WET

Yesterday there were deer tracks at the base of our path to the beach. This morning a coyote had passed by. We went out a bit late, and I did not put up my hair or even put on a hat because it wasn't cold or windy, just cooler and damp the way we like …

GRETA IS PAYING ATTENTION

"This is all wrong." Her words begin at 23 minutes, but the NPR article covers most of her speech [or here]. It is a brief, compelling speech. She is an amazing young woman, angry because it is impossible to be anything but angry. She has been paying attention, she will not forget, and she will …

the NIX

You might remember watching the film Harvey, "a 1950 American comedy-drama film based on Mary Chase's play of the same name, directed by Henry Koster, and starring James Stewart and Josephine Hull. The story is about a man whose best friend is a pooka named Harvey—in the form of a six-foot-3.5 in. invisible rabbit." Harvey …

CLIMATE CHANGE

The rabbit has been at my roses again. Gary put wire around the denuded stripy rambler and it leafed out again and bloomed, though it did not have the energy to send out much new growth. The other new, pink, rose in the front came back without help, but apparently the rabbit has been only waiting …

WATCHING THE STORM ARRIVE

Sometimes I worry about things. Mostly I have worried about that shallow and selfish threat to my country. You know, that one. But since I unsubscribed from cable television, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, I push those concerns to one side. I worry about global warming and the use of poisons to …

JAM INSTRUCTIONS

Here's what I made the other day: ten (and a half) cups of two different pepper jams. Basically, for any jam using pectin, you prepare fruit, add powdered pectin, bring to a full rolling boil that will not stir down for at least a couple minutes, add premeasured sugar and return to a full rolling …

PEPPER JAM

Today the rain has come hard and steady, just as Gary said, and we might have a mostly pajama day, though I need to make two batches of pepper jam. We had a number of errands yesterday during our typically swift trip to Portland. There was this list, but I did not try on new …

SPLC

Tomorrow marks 56 years since the murder of four young girls at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. In an act of terror intended to intimidate civil rights activists who used the predominantly African-American church as a rallying point and organizing hub, Ku Klux Klan members planted a bomb under the building’s steps. …

FINDING HOME

Though the sky is clear blue and I sweat as I sew (which involves pressing with a steamy-hot iron after each stitched seam), I know the weather is changing. We can feel the cooling and are grateful for it. Our contractor assures me the duplex roof will be on "asap." Our tenant does did not …

OH DEAR

Another one. Wasn't I going to make something completely different? A story? "Autumn Garden." All batiks, about a hundred different fabrics so far here. All those skinny strips will be pieced into the squares.