The Hermits' Rest

Craft Update

I have a couple of crafty updates on something other than my temperature blanket, for once. Oooh, aah.

First, my craft closet has been in a state of disrepair for a few months, because one of the shelves Lee put up for me collapsed and spread all kinds of mess, including hundreds of photos, all over the floor. And I admit that I had little motivation to fix it back up, because there just weren’t enough shelves in it to hold my vast holdings of books, yarn, needles, looms, etc.

Yes, I have two simple looms, one Cricket and one Navajo. I would actually like to make some tapestry and such. Later. You know, when I retire. Ha ha.

Anyway, my personal contractor/child, who’s been helping out with some projects here, made me a new, sturdier shelf to replace the broken one plus a few more to turn what was once a clothing closet into the craft closet I’ve been wanting for 12 years. I feel so pampered!

Shelving. Not showing the work in progress boxes of yarn on the floor.

There was a narrow area that just cried out to have more shelves, so he put some there, too. I thought it was nice of him to make them match, even though I said there was no need to paint them. I’m the only one who will be looking in there.

Now my den area is still full of yarn and endless tote bags of sad unfinished projects. I should be able to organize everything in the next few days though I may need to think about yarn organization. Some I’m giving

I got a good portion of the books up. Pardon the giant circular knitting needle holder at left. It works!

One of the good things about going through my yarn and needles is that I found things that I could used (in addition to my depressing basket of sock yarn that moths attacked). I located all my sets of circular needles, all of which were missing size 4, the size I use most. I suspect I’ll find those among some of my WIPs (works in progress). I think a few of those may end up being frogged (rip it, rip it) and the needles put back into circulation.

It’s okay, though, because I finally found the set of short size 4 tips and a shorter cable. This has enabled me to start a new hat with some beautiful red wool I found. So far it’s an inch of K1 P1 ribbing.

I already finished one hat of this pattern, which knitters around the US are making as a sign of solidarity with friends and family who are in places where fear is growing. I couldn’t find enough red yarn last week to finish my first try, so I made one in a gray gradient (Mandala) acrylic yarn. I added a red tassel. It came out great and I can wear it without looking silly.

I didn’t enjoy the needles I found, which were aluminum with pretty stiff cables for knitting in the round. The yarn is not annoying for acrylic, either. But I’m enjoying the nice Peruvian wool, wooden needle, and flexible center very much.

Really easy pattern, and probably best for four double-pointed needles, but I’m stubborn.

It’s pleasing to have more craft work to do, since I have no more horse lessons and it’s been too cold and soggy to walk or ride. I found even more red yarn (a beautiful Malabrigo) but I can see it’s a moth victim. Never fear, though, I ordered some inexpensive wool from Michael’s so I can make a couple more for non-crafty friends.

You can see the needles I didn’t like in this photo, sort of. And the cool yarn.

Naturally, looking at all my “stuff” reminded me of my unfinished needlepoint and some cross stitching I once wanted to do. Hmm. What will I switch to? I vow to pass some of my stash on to others though, especially since my next-door neighbor is crocheting up a storm.

I’m hopeful that life is settling down a bit, at least on the home front. It’s back to being normally cold for here. That’s a relief. And tomorrow I won’t write a post full of knitting jargon!

Books I’d Like to Read

What books do you want to read?

Look! A prompt I haven’t already answered! And on a day I’m too tired of thinking to write anything coherent. So, sure, I’ll tell you what books I’d like to read!

Sunset was pretty 360° around this evening

I want to read books about horses, birds, dogs, wildlife, native plants, and weird nature facts. I want to read about science, language, and (factual) history. I want to read about ways to make the world a better place and the people who do so.

I want to read about fiber arts, fiber artists, and the history of everyday things. I want to read about architecture, interior design, and clothing design to learn more about creating beautiful spaces and cozy surroundings.

And pattern instructions. I like reading them. More on my hat tomorrow.

I want to read about how to keep my mind and body healthy and how to nurture relationships with others.

I want to read stories about ordinary people facing life’s challenges in ways that inspire me and make me laugh.

I’ll never run out of things to read. Being able to read and write is one privilege I cling to with deep gratitude. It’s hard to separate “me” from all the words (and images) around me. And I treasure the unique words and images of others. I’d rather read a messy and ungrammatical article than something made bland and perfect by machines.

You have to go past ice to get out of here.

Wishing safety and warmth to all of us still dealing with cold, ice, and snow.

Guest Blogger: Thoughts on Today

By William Dower, PhD

I struggle with the fact that even humans who have been provided every advantage, and who want for no material things, can choose to kill another human, apparently simply because they believe they can do so without any external consequences. I want to understand why some people behave this way. I want to live in a world where we could find these people before they cause harm, and do something to stop their violent behavior.

The way nature works, both ‘human nature’ and human societal behavior are subject to Darwin’s laws. For millions of years, there has been some benefit to those individuals and societies who show violent tendencies. A person who would kill other humans that they regarded as ‘other’ could have more offspring. A clan or society that killed or dominated their neighbors could expand into that territory.

It is reasonable to believe that throughout pre-history, many groups of humans developed societies that were peaceful. An isolated pacifist group could thrive. But the group would be easy prey. A violent outside group, or even an individual born in the group who was violent, could take over. The genes for such violent behavior would then increase in succeeding generations, at least to the point that there was so much violence and murder that the society began to fail because of it.

All human societies face this balance: be peaceful enough to cooperate, and violent enough to expand and fend off the attacks of other groups.

While we grieve and try to understand the current homicidal attacks on our peaceful neighbors, we should keep in mind that these violent and dangerous people are to be expected, and we must cooperate and anticipate them, if we want to prevent their taking over.

Cozy Cocoon

The cold front arrived and we got down to 16°F, with a high of only 24° so my blanket square for today will be all purple! That and getting to watch this hawk on my big stump were the big highlights for my day.

We missed most of the snow, so it was more of an ice festival than winter wonderland outside.

With our fairly rough expectations in previous arctic blasts, our local family were all pleased we had heat (only got down to 64° downstairs and upstairs kept normal 67°). We were very relieved to find that the turkeys DID use their hut last night and most of today. I put water inside the chicken coop so they only had to go out to eat. It was kind of fun watching them skate around to get to food.

This animal was thrilled with the weather once the sleet stopped.

The horses spent a lot of time in their shelter, and had water, because Spice broke the ice with her hooves. She’s an equine survivalist. Tomorrow it should get above freezing and we will pry the food dishes out of the ice and they will be happier. They ate food off the ice just fine, though.

I spent most of the day bundled up under my 2025 blanket working on another hat with gray ombré yarn. I’ll add a red tassel! Oh, and there was football to watch and more people to talk to on phone, Zoom, and otherwise (young people next door came here for warm showers). That’s not bad for a cozy shut-in day!

I did want to say one thing about current events: if you do not feel safe expressing yourself in front of other people, you’re not being unsupportive; you’re protecting yourself. Do whatever you can, as much as you can, but don’t let peer pressure bring on guilt. Some of us have safety in numbers and the means to do more than others. The goal is for most of us in this country to make it through this difficult time and emerge safe, strong, and ready to rebuild broken relationships and institutions.

Other countries have done it. Image from Jetpack image library.

I sound so optimistic. But it’s good to have hope.

Chatty Susie

One of the benefits of everyone being home all day waiting for bad weather (it only just now got sleety here) is that there’s lots of time to talk. Or text. Or message. I did those things most of the day. It brought a lot of comfort to me. Yes, I’m chatty Susie.

Rain did fill the back pond, and raised the front one, but I was too cold to take a picture.

Thanks to pretty much my entire family, my old friends, my current friends, and my “daughter” for being there for me today.

If the weather is still bad where you are tomorrow, take a break from your cocooning activity and text, call, message, or write a letter, depending on your generational preference. Heck, I got stationery in the mail today (from a friend in Canada!) so I should write some letters, too!

Knowing we have people who care for us will help us get through these trying times. No one can take away our love in our hearts.

Blessed be.

Hatches Battened, Precipitation Engaged

The first wave of the long-awaited bad weather has arrived at last. So far we have had enough rain to at least make a dent in the dryness. Heck, this morning the mist was so heavy that the screened porch had water dripping down the screens. Here’s where we were earlier today.

That’s all rain. I guess tomorrow or later tonight the snow comes. Or not. Who knows? In any case we parked the motorhome in front of the garage, so it will be out of the north wind. And the generator is working!

Red is bad. Freezing rain or sleet. Yuck!

If you don’t get a blog for a couple of days understand I’m just conserving energy. We and our animals will be fine. I’ll keep knitting my red hat and temperature blanket.

Stay safe everyone! Except certain people who escaped to the beach (and you know who you are). Nah, I want everyone safe. And warm.

The Calm before…

Oh you know the phrase. Yes, everyone in the southeast of the USA knows a storm is coming. We’ve all bought bread, milk (ok, not me), flashlight batteries, and foods that don’t need refrigeration, so we can keep the doors shut if the Texas power grid fails again.

I don’t think the mistletoe will have problems with the weather unless the branch it’s on breaks.

Animals are safe, too. Got food and shelter. And Carlton is healing well. Relief.

My plans are to stay home and inside other than feeding equines and fowl. I have appropriate clothing for that.

Our winter red-stem storksbill will probably be fine, too.

Tomorrow I have lots of work to keep me busy and this weekend I have crafts (making a hat), reading, and talking to friends to occupy my time.

And I’m feeling better, thanks to my extended community. I’m so grateful.

The Day DID Get Better

No kidding, today started out like nothing was going to go right. My first sight, when I went out to check the exciting .04” of rain we got, was an unpleasant unalive mammal. An hour or so later I stepped in gross septic water because it was draining near the chicken pens.

They do have a new entrance ramp, though.

Next I sprayed cold water all over myself trying to fix the automatic waterer without turning off the water. Bright. I did fix it, and my offspring the handyman built a temporary brace to stop big, clumsy Darryl Junior from stomping on the water hose and loosening the connection. Yay.

There is now another piece of concrete and some wood where my foot is here, to stabilize the hose. Yes that’s my wet shoe. And the other thing is what I put their grit in, and it’s a pig (someone always asks).

Then I dropped stuff and nearly failed in putting mice traps in the tack room (sorry, don’t want to die of hanta virus). I got stuff all over me.

At least I had a good interlude when my Precious Stepsister called and she listened to my anxiety stuff. That’s because I gave her a rock.

Not the rock I gave her, but my message to you!

And finally, I sat down to enjoy Facebook at lunch only to discover this article, detailing how the homophobia in Texas is so bad that a children’s book author whose in-laws I’ve known for decades can be prevented from talking about his charming nonfiction books (I’ve read many of them) in elementary schools because there is one sentence in one book that acknowledges LGBTQIA+ people exist. How low can this place go? Rhetorical question.

Read all about Chris Barton and consider buying a young friend (or yourself) one of his books. As a matter of fact, I bought a copy of every book he’s written for children and sent them to my unofficial granddaughter.

And our US Senator has once again left the state when bad weather is coming. Coincidence, I’m sure.

I was pretty mad at the world much of the day, especially when the dogs found something I won’t mention and brought it into the house to fight over. While Penney tried to kill Carlton (she kept going when he stopped at Lee’s command, so Carlton lost), Harvey ate the contested item. All I can say is I’m glad I was feeding horses then. It sounded pretty yucky.

You can sorta see a scrape under his chin, but his leg is worse; he’s favoring it (but it’s not broken).

After all those small things built up, I was about to go crawl under the covers, but then I had a second good phone call of the day that cheered me up about possible not horrible developments in my life!

See, there’s always good among the nauseating events. You just have to be patient and not spend all day hiding under the covers.

Self Encouragement

I can’t say I’m doing all that well these days. Anxiety attacks are getting in the way of trying to live a reasonable life. One woke me up this morning! Geez! Everyone has times like this in their lives, to give them something to compare to when good times come along, right? Sure!

I write like a third grade student, sigh.

Today I found myself painting rocks while trying to organize a complicated piece of writing. I now see they were all messages to myself. That gave me a chuckle. They are still drying, so I’ll give you other recent messages.

This is the other side. I hug much more now than I used to.

It was too cold and cloudy to do much birding today, which didn’t help my mood. Tomorrow should be okay, so I’ll get out more and make Apache do things for no real reason. Maybe I’ll try to do some liberty work with him, or something.

My other new hobby seems to be painting things without enough contrast.

Honestly, today wasn’t all bad. Work was good and we finally started watching Star Fleet Academy, which is very Star Trek. In it, they’ve recovered from a huge disaster, and that positive outlook was nice to see.

By the way, thanks for your positive comments on my recent writings. It feels good to think I give people food for thought. I assure you that many of you inspire me!

Book Report: Entwined

New topic! At the annual meeting of Texas Master Naturalists, I always look forward to the booth for Texas A&M Press. They always have beautiful nature books that I can choose among. Entwined: Dispatches from the Intersection of Species, by Bridget A. Lyons, was one of my choices this past year.

The book is a collection of essays about Lyons’s close interactions with nature all over the world. She shares stories of a career working in wildernesses on land and sea, all over the world. She really has gotten around and is a great athlete, so she has been places most of us will never get to go. I feel like I can surf after reading her descriptions of her favorite pastime.

The essays are very intriguing. Lyons writes very well and shares her personal insights into whales, octopuses, trees, owls, and polar birds. Her overarching theme is that we are all connected and that our human actions have effects we may not imagine.

Yep, some of her writing is sobering, but other parts are gloriously uplifting and put you in the middle of landscapes and settings that are complex and fragile. And whoa, do you learn a lot.

Oh, Lyons is not only a writer and editor, she’s also an accomplished artist. Part of the delight of Entwined is encountering the linoleum block print illustrations she created to accompany the stories.

I read this book slowly, so I could savor, take in the knowledge, and internalize the lessons Lyons shares. I’d recommend any thoughtful and open-minded nature lover to find this book and read it. There are some ideas that we might find a little “out there” but they have me food for thought.

Now, go out and see what the nature around you has to tell you!