handstories

winter is here!

    With yesterday's snow came the delivery of new wintery cards!

    I called for Moon to come see them.

        "Later." (Insert bored teenage voice.)

    "Come on!  Come look!"

        "Is one of them that bear?"

    "Yep!"  And he came.  I danced them around like puppets for him, with the bear giving her gravely voiced descriptions of each scene.  She was particularly fond of her own card, and went on at length about that crown of hers.  She's that kind of bear.  Moon laughed in spite of himself. 

    It was quite shivery trying to take photos outside this morning.  Tonight they say there will be more snow and it may accumulate!  In Seattle, in November!  The world grows stranger by the minute.

    The cards are in the shop here.

some strange skies

    We had a reprieve from the heat yesterday, only mid-70's. Quite pleasant.  Today is supposed to be 10 degrees higher . . .

    Looking out the back in the evening, the sun was such a deep reddish orange.  The camera couldn't catch it.

    What if anything could happen?

whining

    This is all I've got to show for the last three days.

    It has been so hot for us here in the Pacific Northwest.  All week, and next week doesn't look so good either.  

    That combined with this week's need to drive an hour each end of the day (during rush hours),

    And our house is in the Blue Angels flight path this week, until they perform on Sunday,

    And the weird brownish-orange apocalyptic haze that is hanging over the city from the wildfires burning north,

    I am barely civil.  Just ask anyone.

playing in the sun

   There was stitching and playing with shadows as we drove over to in Eastern Washington today for Blue's last baseball tournament. 

    Oh, it's hot.  Not compared to other parts of the planet, I know, but for unacclimated me, two hours of 90+ degrees, in the unshaded middle of the day, just about did me in.    

(Noticed that the landscape was very similar to the stitching.)

    Today is also Moon's birthday.  Blue is staying with the team, so the three of us had dinner out and are relaxing in the hotel this evening.  We'll celebrate more when we're back home.

    Another game in the morning, and supposably, five more degrees.  If they win, we're here till Tuesday, if it's a loss we'll head home tomorrow.  It would be wonderful for them to win, but three more days of the heat . . . I don't know what to wish for?  Perhaps a unexpected snow storm?

acclimating

    It feels like summer should be just around the corner, but there are still five more weeks of school.  The weather yo-yos from week to week.  Dark, rainy and gray the last days, but it's supposed to be eighty next Tuesday.  But I should be grateful, it's 95 at my sister's in Rhode Island.  

    She comes tomorrow for the weekend.  I should be cleaning and clearing.  

    Alas.      

 

winter story

    At 5:30, a pouring of soft thuds falling on the roof woke me up.  I jumped out of bed…Hooray!  Checked the school website…A snow day!  Then I snuggled back in bed, very happy that Moon wasn't missing school, and that I could stay home with him.  (He's feeling much better- eating toast and scrambled eggs.)

    Yesterday, the smallest scraps were puzzled into the beginnings of a castle.  When the boys were younger and wanting to draw, but not knowing what, I would always suggest a castle.  I love the idea of them…turrets and parapets, draw bridges over moats, with magic lingering all around the keep…I do love fairy tales.  

    And it's still snowing, and there's hot chocolate to make, and maybe a few  starry snowflakes to add to this cloth!  

holding hope

    The raindrops are clinging to the branches.  They say it might snow tonight.  Fingers are crossed.  Moon began his (& our) day at 5:00 AM, when the flu bug hit him.  It went on for hours, poor guy.   He had three spoonfuls of applesauce mid-afternoon.  They seem to be staying in him.  More fingers crossed.  

    I worked a long time on this one today (in-between fetching washcloths, sips of water and tucking blankets).  

    It's very full, jam-packed with the stuff of dreams and trailing a wake of hope. 

dark & secret places

    Rested in the Star Cloth yesterday afternoon, adding a patch of Deb's cosmos-like cloth.

    The dreary rainy days were getting to me.

    There was one funny moment looking out the window.  Do you see her?

    What's going on in there? 

    Maybe she needed a break from the weather, too?

moon stories

    Moon stitching on old silk (faintly blue from the end of indigo season) using Jude's dimensional face techniques.  She looks a bit worried.  Maybe it's because she was mostly stitched in the dim light of evening?  

    I even bumped into myself, discovering another needle in the path.

    I'm not worrying about any of it, just stitching and going along, thinking of the fast and fun art that happened in the Pre-K classroom this quilt used to live in.

    "Stories of the Moon"

    Painting is going along in much the same manner.  We had our last class of the term yesterday.  With some wheeling & dealing of schedules with the teachers of the two classes I work with, I'm happy I get to take the class again next term.

    And there was snow last night!  It's turning to slush now with the rain, but it was pretty at midnight.

in search of light

    Sunlight is elusive these days- lots of rain, gray skies, and the cold arrived last night.  Thank goodness for oranges, bites of light.  

    I find myself trying to plan the days around when the light might come through the front window, where the stitching happens.  Dipping into some of Deb's brightly dyed cloths helps to add a warm glow to things.