Friends online and in real space

 Yesterday was about staying cool, knitting,  getting surprise visits and online meetings where I could vent my feelings about the current political turmoil.

Best of all was a flying visit from a close friend who moved away but never fails to stop by when she's anywhere near. We did a great catch-up about families and friends, ending with our traditional selfies.

She's so short I have to bob down to get us both in the shot. 

While I was in the online meeting Gary burst in with a question about plants (!) and got a very brief answer.

Nice Indian neighborhood proof #23,543: I was carrying my recycling bucket and a bag of garbage to the dumpster when a young woman ran up, took them from me, disposed of them and wished me a nice day! Total stranger from somewhere down the street. 

Today is about getting the water heater installed at the condo and selling my firstborn to pay for it.

It's also about another friend this afternoon, visiting and getting this from me. She makes art, and I offered her first look before I put this supply of wonderful acid free paper and portfolio on Freecycle.

If she takes only some of it, I have a couple of people eager for the rest of it. It's the supplies left after I had a solo show of prints and paintings. Arches paper, beautiful quality.

So that's where we are today, happy day. 

More visiting, Easter cactus

Yesterday's plans changed when I had a sudden spontaneous visit from an old friend I  hadn't seen for ages, got caught up with news of family and mutual friends. 

She tends to be the confidante of her friends in their troubles, classic youngest daughter situation, familiar to me, and she asks me for input. So we did some of that, too.

These friends' visits tend to change the course of the day, so yesterday was not a day of making, nor of writing as planned about the politics of making art. But she did accept an artwork off the wall! The winnowing continues.

I asked her to send a picture when it's installed in her home, which I'll share.

And there was a huge, seismic shift in NJ politics yesterday, speaking of politics, when a federal judge struck down the County Line on the primary ballot design,and ordered a redesign for our June primary.

This wipes away a lot of power from the  Democratic party power brokers. This is a couple of white men, one North Jersey, one South, who've been using the ballot design to give total prominence to their chosen candidates. 

This consigned all other candidates, however popular, to what Rep Kim, who's running for Senate, calls ballot Siberia. The design has been estimated to give a 38% advantage to their handpicked candidate.  

The power brokers, were shoving in the governor's totally inexperienced wife, never ran for anything before, as the replacement for indicted Senator Menendez. 

This brought about a  rebellion from voters, with whom Kim is popular and a tested legislator.  He won by huge margins those county party votes where clerks opened the voting or allowed secret ballots at the recent county meetings, held for the purpose of endorsing candidates in an election year.

He's the guy,you probably saw him, who was pictured doing cleanup at the Capitol after the January 6 insurrection. He gained deep personal respect there, walks the walk. 

His popularity showed up starkly how the power brokers' choice was a nonstarter, and winning his court case against the Line has been a huge victory. 

Now we're in the process of pressing the County Clerks to get on with the new ballot design ready for our June primary, and not waste time and tax dollars on appealing the decision. I've already written to my County Clerk to this effect. 

And we have to press our local county party to do great checking on future candidates, now that it's opened up. We don't want people running and winning as Democrats then, in office, turning out to be Republican after all. 

One thing and another, a busy social and civic day!

And the Easter cactus is  getting with the program.

Happy day, everyone, note what's your own program of the day, and try to get with it!

Girija, Shabnam and the colors of life

Yesterday was a day partly of working with Gary in his garden reminding him how to lift iris to separate them, then persuading him to wait till after frost to prune the butterfly bush. It's an easy way for me to garden -- I tell and point, he digs. Then I say "we" gardened.

Lovely walk, after that, this is being a marvelous October, best I can remember

Then a great surprise -- text arranging for two old friends to visit early evening. That was the greatest time, just laughing and catching up.

I'm five foot three and I tower over them! Left to right Shabnam, Moi, Girija.

Girija brought Diwali gifts

Tealights since Diwali is the Feast of lights, candy, scarves, an embroidered wallet, such treats.  

I served lemonade and paneer cookies, they were  impressed I'd made paneer (!) they both being great cooks, that was good to  hear. 

Girija particularly, when she lived across the street educated me on today's Indian food and spices.  And they're happy to hear that Amitha, my next door neighbor, who with her husband bought the house from Shabnam, is keeping me supplied with curry leaves, since Girija did that when she lived across the street.

They ran about checking on what I'd made since they last saw me, and loved the denim vest. Neither of them does anything like this, so it's all a bit of a mystery, and the socks I showed them, too funny to see their faces, how is this done??

I'm so lucky to have such friends, literally my son's age. Looking forward to seeing them again, too 

And meanwhile here's the cardamom tea I made as the first tea experiment of the winter. Pretty good.

Speaking of colors, I did finally get the new Kindle working, it's used to my touch  and I don't have to stab at it now, and found a lot of books I'd forgotten I had loaded on the old one and now transferred them.

I had a whole lot of foreign books in translation, a freebie from Amazon to promote non English writers, so I embarked on this, translated from German.

Set I think in Bavaria, though it's not specified, it's touching and easy reading with a tragic theme of pediatric cancer and joy in spite of it. It's probably a YA book, for young readers, but not childish. I'm glad I rediscovered it lurking in my Kindle library. 

I did lose a lot of Project Gutenberg books I learned to download onto the old Kindle, because there's no Amazon pathway, so once the Kindle went so did they. 

I'd have to relearn how to load them. PG is the anti- Amazon source of free classic literature. You use Calibre software to access them and I think my tablet isn't up to it. I did it originally on my now almost defunct laptop.

Happy day everyone, happy Diwali, lights in your life, enjoy!

And here's dear Sister Corita Kent, nun and pop artist who pursued pop art and joy despite the angry opposition of her Cardinal, there's a back story. He tried and failed to extinguish her art and joy. Art won!

Photo AC 

Surprise visit

Yesterday was a surprise visit from old friends who moved away but were in the area yesterday. 

They arrived bearing gifts from a recent visit to India, purses, one a hand stitched phone purse

And fabric, a lined dancing skirt from their daughter, in case I could use the fabric or the bling

Over a carafe of lemonade and plum cake, some of which went home with them, we caught up on her new job, her daughter's life plans,

here they're scrolling for pictures of her intended, to show me, and we generally had a wonderful visit. Such an unexpected treat.

Then we had the required photoshoot

Before that, I had hemmed those jeans for Handsome Son 

To the accompaniment of Mrs Pargeter

I'm giving knitting a day or two rest because my shoulder is asking for a break.

 But I shall return.

Happy day everyone, hang in there, look for even tiny joys, not easy, I know

How am I busy when there's only me here?

I had planned on walking on the Preserve thinking the weather was cool, to do my bit of seasonal observation for my little notebook.

Like yesterday's notes about honeysuckle berries now out

And a painted lady butterfly visiting the sedum, too fast for pix.

Then things seemed to happen. I found it was going to be too hot after all, for me to walk out. And I needed to cook vegetables to keep up my five a day. And I was determined to be conscientious about prewashing my fabric, at which I'm usually hopelessly negligent. 

 I thought that last one would also involve ironing, needing more space than the tiny bit of kitchen counter I usually use. Never owned an ironing board, not planning on starting.

So I cleared the dining table, hauled the laptop upstairs to the printer location, placemats into the kitchen basket, ironing blanket and iron in place, cutting board, wood, to rest iron. 

Then back downstairs, I started the soup, leeks, still using them from that overbuying caper, onions, scallions, celery, curry powder, kosher salt.

Then upstairs for the laundry, to add in the fabrics to what I realized was already plenty of laundry and set that going.

Back downstairs to the cooked soup,  and I did another step after blending. I strained it because celery and leeks have some pretty resistant fibrous bits, and it's better without them. The flavor's still lovely. And the straining worked fine.  Then added in the rest of the roast vegetables and sausage from the Handsome Son's pasties. This all had to heat through. And it was really good. 

A bit hot today for soup but I couldn't resist trying it.  I did have roasted white and sweet potatoes from yesterday, good with a fried egg, 

but they can be supper instead.

Chives on top of the soup. Six more containers for the freezer. Powerhouse soup.

Back upstairs to the laundry, changed all the dryer settings for the fabric, rayon challis. And got a great surprise when they came out perfectly smooth, no need for all that ironing planning at all. The batik's softened up and the yellow one was already soft. Second load into the dryer at usual settings.

I was thinking this morning it was just the kind of day to wear the batik pants i haven't made yet. Motivation.

Downstairs again to ladle the now cool soup into single helpings for the freezer, label them, reorganize the freezer to fit them in where I'll find them.

Back upstairs to sort the fabric and search for another rod to hang them on till I get to them. 

Not fancy, just a handy way to let them breathe and be all set for cutting.

Then back down to sit for a minute on the sofa and look out. And nature came to me in the form of a monarch butterfly settling on the butterfly bush next door.  No need to go in search. 

If you've followed my impersonation of a piston rod on the stairs this morning, you may agree it's not a bad equivalent of a walk on the rough ground of the Preserve.

And here's a couple of observations from the patio. 

One of Amitha's climbing vegetables has scaled the fence and there's a little something ripening at the end there. Anyone know what?

And here's an adaptation of a piece of armature copper. It's really intended for the inside of a clay sculpture, 

I used it long ago, as is, to create a sculpture on and around the cherry tree. Which accepted it and grew around it, making it a permanent installation.

This bit is all we could salvage when we felled the tree, so now it's supporting the vine from seeds tossed this year. There may be time to get something edible this year, since there are a few flowers there.

Not forgetting the outside world, I'm following up on a request from Act Together New Jersey, to show off my card showing me as a regular donor. Small but regular. 

We're working all the time on get  out the vote, bills to make it ever easier to vote and be counted. In my case, armchair or dining table activism. Old but not done yet! The selfie is to encourage everyone to be active locally, wherever you live.

Annnddd... speaking of the outside world, hold the presses! Good thing I didn't go out. Old friends Girija and Rajiv, now living an hour away

 stopped by just on the offchance, stayed briefly, masked, wouldn't sit, explained they were not touching anything, to protect me, distanced, lovely conversation, catch-up, 

gift of beads snd thread from Mumbai where she went recently to see old parents.

She took pictures of current work to show another artist friend. Rajiv said the beaded figure was very Indian in feeling. Some of the beads on it came from Girija, including the ruby topknot. 

Haven't seen them in ages. They used to live across the street, saw them all the time. They're fans of my baking. I miss them. They said same same.

Gosh this was a treat. Huge surprise.

A pretty eventful day, all in all.