Take Joy!

The longer we are together
the larger death grows around us.
How many we know by now who are dead! We, who were young,
now count the cost of having been.
And yet as we know the dead
we grow familiar with the world.
We, who were young and loved each other
ignorantly now come to know
each other in love, married
by what we have done, as much
as by what we intend. Our hair
turns white with our ripening
as though to fly away in some
coming wind, bearing the seed
of what we know. It was bitter to learn
that we come to death as we come to love,
bitter to face
the just and solving welcome
that death prepares. But that is bitter
only to the ignorant, who pray it will not happen. Having come
the bitter way to better prayer, we have
the sweetness of ripening. How sweet
to know you by the signs of the world!
            

                            —Wendell Berry

Confusion

Moving right along, here is July's Bead Journal piece . . . I have hopes of catching up now that the weather's cooler and I don't have so much to do outside (or so much laundry).

This one is titled "Confusion: Rufus was positive these weren't the guardian angels he'd been promised . . . " It goes to my brother, who requested that I make hime "one of those beaded things" featuring "a face with a squinty eye." (Yes, we are all somewhat strange; why do you ask?) I happened to have this one, which I bought last year from Sculpted Windows, and I had these picasso seed beads I'd gotten from Gretchen Lima, and those strange little yellow plastic faces that came with something I bought on eBay several years ago . . . I think the tortoise-shell-patterned ovals came from Gretchen, too; and the brass arrows came from John's stash.

I actually had it nearly finished several weeks ago, but I had run out of the brown Delicas that make up the bulk of the background; I didn't have enough to do the edging, and had to wait until bead-store money made its appearance. I'm happy with it, overall; the red beads surrounding the little faces are just a bit too large. Obviously I wasn't unhappy enough to take them out, but I do think they're a bit overpowering. They were what I had, though, and I'm trying to work from the stash for a while.

 

Ysabeau, Pensive

Lifting the Veil

This is my piece for the Lifting the Veil swap at Goddess Dolls—my partner is Marlene, who lives near me (Hendersonville); we're meeting tomorrow to exchange pieces and cruise the bead store downtown. I don't think she will see this before she sees the real thing (at least I hope not!). . .

Specs: Made from Mary Tressler's "It's All About Position" pattern. The doll is doesuede, or bucksuede, or one of those things —it was a piece I've had for a while and I've forgotten precisely what it was called (and where I bought it). Her outfit is made from the sleeve of a polyester/rayon blouse (lovely stuff, and I still have most of it left!) I got at Goodwill a year or so ago; the burnout velvet for her veil likewise came from Goodwill (it was a Gap vest). Her hair is dyed mohair. Trims are various beads and charms and part of an old necklace, and the circular necklace piece was found in the junk jewelry box while I was looking for things to go on Eliza's costume.

Grandchildren . . .

Riley and Eliza in costume:

Don't know how well these will post, for I retrieved them from Karolyn's Facebook page . . . but here they are!

In other news, Emma and Co. visited this past weekend: we made applesauce cake, fed chickens, and generally lounged about for a couple of hours. Her costume was a success (though we opted not to take pictures)! And she has lost a tooth—

with more to follow, or so I hear.

 

October Beauties

Top to bottom: Dogwood leaves, Dinah in the window, mulleins in the front flowerbed, pink chrysanthemums from the home place, Spanish needles in the side yard, truckload of wood waiting to split and stacked.

Persimmons

Well, persimmon (singular), to be precise. One of my trees has two on it; the other has three. John's mother's tree, however, is loaded . . . and I hope to restock my freezer after frost this year. Of course, it was loaded last year, too, and every last one of them fell off. Not this year, please . . .

Victoria Among the Pokeweed

A Bee Bag

One thing finished! This is the Bumblee Bag; Kai sent me the directions a long time ago, I bought the yarn . . . and it sat in a bag in the box of "things I'm definitely going to make next" until last week. (I tried looking it up online to see from whence came the original directions, but had no luck; all the links I found led back to an AOL Hometowns page, and since those no longer exist . . . I did find reference to 'Marilyn' in one link, though. So—Marilyn, whoever you are, thank you!)

It's made of knitting worsted: I used Caron Natura, for reasons unknown to me now. Probably because that's what I could find in all three colors. I bought it, almost certainly, at either A.C. Moore or Michael's, and since their yarn lines have changed over the past couple of  years (and not for the better, either, I might add), I probably couldn't find more.

It's about 10 inches tall (plus the drawstring) and 6 inches across at the widest part. Just right for a small girl (or boy) to carry treasures in, don't you think?

I altered it a little bit: the original directions called for two drawstrings, but I only made one, since the yarn is thickish; two would have fit through the eyelets, but been difficult to tighten. No sense in giving children anything extra to frustrate them. And I added a row of black around the eyes, just because I thought it looked more bee-ish.

I have enough yellow for another, and enough white, but not enough black . . . therefore, I think I shall use the leftovers to make an owl hat. Or perhaps a bee hat. Or a small yellow-and-black striped catnip fish. Or something else . . .