Nature Has No Idea…

Hey. It’s Saturday, right? I’m currently watching a webinar on the SAQA virtual conference that was supposed to be in Toronto…the opportunity to hear and see the speakers is nice, although I missed a lot of yesterday. They were recorded though, so I can watch later. I’ve never been able to actually attend a real conference, so this is nice, plus maybe it helps SAQA cover some of their conference costs from canceling. It’s really important that we try to give back to some of these groups and companies that are hard hit by the community and state shutdowns. As much as we can, anyway. I’m lucky to still be paid under contract, but the future is making me a bit nervous for all of us, in terms of health and money.

Yesterday was a strange day, highs and lows…trying to ignore the lows because they don’t deserve my energy right now.

The boychild and I went for a 6 1/2-mile hike locally, at Sycamore Canyon/Goodan Ranch. It’s not as busy as some of the other locations in the area (just down the road from Iron Mountain), which is better for social distancing.

There were about 4 or 5 other groups we saw over the whole hike, but otherwise it was pretty isolated.

This is obviously a yucca pre-bloom, but it looks different than what I’m used to seeing…

The weather was perfect…not too warm, not too cold, no rain, although it was cloudy for much of it.

Trying to get enough exercise to sleep well and push some of the anxiety away has been difficult. My next step is to try and bookmark some of the videos from the gym and pilates studio and get my butt in gear.

We were really looking forward to our Spring Break trip of California National Parks, but with a cancellation of one of our Airbnbs and yesterday, the parks themselves are closing campgrounds, it seems that we are not going anywhere.

And we’re not sure when that will change, unfortunately. Let’s hope it’s sooner rather than later, but certainly watching the numbers on COVID-19 is not promising. Although California is supposed to be shut down, there are still lots of people going out and doing things…100 kids out in our mountains hanging out together yesterday…because kids think they are immortal, yeah? That’s what they think. Sigh.

For this hike, we go along a ridge and then down into that valley…then through that valley and back up and out. Like twice. It was a bunch of up and down, but nothing undoable.

My legs feel better today. Although this sign makes me laugh every time (it’s for bikes, not humans).

Pretty sure I never hit the 5 MPH mark. And I jogged a little bit (it’s easier to jog going downhill sometimes than walking, although my brain kept saying ‘Now is not the time to break your damn leg, woman!’).

A bunch of fungus among us…

These are fascinating…

This area burned in a wildfire 17 or so years ago…this is a burned log keeping a whole host of fungus alive.

There are signs all over, but this warns me that the next up is that piece…Cardiac Hill.

It’s actually not horrible. I stopped a few times. It’s up. Boychild often ditches me in these situations…

He waits for me at junctions. Lots of flowers around…

Spring is coming…and signs of deer!

Although we didn’t see one in person. Wrong time of day.

We got to the top and found we were victims of assholes…

Apparently this parking lot has an issue with break-ins. It’s pretty isolated. In all my years of hiking, this is the first time we’ve had this happen. There was nothing of value in the car…they just rifled through the glove box and the console. Unhappy with my about-to-expire National Park Pass, my sunscreen, and my umbrella. They got nothing. Stupid. Pain in my butt.

Oh well. I believe in karma.

Seriously. Even when we are locked down in a pandemic, people will be assholes. Hence the lack of toilet paper in our stores. Still. So today, a guy is coming to my driveway and installing a new window (apparently that is an essential business) and I will hand him a check and then disinfect the glass? This is so difficult. Could I live without a window? Sure…

Whatever.

We came home, we tested a Discord server for gaming next week, and the girlchild came home…

It looks like she’s reading to the dog, but she’s not. She was laid off by her company and we suspect trying to get a job is somewhat impossible right now. She’s trying. She’ll try applying for unemployment. And yeah, we flew her on a plane with like 8 other people (JetBlue is starting to ground flights soon, so that might have been one of the last flights that didn’t get canceled). We’re keeping her away from the older people in the family, but we still have two going to work between the two households (mine and my ex’s, and the kids go back and forth until someone gets sick), because they are also apparently essential. I’m lucky to not have any requirements right now beyond checking email, although that may change in the future. She’s not here forever. Just until we figure shit out. By WE I mean HER. Meanwhile, she gets doggy love.

My lemon tree has new leaves…

Nature has no idea. And that’s OK. This bird was bathing in the water in the tray under our Christmas tree, which lives outside on the deck for most of the year.

Now I need a birdbath.

These arrived yesterday, the newest shipment in the Anna Maria Horner Applique Stories. I’m going to make another woman block…and then embroider it.

The fabrics are a challenge. The solid peach is the easy skin color, so I won’t be using it for her flesh. I stared at the fabrics for at least a week last time before deciding what to do. I can use one as a background, although last time, I decided to use something very bland and calm from my stash (maybe that’s what the peach is for?), because the rest of it was so out there. Anyway…expect something to happen with these in the next few days. Because I can. I really like most of them…solids are not my favorites and the lavender roses are Eh, but that’s the best part of this…the olive fabric is such a stretch…I love it.

Maybe this virus lets me just make what I want. OK, I’m still having a hard time with that.

Although I stitched wool for a bit last night (sorry, forgot about a photo…try tomorrow)…I eventually got up off the couch with my post-hike tired self and came in here and started the stitch down…

So meditative. So relaxing. So hard to stop.

Hopefully I can finish today and then sandwich today or tomorrow. The floors need cleaning first. I vacuumed everything even though it’s not my month. I’m sure someone will cover me at some point when I am busy (cough cough).

So yeah, I stitch down all the pieces, because no fusible lasts forever. I’m not halfway done, but I got a good chunk done. I spent the first 20 minutes fighting with the machine to get it to stitch correctly.

Kitten action…

They play any way they can…

There was some play before this.

I was up early this morning because I thought I’d have to take my car in to get the window replaced, but then he called and said he’d be here later…probably safer for both of us than having me sit in a lobby of some repair place (I was going to bring a chair and sit outside).

Nature doesn’t see this morning as any different than any other morning.

Tonight there is a Netflix DVD here, plus we will be supporting some small food business, and hopefully there is stitching and maybe a hike/walk as well. Plus more webinars. And trying to finish my book before it gets returned electronically to the library. Hope you are all healthy and well, and if you are on the front lines in some way, we appreciate you and send you lots of love.

Check Out the Sky

Um. It’s not morning anymore. Yeah. That day completely disappeared. I’m not sure where. I’m posting now because I know we’re hiking tomorrow, plus I signed up for the SAQA virtual conference, so maybe I’ll watch/listen to some of that tomorrow too.

What have I done today? A virtual meeting for work, handed out school lunches, came home and managed some crazy shit, and cleaned all my quilts off the girlchild’s bed…because we’re bringing her home. She got laid off (a job dependent on people who need to go out and do things and can’t), and things are weird, so we’re bringing her home for now. More people! Hopefully she’s bringing toilet paper with her, right? Yeah no.

Handing out lunches yesterday in the rain…today, no rain…just chilly.

It’s exciting. I came home and video-chatted with my quilt teacher who moved to Portland…

And I made some bugs…see…

She was amused.

We walked the dogs…

When we left, it was sprinkling. I bet you can guess how this story ends…with all of us sopping wet and muddy. Yup. Tomorrow, the boychild and I are going to do 6 miles sans doggos.

Then we’re gonna drive to the airport and pick up the girlchild. After we sanitize her for being in a different city AND on a plane. I put her on a nonstop because otherwise she was sitting in Las Vegas or Minneapolis for 3 hours. Seemed silly.

I called in a food order last night, trying to keep a small business going, and picked up Indian food…the skies were beautiful.

Slow down. Check out the sky. It’s worth it.

Lovingly biting the crap out of each other.

We’re staying away from my parents right now…too many exposures in this household. Although the only place I went today was to school.

I did some more wool work, on this one, Homegrown by Sue Spargo…I do this after dinner while we watch whatever we’re watching.

I worked on another one as well, but she hasn’t published the book yet, so I can’t show you. It should be soon, but who knows with all this crazy stuff going on.

I finally went into the office to finish ironing. I pieced a background and ironed the whole thing down. Interestingly, or maybe frustratingly, I had found one of the windmills had fallen off, so I put it ‘somewhere safe’. I’m sure you already know what that means. Yes. I lost it. I spent a total of 20 or 30 minutes looking for it and then gave up and cut out a new one…

Not a huge deal. There she is, all ironed down.

Stitchdown starts tonight. Some pup was hanging out after I took him out to pee.

Dogs are good. Dogs are nice. This dog barks a lot, but he’s very loving too. When he’s not biting you because you’re combing out his knots. So there’s that.

OK, well I actually posted some stuff on Google Classroom to entertain kids (and maybe even help with learning). The co-teacher and I are recording video of a graphic novel for the kids, related to what we are studying. But nothing can be required right now. That might change after Spring Break, but we’ll see…the district still says we’re coming back on April 20th. Crazy shit, y’all. Crazy shit.

Stay well. Wash hands. All that. Tomorrow’s post will probably be late too, since we’ll be out in nature, avoiding the other people who are out in nature. Like you do.

Something Useful…

I’m writing late. I went to school today to distribute food. We ran out early, but hopefully will have more tomorrow. It was good to be out and doing something useful.

Yesterday, the boychild and I got a few more plants for the backyard. This one, a mallow, the leaves can be used for toilet paper…just in case, you know.

Plus the flowers are really nice. It got planted today in the misty rain. We also dropped a bag of stuff at Goodwill. Then did the social distance thing and walked the dogs in the middle of nowhere…almost. There was a picturesque mushroom.

And the skies were beautiful.

And I think the dogs appreciated it. I know I did. This sitting stuff is annoying.

What else did I do yesterday? Paperwork, started my taxes (and got frustrated about an hour into it trying to find documentation on a car that sold…aargh). I need that money though…to either get through the summer or pay off part of the girlchild’s college still.

After all that, and some food and reading, I worked on the braindead stuff…just stitch things down…except I already fucked one thing up. Oh well. The stripes on the bottom were supposed to go vertical. Not the end of the world. This is Sue Spargo’s Homegrown block-of-the-month. I was trying to decide what to take on our Spring Break trip, and Folk Tails (or is it Tales) is too big right now for that, so I was going through my stash and started a bunch at a time.

No worries. I’ll figure it out. It’s relaxing to stitch. I should do more of it. Although I suspect our trip is canceled. One of the parks is closed (although it doesn’t mention the campgrounds) and one of our Airbnb reservations canceled. We still have some hope, I guess. Or not.

Yesterday’s #marchmeetthemaker prompt was self care…it’s definitely this outside hiking stuff. It clears my brain…

And since my gym is now closed and the pilates studio is sure to be next, I’ll need more of this. Despite the rain.

Eventually I made it in to iron…

Got the head and torso done and started on the upper arm.

I’m watching Dead Like Me, which is appropriately amusing and dark, all at the same time. I might have to rewatch all the seasons of X-Files or Star Trek if worst come to worst.

That’s how far I got last night…almost done. So today, I need to ship my quilt to Fantastic Fibers before San Diego goes into secure lockdown, or whatever they’re going to call it. They say they will put up the show if the quilts get there, and I’m afraid if I wait any longer, the UPS place will be closed…or I won’t be able to ship. So I’m sending that today. And then I’ll work on ironing tonight again. Plus some reading. Some exercise…find the free weights and a good video or two. I think my gym provided some. And more thinking healthy thoughts.

Me. I’m the Good Cause.

I was supposed to grade this big pile of stuff I brought home, but I decided not to. I did another smaller, easier assignment. I’m OK with that. It was a long day, lots of climbing on counters (just don’t even ask…it’s for science) and meetings and then walking the dogs…wait, I liked that part…

It was raining on my way home, but stopped in time for this. I don’t mind walking in a bit of rain anyway, but the dogs were muddy enough as it was. I’m trying to break my new hiking boots in before our trip…think I’m going to have to take both pairs.

This is what grading looks like sometimes. Sleepy puppy on the left, bitey asshole trying to break into my grading bag on the right.

She likes to tear papers and bite them and eat plastic bags. All very annoying. They are kittens. They do annoying kitten things when they’re not sweetly sleeping with each other.

After all that, I just wanted to cut stuff out. For 3 1/2 hours…

So I did. No, I’m still not done. I still have the stuff in the top right box to cut out.

Maybe I will be better tonight about grading? Or not. It’s not like I didn’t grade. I just chose a simpler, quicker assignment that I didn’t actually finish because my printer is out of ink and I needed a printout to finish it. A printout I already made but left at school. Uh huh. Not on purpose. Grades are due today. I should check them and make sure they’re done. I think they are.

Anyway, a little left to do and then I can iron this beast together…but I will be gone this weekend, so that will make it a little difficult to get a lot done. It’s OK. It’s for a good cause. Me. I’m the good cause.

I’m getting into some shows…Fantastic Fibers yesterday, but also Contingent Upon at Southwestern College…

I have two pieces in this show…it’s only open Mon-Thurs, 10:30 AM-2:30 PM. The opening reception is 3/12 at 11 AM and the artists’ talk is 3/12 at noon. I won’t be at any of it, unfortunately, due to my day job. It’s up through 4/14, and I won’t even be around for my Spring Break enough to go see it. Oh well.

I also got into a book show at the downtown library. The opening is Saturday, March 14, from noon-2 PM. I will be at that one at some point, not sure when.

OK, but today it is photosynthesis day, so I am grateful for the blue skies and sun that are out today (and weren’t yesterday)…to make this lab easier. I’m wondering about next week’s sun-related lab though, since there’s rain in the forecast. We might have to adjust slightly. I remember it raining when we did it last year too, but not a lot. Just a sprinkling. No biggie. A little water won’t hurt them. The kids. Or the lab. We’ll see. First I’m going to work to find that printout. Make some attempt to be efficient.

Wherever It Works Best…

It was a hard day yesterday, lots of driving, lots of memories of my cousin. She was only 57 and really, honestly, the sweetest (yet still sarcastic and stubborn) of all of us. Church doesn’t do much for me (some of them are beautiful and all), but the priest did a good job despite all that, and spending time with family I hadn’t seen in years afterwards was a good thing. The drive was long, but being a holiday, it could have been much longer. I walked back in the door at home at about 3:30, and walked out 10 minutes later for MY church, the outdoors…

Although to be clear, I don’t do gods either. So really all those Mother Nature/Earth Mother quilts I do? Those are what’s in my head. She’s harsh, she’s beautiful, she’s uncontrollable, and we’re killing her. Or she’ll overcome all our stupidity and let the cockroaches rule next time. But the priest said one thing that’s true…my cousin will live on in our minds, on our lips, and in our hearts. We debated some of the other stuff said on the way home, just the wording. They’ve changed the Lord’s Prayer again and I don’t know it any more. That’s probably OK. Anyway, may we all remember Jennifer wherever it works best for us.

For me, it’s out here.

With these sweet dumbasses.

We finally found the plant that makes the dogs smell like maple syrup…

California cudweed…it’s everywhere. And now we need pancakes. I don’t actually like maple syrup. At all.

The pond is back…there’s been enough rain for it to exist…

We don’t feel like we’ve had enough rain this year…I think it was all too early. We need more.

Anyway, so then I made dinner and graded a bunch of stuff, and slowly realized the tired spacey feeling I had was actual illness. I changed out of my pajamas and drove to the pharmacy for “the real stuff,” as the guy said, because I’m not going to make it through this week without medication if that’s the case. I know I sat by someone with a cold somewhere in the last 4 days (besides my students), so apparently being exhausted and stressed out let my immune system fall short. It happens a couple of times a year, unfortunately. So I didn’t make any art last night…I went to bed two hours early to try to make up for getting up too early yesterday and to hopefully give my body some rest to overcome this thing.

Hopefully tonight I’ll rally a bit, finish the book project, maybe do something else. I’m so behind on everything. I can’t focus. I want to be ironing fabrics, so maybe, if I have the energy, I’ll work on that. And more grading. Fun stuff.

Legs Like Logs…

I’m baaack. Not awake. Not caffeinated. Not ready. Nothing new! Woo hoo!

We were in Joshua Tree for the long weekend. Got a house. Hiked some. Arted some. Ate some. Drove a bunch. It was warm. And then it was cold. There’s a lot of photos. I’ll deal with them a little at a time.

We stayed in an Airbnb that advertised a funky retro style, which they definitely had…

It was small, but fine for the two of us…

We never did use that fireplace, although we bought firewood. It was a long drive up Friday night, but I had some drawing time before bed.

We knew the next day was the best weather day, so we had planned a hike from North View to the Maze Loop to Window Loop.

It was a tough hike…not because of gain or anything particularly difficult about it. I think we were both tired and it was a little warm and dry and stark as hell and it was maybe a mile too long.

The rocks are fascinating though…

I couldn’t do this in summer at all.

I’ve been to Joshua Tree a few times, although only twice that I can remember as an adult. This is the longest hike I’ve done there at 7.4 miles.

I was hoping to do some shorter hikes, rambles, on Sunday, but that didn’t happen. For one, it was really cold. Second, I don’t think we had the energy for it.

The whole first part of the hike had no Joshua Trees in it, ironically.

Ah, there we are.

It was only about 70 degrees, but there’s no shade and it’s at a higher elevation than we’re used to…which might have been part of the issue. I know my legs felt like logs most of the hike.

It really was a beautiful day though. I was a little disappointed in the trail. The North View part was nice, but we missed out the Maze part because we were only on the outer edges…and the Window section was lame, because you got a better view of the window from the Maze loop than the Window loop. And we had no energy to wander back to do the inner parts of the Maze…it would have added another 3 or 4 miles. Not happening.

We got back to the car, found some food, ate, went back to the house, showered, and tried to chill out a little. Easier for some than others? Hard to say.

That night, we went to see a bunch of art and ate a good dinner. I’ll continue later…gotta go to school and teach kids things. About rocks.

Boychild planted the other two fruit trees…now we have a lime, a lemon, and an avocado.

It’ll be a while before we have fruit, but there they are.

OK, I’ve got food in me and a little caffeine. It’s possible that I might be able to function. Tomorrow, I’ll post about the art we saw…at least some of it, because there was a lot.

An Every Night Thing

We’ve doing a lot of moving and covering of things around here. Kittens are playful but also in everything…from knocking stuff off bookshelves to crawling under paper drawings (UNDER, because that’s fun) to trying to sit in boxes of Wonder Under (I had a cat who would do that, and then I didn’t), to trying to eat fabric and pins and thread. I’ve been zipping things, piling things, heavy things so they can’t move them, picking up and saying no…gotta get them trained to NOT walk on the Wonder Under/fabric stuff. One cat used to knock the ironing board down by leaping off of it (it’s not a great ironing board in terms of balance…I haven’t been able to find a good one, so I’m using my grandmother’s…vintage and ancient, but not the most stable thing in the world.).

Here’s Luna after I moved my drawing (folded up), but I’m still trying to keep the pinned piece from Sunday night so she can’t get at the pins…this is right before she tried to whack the phone.

IN the box that is ON the paper that is covering the pinned piece. I don’t really have a studio where I can close the door, since it’s Kitten’s hiding spot and she needs access. They will get trained. Certainly it takes patience.

I kamikazed home yesterday after the staff meeting so we’d have most of an hour before sunset.

We were the only ones out there for a while, until three bikers showed up.

It was chilly out…weird cold front here in San Diego.

It was 85 degrees two days ago…today is 20 degrees colder.

The pro of hiking so close to coyote hour is the sky…

And the light. Anyway. Good to have exercise. They’re putting in a new parking lot in the next few months…should hopefully solve some of the issues we have parking here, although honestly, when the lot is full, it means there are a lot of stupid people out there doing stupid shit, so avoidance seems appropriate. We’ll see.

Last night, I spent some time working with art entries…I have some work that’s being considered for a show here in San Diego, although it will be open during times I can’t go, I think. Then two entries coming up that I need to figure out. I did get photos back from the most recent quilt. I’ll post them later, maybe tomorrow. They need resizing. The name of it just popped into my head after months of calling it something lame. Love that.

As always, I graded for a while…insert cute picture of kittens…

NOT rampaging through my shit. And a tired Simba after a walk.

His short little legs did 3.26 miles. Pretty exhausting. We like to tire him out because he’s a barky asshole otherwise.

Kitten’s catnip toy has seen better days…

They use a loose weave fabric so the catnip smell comes out, but then they don’t last. This one has done better than some. She loves this toy. She throws it up in the air and bats it around and rubs her head all over it.

Around 10, I made it into the now clean (ish) office, ready to start ironing the new quilt. We’re going to Joshua Tree this weekend, and I want stuff to cut out.

Plus now that I have all these looming deadlines, I need to get some work done.

I didn’t get very far…in the 70s?

But it’s a start. This part is fun. It’s the creative bit where I get to touch all the fabric. I can’t ignore the appeal of the tactile quality of fabric. Plus all the colors and patterns. Anyway. This is a good thing. An every night thing.

Absolutely Weird…

Last night, approaching midnight, boychild and I are on my phone, playing owl calls, trying to figure out what has moved into one of our trees. We assumed barn owl, and sure, there’s one nearby…I’ve heard it. But this isn’t that. It’s a Great Western Horned owl. The typical hoot-hoot-hoot instead of the screech. Yes, I stand outside in the dark and listen to owls. Why do you ask?

Busy weekend; how about you? It’s just busy until sometime in late February, I think, maybe later, depending on how things roll. We did grocery shopping early and then walked the dogs.

We tried one of our normal hikes, but someone was throwing another wedding there or something (heart-shaped balloons and a million cars), so we headed to Mt. McGinty…realizing we weren’t gonna do the whole 4.5 miles with the dogs.

Way too much climbing (our car is way the freak down there and we’re not even at the top of the first hill)…there is a an old mine at the top of the first hill…no, not going in there.

Check out Calli’s tongue. She was tired.

We went out about a mile and a half and came back. It was getting toward dusk, and coyotes are always an issue.

The fog was creeping around too, so it was pretty. And there were only a few other people out there when we started…not the crowded chaos that is sometimes the other trail. People with dogs off leash and racing around on bikes. Assholes really. But this was peaceful. My quads are still complaining, but that could have been the new Pilates class as well. Because both in one day…

It was nice. I need hikes. I need outdoors.

After dinner, I made a pattern finally for the book box thing I’m thinking of for an upcoming exhibit. I don’t really make artist books, and this is more of an artist sculpture that is book like than anything else.

Once I had the pattern, I made and cut out three of them. That’s the plan. Draw three. I might stop with two though.

Drawing tonight? We’ll see. I’m drawing flat and then putting them together.

Sunday was an art meeting up north, so it took a good chunk of the day. I came back and graded stuff, then cooked dinner, then graded more stuff, and got some Luna love.

She’s sweet when she wants to be. Especially asleep. They’ve really grown lately…here’s Nova looking slightly cross-eyed. She’s definitely the smaller cat still…

Luna tries to push Nova off her food so she can have it.

Then there’s Kitten…she’s missing a bunch of teeth, like 11. She has a weird genetic issue that attacks her teeth.

Makes for some goofy faces.

At this point, I was cutting out Wonder Under. I didn’t photograph any of that. I honestly didn’t get that much done. It was late, owls were out.

I wanted to pop this in here…wait, need to find the link. Here it is…

I’m troubled by all of it. You feel badly for family for the loss of a father and a child. It’s a horrible tragedy, for the other families involved as well. But there was that rape thing…and we shouldn’t shove that under a rug.

OK, off to school and National Park week…I’m wearing my Bryce Canyon Got Oxygen? shirt…which reminds me…I need some earthquake/volcano shirts for the next unit. I know, weird teachers, yeah? Absolutely weird.

Somewhere to Land

I’m late writing today. I had a thing this morning, and then the boychild and I took the dogs on the last long hike of Winter Break…although next weekend is a 3-day weekend, so we’ll probably do another one. Hopefully by then, the daylight will last long enough that we can hike after school some afternoons, but we’ll see…it needs to be light late enough that we can avoid coyotes…as much as you CAN avoid coyotes while in wild spaces.

This is Crestridge, and it was cool enough to do this midday. We’ll come back on that trail way over there. We usually go UP that and come back this way or another, but this time we did it backwards.

A portrait of two dogs who refuse to look at ME, and look at the boychild instead.

Not very photogenic.

Lots of fungus…

Anyway. That was today. Last night, I hung out with one of my stitching groups…Julie is crocheting next year’s Christmas ornaments, which is very organized of her…

Many of her annual ornaments hang on my tree. When I remember to decorate it, which is often on Christmas Eve.

And Kathy is working on another Sue Spargo, Homegrown…which I own and will enjoy stitching if I ever finish the 2015 block-of-the-month, Folk Tails.

I finished the three September blocks with that flamingo, and she is working on Block 8 of a million. Or so. Yes. 2015. You read that right. I haven’t gotten much done on it this year…too many other embroidery projects on my plate.

Honestly, the process is more fun than the finish on these.

There was lots of kitten playtime last night…here they’re watching Simba, who’s watching things far away that he needs to bark at. The kittens don’t know why.

Honestly, none of us know why he barks so much or what he’s barking at. After the dogs left, we had all three cats playing with one purple ribbon…

Fun for everyone…especially if Nova grabs one end and tries to run with it.

I did finally cut a piece of paper to start drawing the next quilt. I guess I gave up on a drawing a day, because now I’m drawing the quilt instead. Nova came up to see and decided the remote was a dangerous beast that needed attacking.

She seriously pounced on it. Kitten is still the biggest…but there was some racing around the house by all three…

Back to drawing…I started with the drawing from a few nights ago. I’m not sure where else it will lead, but it’s a start.

It’s nice to have somewhere for Art Brain to land.

Tomorrow, I’m driving a million miles to take a class, and then driving back again. All good. Oh yeah, I got into another show…Artist as Quiltmaker XIX. Heart-Shaped Box will be at FAVA in Oberlin, Ohio, from May 16-July 26. Cool news…

People Who Do the Right Thing

Yesterday was awesome and stressful and exhausting, not all at the same time. Awesome hike and time spent in nature. Stressful incident with one of my quilts that ended well because some people are awesome, even if they don’t know you. Exhausting because of the hike and then exercise in the afternoon (not best planned) with emotional stress from the quilt thing. I ended up not getting much done, certainly not what I had planned to get done. It’s OK. There’s time. It was frustrating. I had plans. My brain intervened. So today, I’m feeling overwhelmed with to-do stuff, even though I still have a week of break left. It’s never enough.

I like chronology. The day started with a hike up Volcan Mountain, my first time…it has a great trailhead…

It was a bit chilly going up, but not too bad. More of the trailhead art…

We had read that the trail had ice, snow, and mud, so we brought poles this time…

It was a beautiful day…it’s a mountain, though, so there is a lot of up.

Up can be hard. There was some snow, ice, and mud, but it wasn’t too bad, and we avoided this section on the way down by taking the alternate Five Oaks trail down (I wouldn’t want to take that one UP, but down was nice).

My solution after last week’s UP hike (it wasn’t a mountain, so the up was parceled out throughout the entire hike) was to suggest my hiking partner pick the hike this time. Years of raising children and teaching middle school has taught me that ownership moderates the complaining. I was right. And we were rewarded with beautiful trees…

A million acorns underfoot…

And eventually an awesome view from the top…

More mud, not anywhere near as bad as last week’s.

Actually, there were multiple viewpoints…

And the plus is, it was down for the second half.

There are pros and cons to mountains. Our first hike of 2020 in the books.

See, we’re smiling! Because we know it’s downhill from here? Perhaps. May there be many more hikes as the year unfolds.

Although I could do without the snow.

This isn’t bad at all, actually. There’s Cuyamaca, Middle, and Stonewall peaks out there…

They had more snow, I think.

I’m still in love with manzanita, by the way.

Gonna plant some here. One bush. Far away from the house, since they are a fire danger.

Finished the hike with a drink and a burger. That was a seriously healthy wine pour. Santa still hanging out here in the mountains.

We came back and showered and I was going to start grading when I got a phone call from someone I didn’t know asking me if I meant to throw out my art.

Um. No? Serious stomach flutters on that call. She found it in a trashcan in front of San Diego Gymnastics in Liberty Station here in San Diego. She pulled it out because it was beautiful and then (this is why all your contact info goes on your label, people) she called me to see if I had meant to throw it away. She didn’t leave it in the trash. She didn’t keep it without contacting me. She did the right thing. This piece, Portrait of a Young Woman As an Artist, has been hanging in Liberty Station in a show since early November. Here’s where it was hanging…

The asshole(s?) who pulled it down and trashed it pulled hard enough to unbolt it from the wall on the one side. It was pretty high up on the wall too…so they had to work at it. I’m surprised they didn’t damage the piece. I’m so glad this woman called me. I drove out there and handed her cash and she tried to say I didn’t have to, and I’m like, I’m rewarding good people. I had some cash lying around from a friend who is paying installments on one of my quilts, and this pays that goodness forward.

By the way, the asshole(s) who pulled it down? There are cameras. We had an issue with another piece, they tracked the offender down and threatened them with the police. They returned the piece. This one? Well it would have been in the trash and discarded if this woman hadn’t done such a good deed. I was so stressed and freaked out that I didn’t even get her name. Duh. Oh well. It’s done. It’s saved. All is good. I did not go rehang it though. The show comes down next weekend. I’m good. The rest of the pieces in the show are all still there, undamaged, so that’s just another piece of humanity I have to wonder about. The good versus the bad? I hate to think of people as being bad…their behavior is bad. I’d love an explanation, I guess. I probably won’t get one.

After all that, I went to my already scheduled (couldn’t reschedule it, dammit) Pilates class and exercised my already tired body. I came back and was unable to focus on anything. I ate dinner. I finished my book. And then I drew…

I was watching more Craft in America episodes. Interesting stuff.

I couldn’t manage to sew a binding on or grade anything. My brain was overwhelmed with WHY and HOW and WTF and Australia on fire and war on Iran or WWIII or the draft (I have kids…I worry) and even this wouldn’t shut it up…

Although boychild and I shopped online for houses in the Julian area and mentally purchased a 20-acre horse ranch with stables and arena and hot tub. We’ll be doing something out there…as soon as we win the lottery and have 2.5 million dollars to spare. I guess that was my brain trying NOT to stress out.

I should be like the furries.

Just play and sleep and don’t worry about it. I am unfortunately a worrisome human, so that’s harder for me.

Today is busy and all over the place and I don’t even know if I’ll have time to do anything on the to-do list, and in fact, I just made the to-do list longer with all the crap that needs cleaning and organizing because it’s stressing me out. So there’s that.

Quilt is back, safe and sound. My body is strong and can kick a mountain’s ass. Do mountains have asses? And I still have a week to manage all the shit that’s piled up around me, literally and figuratively. Let’s hope for rain in Australia and a quick solution to the warmongering stupidity and many more good people who do the right thing.