A trip to western Pennsylvania

I’ve just turned the final page on Baker Towers by Jennifer Haigh, and I feel like I’ve woken up after a long dream. Sparse, economical prose builds up a history of a coal mining town from the perspective of one family, beginning in 1944 and sweeping along. Historical events are alluded to, but only to show that time has passed, sort of as an afterthought. It reminds me of what living in a company town was like even in the 1970s, when change happened far away but not where I lived. [Clothing styles changed in my town changed — it's not like they could keep fashion out of any town — but nothing changed quickly except the pictures of the President after an election.] Of course, I didn’t live in a coal town, so others might quibble more with the historical accuracy.

All in all, an enjoyable book, filled with enough unexplained mysteries to make me wonder if there’s another story out there that the writer has yet to tell.

Amazing what a trip to the corner library will unearth. My next book vacation is set in Corwall, with plenty of adventure in store.

You know it’s going to be a long week

When you pass a sign for Font Hill Drive, and think, wow… wonder what the hill looked like with all those italics, Times Roman, Arial, Helvetica, and Bookman crammed beneath it? Maybe a monument to printing? Anyone else read the Phantom Tollbooth and think it didn’t go quite far enough?

Oh yeah… it’s gonna be a loooooong week.

Figments

Last night I walked outside, at 9:40 PM, and picked a few figs in the dark. I worked by touch, selecting the ones that felt whole yet soft enough to be ripe. And yes, each time I found a soft fig, I cringed hoping I wouldn’t encounter a yellow jacket. The figs were cool in the night air, their skins slightly wrinkled and puckered. A few had split.

Only a few are ripe now. There are many, many green figs showing the promise of a good crop, if the starlings get sick of them before the next crop ripens. There’s nothing like these fresh figs from an ancient tree. These aren’t like Smyrnas, or the light tan ones that one finds in the dried foods section at the market, or the ones I used to get from California. Perhaps turkey figs or some older variety from the 1920s or 30s. So now I’m looking around at different fig recipes to see if I can improve on the fig cake I made the other year.

• Pear honey fig butter recipe over at Chow
• If you have dried figs, perhaps a honey fig acorn squash would be good (note: it’s too humid for me to bother drying figs — they just reconstitute later)
• Warm figs in port sounds really quite good
• Sicilian fig cookies look pretty interesting

Info about fig horticulture is out there on the web. Some are hobbyists. But if you’re interested in the history of figs, and you’re trawling the web, be prepared for some fairly weird search results.

I’d suggest GardenWeb for those who want to really research growing the plants. Have fun!

Don’t let the light go out

It’s shone for so many years….

I still remember listening to Puff the Magic Dragon while sitting in a bathtub that had been put into our kindergarten and lined with shag rug (I went to what some might call a somewhat progressive school when I was very small), while reading a book. The music of Peter, Paul and Mary has always been in the background, around the house, and on the radio in the car.

Thank you Mary Travers, for all the beautiful harmonies.  We’re singing Light One Candle this year for the holiday concert — one of my favorites from Peter, Paul and Mary. I’m not sure if there will be a dry eye in the house.

The figs are still green

… but the leaves on the forsythia are turning, I’ve switched to warmer clothing, and it looks like fall is upon us. Back on September 9th last year, we had lots and lots of ripe figs that were turning black on the trees. Heck, last August we had a crop we were harvesting. This season the ripening started later — we’ve had only 5 or 6 ripe figs to bring into the house (and we have 2 trees, filled with green little bullets).

Since there’s nothing I can do to make the figs hurry up and ripen, I’m drinking my coffee and musing away to myself. Wonder if the figs will ripen before hard frosts turn them to goo?

If I had a time machine

I would be tempted to go back 2 years and shake myself.

I hate when I think up a clever place to hide important paperwork. /End rant.

If I really had a time machine, I’m sure there would be better things for me to do, like interfere with the time continuum. That’s always sounded kind of fun, especially if its as easy as killing a mosquito.

Glitter birds

As usual, click on the underlined words to see what I’m blathering about.

1. I can’t decide whether glitter bird magnets are awesome or not my style.
2. Bead artist Jan Huling has fantastic birds and a composition called “Forgiven” made out of found art and beads. The kewpie beadwork is amazing, but a wee bit creepy.
3. The daily painters daubed a bunch of cardinals. The Daily Painters gallery bills itself as the first and largest gallery of daily painting artists. The ravens selection is lovely — especially the one of 3 ravens.
4. Birdchick’s blog always has the best pictures of birds. This one is of a nuthatch.
5. One of the most evocative names for a philanthropic wine brand? Burning Hawk. eep.
6. Eskimimi Knits has a bluetit intarsia pattern and a good story. The pattern almost makes me want to figure out how to do intarsia. Almost. Since I probably don’t have time to spend learning intarsia, I’m beginning to think I could try duplicate stitch instead. Or maybe see if I could do a little bit of cross-stitch for Christmas ornaments.

My brain is lately for the birds. Hope you’ve enjoyed the meander inspired by glitter birds.

Noodling about, thinking about a dreamswatch shawl

I have some Koigu that I’m swatching today. I will see how the swatch(es) knit up (size 0 needles, but they’re square needles so the gauge is really small), and then think about what I want to do next. It may all depend on what the yarn feels like when it’s washed. Options include:

• Dreamswatch (7 to 15 repeats of the pattern) for a kind of shawl or stole if the yarn does not wash up to be as soft as I hope
• Socks (that’s a ravelry link — it’s for the Interweave Knits Windowpane socks, and would need a background color)
• A baby hat (no pattern in mind, but it needs to be soft!)

I kind of wish there was more olive in the yarn, because that would have made it visually fight less. It’s always interesting the difference between the nicely coiled hank and the yarn balled up or knit up. Of course, it’s always interesting to knit up items that have marinated for a long time in the stash drawer. I can’t remember which pattern I originally thought I’d do. So, think the dream swatch shawl would be a good idea?

Drowsy, downy, solitary bee

Picture of bee taken at the height of summer -- when bees ARE busy

I must have swept against its rest, among sunflowers by the way,

For a solitary, sleepy, snoozing un-busy bee clung to my leg,

Sprawled over my knee. Pollen clung to her legs, antennae,

And fuzzy body spritzed by dew.

It must have been a good party in the sunflowers,

Leaving her drowsing in the cold morning –

Her clear wings, pearlescent, periwinkle,

Drawn up against the chilly air.

As she stirred, I gently picked a leaf

And held it under one foot until she stepped away from

The strangeness of cotton fabric — one leg, two leg, three leg –

So I could leave her drowsing

In a stand of half-furled chrysanthemums.

– (C) rjn 9/3/2009

Stitch found and row speed ahead

Sometimes regular life distracts sufficiently from knitting, creeping into my hobby time. And in those times, dropped stitches happen. In this case, it was in the Honeycomb vest. So, I’ve ripped back 5 rows, found the dropped stitch, and have set up stitch markers to remind me when 8 repeats of the stitch have been done so I can count more easily. Luckily, Green Mountain Spinnery cotton comfort is very forgiving of ripping.

I’ll be glad when I can get to the decrease rows for the arms and neck, and hopefully move on to the front of the vest. Next vest pattern I decide to do will be in the round. Mark my words.