Pandemic Diaries Week #24 & 25

26 August 2020

 

People are the time at home sheltering in place as an opportunity to learn new skills, to challenge themselves. 
Some people are learning to cook. I know sourdough is popular right now, to the point that stores are running out of yeast.  Others are drawing or painting still lifes in their kitchens. Some people are improving in yoga, or knitting, or embroidery. I've seen realistically rendered food items that are embroidered, complete with melting cheese made of embroidery floss!

 

I've gone back to crocheting. I learned to crochet as a child, and made doll clothes when I was little. I worked my way up to a couple of afghans that I used for years.

 

So I found a new challenge - making a French-style string bag of crocheted cotton yarn. This is a pattern designed by the textile artist at Two of Wands, using recycled cotton (mostly) yarn from Lion Brand yarns. (It's called Re-Up cotton yarn - recycled and upcycled, I guess.)

 

It's a bit of a complicated pattern, and I'm not sure if I have one part right or not. The body is a net, then the top and bottom are gathered and edged. Then each side is slightly gathered and edged while at the same time continuing up and around to form the looping straps. (I had one strap that twisted before I attached it. It took a few rounds of crochet to realize my error, which of course meant unravelling those rounds, re-attaching the original bit, and then carrying on untwisted!)  

 

So, this is the first one. And being me, I decided to add some colorful edging to the beige - I thought a strip of aqua/turquoise and a strip of orange gave it kind of a Southwest feel. Or maybe Caribbean, with the beige sand, aqua water, and an orange sunset.  

 

You can see how much it holds when stretched by stuff inside - this will be a great shopping bag!

Anyway, this is my first shot at this pattern, and it definitely tested my skills. I'll carry on with a few more in other colors, and may try other embellishments. Just because I need something to do while sheltering in place much of the time, and because my brain needs that challenge. (And because I already like my own cooking too much, and I really don't need to bake cakes and cookies and breads every week.)   

30 August 2020

Yesterday we had the remnants of Hurricane Laura, though she was just windy rain and thunderstorms by the time she arrived here. Our hearts go out to the people who had a direct hit, we know how devastating hurricanes can be. And that storm surge with Laura looks horrible - so we're thinking of you all, and making donations that we hope will help.

Today, we went grocery shopping and of course lost our parking space to a day tripper at the beach. I went down in the late afternoon or early evening, planning to move the car and take a quick walk before dinner. No problem moving the car.

Sunset was approaching, so I went down to the beach. It's about a block and a half on the road, then stairs up to the boardwalk. Cross the boardwalk, down more stairs, a bit of a hill going up the dune - and oh wow, what a stunning view today! I walked on down to the water, mesmerized by the beauty of the beach at sunset.

The water was rather calm, with small waves rolling onto the beach, all against the backdrop of a reflected sunset. This is the Atlantic, so we could walk down for sunrise, but in afternoon the sky was layered gold, pink, lavender fading into a darkening blue.

White shore birds flew by overhead, and I realized their snowy undersides were reflecting those same golds, pinks, and lavenders from the sunset!! Even the frothy foam of the waves was bubbling in golds, peaches, pinks, lavenders as it rolled in to the shore and onto the beach!!!

It was so gorgeous! A perfect evening (other than the biting flies, because paradise doesn't really exist).

I have to remember to head to the beach for sunset more often!


2 September 2020

I've gone back to the beach in the early evening, but the lighting wasn't as perfect as that one day I didn't have my camera with me. I should know to always have that camera - the one time I don't the visuals are perfect!

One odd thing, or odd to me, is that people in this part of the country seem to have large front porches and little to no back porch. Most houses seem to have a couple of chairs (especially rocking chairs) on the front porch. It seems to be where socially distant socializing is happening these days.

My favorite, though, are the people who have their grill in a corner of the front porch. It always makes me hungry to walk by their houses and smell dinner being cooked - it always smells so good!

One house has a front porch that runs the width of the house, and is probably 8 to 10 feet (roughly 3 meters or 3.1 m) deep. One night, they had three small tables set up, and three sets of people sitting outside have their grilled dinner somewhat together. Just like outdoor seating at restaurants right now, the tables were at least 6 feet (2 m) apart. Everyone was eating, chatting across the spaces between the tables, and enjoying their evening together.

It really was encouraging, to see these people (family? friends?) having their socially distant get together in a very safe way!


5 September 2020

Does anyone else feel like we're living in one of those thriller end-of-the-world disaster movies? I do. We have civil unrest across the nation, nameless troops moving in and assaulting peaceful protestors, and anti-something radicals moving in and looting, vandalizing, burning property.

But now, even The Rock/Dwayne Johnson has Covid-19. The Black Panther has died. (Rest in power, T'Challa.) There's no superhero who's coming in to save us. There's no Justice League.

And sometimes, it feels like we don't even have justice anymore, either.

But one of my former students reminded us that Shuri (T'Challa's sister, for those who don't follow The Black Panther) was the Black Panther for a while. We can only hope she returns.

Besides, the sun is shining, we're able to walk to the beach, and we have an upcoming election in two months. I can only hope we have a major change in the administration of our nation, and get in people who know what they are doing. People who will work toward rebuilding our country, healing the divisiveness and rampant hatred, and actually helping instead of hurting the average citizen instead of only the super-rich.

Wouldn't that be nice for a change?

7 September 2020

I'm including a random sampling of bird footprints in the sand. I suppose technically they'd be clawprints, but that just sounds odd.

They look like little hieroglyphics, or maybe I mean cuneiform. Or possibly old Druid runes or something. Little odd encryption code messages left by birds as they walk around looking for food in the sand.
I especially like the little clusters of prints as if the birds were running in circles, or pacing back and forth in one little section of beach.
And then there are the little itty bitty prints of some small birds, I'm not sure which. Tiny little birdie footprints in the sand.
They just look so whimsical. I thought they'd be a good note on which to end this blog.