On turning 70…

May flew by in a whirlwind of events, opportunities and some major gardening…

It rained…

It is hard to figure out what to start with, since May is the month of blooming flowers, and my gardens didn’t fail to impress me. Things I planted probably 15 years ago, popped up, like foxglove, which I thought had died, but there they were in all their magnificence.

And the bearded irises, I thought all the pretty colored ones had vanished from my yard years ago. My landscape designer says it has to do with not mulching, and disturbing the surrounding soil, things that were dormant in the ground suddenly come to life.

Azaleas were gorgeous…

The red columbine climbed high…

And the peonies…

The native Cross Vine was in glorious color over the front of the gazebo.

And I discovered a Christmas fern, tucked under a Hosta, which I’d never seen before. I drew it.

It rained in May. A lot… 10.5 inches according to my frequently dumped rain gauges…

I found the most interesting insects, like this one… A Lady Beetle (lady bug) larvae. The pictures on the internet of it morphing into a lady bug are adorable.

And my frogs. Almost unheard of anymore in NJ, I have a few. They found my ponds. I look for them every day. They just sit on the rocks by the pond, zapping up bugs and flies and things that all contribute to a healthy ecosystem.

The first year growth of all of my newly planted natives is unprecedented.

Because you know, it rained… Did I mention that?

And then this happened…

My neighbor, who has a healthy amount of young grandchildren visit regularly, wants a sterile yard for her grandkids to play in. She isn’t happy I have a huge host of native bees, snakes, koi and goldfish ponds, frogs, and all sorts of beneficial bugs. She wants her precious cargo protected. It is hard to explain to people the destruction of entire ecosystems, and how much we are destroying all we take for granted with such short sighted actions. I’m compiling as much data as I can find on what the company uses, a synthetic version of Pyrethrum and hoping to at least give her a bit of education. Wish me luck…

On a happier note, I finished knitting my socks! I started them a couple years ago. Obviously there is little time for knitting. But I started a new sweater, hopefully that won’t take a couple years.

Mother’s Day, weeks ago at this point, my beloved son came and cooked for me. He made beer batter fried cod tacos, they were delicious. He hated my knives. He said he figured out what to get me for my birthday…

A couple weeks ago, I turned 70. It was a big deal because I’m triumphantly moving into Act III of my life and enjoying every minute of it. The world around me is imploding as I write, and I’m so appalled I’m paralyzed, but in my own small space in that world, I do what I can to make the world a better place, especially for the future. Leave things better than you found them…

I had no plans, so I asked a music friend to take me to lunch in Montclair, NJ. We play recorders with Montclair Early Music, and he lives in that town. I went to college in that town as well, so it holds a special place. He took me for Thai food, we had a lovely lunch, and then as a surprise, he took me a couple doors down from the restaurant to the Arthur Murray dance studio, for a tango lesson. It was just the most glorious fun. Backstory, at the spring concert for Montclair Early Music, we played a couple of challenging tango numbers. The director of the group brought in the principal dancers from the local Arthur Murray dance studio, who performed a tango for one of the numbers. My friend and I remarked about how much fun it looked and wouldn’t it be something to try… And so he signed us up for a lesson. I’d like to find a way to fit dance lessons into my already overflowing schedule. These are first world problems I know… I wish I had a picture!

That night, my son promised to take me to a new restaurant in town, very high end, and raved about on social media. We walked to the restaurant, in the rain, did I mention it rained this month, and to my complete shock, my sisters and their husbands, and my daughter who had just left for work just a couple hours before, or so I thought, were all sitting at the bar waiting for me. I was touched, one sister drove up all the way from Maryland for the occasion. It was a glorious night, and my gratitude for my son and sisters for arranging it all, knows no bounds.

Besides dinner and dancing lessons, people who know me well, gave me some much appreciated gifts. A wooden puzzle from my friend…

A hand crocheted sunflower for the garden from another friend…

New knives, which are razor sharp and beautiful from my son…

…and my daughter, who vacuums the house once a week, was appalled at the shedding pleather on my office chair, and so she ordered me a new one, which I don’t have a photo of because I’m sitting in it…

And I bought myself a beautiful used cherry wood Kung bass recorder, something I’ve always wanted, a high end performance bass. It is spectacular…

My little buddy Mulder is never far away. He curls up and makes me sit still for just a few moments…

And last Sunday I had my cello recital. It was really fun, I won’t say it was the best I’ve ever played, but I’ve come so far since last September when I first learned how to hold the cello and bow. I have a recording of my solo, which was really a trio with my teacher also on cello, and a piano, I played “Bring Him Home” from Les Misérables. Then I joined all the little cello students and we played Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and many of its Suzuki variations. I wasn’t great, but I had a blast…

And yes, I’m still a weaver and slowly working through looms when I get a chance especially when it rains, and did I mention there was a lot of rain this past month? I wove all five scarves on the warp that was inspired by the stained glass puzzle of cats.

Between each scarf I left 3″ of fringe to be divided between each scarf, with hem stitching starting and finishing each scarf.

I did a tutorial for my guild on hemstitching. I do it this way, so the entire length of all 12 yards can be tossed in the machine to wet finish. Which leaves the front and back end fringe that can get pretty messy in a washing machine. So I fuse a strip of fusible knit tricot along the fringe at either end of the 12 yards, before I throw it into the wash, which keeps things tidy, and then that gets cut off when the scarves are pressed.

Taking advantage of a now empty 8-shaft floor loom, I immediately grabbed one of the Structo table looms I’d set up a few years ago, and transferred that warp onto my floor loom.

This was an 8-shaft warp, in Tencel, in Shadow Weave, four colors and black. The pattern was from Webs. It didn’t take me long to get the six yard warp transferred, and then weave the first repeat. So much faster on a floor loom… I should get two scarves plus from this warp.

This morning, I was interviewed for a podcast, The Straight Stitch: A Podcast About Sewing and Other Fiber Arts, with Janet Szabo. We had a great time, and she told me the podcast should drop tomorrow. I’ll listen while I’m out in the garden…

This weekend marks the ninth anniversary of my husband’s death, Father’s Day weekend. I think he would have been so proud of how the kids have grown up, and what I’ve done with his beautiful gardens and ponds. I replaced the water feature I had installed right after he died, it was time. It has a little light at the top of the ball.

My landscape designer came today, to rip out more of the invasives that plagued my property, the last of the Japanese Barberry is gone, and most of the Burning Bushes, and Morrow’s Honeysuckle. She brought paw-paw trees, persimmon, ninebark, sassafras trees, and sumac. It was glorious planting in the rain…

Stay tuned…