Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
Birdman
In the early morning hours I had the oddest dream in which Brian had the ability to turn into a bird and did so whenever he was angry with me. The first time it happened, he walked out the door and turned into a crow until I had done some act of penance and he returned to me a man. Neither of us liked the crow much, and so the next time we argued he went out and became a stellars jay which annoyed me just as much because it simply seemed a way to avoid our argument. When he came back in man-form, he had patches of skin that were still blue and not turning back. He was stuck then with blue feathery patches on his skin until the next part of the dream which involved more unreasonable behaviour on his part (keeping salmon outside until it rotted and then insisting it was fine to eat).
Fortunately I woke up just as the maggots started crawling out of the fish.
There were other surrealist moments in the dream of course, a road trip, a grand canyon-type place, some other odd people. But the main takeaway was this birdman weirdness.
The whole thing made me glad that I have never thought Brian birdlike. It also made me realize how much the open windows of early summer are affecting my sleep. The crows outside our place are just crazy right now.
My Pandora Park plot
I have a new summer dress to show off but no photos of it yet so instead it is pictures of my community garden plot which I finally got down to working on Sunday.
When I got there, the plot looked like this:
Now, while the wild-growing pansies are beautiful, they were pretty much taking the whole plot up (not to mention the buttercup, the clover and the many other unidentifiable plants growing in there!)
Fortunately the earth was easy to turn and *full* of worms so it was short work to getting my garden plot looking like this:
It’s a little less vivid, but there’s a whole lot more space for veggies now. This isn’t the best shot, but at the far end are two leeks from the last gardener, two spaghetti squash plants (for which I must built supports), and some cabbages. I hope to get some more seeds and starts in this weekend. I’m a little late on it, but still with plenty of time to make it go.
More adventures in sewing.
Two mishaps:
- I put my finger under a running sewing machine while trying to stitch a zipper and got a needle through the flesh (to the side, not the nail fortunately).
- I put together most of a dress pattern – the hardest thing I have done to date, and when I put it on last night it turns out I have made it two sizes too big! I’m looking at ways to alter it tonight to see if the work can be salvaged.
So the learning continues and I’m feeling a little obsessed at the moment. The oversized dress can be hemmed down on the sides a bit without too much fuss but I do think I am going to remake the whole thing again at the proper size which is really the better way to get a good fit. With different fabric of course – I can make a pattern more than once but I don’t like using the same fabric over and over…. so this weekend I’m going to hit Spool of Thread and see what retro-y cuteness I can come up with.
It’s interesting, this process of learning to construct clothing – a total mental engagement as I work my way through (sometimes poorly worded) instructions and then try to apply them to cloth. And unlike quilting, a dress comes together in relatively few hours. I mean, despite the sizing problem – my very first dress has come together in about six hours so far with another 2 to finish it off. That’s really just two after-work evenings or a Sunday project. A quilt takes 4-10 hours per stage – cutting, piecing, basting, quilting – and that’s just for simple projects!
I am hoping by the end of this week to have a dress to show off here – one that is not bunching in the back and bagging at the sides – but in the meantime I’ve left this post with a picture of a crocheted shawl completed last week. This is another field of new explorating and also satisfying my need-to-learn impulses!
The front yard job.
After two years of talking plans for the front yard, we finally broke ground on our little plan back in May. You might remember this photo of the initial attack:
Since then, we have intermittently worked at our little front patch (which has grown increasingly shady under the leafing beech trees) and finally have about half of it mulched and planted. This is about as far as we are going to get it this year I believe – due to the timing of the year and also the cost of putting in more plants. I would rather wait until next year when I can divide some of our shade-loving perennials rather than shelling out a ton of more money at the garden centre. Also, I’m waiting to see how the wild dug oregon grape and sword ferns do – as I have access to many more on my parents’ property and will install them if they seem to like the locale.
In any case, by the end of this weekend we have a front yard that looks like this:
Which is feeling pretty sweet. I have to also acknowledge that Brian has done most of the work on this yard as I have been preoccuppied with the veggie garden and also my new community garden plot. One thing you can’t see in these photos is the veggie bed I put in to the right-hand side is doing quite nicely and even in the limited light, my greens are sprouting and starts are coming along. I think this is going to be a good summer greens and winter veggies bed given the shifting light availability/
Check out the detail gallery below, more photos to come shortly!
Fashion Friday: My new skirt!
Recognizing this isn’t the best photo – it was shot on my camera this morning before work. But here! Proof that I made and wore my very own skirt! It’s a little bit more see-through than I would like so I’m going to have to make a slip to go with it, but even so I’m wearing it in the office right now.
Red Cedar 
