Raven and Sparrow

Progress report: Becky's winter

I have been plugging away on the winter cloth for a while, but it is slow slow slow. I decided to use embroidery to make the treeline more literal and emphasize the shoreline. It turns out that forty-eight inches is a lot to embroider. It doesn't help that I keep second guessing my choices because it saps my enthusiasm. I had trouble figuring out how to meld the stitching with the dyed background. Finally I ended up with the slanting line thing, using a double strand of two different colors: a dark green and a more olive-y green, filling in between where necessary with single strand dark green, all in split stitch. If you look closely you can see that I am still not finished. After the trees I will start on the water. I hope it goes faster.

 

 

Forts and foxes

Another trip to San Juan Island this weekend took us to the National Historical Monuments there that commemorate the famous Pig War. Not that famous? Let me tell you all about it.

The treaty that designated the 49th parallel as the border between Canada (British territory) and the new United States excepted huge "Vancouver's Island" as belonging to Britain even though it extends south of the line. It didn't specify who owned the smaller islands between Vancouver Island and the the mainland. Of course, both countries claimed them and tensions rose as more people moved in. In 1860 the shooting of an American pig by a British settler angry about its depredations in his vegetable garden resulted in troops being stationed by both countries at the north and south ends of San Juan Island. They stayed there for twelve years while negotiations were conducted. Finally the matter was referred to Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany for mediation and he chose in favor of the United States. The British immediately ceded the land their fort was built on and removed themselves. Except for the ones that killed the pig, no shots were ever fired.

Now the two camps are parks. They are from the same time period of course, but their locations make them very different. English Camp borders a protected inlet which is heavily wooded and very tranquil. In the years that they were stationed there the British constructed a log blockhouse, handsome barracks and officers quarters, sturdy stone walls and a formal garden. They took pride in their camp. The Americans built their fort on the open windswept heights at the south end of the island. By all accounts they lived a rougher and less civilized life than the British, receiving much less support from their government which was distracted by the Civil War. Only a few buildings still stand, but the sweeping views are amazing.

I didn't get any good pictures of American Camp this time, but as we investigated the prairie outside the camp we were approached by a red fox. I saw him from a distance and was amazed as he ran straight towards us.

This is a first for me. Foxes are rare on our island and I have never seen one. I thought it was great to meet one up close like this. It was a good day in many ways.


 

Back to tidying

After making quite an effort to clean up the house and organize all of my belongings according to the precepts expounded by Marie Kondo in her popular book "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up" I hit a wall. When I got to paperwork and money, I just couldn't get it done. I'm still waiting for the courage (or the impending disaster) that will move me toward paper control, but in the meanwhile I found another category that needed my attention. My linen closets were a mess, especially the one that I keep my tablecloths in. After scrabbling about in search of something that would work on my latest table I realized that it was time for a purge. I took everything out of every cupboard in the laundry room and dumped them in the hall ...tablecloths, napkins, sheets, blankets...everything... and subjected them to the joy test under Wiki's supervision. Lots of bedding didn't survive, but most of my tablecloths and all of my napkins did. It became a matter of better storage for those items, remembering that Marie advises never stacking anything on top of something else. Unfortunately, I didn't want to fold my cloths into packets because that is too much folding for them, so I did end up stacking them up. Sorting them by type and size and laying them so that each one can be seen will keep them neat, I hope.

I had been keeping some of the napkins in plastic boxes, but I didn't have enough and the overflow was as jumbled as the rest of the closet. The boxes work well to keep ironed napkins tidy enough to use without touch-ups which is really valuable when I am in a hurry. I went out to shop for more boxes, but of course, couldn't find any to match which mattered because I wanted to stack them up. I ended up buying something similar on-line and now the closet looks much better.

I'm hoping the changes will last as well as the clean-ups I have done in other areas. My closet, dresser drawers, bookcase and dish cupboards are still tidy after months of use. The ribbon drawer has devolved back into a mess, so I guess I didn't solve that riddle, but overall I think Marie's ideas have made a real difference.  
 

Labor Day weekend

Wow. What a weekend. Lots of company, lots of activities, lots of meals, and especially, lots of fun. On Saturday both our boys and their girls came up from Seattle. We invited their aunt and uncle (Mike's brother) to join us for pizza so there were eight around the table that night. Joel's (our youngest son) fiancee Becca borrowed her mother's VCR so we could watch our old family videos. Our VCR broke years ago... its been over ten years since I have seen them. They are excruciatingly boring for those not involved, but I have trouble tearing myself away. Seeing and hearing my babies, the younger versions of me and Mike and my parents and siblings, and the people who have since died is mesmerizing. Fortunately Becca took the magical machine away with her, so I'm not tempted to sit here by myself all day peering into the past.

On Sunday my sister Lisa visited with her husband, her two boys and their girls. We took a hike around Little Cranberry Lake in the local forestlands (the one with the floating bog islands...very interesting) and came home for another dinner. Lisa's boys and mine are very close in age and in feeling. We have always lived near enough to each other for the kids to play and grow up together. It was truly wonderful to have them all around the table again, although twelve people is my absolutely maximum capacity. 

The table setting was dictated by the numbers. I only have one set of twelve plates, my blue and white Spode reproduction set, and only a couple of undercloths big enough for the extended table. I chose the dark green undercloth and a green and blue printed kantha stitched scarf from my Asian Eye stash. When I got them on the table together I decided to add the turquoise square I just had on the seashell table to lighten it up. The flowers were simple white ones from the grocery store that looked pretty stiff until I added some honeysuckle vines from the yard. I asked permission to photograph the party so, by popular demand, can show the table before and the dinner in progress. The girls were so quick to clear up the dishes afterwards that I couldn't document the mess we left. It was a really good day.