Take Joy!

She Sleeps with Abandon . . .

 

Wordless Wednesday—View from Coit Tower, San Francisco (June 2008)

The Breeze At Dawn

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.

—by Jelaluddin Rumi, from The Essential Rumi, translations by Coleman Barks with John Moyne, 1995

Watching

Ysabeau dreams of squirrels, bluejays and fat stupid pigeons . . . however, she hasn't managed to catch one yet, no matter how fat and stupid they look.

Finished Fauna

I have actually finished some things, in spite of spending every possible hour outside in the sun . . . here is the finished Mr. Bun, who has gone happily to his new home in Georgia:

Margaret and her friend from Hendersonville picked him up before Easter, on a nasty rainy day. I swathed him in plastic bags for the trip, and he was fine. I have since received pictures of him reading a magazine, sitting in Margaret's porch rocker, and spending time in her recliner when the day was too wet to go out.

And also one of him with her grandson. He's been a big hit!

And here is Emma's birthday gift (along with a copy of Hootcat Hill by Lucy Coats; I read it first and passed it along)—Perry the Platypus in his innocent-pet guise. I think he looks suitably dumb and dorky.

Specs: knit of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride in Brown Bear, Turquoise Depths, and a variegated yellow I've had for a long time and lost the ball band off (I originally bought it to crochet a hat shaped like a squash, back before I learned to knit). Pattern from Kath Dalmeny's World of Knitted Toys. Eyes are vintage buttons.

Next project(s): a shark hat (and just try to find bulky shark-colored acrylic . . . ) and a flock of sheep, and a wizard's robe for Emma's bear Hermione. Plus the ski helmets for the Pine Ridge EMT and police, but those aren't needed until September or October. Plus the Sheep Heid, for which I have all the Shetland wool patiently waiting, but I'm enjoying the anticipation of actually knitting it so much that I haven't been in any hurry to begin. . .

(In other news, I finally have new glasses and I hate them. Oh, I can see better—my nearsightedness is worsening as I age—but they are SO annoying! The frames are larger than my old ones—not much, but just enough to make them heavier. They slide down my nose every time I look up, and often when I don't. Apparently the adhesive nose pads which will remedy this have disappeared from stores: I distinctly remember seeing them in drugstores and grocery stores when I didn't need any, but now? Nary a one to be found. I've taken to wearing my old ones when I'm on the computer or sewing, so I don't have to push them back up every other minute. Not good. Must ask John to fiddle with the angle of the nosepads. Again.)