Soothing an irritation

     For the past month the phone has worked only spasmodically.  The phone guys were here 5 or 6 times, all nice guys but our wiring was old and funky.  I was very irritated.  In fact, that hardly seems a strong enough word though it wasn't
a crises, really.  I guess I just hate to miss a call.  Now I'm not a person who displays anger and irritation very well.  I found it very tempting to eat.  Food has always been my great panacea for emotion. Biscuits mostly, tempted me.  In fact several times I planned to make biscuits for breakfast and only squeaked by with tiny toast instead.  I could hardly think of anything to sooth myself.  Eventually I fell to organizing my clothes.  They are all hung in matching sets, color coordinated in my closet.  I did a lot of laundry while I was doing that.  Then I undertook to re-read all my Victoria Magazines, which I love devotedly.  I have 46 and now they are all catalogued and Bill is ordering the ones I don't have.  All except the first one, which seems to be going for $125.  I have some early ones though and could sell them on E-bay if I could bear to part with them.  When I explained to a daughter about all this she said "OCD as a calmer of emotions"?  But of course that's exactly right!  At least order is a desirable effect, in this case!

     While I was rearranging magazines, I got out some other of my favorites and among them was a volume of poetry written by another daughter and given to me as a present.  This is a treasured gift! 


 Here is one of my favorites:

Little Deaths

The trails of moths in velvet cloaks

Grow scarce in October's funeral rain;

The frost that fringes the shawls of oaks

Will hem my Mother's windowpane.

For little deaths she will not grieve,

But occupies these last warm hours

Simply;  pulls her heart from her sleeve

Look:  her arms, full of flowers!

 Elizabeth Heichelbech

     Eliyah went with us to Spring Mill Park last week and we had a grand time.  We cooked Southwestern on the grill and he doused his with hot sauce.  I didn't use the ice chest as I thought it wouldn't fit in his Mother's car.  Instead I used an insulated bag that came from Kroger years ago.  Despite being full of holes, it did the job but I thought I would buy some new ones when we went to the store.  However, I came in $2 over budget as it was and declined to spend any more.  Rather I came home and found that I could mend the two bags. Even the one with the broken zipper allowed itself to be pieced together.  Bill went through the house singing "Mighty Ana with her needle, here she comes to save the day"!

I'm afraid all our menus are very monotonous these days, although the shish-ke-babs with pineapple, onions, green peppers, mushrooms and chicken chunks went over big last night.   I am continuing to spend about $70 a week on this low carb diet and we are not hungry and I have my old energy back, for which I am very grateful.

Hyalophora Cecropia (silkmoth)

     Spring came early this year.  I was out pruning the shrubs in March.  I pruned a large, really a giant cocoon off one of our Rose of Sharon.  I put it in a muddy gallon glass jar I had used last year to protect a little tomato plant when I first put it out.  Later I found a second one, different in style.  The two jars stood on the patio table for 3 months or so.  During a period of cold and rainy weather when I didn't go out to do yard work (and check the jars)  something large came out of one and expired in the bottom of the jar.  I felt awful that I didn't catch it but it's wings weren't furled so he might have died of cold.  Then last Sunday I noticed that the other one had come out of it's cocoon and was fanning his wings!  Oh, he was beautiful!  I had never seen one like him.  Red and brown with white spots and Big!  He didn't like me taking pictures of him and so they are not so good pictures but here is the best of them.

 When we examined the cocoon we could find no hole large enough to permit the escape of such a large moth!

We think it may have been a male.  He would not come out of the jar but it was a bright sunny day. He flapped his wings open and closed and came to the lip (I had laid the jar down on it's side for easier egress) to look out.  He bristled and took a step toward me when he saw me looking at him and holding a ruler out to measure him.  6 inches wingtip to wingtip.  As  it got dark he held his wings upright, ready for takeoff.  Late in the night he left to have romantic adventures on his own.  We were so sad to see him go I made a paper replica to keep us company!

 It has been the adventure of the silkmoth!

Making my own clothes!

          I have been thinking about clothing myself without the second-hand option.  It's funny but I don't feel the same way about the clothes I buy and those I make.  When the children were small I made many items, pajamas with feet, frilly dresses, curtains and slip covers, even some underwear.  When my oldest son graduated from the eighth grade, I made his suit, of dark green polyester blend and it was not my best effort.  I had never been taught to tailor things and I didn't know how it should have hung from the shoulders.  However, it couldn't be noticed on a trotting horse and I'm sure he wore it only a few times.  The point is, one looked at patterns and fabric and there was no limit how much trouble one would go to in order to have the thing wanted.  But buying retail, I tend to look at the price tag first and then consider if it's ok.  Ok enough to wear.  Maybe goes with something I already have, sorta.  I don't seem to see the manufacturers of clothing as asking my opinion.  In fact, I have bought some items that sort of dismayed me but seemed trendy enough.  Buying second hand, even the trendyness goes.  So when I thought about sewing some things, I was perplexed.  I didn't know what I wanted!  I did some research on line.  I found articles about fashion, especially for older ladies, that mentioned classic styles, shawl collared jackets, 40's style tailored slacks, the little sheaths and full-skirted dresses I made in High School are back in style and flats but with little white socks now.  But I could not find outlets that sold these items.  Not in my price range anyway.  I began to go through my collection of Victoria Magazines, they don't show many fashions but what they do show are very classic.  I took a girlfriend and went to the fabric store.  Patterns were on sale for the same prices I used to pay, just $1 or $2 apiece.  I had a coupon good for 1/2 off a piece of cut fabric.  I looked at linen and linen-look, hunting for Taupe.  I had to settle for a medium brown but I like it.  Then a piece for a dress.  I already had some white linen for blouses, some green denim for shorts, some plaid for a casual top.  I spent $43.   When I got home I spread them all out on the bed to gloat over!

     It was not so easy to get back into the sewing mode.  I made the green shorts first and made a slight cutting error.  The same thing with the plaid blouse but I fixed it.  The button holes aren't as nice as I wanted but practice makes perfect, or at least better.  Now I'm working on the first white blouse and it's coming along nicely..  It makes me feel happy to be working on these things for myself.  And already I've become picky about what I'll wear of what I already have.  Also I've hemmed up good pieces left languishing for lack a little hand-sewing.  This is gonna be fun!


     Friday I took the day off and went with a friend to see the Indiana Pioneer Mothers' Memorial.  It consists of 88 acres of virgin timber just south of Paoli, Indiana.  I took pictures but it was a cloudy day and virgin woods are dark always but here is a view of the Memorial wall in the center of the woods.  Quite a walk for these old legs.  But I loved it and thought it well worth the effort.  Afterward we had lunch in Paoli, came home and took a nap!

     There are no menus this week,  I've been busy so Bill did the shopping and I've just been making easy things.  Meatballs and tiny bits of pasta tonight!