Gifts of Late Summer

Life can be difficult. My life is a bit complicated and stressful right now, what with my partner's serious injury, and my regular responsibilities continuing uninterrupted - even though dammit, sometimes I just want to lie in bed and stare at the ceiling. In spite of this, I remain receptive to life's gifts, and life continues to provide spontaneous treasures and joy.

For example, my fig tree produced a lovely crop, most of which we were able to harvest. The critters took their share, but unlike years past they actually left some for us too! Hooray!  I cooked up a batch of fig jam. It is yummy and it makes me feel fancy.

Another unexpected gift came from one of my wonderful friends. I received a just-because-gift of a delicious skein of alpaca yarn. I asked it what it wanted to be, and it said it wanted to be a simple hat. It is so dreamy and soft. I think I will be wearing it a lot this winter. Even in hard times, there is so much to be grateful for.

Urban Foraging

Today I explored an undeveloped hillside by my house, and found that it was absolutely overgrown with blackberries and tansy. Double score!

The blackberries will become more jam. More jam! All the jam! I will dye yarn with the tasty.

I left plenty of berries for the birds, and lots of flowers for the bees. Even in the city, the land bears wonderful treasures. I will harvest these with gratitude, using the gifts of the earth to feed my body and soul.

Self Preservation

It is the height of summer and everything is blooming, ripening, and flowering. There is so much fruit and so many useful and edible plants growing that you can't possibly use all of them. So now is the time for preservation projects! I have made two batches of blackberry jam so far, and plan to make a couple more. The figs and plums aren't quite ripe yet, but when they are I will be making jam from them also. I'm pickling beets and turnips, making sauerkraut, and I've harvested herbs from my yard and hung them up to dry. My kitchen looks like a witch's lair!

The other, less exciting thing that is happening with me right now is that my boyfriend is in the hospital with two broken heels. He will be in the hospital for quite some time, he will have reconstructive surgery on his heel bones and then he will be in a wheelchair for several months. At times like these it is very easy to get so wrapped up in caring for another person that I forget to take care of myself. Now is the time that I need to be especially aware of self-care. Last night, for me, self-care looked like going to the Dead Baby Downhill. The Dead Babies are a bicycle club, and the Downhill is a bicycle race followed by an after-party that takes up an entire neighborhood. There are many bands, many friends, many bicycles, many freak bicycles and many wheeled, bicycle-like contraptions. It was good to be around my people, and good to be somewhere other than a hospital room or home by myself.

Wonderfully, I unexpectedly ran into Caitlin Ffrench of We Will Tell You All Of Our Secrets who is a fiber artist and designer based in Vancouver BC Canada. I had heretofore only interacted with her online. She was just as wonderful and charming in real life as her online presence would suggest. I am a fan of her designs, as a visit to my Ravelry finished projects page will attest. It was great to meet her and talk about natural dyeing and our cats.

I'm feeling very fortunate today to have such a full life and be surrounded by so many wonderful people.