Odds and Ends

 My goodness, I have been away for so long. I have a fixed computer now. I withstood, the buying a new computer temptation. I have been gone so long that Google forgot me and I had to figure out how to sign in again, plus try to remember how to access my pictures since they are now living in the cloud. Here is something I learned. When people talk about things being in the "cloud." I thought that all of those satellites was where our data went and was stored. I know, but it says, cloud right? My youngest son is taking classes to be able to work on cloud storage. I thought of course, it was in the sky. Nope, there are these huge places full of computers, on the ground that is where all of our stuff is stored.  I felt very sheepish. 

We are in the midst of winter here. After that long hot summer from last year, I am very happy,

prolonging the inevitable. I have been hooking a bit. I finished Hearts by Cammie Bruce.

 I was canning beets one morning. As I peeled the beets, I thought, these are so purple I wonder what kind of color I would get? So I put the skins in water and boiled them for awhile until I thought I got enough color and then treated it like I would commercial dyes. So the pretty pink color is what came out. I just loved the color, and I couldn't wait to hook it. The red though is what I had in my wool box. 

I might try to do a little more natural dyes this year. I have always wanted to dye wool that way. Here is a picture of my current rug. We are planning our trip this year and taking our travel trailer to see our kids and grandkids. I wanted a long rug in the trailer. I had this from when I first started hooking. It is Polly Minick. Its one of the first rugs I ever drew out. Its taken me so long to do that those squares and yesterday I finally got started on the background.

Its a very long rug. It doesn't look that long in the picture, but it is. So its fun to do chickens again. Of all of the things I miss since we moved, its my chickens. 

I had to make of course, some little heart things for Valentines Day. There is just something nice about hand sewing and stuffing pin keeps. 

This is an old picture, but I did plant lilacs here, they are just not close to budding yet. We were in the book of Hosea at Bible Study. Long ago, when I wanted more than anything to be a rug hooker. There was no way I had the money to get set up. (We had 4 kids in college and a downturn in the economy.)

Rug hooking was not an option. One morning I was walking and in my mind I was thinking about all of the ways I could by hook or by crook get what I wanted. I happened to be listening to Hosea on headphone when this verse came up about Gomer. If you remember she was the prostitute married to Hosea. "She said, I will go after my lovers that give me my food and my water, and my wool and my flax..." I stopped in mid stride. I thought, no way does it say that! I ran it back and listened to it again.

Sure enough, it said that. I stopped right there went in to the house and looked it up in my Bible. Hosea 2:5. I realized how indeed how much I was like Gomer and wanting my wool and wool cutters that bad. I told this in my Bible Study one morning, I said, " I am a hooker...A rug hooker. They don't know me very well and I wish I had a camera to take a picture of all of the shocked faces. It was great! 

At that moment in time. I told the Lord, I won't be like Gomer, I will only be a rug hooker if you want me to be one. I shut that desire down in my mind and I just focused on counted cross stitch because at the time, embroidery thread was 23 cents a skein. A few months later, Jacque, from Doodles of my Mind came to the rescue. There is a whole lot more on this particular blog post. She sent me a box of everything and got me all set up. Now when I am at Bible Study, ladies walk by and whisper out of the corner of their mouths, " Hey there hooker, working on any rugs." I even have a lady who wants to come learn how. Its so weird that in California, people just don't know what it is, unless you find someone who's Mom or grandmother hooked rugs. 

So needless to say, every time I pick up my hook, use my wool cutter or start a new rug. I am so thankful that I get to do what I love. Nothing calms my heart and my spirit like hooking rugs. 

I hope that you have all been well and you have all been in my thoughts. Its so nice to have a working computer. I just can't write a blog on my phone. I do not want a laptop either. Though I am really having to jump through hoops now to find pictures. To get the pictures off my phone and from the cloud. I have been gone so long, I even had to jump through hoops to get back to my blog and not sign into your blogs as anonymous. 

Happy Febuary.

~Kim~

 

 “Probably more pests can be controlled in an armchair in front of a February fire with a garden notebook and a seed catalog that can ever be knocked out in hand-to-hand combat in the garden.”  ― Neely Turner

 

 

 

Rainy Days

 This is a picture from a different year and not this one. This year, we only have brief glimpses of blue skies. Not that I am complaining mind you. Its just rain every day is so different. If you watch the news or You Tube you can see how Northern California is having record amounts of rain. Here hasn't been too bad. 

 

Last week was pretty exciting wasn't it? It took fifteen votes to get a new speaker of the house. I just enjoyed it so much. Being sort of a history buff, my mind went back to the time Aaron Burr wanted to be President and tried to go around Thomas Jefferson. I always find it amusing that there are times when Bakersfield is in the news. When Chief Justice Warren, was in charge of the Warren Commission.

He was from Bakersfield and his Dad was murdered here and it is still an unsolved crime. Now we have Kevin as speaker. While I can say, I am not wild about his politics. He was a nice kid and he had the greatest parents in the world. I am glad that the 20 seem to have won out if what they got in way of concession is true. So I am trying to be really careful here so I will stop, but I have become pretty jaded.

 

My daughter thought it might be fun if I said what books I was reading right now. Well, it fills me with fear. I will list them. It will tell a lot about me I am afraid. For Christmas I got the Two volume set called, One Nation Under Blackmail, by Whitney Webb

The Devils Chessboard by David Talbot

Poisoner in Chief. by Stephen Kinzer. 

I do read fun stuff too. Like Christy and Julie by Catherine Marshall. Those are my favorites every January. Then what ever shows up in my Kindle. I have read some really odd books. I love books that are written by local people that tell stories from their area of the U.S. 

I am working on a large rug  I drew out when I first started hooking. Since at the time I only knew of Polly Minick it was a pattern she offered. That is how long I have had this rug. Its a chicken rug of course. When I get some more hooked on it I will post pictures. We bought a travel trailer and I want to make a rug for that. 

I finished my rug from Cammie Bruce, I Love My Black Dog.

 

It was hard and still is because I really miss my black dog. I have never been this long without a dog in my whole life. I just don't know if I can do it again. I keep hoping it will change, but I am still on the fence about it. 

So if you are still here. Thank you for stopping by. I am sorry I haven't been about to blog or visit. I am having computer issues and that I even made it today to blog. Maybe I should just break down and get a new computer but then it would mean learning even more things. Trying to get my pictures out of the cloud now is time consuming. 

Have a great week.

~Kim~

“Evil is real - and powerful. It has to be fought, not explained away, not fled. And God is against evil all the way. So each of us has to decide where WE stand, how we're going to live OUR lives. We can try to persuade ourselves that evil doesn't exist; live for ourselves and wink at evil. We can say that it isn't so bad after all, maybe even try to call it fun by clothing it in silks and velvets. We can compromise with it, keep quiet about it and say it's none of our business. Or we can work on God's side, listen for His orders on strategy against the evil, no matter how horrible it is, and know that He can transform it.”
― Catherine Marshall, Christy

 

 

 

Hello 2023

 I just wanted to stop by this sadly, neglected blog and wish all of you a Happy New Year! One filled with blessings and wonderful days. 

We have had lots of rain. My favorite quote by John Steinbeck,"

" I have spoken of the rich years when the rainfall was plentiful. But there were dry years too, and they put terror on the valley. The water came in thirty-year cycle. There would be five or six wet and wonderful years when there might be nineteen to twenty-five inches of rain, and the land would shout with grass. Then would come six or seven pretty good years of twelve to sixteen inches of rain. And then the dry years would come, and sometimes there would be only seven or eight inches of rain. The land dried up and the grasses headed out miserably a few inches high and great bare scabby places appeared in the valley. People would have to haul water in barrels to their farms for drinking. Some families would sell out for nearly nothing and move away. And it never failed that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years and during the wet years they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always that way."

So it looks like we might have a tiny wet year this year. I am not making any plans. That is a first time for me, ever. I just want to enjoy each day for itself, and look neither ahead nor behind, but accept what each day brings and how I can see the silver lining in each dark cloud. 

 I will be back soon. I just wanted to wish you all a wonderful start to 2023. 

~Kim~

" Lord, give to me a quiet heart

That does not ask to understand,

But confident steps forward in

The darkness guided by Thy hand."

 

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."

Proverbs 3:5-6

A Perfect December Day

 Good Morning,

We had a very nice storm last night. The wind blew the trees free of their leaves. Now the limbs that have been clothed in leaves and now without the reds, and the yellows and browns. They have removed last years clothes and hopefully will have a long winter nap.  Its cold and crisp and the rain washed the air. Which means, fog might be a thing by morning.  I love foggy days best. I love how it smells like a freezer. I love watching the fire and I love having the Christmas tree be the light in the house. I have so many lovely thoughts to think about this year. 

Since we rarely get snow. I just get to imagine making snow angels. The last time it snowed here, it was January 25, 1999. We got 4-6 inches of snow. It was also a blue moon that year. The irony still amuses me. My youngest was two and he was so sure it was going to snow that year, I couldn't believe it when it did. It has only snowed here 28 times since 1937. Compared to about 272 sunny days every year, give or take. 

I cleaned closets yesterday. I have the cutest Christmas flag, that I put up someplace last year. So this year I can't find it. I have cleaned out drawers and cupboards and gone through boxes. Not in anything I have searched. I even went out the the garage and went though boxes out there. You know how rabbit trails are, I even cleaned and straightened my wool and my patterns. I cleaned my linen closet which is really where I store my finished rugs. My quest still failed. I did have the thought, when I said to myself, " I have looked everywhere! and the voice said," if you had looked everywhere you would have found it. Keep Looking!" So of course you know what that means? No hooking was accomplished yesterday. 

So begins December. I did finish decorating for Christmas. I wanted to stop in and write a blog.

Storms to me are really so rare and so exciting. I was up at four-thirty. I looked out the window to see how much rain was falling. Out in the middle of the yard, I saw what looked like in the dark a figure crouched in the yard. I might have thought about going back to sleep, but that woke me straight up. I stared and stared out the window. It finally dawned on me it was the cover to the fire pit. Well of course, I couldn't let it stay out there, so I went out in the rain to get it. I came back sopping wet, but 

it made the coffee taste better and the fire prettier and when I did get dressed, my clothes were even warmer. So I guess you could say, I go a bit crazy in the rain and life is always a matter of perspective. 

Rain in December just makes me very happy. Rain anytime makes me happy. Throw in a bit of wind and I am one happy camper. 

So if you have got this far in a very mundane post. Thank you. I hope you have a lovely day, on this second day of December. 

~Kim~

“December: A month of lights, snow, coziness, and feasts; time to make amends and tie up loose ends; finish what you started and make your wishes come true.”

— unknown