Straw in the country is important. Heck, it’s what keeps our chickens warm. My brother stacked a few bales on the west side of the coop to keep the wind out. He uses it for nesting material in their boxes.
There’s a whole theory of no weed gardening based on piles of straw. It helps keep down weeds around flowers or trees. It breaks down to mulch.
Ah, but here there are too many rodents that eat your plants before you even get started. So mostly you need to build rodent safe raised box gardens. That takes money we don’t have. Lumber isn’t cheap. Maybe someday we’ll get to try it.
Not my picture but we are surrounded by fields like this.
Drinking straws have gone back to paper to be good to the earth
Milo volunteered to be the socks background. I finally knitted to the arch ribbing.
Only managed one row on the watermelon socks. Milo shows off the colors.😉
I have to admit that three furry babies take a lot of time and energy. Even when they are the best audience and supportive friends. I’m surprised at my slow progress on everything.
Nothin’ but blue sky…
Shiloh loves music, especially keyboard and piano. This is her before I started my session.
See what I mean?
Sammie is already asleep under the diamond painting table.
Shiloh finally secumbs
Sammie prodding his bed.
So here is the best of my Warts and All. Please don’t feel obligated to listen. I know it’s still way slow and bumpy. I am enjoying learning bluesy songs. Classical is predictable; key signatures make sense, rhythms aren’t wonky. Sure, I still make mistakes but I understand why. Modern, blues, jazz I understand in theory but my hands don’t get it sometimes. It doesn’t flow. Modes instead of major and minor throw me off. The one and three beats of classical are now the second and fourth as main beats. Sorry. A lot of excuses for why I’m not perfect. My purpose of this blog and YouTube is to veer away from perfection that is in our faces everyday. So here is God Bless The Child.
I hate the questions that ask what my favorite anything is. Books, kids, color, etc. All change accordingly.
So let me do my best to narrow this down. Water. Beach, pool, lake, creek, rain, snow.
I love swimming underwater, on top of water, drinking water. Inside, outside, upside down. Oh, let’s not forget forests near water. Sandy beaches. Let me dive in.
One of my favorite things to do in life is to sing. All my life!
When I was a kid on the swing I was singing. My favorite swinging songs was To Dream the Impossible Dream.
I set up classmates to reinact the Wizard of Oz. Somewhere Over the Rainbow is still a favorite. I’m teaching myself a new version to play so I can sing with it later. In fact, Ash Grove, Beau Soir, Shilo, Just the Way You Are, God Bless the Child and Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man of Mine, among others are piano accomplishments I’m learning while I’m trying get my voice back. I’m doing the vocal warmups I learned in voice classes and lessons I took for a couple years.
Allergies are messing with my throat but I’m doing my best. I miss singing. I used to do solos in churches. I was terrified when I first started but I grew to love every minute of it. Whereas the piano playing with any audience made me feel I was going to die. But the singing would take me to another world.
Sunset beach diamond painting is nearly finished. Just a little piece of sky. (Why did I suddenly hear Yentl in my head?) And I sealed the smiling turtle. As soon as I can I will hang it in my bathroom.
My fingering weight socks are coming along. Not very fast as thin needles and skinny yarn take more caution, time, eye-strain, nimble fingers.Guess who got a new watch? I’m still learning my way around it. I haven’t figured out how to capture my stationary bike time, distance, or levels. But the work should get reflected in other health numbers.
My new air plants found pinecones for homes.
Some things like the bike are hard to show progress. But my feelings about the tasks should be the quantifiable attainment. The gold star sticker is the happy accomplished feeling.
I’ve been working on “Shilo” on the piano in honor of
Shiloh. She and Sammie find their places in Dar’s Dabbling Den at practice time. I like their company as I stumble through 4 or 5 pieces a day. Once I’m bored with a song it goes by the wayside. But sometimes a song challenges me to the point of playing itself in my sleep.
I keep a practice journal and some pieces shine with my own praise of how well it went, others I actually draw faces sticking out the tongue in raspberries. I keep promising another ‘warts and all’ session. Stagefright keeps stopping me. Soon.
Duolingo is still fun for me. I do it while on the bike as the 11AM local news plays. I think movement while learning helps.
There’s a bit of month left over but by meandering through the alphabet I’ve hit Z. No more letters And…
Zero stitches to knit on Chris’s birthday socks!
A quick review of my favorite sock pattern:
Turkish cast-on starts the toe. Increase to width of foot. Work width until nearing the arch. Rib the arch. A couple inches of width-knit. Then start Fleegle Heel. Knit width of ankle for a couple of inches. Then rib desired cuff length. Jeny’s stretchy cast-off finished the sock. You can research this site or YouTube for each of the identified bits of the Chiaogoo Two At A Time Socks.
Now on to the other socks I started earlier but had to put away for the birthday socks. Yay!
It’s time to teach more new tricks to the yearling pup. We’ve finally let him leashless around inside the house. He’s barking is less. We’re getting better sleeping at night.
Four adults make sure rain or shine that Milo gets lots of walks leashed in the yard.
Still, we’re working on him not pooping in the hall, even when the job’s been done moments before outside.
But he responds to his name and ‘come’. But so much more training needs to happen.
Thank you, Linda and Stream of Consciousness for the remainder to teach him to ‘shake’. It should be easy. Another way to bond with this cuddle-bug.
Working on my series: Haven.
Doodler (zendoodle.com)
Music major: voice and piano
Mom of four great adults
Reiki II practitioner
I have been on disability/retired for 10 years now from depression, anxiety and fibromyalgia.
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