Although I dislike having too many WIP's of any one genre going at a time, I was finding it difficult to pick up any of the hooking projects mentioned.  The Christmas stocking is very close to being finished, but the finishing is a challenge (to me). I somehow "misplaced" the wool for the heart...and the "Welcome Cats" had some bizarre horizontal hooking going on that I found less than amusing.

So, I decided to start a completely new project.  It's the Guilford Runner by Edyth O'Neill.  

(If you're a hooker and wondering about the long tails of wool on the front side, it is simply to thwart two mischievous kitties who otherwise come up under my hooking frame and unhook things.... This way, I simply fold the fabric over when I need to leave it unattended.) 

I'm not very far, but I have never been, and never will be, a speed hooker. And, hey, I'm ok with that. 

On a sad note:  A little bird made her nest in my fern inside our cornzebo.  She must have thought herself quite clever:  It was protected from the major elements as it was undercover, but was near the birdbath, and she could come and go between the wires of the structure. 

 But, the little bird must have forgotten she lived in Nod. The storms last night that brought the rain unfortunately also brought strong winds (no surprise there).  And the fern, with the little bird's nest, went down.

And broke the eggs that were in the little bird's nest.

It breaks my heart to see the little bird flitting and walking around looking for her eggs.  😢

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That's it for now.  Stay safe and kind...and be careful of where you build your nests.