Random Catching Up

 Trying to maintain my goal for 2023 of simply keeping track of my life.  My nephew calls me once or twice a week, and my usual answer to his question of "what are you up to" is usually "not much."

"Not much" is not a great way to be living your life.  But that's my usual answer because it doesn't seem like I'm doing that much.  Or what I am doing is so esoteric that it would be hard to explain anyway.  So what have I been up to?

Reading, of course.  My online book group chose "Interview with the Vampire" so I've read (reread, actually, but it's been a few decades since I read it) that.  Now I'm on to Octavia Butler's "Wild Seed" recommended by a couple of people.  So far it's quite captivating.

To orient myself:  We went to Harry Potter World January 17 - 20, then Diane stayed on with me until Wednesday the 25th.  I had the second length of cloth on the loom (to be used in a demo at the Highland Games next weekend) and finished weaving those eight yards off on the 27th.

Dang.  Watching that cloth roll off the loom is sooooo satisfying. (It should be noted that the 27th was Bob's birthday.  The rhythmic tossing of the shuttle, watching the cloth form, and the satisfaction of finishing it helped get me through that day.)

On Saturday I put up my new lamp.  I have never had a lamp on my nightstand because I don't trust the cats not to knock one off.  My reading lamp has been a prosaic LED light clamped onto my headboard.  I had been looking at a lamp online for quite some time.  I probably would have bought it months ago if I could have actually seen it for real - I really hate not being able to look at and handle something before I decide to get it.  But I loved the idea of this lamp, which is a crow holding the cord to the light.  So I went for it.  It arrived the Monday before the HP trip, and I finally put it up today.

I'm really very pleased.  It's resin and pretty substantial, with excellent detailing in the feathers.  But the problem was that being matte black, the details didn't show.  So I spent an hour or so covering it with washes of purple and blue, wiping that down, and finally dry brushing with a metallic gun metal gray.  The change is so subtle that my phone camera couldn't capture the before-and-after difference but the detailing shows up.  And there's the element of whimsy that I love.

Sunday was a challenge.  A half-dozen members of the weaver's guild wanted to try their hands at spinning (there's a very good instructor coming through town in June but it's an advanced course).  Fortunately two of them knew how to spin and were there just for the fun of it, and to help, and a third who had the general idea.  Everyone had a different type of wheel.  Wheels are sort of like cars; the general idea is the same, but things are set up differently so the first thing I had to do was to be sure that all the wheels were set up and tensioned correctly (tricky because I was unfamiliar with some of the makes).  Usually to teach wheel spinning I do one-on-one, so one-on-six was a bit of a challenge but everyone seemed to get the basic idea, so I count that as a win.

I came home, checked on the chickens as usual - and one of my hens was down.  Lying on her side, legs kicked out.  Couldn't stand or walk.  The lying like that is symptomatic of any of a few dozen things that can affect chickens.  There was no sign of injury.  Other than not walking she seemed OK - eyes bright, alert, head held up.  If I held her up she was even interested in eating.  (Side note - most vets do not do birds.  It can take 3 weeks to get an appointment, and by then the bird has either recovered or died.  So no running to the vet).  I did the general thing of isolating her, giving  anti inflammatories, and electrolyes.  The last I did by shoving a tube down her throat into he crop - a fast and efficient way of administrating fluids but it always scares the hell out of me.  I still have no idea of what happened, but she's walking now, if wobbly and having to use her wings for balance.  Another week and hopefully I can put her back with the flock.

Caring for her has been a bit time consuming, especially when she couldn't stand at all so I would kneel and brace her between my knees so she could balance and eat.  But it did give me the opportunity to observe how beautiful her coloring really is.  She's always been "the tan one."  But sitting and holding her, I could see how intricate the shading of her feathers is (hard to get a picture; she wiggles)

 Then I decided that I wanted to make something to wear to the Highland Games.  Not a costume, but something "history bounding" (a term meaning to wear historically inspired clothing).  I had some lovely handkerchief linen, and have been making a 18th century shirt (aka Poet's Shirt, Pirate Shirt, or Fluffy Shirt).  I would have finished it easily in a couple of days except that I decided to do all of the seam finishing, and a lot of the details, by hand sewing.  A lot of it will never show, and I could have finished the seams in about 5 minutes using my serger instead of an hour or two of hand stitching, but taking the time to do this pleases me.  I remember when I first got my serger and my mother's snarky response was "Oh, that's nice.  Now you can makes clothes that look like they came from KMart."   So no KMart short cuts here.  I did machine sew the long seams of the sides and underarms, but everything else will be hand stitched.  Gives me time to listen to TED talks.

I've also been prepping for my demo for the Highland Games which has gone a little pear-shaped (as the Brits say) and needs its own post.  Meanwhile, I have a date with needle and thread.

And that's what I've been doing with my time.  Not much.