Pandemic Diaries Week #26 & #27

10 September 2020

 

I've been going down to the beach for afternoon and sunset walks, hoping to find a day where the birds and the sea foam reflect the changing colors of the sky and the sunset.  

I finally found one day that came close to that early evening a few weeks ago, when the colors were perfect.  Close, but not quite the same.

And of course, birds fly by and aren't always cooperative about being

photographed.  They always have places to go and things to do.  They don't really care about artists trying to capture reflected colors on their white feathers.

Ah well, I did manage to find two delightful older women sitting in the tidal zone, where the waves wash up and ebb back into the ocean, leaving the sand wet and reflecting their colorful beach chairs like a slightly grainy mirror.  The two women stayed in the same location as the tide came in, low waves washing their feet and leaving that watery sheen underneath.  I walked a couple of miles, and these two were happily chatting away as the sun began to set and the colors changed around them.  Thank you, ladies, you made a lovely photographic composition!

14 September 2020

I've been staying busy with various art projects, including a few more crocheted mesh bags.  I changed yarns so I'm now working in a recycled cotton yarn.  I thought there was a nice symmetry or continuity to using recycled yarn to create reusable shopping bags - saving the planet one bag at a time.

The recycled yarn is a bit thicker that the yarn I used on the first two bags, so I had to revise the pattern a bit.  For music people, this is kind of like re-writing musical scores into a different key, or maybe for another instrument or voice.  Taking music for a soprano and changing it for a baritone.  For knitters and crocheters, I had to use a larger crochet hook, scale down the number of stitches per inch, and thus revise the number of stitches at the corners.  This took a lot of visualization of the pattern as well as a lot of math, but it was good brain exercise.  And given our more monotonous lifestyle these days, any way to exercise our brains and stretch our thinking is good!

 

I also finally figured out that the handles run across each side of the bag, as in across the front or across the back, and not from front to back as I had thought originally.  Whew, no wonder the instructions in the pattern didn't make sense to me!

19 September 2020

It turned cold this weekend.  I mean COLD!  Nights are in the upper 40s F (about 6 or 7 C!) and daytime highs might hit 64 F or so (15 C?).  I think the baseboard heaters aren't working, or maybe there's a master switch that turns them on first, but we are so cold!  Plus the AC units in the bedrooms windows don't fit well, so the wind comes through the gaps.

The wind picked up as well, either from the storms hitting the southern US states, or the weather changes caused by the fires in the Pacific coast states.  Or just climate change in general.

At any rate, I did start the park sign two weekends ago, and will eventually do a blog about the entire process.  But I thought I should add a few photos, since this took up much of my time off and on since late April or early May.

The first step was picking up the sign, which is made of high density urethane, or HDU in sign maker parlance.  Then a trip to the paint store, where I bought primer and my paints.  I set up the porch as my studio, and on Saturday gave the sign a few coats of primer - and of course this included working on one side and the edges, paint-and-dry and paint-and-dry.  Then flipping it to the other side, and a few more times of paint-and-dry.  I have a little corner in the living room where I'm keeping my materials and supplies, to the sign can dry there overnight.

On Sunday, I did the background color.  And while the letters are outlined with a channel for contrast color, I had to paint the whole thing green to get paint on those negative areas that are inside letters - you know, inside the O, or D, or whatever.  More multiple layers on both sides, and cleaning out any extra paint in that channel.

I leaned the finished and dry sign against the house and brought in the paint, brushes, newspaper, and the cardboard boxes I'm using to prop up the sign so it's higher than the table and not resting on the newspaper.

And when I went to bring the sign inside, a piece peeled off the bottom because the paint was still too sticky.  Uh oh!!!  The paint AND the primer peeled off that one section!  NOT GOOD!

 

Nothing to do but bring it inside, surround the sign with newspaper, and let it dry some more.  I did a little research, and it turns out that exterior latex paint needs 30 days to cure, or fully dry.  Just one more setback.

 

So, I contacted my friends at the Department of Parks & Recreation, as well as Public Works.  Parks & Rec got the final approval and they're in charge of signs in the parks, but Public Works will install the sign.  They seem to be excited, and are coming up with new posts to hold the sign.  And they're fine with hanging the sign in mid-October, when at least the background paint will be fully cured.

 

That's the excitement here in New Jersey.  Projects, sunsets, signs, and just trying to keep busy and not worry.

 

And be happy!

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.