handstories

Dream Days

"Sip of Dreams"

    Many swell happenings over the last few days...  Friday- to Bellingham for Moon's a cappella concert.  It was great to hear him sing, watch him have a great time, be so happy.  And then the treat of meeting up with Deb for dinner.

    After that, a night in Vancouver, B.C. in a room with a city view (across the street from the Coliseum-ish library), strolling Granville Island (Maiwa's!), a delicious Italian dinner...  It's been so long since we've gone somewhere, just the two of us.  It was a very nice time.

    On the way home, there was an extra dose of Deb time!  Tea in her cozy sweet house with two of the friendliest cats you'll ever meet (Widget wasn't interested in socializing).  

    Her GOOD Enough quilt is even more wonderful in person (as is she!).

    Today I potted up her gift of indigo plants, with hopes for their survival under my blue thumb.

    Sunday night I dreamt in cloth.  The memory became the morning painting.  By afternoon, the image was fading, but not the incredible feeling.  A cloth began...
 
    I didn't refer back to the painting at all and was surprised this afternoon to see the differences.  The tree had completely slipped away.  Dream to paper, paper to cloth, maybe I'll complete the circle and keep going, back and forth, forward and back, in and out of the dream.

Stories with a Stranger

    With an eyelet from Deb's dyeing under a blue moon by Tina, I started a new home cloth.

    I had a fun phone conversation yesterday.  There is a credit card that I never use, that K. wants us to start using.  The problem is that because I never use it, I had never changed the incorrect name on it.  I told K. that I would need to go to the store it was issued through.  A store that we rarely go to now. 

    "No you don't, just call the 800 number on the back of it."

So, yesterday I finally called.  After a couple of tries to choose the right number, to get to the right department, a pleasant southern woman answered, "Hello, my name is S.  How are you doing today?"

    "Good.  How are you?"

    "Fine.  Thank you for asking!  Let me verify some information...  What is the name as it appears on the card?"

    Answered.

    "Here's a security question... What is your favorite pet?"

    "My favorite pet?  I've only had cats..."

    No.

    A specific cat?  "Twinkle? Jenny?  Jake?  Mittens?  Midnight?..."

    No.  No.  No.  No.  "It starts with a B..."

    "A 'B'?!?"  Bird?  Bat?  Buffalo???

 

    "Oh, wait a minute!  I clicked on the wrong name..."

    "Was it my husband's?  K....?"

    "Yes, sorry about that..."

    "Did he say Buffy?!?"

    "Yes."

    "Oh, Buffy...poor old thing!  She's dead."

    "Oh, I'm sorry!"

    "No, she's long gone and was a crazy dog that he had back in high school.  A few weeks after K. left for college, his mother called me up in hysterics, saying that K's dad had accidently backed the car up over Buffy.  When he went to try to help her, she bit him and died.  His mom called me because she was afraid that she would start laughing if she called K.  She couldn't stand Buffy.  That was fall of 1980..."

    "Oh, my!" said S. and then had a revelation of her own, "1980, that was the year that my dad came out..."

    "We have some stories to share!" I said.  She agreed.  We went on for a minute, and then she remembered she had a job to do... 

    Clearly, I had verified who both K and I were, so she moved on to another kind of question, but still one that I wasn't sure of the answer to.  "Is it ______?"  Clearly it wasn't.  "Maybe I should just tell you what my question is?  Maybe none of this matters?  How do I change the name on my card?"

    "You need to go to the store where it was issued."

    "I knew it!  I was right!  K. said I needed to call you, but I was right!"

    "Of course, you were!"

    The whole conversation was very fast, only a few minutes, but we were both laughing hard by the end. 

    This piece was fun, too.

"She Remembered Her Song"

Biding

    "Their stories were as old as the stars"  These hills seem like very good friends to me.

    Odds and ends days...

    After days and days, taxes are done.  K does them.  I tiptoe around in denial and guilt and try to answer occasional questions.  Until he hands me my part to do (for the shop), and then I whine and tell myself that I'll do a better job of tracking things this year (again).

    Moon busies himself with school and music.  He's taught himself the guitar, ukulele and is currently making sweet (sometimes quite high-pitched) sounds with the tin whistle.  He's also often practicing and/or recording songs for the high school spring musical that will be online.  I love hearing him sing.  His gifts are definitely not from my side. 

    A moody ninth block for the moon cabin stack.  Spiraling out counter-clockwise...  A moon from Jude, Deb's dyeing, friend's scrap, starry gift from K when I was pregnant with Blue, unknown, Maiwa polka-dots (I miss the annual visit to their $5.00 a bag scrap bin), two dyed by a woman somewhere in Washington- bought at quilt show market years ago (wish I could remember her name), and a leftover print from my William Morris phase in the 90's.

    As for me, it's cloth and thread, with a little painting, with a little housekeeping and dinner cooking thrown in.  

    A gathering.  I wonder if they're six feet apart?

Little things

    I do love getting caught up in stitches.  This time it was in imagining Deb's dyeing taking on a life of its own.

    Days are tense with the unknown lately.  Weighing risks and responsibilities to each other with emotional needs.  And what is a need vs a want?

    A new pair of socks.  My eyes and mind get a rest in the evenings with knitting, also in the dentist's chair.  No one there even bats an eye anymore as I knit while they tend my teeth.  We all know that it gets me through.

    There was a walk with a friend yesterday.  The first in a long time because of  twanging my knee a few weeks ago.  Very glad to have it back in mostly working order. 

    She has studied and is passionate about horticulture, and shares a wealth of information- stopping to admire leaf shapes, color combinations and to share the Latin names and uniqueness of each plant, tree, flower.  I'm grateful for how she makes me slow down.  This is Viburnum trilobum, or Cranberrybush.

    The email with the concert link has gone out today.  Please let me know if you didn't get it, or if you were missed.

Trees, teeth & singing in saucepans

    Stitched, unstitched and re-stitched during the day of the election.  One of Jude's moons, a piece of Deb's cloth and some of my indigo dying.  Maybe it will become more, maybe a moon cabin quilt?  Maybe.

    The next morning I got up early to go out and say goodbyes to two of our trees.  This cherry out front and the big maple behind the house.  Both were not well, dying, and there was a fear that the maple might fall on the house below, where 95 yr. old Mrs. C. lives.  It was time.

    I wrapped my arms around each of them, saying goodbye and thank you.  One of them wept sap onto my sweatshirt.

    There were more tears at the last moments of the maple.  That square of missing bark is where they cut out Blue's initial for me.  He carved it there the day before he left for college for me to see out of the kitchen window.

    It looks naked.  The Japanese maple was below that front window when we moved in 28 years ago.

    I probably should've written "mourning trees".

    Later that evening, trying to check-out from the events of the week, a crown came off of a tooth, because Friday evenings are the ideal time for teeth issues.  It was taken care of yesterday.
 

    There was also a conversation with Mom, and a need to revise my last post.  I may have yelled, "How am I related to you?!?"  She just laughed.  Sigh.

    Moving on, and hopefully into calmer waters...

    Lastly, our singing group has gone on-line during this quarantine time, and next Monday (November 16th, 7 pm PST), we are having our second virtual concert.  It will be an hour of  silliness and Seattle.  If you would like to see me in a saucepan (and other makeshift costumes), please leave a comment and I will send out an email with the link this weekend.

    Click here for the commercial...

We are all just walking each other home

Singing In the Rain Family Choir, June 2017

Walking Each Other Home

We are all just walking each other home.
We are all just walking each other home.
We are all just walking each other home.
We are all just walking each other home.

Lyrics: Ram Dass. Music: Kate Munger ©3/2013

    My  favorite song from our concert the other night.  

    It comes from the Threshold Choir, a group who's mission is "to bring ease and comfort to those at the thresholds of living and dying."

    As we sang, a collection was taken for the ASAP (Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project/Urban Justice League).  

    When we were in full harmony (just after 2:00 min.), the beautiful space seemed to swell with song and emotions...for loved ones, for the children, the parents, and for each other.

Crazy busy

    Ok, so maybe it wasn't a good idea to run out of town for a week near the end of the school year.  There is a lot of scrambling in catching up, keeping up, and scurrying, to get through this last week of school.  

    Moon has had band concerts (with one more performance to go), finals, projects, a first real job interview and training.  (Which begins next week, which required half an hour of finagling to reschedule appointments.  Including the orthodontist, which I had so carefully planned to happen NOT at rush hour again...sigh.)

    K. has much going on at work, and out of town trips being planned. (Plus he has my stress and whining to listen to.)

    Blue is enjoying, and tired, from his new summer job, while trying to squeeze friends into every other spare minute.  (We see him occasionally at meals, or as he goes out the door.) 

    My work has been mostly gathering art from the walls all around the school and organizing it to return to students before Friday.  In my efforts to be efficient, I've taken down (and had to rehang) the wrong displays three different times.  There were some nice moments with my first grade friend, who was not wielding scissors this time, and gave today a thumbs up while announcing that it was a "Great day!"  We colored popsicles and discussed our favorite flavors...blackberry, blue-raspberry, lime, and Pepsi (his, not mine!)

    Tonight we sweated (literally and figuratively) through our family singing group concert.  And, NO, I did not practice while I was away.  And, YES, it showed.  During the final run through, the talented woman who stands next to me asked which part I was singing?  "I have no idea.  Clearly not the right one!"  (She quickly traded spots so her voice could have a better angle into my ear.)  Gratefully, all reviews were lovely.  Our leader, she really is a miracle worker!)

    AND, it's Hot.

    All to say...that I've been knitting on, and finally finished, this hat that was started months (years?) ago, out of old handspun, because it took absolutely no brain cells.

in search of safe keeping

    There was storm painting in watercolor class today.  

    I'm running a bit on empty these days.  School, home . . . technical difficulties inside and out.  

    There was a lovely half hour with kindergarteners yesterday . . . making Valentines.  I started singing- "You Are My Sunshine", "Love Is Something If You Give It Away" and "Red River Valley".  Old favorites.  It's been a long time.  We were all happy, singing and humming together, and then a boy with a bloody nose happened.  Sigh, it was swell while it lasted.

    And then came home to the news of the latest school shooting.

    I started this piece way back here.  On the day Blue's classroom window was shot at with a BB gun, a few days before the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. 

"Bubble" 

    Later, driving Moon home from school, talking about the shootings, I asked him if he knew what to do if it happened at his school?  

    And then proceeded to give him advice and suggestions.

    And then stopped and said, "I can't believe I have to talk to you about this."  

    And then arrived home, where I sat and cried for the children.

some oranges

    The sky out my front door this morning around 7:00 am.

    Yesterday I cut stacks and stacks of orange crepe paper squares, almost 900 of them.

    Here are some of the nearly 300 marigolds a bunch of us made last night for our family choir's upcoming performance.  We'll be singing Faure's Requiem with a local civic orchestra at the Museum of History & Industry's Day of the Dead celebration.  (To be honest, this piece of music is so out of my comfort and ability zone.  I was glad when our director asked me to coordinate the making of the flowers- this I could do, something positive I can contribute to the performance, my voice...not so much.)

    A blurry quick autumn view while driving to pick up Moon at four this afternoon.

moonlight & songs

    That old saying of "a bad dress-rehearsal means a great show" must be true.  During one song, in our practice before the performance last night, I completely blanked on my part, with our leader looking right at me saying, "Get something out, anything!" at which point I got out the entirely wrong thing. Others had their share of missed words, notes, and entrances, too.  In spite of it all, the show did go on, and it actually went quite swell.  The audience seemed to really enjoy the unusual experience of the experimental music.  

    The above piece was a thank you gift for our leader.  It was inspired by the score of one of our pieces, "Epitaph for Moonlight" (see here).  She really is amazing, so talented in her own musical abilities, and how she pulls us, a bunch of musically inclined and musical misfits (my hand raised here), together every time, I will never know.  It's a kind of musical magic.

    And a special thank you to Deb Lacativa's dying gifts, the glowing moon-yellow backing piece arrived in a bundle of rainbow gorgeousness just in time.