Moments of Creativity and Care

 

One constant of each day is that I have to eat.  There are few, and for me there really are no options, places where I could get prepared food.   I have managed most days to put together very tasty meals.  Often I have leaned into some old standbys and I do try to find and make dishes that I have never or seldom have done.    

Above is my crock bowl of French Onion Soup.  It had lots of steps and wow do you use a lot of onions, and it tasted GREAT.  I have enjoyed chopping, slicing, kneading, smelling and just being present in my kitchen making good food.  

I have gotten much better at storing, labeling and eating left overs.  I have enjoyed the days when I spontaneously  when I have brought extra leftovers to my neighbors.   Don and Candy and I have for a number of months dropped off a meal or a treat.  It is very fun to walk out on my porch and see a little package, often with containers labeled with what is inside, always delicious and a meal that I did not make.  

  I do try to keep on doing my collage work.   I started several years ago do collage on boards that were left in the basement on Aroostook Avenue.  Besides lots of wood there were small containers filled with lots of "stuff" they you would not throw away.  I think that a requisite of being a real "Mainer" is that you do not throw anything away - everything can be reused, repurposed, available just in case.   When i moved to Millinocket I had been making "altered books" for several years, and after I had been in Maine for over a year I got the idea of merging things from the basement,  things I had been keeping since moving to Maine and my large stash of collectibles that I had brought from Minnesota.   I started to make "collage boards".  This one is the latest that I have done,  each board is very different and I am enjoying the merging of MN and ME and many points in between!   I have two more boards that I have begun to put them together....some day I will show them all, for now, it is a creative respite.  I like how many memories go onto each board.  The same and difference, new and old, mundane and meaningful.  One more salve that soothes my soul.     

I also love to felt,  I have been needle felting designs on wool berets for awhile and I have a very large stack of berets all looking beautiful and will look even better on someone's head soon.  I don't have any pictures of them but they are very fun "hand work"  --- I like linking to the centuries of women who do needle work of some kind while they sit and rest.  I feel the connection as I pick out my yarn, pull at some fleece, select needles and sit with my felting pad on my lap.     I have also been making cozy holders,  I realized

that I had a number of pint glasses, just waiting to have cozies made for them.  So my dining room table at times turns into cozy central.  Then it all gets to be too much and I need clear, clean spaces and I take a break.  

The room that I thought would be where I did all my crafting has never really become that...so my hunker down time has once again brought up the question of where will I do the creative work I love?  

For now, it happens in a chair, it happens at the table, and I just keep finding a space and way.  That is good.  

I am still waiting for news of my Kick Sled.  I winterized two more windows today.  I made a wonderful supper.  I reached out to a few friends.  

I sent a thank you email to Representative Golden thanking him for coming out in favor of impeachment.  I will send Senator King a thank you later tonight.  Susan oh poor poor Susan, still trying to find high ground to stand on....

It is Tuesday and I am trying to take good care,  I hope you are too!