Yarn, Books & Roses

Hannah and the CoalBear: Weekly Report, Caturdate 1/13/24

Hi. I’m Mateo.

It has been a pretty darn boring week for me. It has been snowing and cold, and the Mother of Cats has NOT been letting me out as much as I would like. I can see the bunnies and those horrid squirrels all running around outside, but do I get to spend time on the deck, belly flat against the wood, slowly creeping up towards the wire, digging in my back claws, dreaming of the rush towards that big fat bunny in the garden… NO. I hardly got any time out at all. The Mother of Cats was full of so many excuses that involved snow, wind, cold… whatever. If the bunny can manage, I’m sure that I’d be fine. To be fair, I guess I should admit that things have been a little extreme lately weather-wise. Check out today’s weather and what the City and County of Denver had to say about it.

The Mother of Cats has been home and staying busy reading and knitting this week. She cleaned up the yarn stash early in the week and I have to admit, there is a lot of yarn. This is what the stash looked like when she was done.

Most of those plastic bins have yarn in them! There are also drawers with all the little fun things that she uses while sewing and knitting (like knitting needles, stitch marker sets, and her pin cushions), but the vast bulk is… yarn.

The Mother of Cats has been making decisions for the new year (she calls them resolutions, but that’s a crazy word. The better phrase would be The Wishful Thinking List, because that’s what it really is), but she seems almost perked up now that she has organized herself for the coming year. She wants to read 50 books, knit 50 hats, plant milkweed in her garden, and maybe convince the jade plant to bloom. That’s it. She has decided that she will only knit and work with yarn from the stash this year.

I mean, look at these sock sets that she found in the stash. She should knit these up before she buys any new yarn, right?!

The Mother of Cats still has some projects that she needs to get finished up with, so she is also working on them for a couple of days each week between the hat knitting. This week she focused on some socks that were started last year, and this evening she got them finished.

These are knitted from the Pressed Flowers Socks pattern. She still has a sweater to get done and Hannah wants her blanket!!

She has also been cranking out the hats and PICC line covers since the start of the year. This is what she has managed so far:

Those hats are DK weight Barleys by Tin Can Knits. She has been knitting them with doubled fingering weight yarn and they are turning out nice.

So, that is all that has been going on around here. (yawn) Maybe I can get Hannah to get up and chase me for a while. Maybe the laser light will come on pretty soon. Maybe I can find one of my chirpy toys. I think that they are all under the bed… what?… don’t you keep your important stuff under the bed?

Or maybe I’ll just take a nap…

This is Mateo, the CoalBear, signing off.

Notes from the Mother of Cats:

There are some other projects lurking in the wings, but I don’t want to commit to them. I bought another quilt pattern, and I pulled out my little tabletop loom too. Those are just side projects and I really plan to commit to producing hats for the community group that I knit for. Last year there were more than 900 hats donated, and somehow, we have acquired even more requests in the last few months.

All of a sudden, everything that I’m reading and watching has Asian (and publishing or Chinese triads) elements. It was a compete accident: I had put holds on the books in my library months ago, and they arrived in my inbox withing a couple of days of each other. While I was reading Yellowface, The Brothers Sun appeared on Netflix. Synchronicity, right?

These are two really great books, and I really, really enjoyed The Brothers Sun. Thanks to synchronicity, I kind of understood common references (snakeheads, the one-child policy of China, auctions in publishing…) as they popped up in each book or episode of The Brothers Sun. Whew. There were common themes too, such as the relationships between children and their mothers, the struggle to find your own way, racism, the debt we owe to each other and our family, plagiarism, bullying, deaths, you name it, these media sources had it.

Now I’m reading The Maid. Would you believe that there is some bullying and a death already? Of course there is!

I also have to share this picture that was posted on Facebook today of an old newspaper picture of my high school gymnastics team. How fun to see my younger self now that I’m old and walking with a cane. 🙂

Hannah and the CoalBear: Weekly Report, Caterdate 1/6/2024

Hi. I’m Hannah.

Do you see what a great help I am to the Mother of Cats?

If you recognized the stuff in the picture above, you probably have already guessed that the Mother of Cats and I spent the day working in her sewing room. First, I helped her cut out all of her little pieces of fabric. Then she got out the big roll of batting and I helped her with that, too.

Don’t you just love the way batting feels?

I carefully supervised the Mother of Cats’ work while she sewed all of the fabric and stuff together…

Quality control is just so important, don’t you think?

When we were done (this all took a couple of hours and I want to say that I absolutely needed some TUNA and a nap after all of this…) we had made 4 placemats and two of these snazzy holders that go on bowls in the microwave so the Mother of Cats can handle them without burning her hands. She said that they are called cozies, and she found the pattern years ago on the internet. She should have fur on her paws like Mateo, but whatever. This works for her, and they were kind of fun to sew.

So that’s mostly what went on today. The Mother of Cats has been doing some knitting (okay, a lot of knitting…) but I decided to not talk about that today. After all, this post is all about CATURDAY, right? I guess that I can show you some of the plants that have started blooming in the last couple of weeks, but before I do that, I have to show you what the bunny out back by our catio has been up to.

Mateo really, really wanted to ~~eat~~ play with the bunny today while it was snacking in the garden, but the Mother of Cats wouldn’t let him out into the yard. Mateo was so focused on the bunny the Mother of Cats had to finally go out and pick him up to get him back indoors; that bunny didn’t even slow down at all in its flower snacking while she was getting him back into the house. Kind of a brazen bunny, right? Personally, I think that if the Mother of Cats let the CoalBear into the yard he could teach it some manners…

While I’m on flowers, here’s the blooming that is going on inside.

You probably recognize the African violet on the left and the orchid on the right. The flower in the middle is the big bougainvillea plant that the Mother of Cats dragged into the house last fall. Now it is covered with lots of new growth and the flowers are starting to pop out all over. Yay! Mateo loves to take naps right next to the plant.

Well, that’s all for now. Time for me to get some cookies and then a little nap.

Note from the Mother of Cats:

Mateo, AKA the CoalBear, was a lot of help today, too.

Hannah and the CoalBear: Last Caturday Report for 2023

Hi. I’m Hannah.

Do you see me in my Christmas tissue paper pile? The best part of Christmas is playing with the boxes and wrapping paper!

The Mother of Cats had a nice Christmas Eve when her son came down to help make the traditional lasagna, watch the traditional Christmas movie (Die Hard) and exchange gifts. Mateo (the CoalBear) loves the Mother of Cats’ son!!! Okay, I think it is because Mateo just loves lots of commotion, but he had a great Christmas running in and out of the house and onto the catio. Basically, he specialized in being underfoot and getting in the way most of the time while they were cooking. I stayed in the closet for most of this, but I did come out once they sat down for dinner.

Mateo: Hey, I need lots of stimulation because I’m a Maine coon cat. We have needs!! The CoalBear variety of Maine coons really, really need a lot of attention. By the way, do you like my winter fur? It is coming really well now.

Anyway, let me show you our Christmas presents!!! We got chirping toys; a little squirrel for me, and little birds for Mateo.

The Mother of Cats is handling all the chirping okay, but she does get a little cranky when Mateo plays with his bird under the bed at 4am… Did I mention that Mateo chirps too? There is a lot of chirping going on right now and I for one am wearing out a little…

So… what else has been going on around this place…there has been some cooking, some sewing, some cleaning, and a whole lot of knitting. Let me show you the knitting that has been going on!

The Mother of Cats finished her Alpine Bloom hat that was done in fingering yarn. She used size 2 and 4 needles for this one and added some I-cord to the bottom to balance the colors a little more.

The Mother of Cats also made some progress on a few other projects, but nothing is done. These projects are (left to right) the La Prairie cardigan, the Pressed Flowers socks (in purple!!) and a pair of lined cuffs called Fluffy. Hey, Fluffy is a good name for the CoalBear. I think that’s what I’ll call him all next year.

So, here we are at the end of the year. Have a nice New Year everyone. I’ll be hiding in the closet because of the firecrackers, but I hope you have fun on New Year’s Eve.

Hannah: why does there have to be firecrackers?

This is Hannah, signing off.

Notes from the Mother of Cats:

The Fluffy pattern is free if you would like to make one. I’m filled with ideas about how to modify the pattern to produce an outer layer of knitted lace that shows a colored lining below. I have a lot of lace yarns in the stash…
The Alpine Bloom hat is still too tall and slouchy. There have been lots of comments about this online and ideas about how to modify the pattern. If I make another hat, I’m going to modify the knitted chart to omit the knitted leaves at the bottom, but I may also try out corrugated ribbing or knit the I-cord trim again to keep the color going in the ribbing.
Mateo is a really unique little guy. If you pull his tail, he flips over and bunny kicks. He is terrified of Netflix and cowers next to me every time I launch it; it is the big zooming red “N” that scares him, I think. What makes this especially hysterical is the fact that he runs into the room and jumps right up next to me every time he hears me turn on the television just in case I might be starting Netflix. Then there is the chirping… he only meows in emergencies but makes lots of chirping sounds. He likes to sleep under the covers, and there aren’t enough toys in the universe to keep him busy. It’s like owning a very furry monkey with claws…

Almost Christmas Caturday

Hi. I’m Hannah.

It was the week before Christmas, and the Mother of Cats has been kind of busy. She had presents to finish up, packages to mail, cookies to bake, and some cleaning to get done. She didn’t put up a tree this year because of the Mateo menace, but there are fun lights all over the place. Yay, I kind of like Christmas because of ALL THE PAPERS and the boxes.

The Mother of Cats also spent some time sewing on her placemats, and she managed to get three tops finished. Now she needs to get them quilted and finished, but that is for next week. I helped her with the sewing because I’m such a good girl. The best girl ever. I should have some more tuna, right?

I also helped the Mother of Cats with her knitting. We are trying out a kind of experiment with the Alpine Bloom hat. The pattern is Alpine Bloom, but the Mother of Cats is knitting it with the same stitch count and needles that she uses to knit a Barley Light that fits her pretty well. What do you think of our progress?

This hat is 120 stitches being knit on size 2 (2.75 mm) and 4 (3.5 mm) needles. The yarns are La Bien Aimee Merino Super Sock and Crazy Zauberball by Schoppel-Wolle. The Mother of Cats is hopeful that the hat will fit, but we haven’t checked that yet. It’s like an adventure.

Tonight it has just started snowing outside, and the Mother of Cats is happy that we are going to have a White Christmas. The CoalBear has been outside playing in the white stuff, but I don’t like cold snow on my paws because…

Well, that’s about all for now. The Mother of Cats spent the day cleaning and cooking, and now it is time for her to settle down with a nice book so I can cuddle and hang out with her. Maybe we can snack on a Christmas cookie or two.

This is Hannah, signing off.

Mateo the CoalBear: Merry Christmas, everyone. Have fun with your trees!!

The BioGeek Memoirs: Teasel

Last September my son drove me to a yarn store in Loveland, Colorado to buy the yarn for my Weekender Crew sweater. He took a route that cut through the countryside and small towns, and there along the road were some dried teasels. “I should get you to pull over,” I said in jest. I should have! I have been thinking of teasels ever since then.

I took these pictures years ago because I just loved the way the plant bloomed. Pretty cool, right? Plus… purple! These blooms will eventually produce seeds contained in those in dried structures covered with barbed spikes that are just looking to hook onto something. As it turns out, the teasel heads with their hooked spikes can be useful and have an interesting history.

Years ago, I took a spinning class from Maggie Casey in Boulder, Colorado, and I learned how to card wool to prepare it for spinning.

Behold: my wool carders and a couple of rolags made of carded wool.

Before you can spin wool you need to pull the fibers apart, fluff them up, and get them pretty much aligned in one direction. The wire teeth on my carders do that for me. Maggie told us (I’m pretty sure that Maggie is the one who told me this…) that the word carding came from the Latin word (carduus) for teasels, and that the original carding was done with teasels. I can believe it! The locks of washed (scoured) wool can easily be picked open and fluffed using teasel pods. Every time I see a teasel plant, I hear the word “carduus” in my mind and think of my poor, neglected spinning wheel.

So, being the BioGeek that I am, I looked up the scientific names of teasels: not a carduus in sight. The genus of that teasel is Dipsacus, and the plant that I saw along the road and took pictures of is specifically Dipsacus fullonum. Oh. The crushing disappointment. I hunted for Carduus and discovered that it is a genus of thistle plants.

Okay, this is a bull thistle, but you can kind of see the potential for spikiness. Carduus thistles produce dried seed heads that are spikier, and the ancient Romans used the word carduus to refer to both teasels and thistles. Maggie was right! Centuries later, when scientific names were assigned to life on earth, carduus went to the thistle, and the teasel had to settle for dipsacus.

Still, teasels are pretty darn cool and have been involved in woolen fabric production to improve the warmth of the fabric. Teasels were brushed across the wool fabric to pull up fibers, making the fabric a little fluffy (or brushed) as part of the fulling process. Brushed fabric like this was warmer to wear, as the raised nap trapped air providing more insulation. Check out this teasel loaded cross that was used for this purpose. Imagine drum rollers loaded with teasel seed pods. Remember that my local wild teasel is called D. fullonum? I can’t help but wonder if the root word for “full” is included in the name. Yay, teasel!

While I’m on using teasels to pull up fibers, have you ever teased your hair to fluff it up? Did you wonder where that word came from? Yep. From teasels, of course.

Here in Colorado, these teasels and thistles are on the noxious weed list. Oh, dear. The plants originated in Europe, and that’s where they belong. Here in Colorado, they are invasive species that propagate like wild and choak out native species, interfering with agriculture, and there are management plans designed to control the spread of the plants. I was lucky to see one.

But I have to admit, it made me so happy to see a wild teasel along the side of the road that beautiful afternoon in September as my son drove me north to get me my yarn and to celebrate my birthday. Carduus, I heard in my mind.

My spinning wheel shivers in anticipation.

The Scleroderma Chronicles: Toxic Positivity and American Symphony

I’ve been pondering the concept of toxic positivity for some time now. You know, people who insist that a person with an uncurable, progressive disease (ahem… systemic sclerosis) can get “better” if they just get some sunshine and exercise. People who suggest that the symptoms of a failing heart and lungs are “just old age”, or that debilitating brain fog is something that everyone deals with. People who keep suggesting possible cures of the herbal or holistic medicine variety, or that if I just try hard enough, I will magically go into remission and get well. People who insist that no one knows what will happen when you disclose serious new complications, or people who over-celebrate a small gain. I know that they mean well, but it is isolating and hurtful: it is a denial of my reality.

I lost my temper and snapped off at one particularly obnoxious person at a holiday function who was arguing that I just needed to stay positive and try harder so I could get better… “there is no better, there is only this”, I told her. She was taken aback, and then doubled down and insisted that people do get better if they try. In my defense, I should mention that she had also just told me that her daughter’s diagnosis of a serious illness was awful because her daughter was young, but what was happening to me wasn’t such a big deal because I was old. Yeah. Toxic. My doctor told me that she was lucky that I didn’t hit her. I love my doctors!

Okay, having said that, I am better these days. I seem to have emerged from the worst of the fibromyalgia flare and the horrible dizziness, brain fog, and pain have receded to background levels again. Yay, magnesium!!

So, why is toxic optimism a problem? Well… toxic, right? It’s a denial of what is actually happening while throwing up walls that distance and protect you from the painful thing that is happening. It’s ensuring that you won’t get involved. Some of those walls are an insistence that the person will get better, or they aren’t actually all that sick, or that this is “normal”, or even suggesting that somehow the person is actually at fault for their own illness/condition. Not helpful, people. I was already thinking about how to frame this in a post when an article from The Atlantic called Tragic Optimism is the Opposite of Toxic Positivity arrived in my news feed several days ago. Okay, this is close to what I’ve been thinking about, but tragic optimism isn’t exactly what I’m trying to achieve here. No tragic, okay? In my mind the process of flourishing in the face of adversity requires grace and courage: walk into the darkness, face down the monster, deal with it (severely), and then continue to thrive and shine (like a sunflower, goddammit!) from within the heart of the storm.

So, it was kind of amazing when I watched American Symphony last night on Netflix.

This is what I’m talking about. It was hard to fight back the tears as Jon Batiste and Suleika Jaouad put into words and action the things that I’ve been thinking about, but so much better. Jon Batiste says… “look into the darkness and despair, face it, but don’t let it consume you.” YES!!! This is what I’m talking about, people. “Accept the possibility that you might fail, but absolutely believe that you will succeed,” Jon says in the film. Without any doubt, Jon and Suleika are at turning points in their lives: they have just married, Jon writes and produces a symphony that is to be performed at Carnegie Hall, and Suleika undergoes a second stem cell transplant to treat her relapsed leukemia. I know people who have undergone stem cell transplants (it is used to treat extreme cases of systemic sclerosis too), and it is a lengthy, horrible process of dancing with death while hoping for life at the end of the tunnel. This is a raw and emotional documentary of extremes; for this young couple, they are navigating the highs and lows simultaneously. The stress is crushing, and the emotional toll is heartrending. In spite of this, they cope, they walk into the darkness and face down the monster, they shine from within the heart of their storm, and the documentary ends with the performance of American Symphony at Carnegie Hall with Suleika in attendance.

In my opinion, every significant battle begins with the thought… okay, this is happening. Recognizing your situation is not a sign of weakness, but of strength. The action plans, sense of purpose, and the ability to keep rolling with the punches comes later. There is no place for denial if you are going to battle! Also, as this couple shows in the film, you need some creative outlets if you’re doing battle. Suleika paints and Jon composes. I take yarn along.

Today I started listening to Suleika’s story of her first dance with leukemia and the recovery afterwards.

I’m not sure that these two would embrace tragic optimism, but they sure are shining examples of the opposite of toxic positivity. I think that I’m going to be learning things from Suleika while I listen to her reading her book, knitting away on my new sweater. With my newly blooming orchids. And my cats. Within my own little scleroderma storm, the monster locked safely away in the cupboard. Pipe down, monster. I’m knitting now.

Hannah and the CoalBear: Another Busy Caturday

Hi. I’m Mateo.

We have been doing so much stuff this week. The Mother of Cats has been winterizing the house and we have been helping her out with every single task! She put insulation on all of the windows (it’s some type of funky plastic film that Hannah and I think is just amazing to play with…) and foam stripping around the doors. She fixed the toilet. She took the car to get its oil changed (and she didn’t take us!) and took all of the presents that have been coming in boxes to the house out to be mailed off for Christmas presents. Whew! Just exhausting, right?

The Mother of Cats also cleaned up the sewing room… Hannah helped with that too!

When the Mother of Cats has been sitting down these days she mostly is knitting. Some of the stuff that we made with her got mailed away this week and it is a secret, but here is what we can show you.

Now there are two Alpine Bloom hats. One of the Alpine Blooms got mailed away to a cousin, and the Mother of Cats knitted a new hat that will be for her to wear. They can be twins!! The hat that the Mother of Cats made for herself is a little smaller, and it fits her head better. Hannah still likes to use it as a pillow, but the Mother of Cats said NO and put it away. No fun, that Mother of Cats. She also has been busy knitting on her new sweater, and we have both been sleeping on her legs while she works; I’m hoping to chase some yarn while she isn’t looking, and Hannah is secretly hoping to get in a chomp or two, but so far, we haven’t had that many chances to have close encounters with wool fun.

The sweater is called La Prairie which the Mother of Cats thinks is funny since we live on the edge of the prairie. That’s why we have bunnies, and coyotes, and there is an owl that hoots out back almost every night. We don’t like the owl much… we never get to go out on the catio when the Mother of Cats hears the owl.

There are three more colors of yarn to be used in this La Prairie, but so far, the Mother of Cats hasn’t taken them out of the bin because of … chomps. Seriously, I just want to roll the balls of yarn around, but she won’t let me do that either.

Hey, the laser light toy just turned on. I have to go chase it… Laters!!

This is the CoalBear, signing off.

Notes from the Mother of Cats:

I knitted the new Alpine Bloom hat with the same yarn but went down a needle size to get a slightly smaller hat. The finished product is about 1-2 inches less in circumference and fits better. The new, more tightly knit fabric didn’t block out quite as nicely, but I’m happy with the hat. I’m planning on trying another one with fingering yarn (because, why not, right?) just to see how it comes out since the stitch count and needle sizes for the hat is the same as another hat that fits me well (Barley Light) and maybe it will work great, right?

Won’t this look nice as an Alpine Bloom hat?

Hannah and the ColeBear: Caturday Soup Saga

Hi. I’m Mateo.

I also go by the name CoalBear. Hannah calls me some other names that I guess I shouldn’t share here. Mostly that happens when I slash her heels…

So, what do you want to hear about first. The Mother of Cat’s knitting, the soup that she made this weekend, or… my fabulous new toy?

The Chewy box came this morning, and that little bird was in it! I knew that something was up because the box was chirping before the Mother of Cats got it cut open. Then she took the toy out… wow… I had to spend some time figuring out if it was going to jump at me, and then I started carrying it all around the house. Seriously, this was so exciting that I wasn’t even able to eat breakfast!!!! Everyone should have a chirpy bird!!!!

Hannah is like… whatever. She is so weird sometimes.

Hannah: Excuse me? I was busy with the TUNA!!!

So, I guess that I should mention the knitting that has been happening this week before we get to the main course, the soup! The Mother of Cats finished her Alpine Bloom hat this week, blocked it, and then tried it on.

Hannah: This is a nice Hannah warmer, don’t you think?

Yeah. The hat is too big for the Mother of Cat’s head. She sent a picture to everyone in her family and this hat will be heading off to New York to keep one of her cousins warm this winter. She has some ideas about how to adjust the pattern to get the hat smaller, but she just parked them at the back of the bus for now and started knitting away on her La Prairie sweater instead.

Mateo: don’t you like how I’ve decorated the knitting with some of my cat hairs? This knitting is kind of stressful, so I’ve been hanging out a lot with her.

Alright, let talk about the soup. This has been a source of commotion for days. It all started when the Mother of Cats brought home this goofy squash and told us that she was going to make soup out of it. Hannah was like… can I have some tuna? I mean, the squash was parked right next to our cat food, but somehow the Mother of Cats didn’t pick up on Hannah’s hints that she needed some more tuna! Or Cookies!!

This squash caused lots of trouble this week. First the Mother of Cats had to buy a new peeler to use with the squash. She ordered it from Amazon, and the package got lost. So, she had to go to the store to get another peeler. She also bought a crock pot while she was there. Then she bought an immersion blender on Amazon. Hannah and I were going crazy playing in the boxes and chasing each other today while the Mother of Cats peeled, chopped, cooked, blended, and made the soup.

Perhaps this is the most expensive Autumn Squash Soup ever made. The Mother of Cats likes it, so I guess that’s good, even if it smells pretty nasty to me. She’s eaten two bowls, and she still has two quarts in the fridge.

Well, that’s all for now. I need to go find my chirpy bird toy.

This is the CoalBear, signing off.

Notes from the Mother of Cats:

I have enough yarn left over to make another Alpine Bloom hat and I plan to go down a needle size to make it a little smaller. I also have in mind trying out knitting the hat in fingering yarn using the smaller sized needles.
The La Prairie pattern is full of new skills to master. The pattern includes instructions on how to knit the tiny cables without a cable needle (Yay!), and how to knit the bobbles in a new way to me. This is not a sweater that you can take to the movies while knitting as it requires focused attention!
Now, the soup. My latest blood tests came in showing that I have developed a type of anemia. A less common type, of course. Never mind, my doctor wants me to try to get more iron into my diet, so I’m trying to add more iron rich food to my diet (like squash), but I also need to try to maximize my ability to digest the food and absorb the nutrients. Hence the new, medium sized crock pot and the much safer for me to handle immersion blender.
Here’s the recipe for the soup that I made today. Copycat Panera Autumn Squash Soup by A Simple Palate. This was really yummy; I added Thai green curry paste to mine.
That squash is a butternut squash in case you didn’t instantly recognize it.
What is this less common type of anemia, you ask? It’s an anemia of chronic disease with red blood cells that don’t have enough hemoglobin in them. As in, I have enough red blood cells, but they are not packing enough hemoglobin to do the job even though I have iron levels that are within normal limits. Squash, as it turns out, is a good source of iron.
The little African violet that my sister sent me for my birthday is still blooming!

The Wannabe Covid Books

Maybe you have caught on to what is going on with me these days. It’s been almost two months since I first became ill with some crazy virus (?) that had all the symptoms of Covid-19 but tested negative the two times that I checked. The doctor that I dragged myself in to see felt that I indeed had covid and proceeded on that assumption in his treatment recommendations. Ugh. I slowly recovered from the initial illness, but I didn’t get better. Fibromyalgia! declared my rheumatologist. We’re treating that and I am getting better (I can now get up and do stuff around the house for a couple of hours at a time. This is huge!) because I can finally read and write again. And knit! I am finally able to knit several times a week now as long as I give myself a recovery day or two each time because all my tendons hate me, evidently. Never mind, this is progress, people!

Anyway, I’m writing again. I have so many blog post ideas that I’ve been mulling over during my down time… fasten your seatbelt, here comes another!!

Hannah is enjoying her box fort while I’m writing this.

Unable to sit up for more than a half hour, and unable to concentrate enough to read, I spent my down time burrowed under the covers, flanked by neglected cats, binge watching online shows and listening to audiobooks. I listened to some really great books during this time! I’ve been mulling over how to talk about them for the last couple of weeks, and I have to admit that my choices and reactions to these books are influenced by my covid/fibromyalgia state when I listened to them.

Kind of an eclectic mix of books, right? There is a kind of nebulous theme going on, though, if you are willing to cut me a lot of slack. Each of these books is about people in a closed and isolated community making sense of their situation, creating workarounds that let them function in spite of formidable obstacles, and emerging in the end with some type of closure.

Tom Lake: It is the lockdown. It is also apple picking season at the family-owned orchard. All three girls in the family have come home, and the mother tells them all the story of her early life as they struggle to get the crop in with limited help from workers because… lockdown. All the drama of their lives is rehashed and worked out as the mother recounts her early years as an actress, her involvement in a summer theater company at Tom Lake (and her involvement with a budding actor who would go on to fame), and the decisions that she made that led her to this life in an apple orchard. This is a book about isolation, choices, values, and ultimately the power of women.

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store: Wow. Imagine, if you will, a marginalized community called Chicken Hill that is made of intersecting Jewish and Black families. Imagine, if you will, clever strategies to outmaneuver the powers-that-be in order to flourish in a world where you are considered to be a powerless second-class citizen. Imagine characters who will steal your heart, break your heart, and then heal it right up again. Imagine the good guys winning in the end, and the villain of our story getting his just deserts. Imagine a great book. This is it.

The Running Grave: Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott are at it again. They’ve taken on a client who has worried concerns about a son living in a non-traditional religious community. Unable to contact the client’s son directly, or to understand what is really happening in this closed society, Robin goes undercover and enters the cult while Cormoran works other aspects of the case from the outside. Oh, boy. This is really, really scary and tense, and absolutely unbelievable and believable at the same time. The beliefs of the cult are frankly outrageous, but at the same time you suspect that it might be possible that something like this actually happens. Closed off from the world, living with the cult in a closed compound, Robin spirals down, pulls herself together, manages to get to the bottom of things, almost dies, escapes, and if you want to know the rest you have to read the book. This was a good one.

Crook Manifesto: I just want to say that I am in utter awe of Colson Whitehead’s command of language. Seriously, I just wanted to copy down all the utterly fabulous mental images that he invoked: perfectly captured, but also peppered with dark humor. Okay, now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, we are off to early 1970s Harlem to go on adventures with Ray Carney: family man, furniture store owner, former fence, and an upstanding (retired crook) member of his community. The book, like the one before it (Harlem Shuffle), is told in three parts. There’s a story dancing in the background as the reader journeys the three loosely connected parts of the book that involves self-identity, worth, and coming to terms with the past in a way that is meaningful.

Defiance: I’ve been reading this science fiction series for decades now; this is the 22nd book about humans living in a segregated community on an inhabited alien world with one chosen interface/diplomat between the two species, Bren Cameron. This is an intense sociopolitical story that covers a few days in the lives of an isolated group of characters as they attempt to put down a rebellion, ensure the safe resolution of a crisis on a space station overhead, and transition leadership responsibilities during a confusing communications blackout and a concealed agenda by one of the major players. It’s a ride. If you like tricky overthinking about political and social implications with the possibility of violence around every corner, this is the book (and series) for you.

Mateo: I know that Hannah is in this fort somewhere!!

So, there are my books of wannabe Covid. I’m now functioning better with less brain fog and dizziness, but the extreme fatigue and painful muscles/joints goes on. Tonight my right knee has decided that it wants to just lay around and watch shows all day.

Time to look for another good book. And maybe some chocolate. 🙂

The BioGeek Memoirs: Milkweed

Last summer my son and I made several trips to our favorite cat rescue shelter hunting for the right kitten. His wonderful Maine Coon cat had died and his remaining cat, the MONSTER of Hannah’s nightmares, was sad. Obviously, he needed a kitten!

One Caturday in July, we pulled up to discover that the butterfly garden planted in front of the rescue shelter was in full bloom. The most stunning flowers on display were the milkweed.

Can you see the bee on one of the flowers?

Wow, I thought, milkweed! I almost never see it blooming like this; I’m always late to the party and come across it once it has gone to seed. This was pretty amazing, and there was a lot of it. I stayed outside to take pictures while my son went into the shelter to hunt for a kitten. No kitten this day, but I did get great pictures.

Over the years I’ve been steadily adding flowers to my yard that are good for butterflies.

The butterflies in the pictures above are painted ladies and a swallowtail. Butterflies need flowers that are large enough to support their weight and have nectar conveniently available. Milkweed certainly fits that bill, and it is especially important since it is the major food source for the monarch butterfly. Monarchs are the butterflies of my childhood in Southern California, and they have recently been placed on the endangered list. Why are they struggling? Habitat loss, insecticides, a dwindling food supply…

Food supply! Milkweeds are food for monarch butterflies. I was pretty excited to see some more milkweed growing along the road in a field near my house. (Yes, I look for stuff like that. I am a BioGeek. I’m still on the lookout for some nice teasel, but that is another post…)

The picture on the left is of the remaining pods after the flowers were done blooming, and the one on the right is a few weeks later, the pods burst open and the seeds getting ready to fly on the wind like a dandelion to a new location. Cool, right. With luck some of these seeds will find a great place to live and more milkweed will appear in this field over the next few years.

Do monarch butterflies come through Colorado where I live? Why yes, yes they do!! They migrate right through the state in early fall and evidently you can see them in the Denver area. In my yard? Not so much right now. To the east of where I live, Monarch Watch tags and tracks monarch butterflies through their migration and has implemented programs to provide food for the monarchs along the way. Imagine thousands of plots of planted milkweed and other nectar plants put out just for these butterflies and you get the picture. Eventually this field near my house could be one of the stops along the way for these migrating butterflies.

Rosalynn Carter, the former first lady of the United States, died two weeks ago and her memorial service was last Wednesday. It was hard to keep the tears out of my eyes as the people who knew and loved her shared their memories. Recipes that featured mayonnaise. Twenty-dollar bills included in birthday cards. Her strawberry cake recipe. Her love for monarch butterflies. Monarch butterflies!

That’s right. Rosalynn Carter was a driving force for the establishment of butterfly gardens. She made saving the monarch butterfly her personal mission towards the end of her life. There is a Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail, and here is where you can register your own butterfly garden. You should have milkweed in that garden, by the way!

Someday I will perhaps find a monarch butterfly in my own yard, because you know some of those milkweed seeds found their way home with me this fall. I’m planting them in the sun where they can hang out with the yarrow, the coneflowers, and the butterfly bush.

Oh, did you forget about the kittens? My son eventually found the two most perfect kittens in the world and his cat ~~Jonesy~~ MONSTER is a very happy boy again.

Update: Knit One, Spin Too just let me know about a new book about milkweed that came out in September called The Milkweed Lands. Who knew there was so much to milkweeds? I just ordered a copy. 🙂