Ordinary Time

Y. has been taking Japanese for seven years, six of those with a private tutor. (And if you want to learn a language without moving to a different country, having a private tutor is the way to go ) She is pretty conversant and loves learning languages. Her tutor had told her about a Japanese Festival which was happening this weekend in Skokie and Y. was interested in going.  One of the downsides of having moved to the far western suburbs of the Chicago area is the lack of diversity. I'm still not quite comfortable with the monochromatic-ness of where we live, especially since we have children of color. (I need to explain that by far western suburbs I do not mean Naperville which isn't quite as far west as we are. We have to drive a half hour east to get to the Asian and Indian markets in Naperville. I am very thankful for them.) It takes effort to find cultural mirrors.  All this to say, J. and Y. had a lovely time at the festival this afternoon. They saw dancers and musicians...

So it seems everyone is okay with me blathering on about whatever happens to flit through my mind, so I'll keep going with that.  Today was one of the days that L. worked so I needed to drive her. It's about a 25 minute trip one way. (She is a deckhand for the paddlewheel river boat on the Fox River .) This also meant I would need to pick her up. I worked in the studio after lunch for a while, checked the time, and realized I needed to leave to collect L. G. wanted to ride along, so we both got in the car and headed for the river.  As I'm pulling into the parking lot next to the boat, I glance at the clock and notice it's showing an hour earlier than I think it is. My first thought is to wonder why I didn't remember that we hadn't changed the car clock when daylight savings began. That didn't seem to make much sense, so checked my phone. Yes, I was an hour early. No, I don't know how that happened.  There was no way I was going to drive home only to turn...

Having finished the last volume that is published of the Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, I am bereft. I feel as though I have lost a group of good friends and it's going to be far too long until I reconnect with them. Pity the book I just read after them because they were a hard act to follow. The world feels fairly flat without Emma and Pierce and the Duke of Islington and Young Hawks. Why can't authors write faster and books be published sooner?  To add to my woe, I don't have anything to write. I'm not even sure who my audience is these days. I don't really mind no one commenting, but it also means I have no idea who is reading. So my comment-shy readers, what are you interested in? I'm happy to continue my nightly blathering, but am not completely sure where I should aim. Help a blogger out. (With actual topics, it also means you avoid having to read posts such as this.)

It's been a while since I had a Fiber Monday post. This is mainly because I didn't have anything to talk about as I wasn't really working on anything. I've mentioned my interests tend to have seasons and early summer didn't seem to be a season for making things. I'm thinking about it, I realized that contributing to my lack of interest was that my studio was rather chaotic and I had too many projects started and left lying about. I needed order and clarity.  Much of the 4th, I spent organizing the studio... filing things, tackling piles of projects that needed organizing, doing some reorganizing, and then being able to clean because I could find the surfaces. I gave up on a couple of projects, put some others away for another season, and finished up a couple of things that were 95% finished it felt good. I now enjoy being in my studio again.  The newly clean studio: It had been a very long time since I spent consistent time spinning. So I put away the fleece tha...

Illinois has had a tough go of it these past few months. Most notably we have broken all sorts of records for tornadoes. As of June 21, there were 196 documented tornadoes (I'm sure the number is higher now) which is more than twice the next state in the list has seen. So that's fun.  Then, over the weekend, Iowa decided to share its torrential rain with us. There was over 4 inches of rain on Saturday and yesterday was an enormous storm. (No tornadoes this time though.) Flash flood warnings were going off all over. This was the prelude to showing you this video of our "driveway" yesterday. J. went out to see what the state of things was. He stopped walking when the water level was going to top his boots.  The creek in front of our house had definitely overflowed its banks. Today things are nearly back tomorrow, but definitely damp. Duck has enjoyed it immensely.  Having put in that nice seque to poultry, the other thing that happened yesterday was that L. deemed Chick...

I have mixed feelings about the holiday. The current state of our country is horrendous and terrifying. The hand basket we are all traveling in seems to be getting closer to its destination every single day. I am beyond angry that those who could turn things around refuse to do so. I am baffled that there are still people who support the evil that is being done. And on days when I can manage to read the news I despair for our country.  My family and J.'s family have very long histories here in the US, with family from both sides arriving before 1776. If family lore is correct, one of my ancestors was part of the group who dumped tea into Boston Harber. Both of our families have ancestors who fought for the North in the Civil War. I am in possession of my great-great-grandfather's fife. My ancestors fought for freedom and for their country who was on the side of freedom. Freedom from tyranny, freedom from slavery, freedom to speak openly, freedom from abuse. They would not recog...