Sunday, January 15, 2012

Snowy Sunday January 15, 2012

January 15, 2012
The snow has stopped at 12:09 pm after falling all morning. I woke at 8:30 am, happy to have had the sense of being in a cocoon of bedness, the dark and closed box of my room muffled by the soft outdoors.   It was lovely, first to have slept so deeply and late, and second to come into the bright living room and open all the blinds to the white world, full of falling flakes of snow. And then several couples and kids came out early to sled down the hill outside my windows with whoops and screams. One father particularly touched me as he took his daughter, about 4, in a pink coat, farther up the hill, trudging up closer to the mailboxes, to try the run again and I tried to imagine what Lucy may be doing at the same moment. The landing spot for the brave, after the two curves of the road, was about 4 parking spots below the clubhouse, just across from my unit.  The outward force flung some sliders outward which got them stuck on the near side.  They all tried several times to get the perfect ride. 

I sat computing on the couch, but had to jump up to the window whenever I heard a scraping of snow or a shout. That they were turning the slope into a sliding hell for my car mattered not a whit for the moment.  The view was good and I loved watching the fun, warm and foot-stable inside. Flakes falling, childlike excitement, parental sharing of experience, the clear, crisp air, the pleasure of a warm home, what a wonder is Nature! 

Sad after-note:  a huge pickup with a plow mounted on his bumper came. He made several passes around the curves down the hill, shoving the snow aside, and the sliding was over for the kids.  Luckily from one angle, the father with the pink jacketed little one had just returned with heavier coats to climb slowly up the hill and slide on their plastic orb from the mailboxes all the way down, twisting and whirling around beautifully.   Moments later, down came the truck, chasing the sliders home.  From a recently retired Grandmother viewpoint, that was very sad.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Sewing A Straight Seam

My current bliss is sewing. I am a novice again, having left the hobby for a long while. Trying to find new pastimes after selling my house with its large, interesting garden, I decided to hem up some napkins from pretty quilting fat quarters, and soon found myself suddenly grabbed by fabric, sewing notions, how-to books and patterns. It's all familiar, as I was trained to sew as a girl.  (Thanks, Mom!)  I made skirts and blouses and shirts, and eventually little dresses and shirts for my kids. My old Kenmore sewing machine from my husband of 1967, is still around. It weighs as much as a bag of cement, but that is a good indication of its sturdiness.  Sitting in the closet for about 10 years, it nevertheless started right up after a small drink of oil. Re-familiarizing myself with sewing details seemed a little daunting in the beginning, but I know, finally, at my age, that sometimes one only needs to go forward a little and leave the rest for the next day, to get anywhere. Now I find new pleasures in putting the Kenmore through its paces, though my skills are still basic. 

Here's why, so far:   1) It's grand, in my jet speed world, to complete a project--get it done!   2) I like the challenge sometimes presented by a seemingly indecipherable pattern, or a balky sewing machine, to test my patience, my mind, and determination to emerge victorious! 3) I love the appreciation I feel from people who look at my productions.  4) It seems to be a great diet program. When I am sewingly engrossed, I don't snack. At all! I have to remind myself to drink water; to watch the clock for lunch time! 5) When NPR tells one more story of financial disaster or failure of our many US wars, or I start to worry about the high price of peas, or the tread wearing thin on my tires, I can retreat into my "workroom" and bring back a sense of control. Fabrics and notions seem to be continually on sale so that prices are more like 1970 than 2012. 6) Learning more about color and fabric is something I find fascinating, along with the sound of the scissors on the material, the sound of the machine, the steam that rises from the iron in pressing down a seam. Kind of a BB zen thing, I guess. 7) Holing up in my workroom where one wall heater keeps me cozy on the coldest winter days, meets my need for home economy.  8) With sewing, you see immediately what the results are, and you can always rip out and do something over. 9) I kind of know what I'm doing, though my eyes and steady hand are not that of my younger self. 10) And best?!  Lucy's eyes full of excitement when she came over with her Mom to try on her new dress!