Raven and Sparrow

Catching up

My computer reacted negatively to a Windows 10 update (rage against the machine!!) so I have been stranded in no-internet land, except for the moments I can cadge on Mike's laptop. I am missing my blog-friends very much, although I have been catching glimpses of the January collage project...quite engrossing.

I have finished Lisa's autumn runner but cannot show it without access to Photoshop, so later. I am now working on an undercloth to go with it. I am planning another quilted square which I will dye myself because no commercial cloth is the right color. That means scrubbing out my big kettle and setting up the propane heater outside. The cloth is in mordant now. I'm going to try to quilt it myself, so this will push my sewing skills in a new direction, not one I am particularly excited about, but oh well. It will be Very Simple.

Small mercies

Christmas is slowly leaking out of the house as I get the tree and decorations down, use the clear space to bring in the ladder for tall window washing, and try to prepare for another year. The weather has been windy, rainy and chilly in this deep dark time so I am regretting (a little) the cheerful lights I am I winding up and stowing away. Yes, the blahs have got me. Nothing seems interesting and even the daily crisis of the news is as empty as the wind and just as controllable. Having been in this place before I know it will pass, probably in direct proportion to the increasing daylight as it ticks on toward spring. In the meantime small things catch my eye. Today I found a fallen branch in the driveway so encrusted with fantastical lichens that it looked like a different world... a tiny wonderland of delicate beauty tossed at random into my path. Complaining seems petty when such jewels are strewn at my feet.