Ordinary Time

Late last spring I finished a denim skirt that I had sewn using my self-drafted pattern. You never saw it because I wasn't happy with the fit and so didn't really consider it finished. I tried a few things hoping that simple fixes would get it to fit right, but I knew deep down that I was going to have to take off the waistband and open some of the seams and take it in. It sat in my studio for weeks waiting for me to prod myself into action.  The combination of my drafting class starting again (which meant I would be busy working on other things) and one too many times standing in my closet wishing I had a denim skirt to put on finally was enough to force me into picking up a seam ripper. You know what the really silly thing is? It took me one afternoon. I could have been wearing the skirt all summer if I hadn't made the process into a bigger deal than it was.  So finally, I have a completed denim skirt to share that actually fits. This was made out of five worn out pairs o...

The other day, while I was driving Y. to do the onboarding for her new job , we passed by a pond that often has birds of various sorts in it. It was a jackpot day. Y., who is always on the lookout for birds, noticed that there were four egrets. We paused to admire them and moved on. Coming home, I paused to see if they were still there. They were, but they had been joined by a blue heron. So I took a picture.  You can see them if you enlarge the picture, but I'll make it a little easier. Take time to notice the bits of wonder around you. K. is here for the night, so he got in some picture taking. Here are a few of them. And my favorite.

This never fails to happen at least once when I'm demo-ing either spinning or weaving. I'll be doing my thing and chatting and explaining it to people when a man comes up (it has only been men) and stands and watches thoughtfully for a few minutes. He then approaches to interact with me and says, "I could automate that." There is rarely any variation of how this happens. It caught me off guard at first, now I'm ready for it. My usual response is to ask, "Are those store bought clothes you're wearing?" "Yes..." "Well it looks as though someone beat you to it." I reply with a smile.  The more this happens, the more annoyed I am by it. I have wondered at my emotional reaction. I know the men don't mean anything by it. They don't know that I have heard the same comment more times than I can remember. They are usually friendly and not mean spirited, but it has started to grate. I couldn't put my finger on why.  I couldn...

Three quotations from two very different sources to start us off. "Allowing horses opportunities for decision-making -- such as choosing a route on a ride or approaching a novel object at their own pace -- stimulates dopaminergic circuits involved in reward, motivation, and curiosity. These include pathways connecting the ventral regmental area to the nucleus accumbens, systems that support approach behavior and promote cognitive engagement. Structured choices, introduced in controlled settings, help horses learn that they can influence their environment, building flexibility and trust. These moments of agency are not just training tools; they are exercises in shaping the brain. They reinforce circuits that allow horses to remain curious under pressure, rather than shutting down or reacting defensively." (p. 144, Horse Brain Science: The Neuroscience of Ethical Horsemanship by Dr. Stephen Peters) "From a neuroscience perspective, psychological robustness comes not from o...

It's hot and I am not enjoying it. Neither are the horses nor the sheep for that matter. I take care of the horses early in the morning and sweat through the first outfit of the day. At lunch I head back out, give everyone water and hay, spend some time sponging the horses off, head inside and collapse while I cool off. Repeat several hours later over and over. All I can think about is freezing temperatures where there are no bugs and I don't start sweating just walking to the barn. I am more than ready for fall.  Until the weather breaks, just read this post each day because it is what I would write. I have no margin for writing by the time evening comes. This is especially true if I have spent much of my day working on an abstract to submit for an upcoming conference which is what I did today.  So you can hope right along with me that the weather cools off and I can write interesting blog posts again. 

Yesterday I spent the day driving places... carting children places, going to the grocery store, going to another grocery store, going to the library, etc. It left me with awkward bits of time throughout the day. This turned out to be a good thing because I was in the middle of a book that I desperately wanted to keep reading. It seemed the perfect activity for all those awkward bits of time where you can't really begin anything. When the day began I was halfway through a 650 page book. At 11:00 last night I had finished it. Now I read fast, but that was a pretty good amount of reading to get done even for me. It also shows how totally engrossed I was.  And what was the book? The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson. First off, it's fantasy. If that's not your genre, this is probably not the right book for you. Some aspects of the book were pretty typical for fantasy: contests to see who would rule the county next, different houses/clans/mentors that organize society, magic, an...