Helen Mathey-Horn's Blog, page 16

It’s been a while,

Since I talked about my books. I’m debating about the second half of that sentence… My Books…books, okay my books.

Just a reminder that you can find them at Amazon. Hit the highlighted word “Amazon” to take you there.

If you have a Kindle Unlimited membership they are all free, otherwise $.99 on Kindle and varying prices in paperback.

Since there is no (if you are smart) beach to be reading at this summer you could down load them and read them in the comfort of your home.

The books fall into two categories… fantasy/scifi (Bait, Dream Warrior, Dawning, Shadows, The Gift, Uptimers) and romance novels (Dark Queen, Laurel, Nightingale, Olivia, The Island, Ruined).

Stay cool and enjoy.

How Black do you have to be?

I can’t profess to be ‘woke’ like a lot of good folks are, but I try. And at least two times I think I’ve been good.

Once when my son was pre-school age (he was in daycare while I worked) he asked me, “Do you notice that the brown boys have curly hair?” Now from the point of current events you probably have no problem translating this statement, but I was confused, because Mr. Brown’s sons (white) had very straight hair. When I caught on to which ‘brown’ boys he meant, I agreed yes, they do have curly hair. Observation of life was all he was making.

The second time an uncle asked me if I had any Blacks in my classes. I was teaching overseas with the Department of Defense at the time.

I could kind of see where he was going with this, but I was also amused. So I asked him, did he want me to count the students who had 2 black parents, or 1 black parent/1 Asian parent, 1 black parent/1 white parent, or what exactly? That was the end of that conversation…ever.

I don’t know if I was blind to color with my students, but I like to think I worked hard to give every one of them a fresh chance each day.

One last ‘observation’…it was a lot easier for me to feel comfortable around people of color when I was working overseas. I’ve pondered this…a lot. Why did I just accept talking, while in line or some other casual interaction, with a black person I didn’t know, as a ‘person’, not a ‘black’ person. No worry, no ‘fear’ even if small? I can only decide that we were both in that same place because we basically worked for the same group (US Military). We were equals in a foreign place (even if it was a really nice place).

I don’t have any solutions here. I don’t know how we get, as a population, past the fear of ‘other’ and see ‘us’. We are all Americans with a common goal and common wants. Or better yet, all humans on a finite planet.

Tulsa didn’t Make the News

At least on the computer news feeds, Tulsa was left off of yesterday’s and last night’s national coverage of the protests. Probably because people walked at least 5 miles and the only problem was some A$$hole truck driver that knocked down 2 people on the bypass downtown. The other cars on the road simply stopped for the people. Yeah, I know people should not have been on the road but they were and the other cars stopped and waited with no one else hurt and no damage to the cars. Hopefully someone got the truck driver’s license number.

And the protesters walked from the Greenwood area down Peoria (2 streets over from us) to the Brookside area (over six miles) with no other problems that I heard of on the news last night other than a woman that had a medical issue.

So I guess good news is no news as far as the outlets are concerned. That is, covering peaceful marches with no incidences of violence is just ‘boring’ and not news worthy.

It’s ok, (OK) Tulsa. I love that the city could have a march that long and it remained peaceful.

Perhaps we have progressed since this. Which was committed against the black neighborhoods by white citizens.

Where have I been? aka Today’s Crafting/Gardening Tip.

Nowhere in particular; doing nothing of importance.

After ‘finishing’ the 10-stitch afghan with an I-cord edging, I started winding yarn skeins into balls by hand. Yes, it takes time, but what else do I have plenty of lately?

I did start a pair of socks for my husband and I’m down to the toe on the first one. No pictures of that, yet.

I stepped outside this morning to take a few pictures of plants in the front yard. In particular the ‘coral bells’ (which aren’t coral in color) and my lavender plant (which is lavender in color).

Notice the burgundy leaves!



The lavender after ‘harvesting’, i.e. what was left.

What did I harvest the lavender for?

Lavender Wands

You tie a ribbon (1/4 inch is a good width to use for the ribbon) just below an odd number of lavender heads (7 or 9 is good). Fold the stem back over the heads being careful not to break the stems. This works best if the lavender is a little ‘limp’ which is usual on a warm/hot day if you haven’t yet watered. Then with the long end of the ribbon you begin to weave using the stems as your warp and the ribbon as your weft. The reason you use an ODD number of stems is so as you come back to where you started the round you will now be going ‘under’ the stem that in the last row you went ‘over’. Weavers will get what I mean. This weaving will incase the lavender heads. Once past the heads tie the ribbon off as tightly as you can and I usually make a loop to hang it by with the remaining ribbon. These need to air-dry a few days and then they maybe placed in drawers or any other place you would like the scent and/or to drive away moths. (See, there is a use for this.)

Here is a youtube video that shows the same steps I basically use. She shows most of her wands tied as I have mine, but the last one she makes she shows that you can also finish by wrapping the ribbon on down the stems of the lavender as a finish.

The leaves you pulled off to make clean stems can be air-dried also to use in sachets if you wish. And your fingers will smell delightful.

So from wrapping yarn balls by hand to weaving lavender wands. What to do when you have time on your hands.

14 May – Lap Afghan

Progress shots

Before

Last time I posted about this.



Today

Some how I managed to take all three pictures in the same orientation. Note cat helper.

It is large enough to be a lap afghan. Not sure how much further I will go, but I still have ‘scraps’ and bits of yarn and I’m still interested in the color changes and choices.

It will definitely be one of those projects where in the future you look at it and remember what was going on when it was being knitted.

8 May – Finding Beauty

Here he is (or she). I had seen this toad a week or so earlier when I thought it was a clod of dirt and then it moved. That day I helped it deeper into my planted area so it would not be in the mower’s path.

Today, he (she?) was on the driveway slope. Not good, so I helped it back into the flower beds.

Definitely one of the garden helpers. I have slugs and there is not much that will eat slugs, (can you blame them?) but toads will.

I moved it deeper into the planted area after the picture. So, go get’em.

It might not be many peoples’ idea of beauty, but for a gardener this is a gold mine!

Still…

Flowering

And growing…

Look at the size of that fern…and it is not the only one that size! (80 pound dog for comparison)



Volunteer sunflowers…from seeds missed by the birds last year. Free plants!



And my milkweeds at least 18 inches high.

In The Zone

May 6 question – Do you have any rituals that you use when you need help getting into the ZONE? Care to share?

One summer it was so easy, but I had no commitments and nothing but time. So I could daydream and write.

Then when I got home in the fall I was fired up and used my evenings to write. I didn’t have American tv where I was and only so many videos that I wanted to watch which created nothing but open evenings (mostly).

Now, not so much. Internet, email, facebook…and the list goes on and on and on with distractions.

I still do a lot of daydreaming, usually just as I’m starting to fall asleep at night. I try to pick up with (or go back and overlap) where I left off the story thread in my head. Some parts may be repeated, A lot. I’ll go over the dialogue, the scene, the actions/reactions. Usually, when I do sit down to write it goes pretty quickly.

Well that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Click the icon to see what other writers have written on this topic.

May the Fourth – be with you

Yes this has become the unofficial official Star Wars Day because of the pun. So there I said it.

Mean while in the garden…

Whirling Butterflies – Guara

It is the Peonies’ time to flower! They don’t last long. I still have yellow iris at the back of the garden. But enough of iris? Other things are blooming or coming into color, but my computer and my camera don’t want to play nicely today, so I’ll leave it with just the two pictures.

2 May – Finding Beauty

Just a few irises left to flower, but the peonies are making me happy. I would like to cut them and bring them in, but generally they last longer in the garden.

A random ‘blue’ iris that had flopped over so I cut it off and stuck it in the fountain. It works.

And somewhere in this water pot there is still a goldfish from last year. Feel free to eat ALL the mosquito larvae, please! Also note the corkscrew rush is ‘blooming’. (See ‘fuzzy’ tips)

Can’t remember if these are Siberian or Japanese iris.

And two other plants…fennel and rue.

So, today’s garden walk.