Collusion

Collusion is our writing word for today and it's right up my alley, even if it isn't my word. I'm a great believer in conspiracy theories. In fact, if the truth were known, I believe that almost everything is a conspiracy.

I'm not even going to talk about how governments, drug companies, water suppliers, even various religions manipulate people to "buy" their propaganda, their products or their beliefs. I'm going to start with the small things, the day to day "smoke and mirrors."

Let's start with thrift shops. I shop at some occasionally to work on my slow-clothing projects. Lately it's been harder to find outfits in better fabrics, better condition and classic designs. I then realized that there is a plethora of new re-sale shops around and I think "aha" these shops have a link with the thrift shops and are creaming off the better cast-offs for their own profits.

Then there are the storefronts that are either never open or have sketchy merchandize. They must be "laundries" for illegal trade. Even the ones who are open and sell real "stuff" can be mis-leading. Really, you have to sell a lot of cupcakes to pay the rent at $3,000.00 a month.

How many young women in nail salons are actually forced labour and never paid? How many second floor massage parlours are actually brothels and how many jewellery repair places swap out your real jewels for paste and charge you for doing it.

Then there's the door to door solicitors for various worthy causes. I wonder how many of them have "faked" the ID and are pocketing the donations.

Well, when most of the products we buy are actually produced by less than a dozen companies worldwide, you have to wonder how we are being "set-up" for the sting!!

The pictures - out-foxing the fox and the warning signs.

Have a cautious day!!

That's the trick!!

Our writing word for today is "trick." It's my word and I thought of it after spending an hour or so on-line looking for something that would outsmart or trick a groundhog. Last year, a groundhog ate all of my strawberries, most of my eggplants and too many of my tomatoes. Sigh!

I wanted to be ready for him this year! There was a lot of "ammo" on-line. In fact -

1. I could buy a solar-powered sort of siren that would make an annoying noise every few minutes to scare him off. But then, I would hear the noise too and that would put me off!

2. I could build cages around my plants and have a really ugly looking garden. What's the point of that. I need a "pretty" garden.

3. I could buy some decoys. In fact there was a rather unique alligator's head resting in a pond that might work. But then I would have to have a pond and somehow, I don't think the fear of alligators is instinctive to northern groundhogs.

Somehow, I think the groundhog may have already won. And even if I did scare him off, there are still the raccoons, the squirrels - yes they eat "stuff" and the rabbits. Have you ever felt that nature may be against you - something there is that doesn't like vegetables, or maybe likes them too much!

Have a rewarding day!!

Nine Pipers Piping

Our word for today is "pipe." Again a word with so many meanings. Given the mood of today and the ugly people who have been voted in to "rule" us, the first image to come to mind is "pipe bomb." An angry populace revolts. They make weapons at home, pipe bombs, to throw at the enemy.

I can't dwell on anger very long. It will destroy us! I have to turn negative thoughts into positive ones and wait for an election or an early death for these perpetrators of hate. Here are my positive takes on "pipe."

Years ago, I thought that a man who smoked a pipe was distinguished. They were thoughtful people, philosophers, perhaps. They took a puff and pondered. We now know better. Even so I still remember a man, a friend of my father's, smoking a pipe on his veranda under a lattice of Dutchman's Pipe, a pretty climbing vine, like the smoke from his pipe. It was a poetic moment!

Nothing stirs my heart like a piper. Once when we were travelling back to Scotland to visit my mother-in-law, we landed on the tarmac at Prestwick and a piper piped us down the gangway - home. I was in tears. Again, once and only once, I was treated to the scene of the lone piper, practising, while walking in the highlands. I can understand how you can't really practise piping in a confined area - there are Philistines who hate the noise. Nature is more accommodating!

I love cathedrals with pipe organs. Religion, at its worst is a destructive force, at its best, an inspiration, which has given us the finest art, architecture, poetry and music, we will ever know. Years ago I had a LP of organ music. I played it in my room and read poetry. My mother told me to turn it down. Something there is that doesn't like a fugue.

Pipes are conduits. They facilitate the passage of air, water, sound and more. Our bodies are an intricate lacework of arteries and ducts, to keep us going. Houses are plumbed with pipes, for our convenience. Cities bury their piped infrastructure and the world hides cables and gas lines, while it digs tunnels to underground laboratories.

Birds pipe. Their piercing trills add music to a summer's day. They are given names like Sandpiper or Piping Plover. Musicians pipe. Blowing air through a reed and a tube, they make sounds to save our souls. People pipe. They force air over voice chords to sing songs, such as, "nine pipers piping."

The pictures? The best I could do for piping. Yes, I know, swans don't pipe, but they're pretty.

Have a musical day!!

Grass...

Our writing word for today is "grass." For me, nothing says Spring more than grass, at least, up here in Canada.  When white is all we see covering the ground from December to March, the sight of some green grass is a welcome change. The problem with grass is, there is often not enough where you want it, on a lawn and too much of it, where you don't want it in a flower bed.

My husband and I have spent most of Sunday digging up a daylily bed to remove some ugly twitch grass, which was taking over. Some of the roots of the grass had actually penetrated the roots of the day lilies. Given time, the grass would have won.

Grass has its own predators, of course. Dandelions, wild clover and a vicious invader known as "Creeping Charlie," all lie in wait for the first few blades of grass to mature and then it's war. We
re-seed our lawn every year and have to re-sod every three or four years. One year I just gave up and planted tomatoes near the house, where I could never keep a blade of grass alive - the tomatoes survived.

I was hoping to be able to leaf through "Leaves of Grass" by Walt Whitman for an appropriate poem, only to find that I had somehow mis-placed the book - "Something, there is, that doesn't like grass."

The pictures? Grassy places adorned with flowers or weeds, except for a well tended swathe in my backyard.

Have a wonderful day!!

File it - for the record....

Our writing word for today is "file." Another word with many meanings. Today, I'm going to use "file" in the sense of recording information for preservation!!

Wow! big words for small deeds. What I really mean is that this blog, for me, is a way of recording or filing, what I do and have done from time to time - or on a grander scale, in a lifetime. OK, I've only been recording "stuff" since 2006 and I was born way before that. But given that I often refer to events in the past, I feel that if I keep at it, I might just be able to cover a lifetime of "adventures" in let's say 20 years, if I am spared.

I use the word adventures, even though what I do and have done might not be on the scale of African Safaris, they are/were still moving me beyond my particular comfort level - everything is relative!

So, now, for the file, come with me on my next trip. Actually it's another sewing adventure - Do not despair! I promise you surprises!!

I said in my last post that I had gone to a thrift shop to buy scarves to sew my next piece of "slow clothing." I was moaning about the extortionate price of $5.50 per scarf. Well, slap my wrists. Here is what I got:

- two 100% wool scarves, one a Liz Claiborne and the other a Perry Ellis. Both amounted to 2.5 yards of gorgeously coloured fabric.

- one 100% cashmere stole in deep turquoise with a fringe - over 2 yards in length.

- one tie-dyed wrap in cotton accented with machine embroidery and sequins - at least 2.5 yds long.

- one 3-yard length of 100% silk in coral, which I will use for lining and maybe a short top.

- finally a 100% silk scarf with a large hole cut into it to make a shoulder cover. This fabric also bleeds magenta dye miserably - maybe the one downer, but it was free, because it didn't have a price on it and the staff couldn't be bothered finding someone to price it, so they gave it to me.

All in all, I can't complain about the $27.50 it cost for a wardrobe that might amount to several skirts, tops and a poncho, once I make them!!

Have a productive day!

The Dress...... An Atonement

I am fascinated with the "slow clothing movement." It's a throw back to the depression era when no one threw anything out. Every scrap - string, paper, glass etc. - was saved to be re-used one day. With clothing, people wore hand-me-downs or re-fashioned items, to make, what was left, last a little longer - jackets into vests perhaps and finally, when there was almost nothing left -  scraps into quilts. Clothing took a long time to wear out.

I do mend things and re-use what I can, but, I have been guilty of sending off to clothing bins articles I have barely worn. Not any more! I am now following the slow clothing movement. Here's how it all started.

1. I went to a thrift shop - Value Village. I don't go often, but I do go, when I'm in an adventurous mood. It's the thrill of the find!!

2. In addition to a Ralph Lauren blouse for $10.00, I bought a sheet for a single bed that, I swear, had never been used. I couldn't pass it up, because it had the must gorgeous tucking on the top, which was edged with lace.

3. I decided I would make a dress from it, one day. Time passed, but the idea hadn't. It helped that Facebook bombarded me daily with pictures of lovely white dresses - HOW DO THEY KNOW WHAT YOU ARE THINKING!! I pictured the sheet, the tucking, the lace!! Finally, one day, I pulled it out of the bottom drawer. I was amazed, I had actually washed it sometime ago. No more excuses - today was the day.

4. In fact, a week or so before I decided to start the dress, I had actually ordered some easy sewing patterns on line. Since, I haven't used my machine in a while and haven't actually sewn a garment in decades!! I knew I needed some simple patterns and there they were.

5. Next, I ironed the sheet, laid it out on the dining room table, pinned on the  pattern pieces, with adjustments (I have trouble following rules) and began to cut and sew.

6. With much ripping out and re-sewing - maybe I should follow the rules - I had a dress with tucking and lace trim at the hem, an over-top that needs some tucking and lace trim to finish and cap sleeves made entirely from the original trim.

7. Fate also sent me an on-line video of someone making a dress from a vintage pattern using Victorian sewing methods. This meant a lot of hand sewing, hemming seams and meticulous attention to detail. I decided that what would raise my common sheet dress to the next level would be "fine sewing."

8. I have, therefore, hemmed every seam, buried the sleeve seams in the sides of the double top and basted for my own tucking at the bottom of the "over top," if that makes sense.

9. I'll be finished soon. I need to mend where I opened a seam to adjust a dart, then decide if the skirt needs a slip. Finally, after ironing, the dress will be ready to wear. It does, however, need a necklace of sorts to finish the rather plain bodice. Hmm, maybe something in knitted I-cord. I have lots of yarn!

10. In the meantime, I've been gathering for my next project. On another trip to Value Village, I bought 5 or 6 scarves - some were silk. The price at $5.50 per scarf, though, was astronomical!! Now, I know I have to make a real gem of an outfit. Wish me luck!!

Have an awesome day!