A Contemplative Life

Lately we've had loads of sunshine on the North Coast of California, as though the marine layer is being pulled in the opposite direction by some magical force for which I am quite grateful, lol. My husband isn't as pleased, but of course it is July and even here in Humboldt County occasionally warm temps creep along the shore, muscling that marine layer well off to sea. Having said all that, I still like draping a quilt over my lap when I sit in my chair early in the morning, hehehe. Right now I'm using my lightest weight cozy, pictured above. I made it in 2015, after my dad died, and I call it the Dadland Flag. Not sure from where that name emerged, but it stuck, and still sticks, and recently he would have turned eighty-two, dude! I can't honestly fathom him being that old, though he was looking pretty aged not long before he passed. His wasn't an easy life, and many of those potholes were of his own making, but he did reach seventy, which at the time I almost co...

Because despite busy days with grandgirls, the longest day of the year means much to me, and I don't want to lose that notion amid whatever else is going on.... Okay, so it's early morning, all are sleeping. As for that solstice.... Currently it's heavily wrapped in a whopping marine layer that yesterday kept the sun from shining on our North Coast, and may again today veil the blue sky that on these lengthy daylight summer days seems unending. I am totally a summer person, or perhaps I merely gravitate toward the light. Whatever it is about this time of year that tugs at my heart, I long for a peek at blue sky, and if not today, then maybe tomorrow. This post was waylaid by an early rising youngest granddaughter who sewed this mostly ALL BY HERSELF!! I did the pressing, lol.... Could it be all those years we lived in the UK, where clouds dominated? Which butts up against my childhood spent in the hot Sacramento Valley here in California, few clouds in summer of which to sp...

From yesterday afternoon once I attached the last two rows to the lower section. However, I am itching to write about this quilt, maybe because I've been silent concerning the surprise cozy. So despite having to sew together the first seven rows and the last six rows, here's a post about a saturated colour quilt that has captured my heart in a very intense manner, as though it's the last quilt I'll ever make. Hmm, that's a bit of an overstatement. I glance around, searching for Future Me. No sign of her, which is for the best. Because this post isn't about Past Me or that all-knowing aspect of myself, ahem. Nope, this is about a highly beloved bunch of rainbow squares that were arranged with barely a second thought nearly two weeks ago. Before Renee Good was murdered. Which I mention because her death certainly impacted how much I adore this quilt, yet not in a melancholy way. More in a how vibrant was her existence, how meaningful. How lively and warm and how c...

Drinking black tea, working on books, making something with fabric etc, etc, etc... Welp, I read aloud three chapters today! Home and Far Away is back underway, lol, and wow it's a relief returning to that realm, not of the novel's setting, merely of my butt in the chair, working on revisions. I'm still adjusting to what I can't eat, like milk in tea and ice cream and cheese, but at least pouring through a manuscript is familiar. And right now, familiar is WONDERFUL. Sorbet is pretty nice too, a decent alternative to my fave Phish Food Ice Cream, sniff. When I enjoyed a bowl of sorbet outside yesterday, seating myself near the chickens, the chickens thought I was there to give them a treat, hahaha! Camilla paced back and forth as though searching for a break in the fence. The rest came and went, then finally all wandered off, realizing I wasn't there to give them anything but vocal attention and to treat myself with something sweet in the odd but marvelous warm Oct...

  The hourly forecast for Saturday; indicative of my mood are the clouds, but if no rain falls, I'll be SO GRATEFUL (also indicative of my hope for the future). Recently a dear friend sent an email about being patient, trusting, and celebrating exactly where I am right now. I was grateful for her grace, that peace, and the accompanying anecdote about happy pigeons proffering a glimpse between where I currently stand and a world just beyond the veil. Where I am right now feels like thin ice, although Future Me is holding my hand, reminding that she just told me things were gonna suck. She squeezes my fingers as if to confirm that notion, the pressure not harsh but healing. She and I have been in some VERY DEEP VALLEYS, Past Me too, and yet here I am (or we are), breathing without difficulty on this bright, Thursday Humboldt County morning. Family arrived on Tuesday, my sister-in-law and her partner. The birthday celebrations begin tomorrow, so today will entail grocery shopping and ...

  The Hunter's Moon, October 2024. Bright moonlight proffers alternative glimpse of the world. Also how catastrophes make one feel like there is no day, only the suffocating darkness. Well, that's a mouthful, notes I made over an hour ago while sitting in the not quite dark living room feasting upon the moonlit landscape. The Hunter's Moon is indeed bright and beautiful in our clear Humboldt sky, and despite being awake since, oh my goodness, three a.m., I was cognizant enough to note a title for today's entry and scribble a couple of sentences for later perusal. So now it's later, which can be qualified because while it's also five thirty (at the time of writing) in the morning, when one is up at three, five thirty seems like mid-day, kind of how the night appeared, not really like night at all. It's currently this twilight-night, that marvelous moon illuminating far beyond what spotlights could achieve. I was up early yesterday (although not so stupid earl...

Sunset on Mum's last day, June 2018 Around the northern hemisphere summer solstice, I get a little introspective. My mum died six years ago at this time of year, and even now I still miss her, maybe I always will. Better that one's parents go first certainly, but she wasn't even seventy, shite! Recently the band Camera Obscura released an album, their first since 2013 and the first since their keyboardist Carey Lander died of osteosarcoma in 2015. My husband put the digital files on my computer and yesterday I listened to some of the.... It's not a record, like in vinyl, but Look to the East, Look to the West is an album, and on it is "Sugar Almond", the tenth of eleven songs, a tune Tracyanne Campbell wrote for Lander. I'm listening to it now, Campbell's melancholy vocals enhanced only by a piano, probably played by Donna Maciocia who was brought into the band for a gig alongside Belle and Sebastian in their Boaty Weekender cruise. Maciocia became Ca...

Today's pics are ones I took last night, dried flowers collected by the grandgirls and my youngest daughter that adorn our fireplace mantle. These post-Thanksgiving days are...strange. Such a big holiday, then a busy weekend with family, traveling included. Now we're home, yet more alterations await; dear friends are coming on Sunday, staying for the week, yay! I need to prep the house, although not put up Christmas decorations, as there is no time for more than stringing lights on our front fence, so necessary as daylight has diminished sharply. There's also a quilt on the design wall that I put up yesterday and want to stitch together before our guests arrive. I wrote a chapter today, WOO HOO, so missing that element of my life. I adore sharing our home with beloveds; it's also great to return to familiar rhythms that bring me so much peace.     Then I stop myself, realizing how blessed am I to have that peace. This nation is fairly fractured, but not openly waging vi...

A jewel not of my making; read below for its story. I spent a few days away from home, gifting some autumnal quilts which garnered gushing affection, which is always so lovely to witness. Meanwhile my husband hosted a friend he's known since high school, and that friend also enjoyed the myriad quilts draped over the sofa, lol. It's always nice to be appreciated and prepared. Speaking of prep, last week I started to wrangle with future installments of my current fictional series. I had ideas certainly; this saga has miles to travel until reaching The End. But I hadn't given it much hard thought, kind of caught up in Halloween quilts and cleaning for a guest, ha ha. Yet now I have a plan, or maybe it's more concrete than an ethereal notion. I won't know till I reach those stories, but at least a pathway has emerged from the foggy mist. At times it's a difficult journey when relying on the muse, my faith, the twists and turns of life. I chatted about life's sur...

Sleep has been hard to manage on this trip to the Midwest, but waking early allows me time for back/hip exercises and copious solitary moments greatly enhanced by sitting in my sister-in-law's sunroom listening to the lake, which laps gently or voraciously against the shore. This morning is of the ferocious style, a clear day with a strong breeze, the waves not quite whitecaps. Large geese have been spotted, a dark gray heron too. Frogs attempt to get into where my granddaughters sleep, and we joke that those amphibians don't get to go inside because they don't pay rent. Other than missing my better half, who is keeping an eye on our place, I'm enjoying a marvelous getaway. Well, I did break my pinky left toe, ahem. Going down the loft stairs a little carelessly, I banged it hard, thought nothing of it until much later in the day. Now it's taped to the one beside it, and I'll avoid the loft where my granddaughters play with toys from a previous generation. Other...

March 2012; no idea which book I had just finished, but The Hook is looking fine.   Years ago after completing a novel, I would drive to the beach, to The Hook in Capitola to be exact. The trip was a good forty-five minutes over Highway 17, a little treacherous back then, worse now in that most traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area is more hazardous than before, or maybe I think that way because I'm older and possess less patience. Or maybe that's because now a trip to the beach is far more relaxing regardless of how goes the writing. But the writing, for now, is DONE! This morning I began, then finished the final chapter, and oh my goodness, the sense of relief is PALPABLE! So many emotions attached to both the initial draft and this version, so much hand-wringing, and SO MUCH TO PLAN FOR, lol. The first draft was merely a way to decompress after an awful death in our family. This story is like a rebirth, although I'm still mewling about, trying to decide what goes where a...

Talk about one stop on a long process, that's what another Cornflower Quilt block is all about. I love writing. I also enjoy completions, lol. This morning I started reading at the beginning not only of the WIP but what has become the second in a perceived saga. I had *HOPED* to complete the rewrite of this novel before next Sunday. Not sure if that's gonna happen, que sera sera. In reading the first scene, I was struck at how this story (and whatever comes of it series-wise) has framed my year, which started off with saying goodbye to one deeply cherished. At the time, the WIP was merely a way to immediately process what I had just witnessed, it truly wasn't meant as the basis for what it has become. Maybe I need to acknowledge that to myself; for all my desires to wrap up this story by Father's Day, better is a slower path, especially since so much will follow. I WANT to finish this book, but indulging in the journey could be significant. The destination vs the expedi...

Rainbow quilt top done! I don't know exactly how many fat quarters I cut a few weeks ago, but it was A LOT. Plus I threw in a couple of fat quarter-ish pieces from my solids' stash, which made for a plethora of three, six, and eight-inch squares, when excising the seam allowances. Yesterday I finished the rainbow quilt, taking some nice shots of it on our laundry line that really only gets used for photo ops. The sun has been shining lately, perfect weather for displaying quilts, two others you can see on my Instagram account. The bright weather also lends itself to vibrantly hued quilts, and I'm thinking as soon as I make the back for the one above I'll design another with the spare squares. One more baby quilt remains on my current list of quilting To Do's, but we'll see how long the rainbow squares will hold out; I'm also in mood to use up various cut fabrics that are cluttering what little surface area exists in my office/sewing room. I'm in a mood ...