Books and Blocks and Bird Eggs

Finally, a post with some pictures!

My doldrums seem to be fading.  *knocks on wood*  Maybe because I'm at the tail end of that time of month, maybe because I've let myself recharge, who knows.

I've reread a couple books lately.  One was Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.  The other was The Ordinary Princess by M.M.Kaye.  Very different stories and tones, but both old favorites I was delighted to reconnect with.

I also just yesterday got Check, Please!: Sticks and Scones in the mail.  I treated myself by reading the Kent story that had been kept back from the webcomic, but I held back on finishing the story.  The author is posting the last several chapters now, one a day, so I'm going to draw it out because when it's done, there'll be no more.  If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it!  (As to the Kent comic, all I can say is a. someone has clearly been to a therapist since his last appearance and it shows, and b. Kent's reaction to finally trying Bitty's pie for the first time is both appropriate and gratifying.)

This week the co-op had turkey eggs on offer, so for novelty's sake I got a dozen for me and a dozen for my sister.  Top to bottom, these are a turkey egg, a duck egg, and a chicken egg.  I love the speckles!

I also managed to fit in a bit more sewing on Edyta Sitar's mystery quilt.  I came to remember my dislike of sliver trimming, but now they're done.  Here are blocks eleven and fourteen:

Only three more sets to go, and then I can lay them out and assemble the quilt top!

Tired Tuesday

Another day of not much done.  Squiddle loves his new math book (Math For Minecrafters) that his Granny sent him, so he did four pages from that.  I stitched some block parts to try and finish up Edyta Sitar's sew-along, so that I don't leave it eternally undone.  We took a walk around the block.  And, really, that was our Tuesday.

Oh, and we set up Squiddle's telescope and admired the supermoon!

But overall, not being able to go anywhere or interact with other people is making the world feel small, and time feel like an illusion.  I'm tired all the time, and I have to keep reminding myself be gentle, be gentle, this shall pass....

Those Monday Blues

Ugh.  It is now official: school is over for the year, at least here in Washington state.  That plus Squiddle having a meltdown over being denied video game time because he hadn't done any schoolwork, plus a very nasty review on a seven-year-old story on fanfiction.net... well, let's just say Monday was pretty much a total wash this week.  At least I got the workroom cleaned up, and we talked some with Jazzy's teacher?

Sunday Slow Day

Kinda of a slow Sunday due to waking up with a headache (and starting that time of month).  I did get a bit more trimming of the apple trees done, and watering of the outdoor plants, but that was about it.

(I also got a splinter in my finger that I can't seem to get out.  Probably a gift of the apple trees....)

Farewell Naptime

Wonderful Husband and I finished our watch of Good Omens last night.  It was a pretty good adaptation of the book.  Not perfect - we each found a few things to quibble about.  But a lot better than a lot of books get.

And it looks like Jazzy is now, sadly, no longer going to be getting an afternoon nap.  Because he was up and rambunctious until around or after midnight the last several nights... except for last night, when we had deliberately omitted his nap.  I'm a bit sad, because having a bit of downtime in the afternoon was so nice.  (Squiddle was, at the same time and under great protest, having a half hour's "quiet lie-down time."  Guess that's gone too.)

Today is yardwork (we've already gotten the heaps of apple tree prunings trimmed down and put in the yard waste bin, as well as three more bags of mulch spread) and wibbling about whether or not to go to the garden center.  Tonight, hopefully, I'll sew more Thorn blocks, as I've got two yellow and six blue kitted up.

Thursday's Things

Yesterday I (sorta) got back into the zoom of things.  I pulled three pots out of the garage and mixed up potting soil, compost, and worm castings to make enough soil to fill the pots and get ten of the (second) set of bare-root strawberries planted.  I still have like four more plants in the bundle, but for now they're in another soak cycle in their cup on the kitchen counter.  I also reassembled the fire pit (which someone, probably Jazzy, has been knocking blocks down from) and pulled cardboard out of The Barn and finished laying it down on that garden bed.  Hopefully today I'll have the spoons to finish mulching it, and water.

I also laid out the twenty-four Thorns blocks just to see how much ground they covered:

They look kind of neat like that, like raindrop ripples on water, but giving them sashing would make my life so much easier.

I also laid out the yellow Thorns blocks for my cousin's baby's quilt:

I think I want to make another six more, do a narrow sashing, and a narrow border.  Forty-two by fifty-five sounds like a good size that will grow with baby K. for a few years.

And after Jazzy went down for his nap, I persuaded Squiddle to try watercoloring with me.  We watched a youtube tutorial on the TV and experimented.

He wanted to make a robot:

Where I was more interested in making a colorwash or two:

Time Skip!

Wow, I missed an update yesterday!  Sorry, I've been trying to post once a day and I slipped.

(Posting daily was not actually my New Year's Resolution.  That was to not read the news.  The news only sends me into depressive spirals.  And I was doing pretty good on that resolution, until Covid-19 happened and blew it all to hell.)

Yesterday was a low-energy day.  As in I had little to none, though I did end up making pumpkin muffins.  I actually ended up napping on the sofa in the afternoon as the boys played with Duplo blocks in front of me.  I woke up when my "time for Jazzy to nap" alarm went off.  I did manage to get him to sleep, then left the house in charge of Wonderful Husband while I went and picked up the farmers co-op orders (Squiddle did not want to come with).  It was a bit strange - I left home to a partly cloudy sky, and by the time I got to the first pick-up point, about five miles away, I'd been through a downpour and it started hailing.  By the time I got to the second pick-up point it was bright sunshine and warm!  Both co-ops have now changed to a drive-up model, where you give them your name and they put your bag of items on your passenger seat.  We now have chorizo, mushrooms, leeks, spinach, and spicy salsa. ^_^

Wonderful Husband baked a pizza for dinner, I sewed a couple more thorns blocks, and I read Squiddle The Lorax for his bedtime story.  Hah, way to not make myself depressed....