Tidbits

January 23rd, 2019

Variations on a warp

and other interesting tidbits...

I had just finished hemstitching the end of this scarf

(I have still to twirl the fringe)

when one of my dear Daughters in Law

(I have a few - all dear to me)

came to pick me up for dinner.

It is lovely to eat out, and to have conversation

with your meal!

We had a nice evening planned....

The weather was warm

and though snow was forecast 

there was no sign of it yet.

After dinner my son and I were going to

inspect some old, old, old, family pictures

on his humungous screen

with his "do-anything" program.

I had rescued these pictures from an uncaring cousin

who was about to throw them all out,

after my Auntie Hildred died...

They are a treasure

and we had a wonderful time 

inspecting noses, and hair-dos, hats,

gravestones and eyebrows.

Time just flew by until I looked at my watch,

and at the same time my DIL came to say

it was snowing heavily,

So on with the shoes, and out with the cane,

and we went carefully down the hill and out

on to the highway,

with the snow swirling, really quite wildly.

We all got home safely.

Bruce went out into the backyard before we went to bed

and everything was looking festive and sparkling.

 I woke in the night to see the

branches on the neighbour's evergreens

laden with a foot of snow and

bent towards my window.

And in the morning......

It is the first real snowfall we have had this winter..

who's complaining!!

The  morning was glorious

all fresh and pure and white

in the sunshine

and the sky was almost as blue as May.

From my window in the loom room

I can see the far off hills, 

where the sky and the mountains

blemd their blues together.

I finished another scarf.....

A scarf with holes in it......

An exercise in "denting" in the reed

Surely not for warmth,

strictly for decoration.

It is always a surprise when you wash

the weaving - magic in the water

and something you feel rather disappointed in

captures your heart.

More sun tomorrow - how lovely!

Probably icicles, as the temperature is going to drop,

Bruce tells me it is time to go outside,

have evening treats,

and settle down in bed for the night.

Sweet dreams.

and what shall I do today?

Monday
January 21, 2019

I am musing over breakfast about what I should do today, and where....It is wonderful to have options, even one-sided ones.

I could clean, or I could weave!

I scan the sky and note a few pink clouds clustered at the top of the Cawston Hills, 

which bodes well for the day (and for gardening if it wasn't January).  

Should I ignore this lovely weather and favour a creative day weaving,

or should I go out and feed the birds,

 poke around to see if any of the bulbs have heard the call to arms. 

 I am lost in the thoughts of spring...

Suddenly the pink clouds part, and the sun rises to lighten up the day!!!

Not all it lightens up, - my gaze is drawn to the coffee table, the piano and the buffet, 

where the sun has exposed the dust which lies, just an unseen part of the gloomy days,

 but complacent and resting comfortable on each and every surface!!

If I hesitated before, now my mind is made up for me!!!

I think of a couple of familiar housekeeping poems that might haunt me 

if I was so inclined to give them haunting room.....

This one you must know.  

 Dust if you Must

Rose Milligan

Dust if you must, but wouldn't it be better

To paint a picture, or write a letter,

Bake a cake, or plant a seed;

Ponder the difference between want and need?

Dust if you must, but there's not much time,

With rivers to swim, and mountains to climb;

Music to hear, and books to read;

Friends to cherish and life to lead.

Dust if you must, but the world's out there

With the sun in your eyes and the wind in your hair;

A flutter of snow, a shower of rain,

This day will not come around again.

Dust if you must, but bear in mind,

Old age will come and it's not kind,

And when you go (and go you must)

You, yourself, will make more dust.

Well, I did dust, and did  things to make the kitchen counter happy, 

and the hallway floors, 

but now I have had a bit of lunch and the sky is still blue, 

and the sun is still shining, - so I am off to check on the bulbs, 

and perhaps when I come back I will quote you the poem of 

"A Psalm of Life", by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow!!!

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

I found a few Hellebores

the scarlet nubs of a peony 

and a few early crocus stalks

and I look for the catkins to start filling out,

growing long and golden,

but not yet.......

A little stroll around the garden and the luck of being

able to see last night's amazing and beautiful

red moon eclipse,

and the moon, this morning

just setting, - golden and glorious

all this speaks of 
A Psalm to Life!!

Tell me not in mournful numbers,

Life is but an empty dream!

For the soul is dead that slumnbers,

And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!

And the grave is not its goal;

Dust thou art, to dust returnest,

Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment and not sorrow,

Is our destined end or way;

But to act, that each tomorrow

Finds us farther than today.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,

And our hearts, though stout and brave,

Still, like muffled drums, are beating

Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,

In the bivouac of Life,

Be not like dumb, driven cattle!

Be a hero in the strife!

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime

And, departing, leave behind us

Footprints in the sands of time;

Footprints that perhaps another,

Sailing o'er life's solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,

With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing,

Learn to labor and to wait.

My thanks to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow for inspiring me to get the cleaning done

. - the dusting and the scrubbing, 

so that perhaps some 

"forlorn and shipwrecked brother (sister),

seeing, shall take heart again!!!

I will be glad if my dusting is of some service!!!

Besides alleviating my housewifely guilt.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,

so I am off to do some weaving

for a while.