Flowers and The Importance of Hands

Views of a birthday bouquet

from J.

these hands I love 

making pizza so effortlessly on Sunday;

on Tuesday the right one got a deep puncture

in two places

no writing (for a teacher), no shoveling manure in the garden,

no dishes, no shirt cuff buttons.

be grateful for your hands today and all they do for you.

ready at the plate!

Color therapy

Crafty Sunday

Some were beading.
Sylvan, carefully threading the tiniest beads onto wire:
Jonas, making earrings to sell at the fair next fall, to earn some money towards next year's skiing habit:
At $15 these lovelies are priced to sell! Let's hope the "age 11" minimum is slightly flexible by a few weeks...

And the new knitting project, a shawl, first seen on Soule Mama's blog a few week's back. Called Simple, Yet Effective 2.0, the pattern is here. It's not free, but it's still good! It calls for one skein of Noro Kureyon sock yarn, which is self-blending, and I used it for my birthday socks last year. (And oh my gosh, if you look at that post, the sweetness of raindrops on irises in June!). For this pattern, you split the skein and alternate the balls so you get stripes.
For this shawl, I chose something in the rainbow family, mostly because I like the idea of wearing rainbows around my shoulders in bleakest March. But rainbows also have special meaning for me and my name: Iris is the goddess of the rainbow in the Greek Pantheon. When my mom was pregnant with me she saw more rainbows in those nine months than in her whole life! (Wait, what part of that last paragraph gave it away that I am a child of the 70s?)

I had overthought this simple shawl and won't bore you with the details, but I decided after about 8" that I didn't love the way the stripes were alternating. So last night ripped it all out, rewound one of the balls and began again. Much better this time, proving to me that listening to my inner-ickometer is better than listening to my husband because we don't always share the same aesthetic.
Both portraits are hanging in my dining room now. At right, the photo taken by my husband when Jonas was just a small angel, maybe only a year old or so; the shiny glass made photographing it here challenging. At left, the portrait in oil crayon by my brother (first seen here) and given to me this February. Two of my most favorite fellows.

Pieces of Me: Partner

You are my BBFF (Best Boy Friend Forever).

We are a team. We are very different, but also alike. We both value family, friends, cooking good food, doing meaningful work, and a sense of humor. This is the framework. You are a social butterfly, happy in the center of things; I am more of a hermit, happy to be at home. You can still do great work with many interruptions (self-created or imposed by others); I do better in quiet. You were my hardest knitting student ever, because you wanted to know why and how and what would happen if... I encourage you to make gauge swatches, rip it out and start again, have a pattern and plan. You make beautiful work without any of these things. You relate to historical dates and events in a way that is completely beyond me (in that you can retain them), while I am the prolific reader you will never be able to be. You are the one who has an enormous sense of the possible and I am the one who tells you to say no to more meetings and committees and responsibilities. That you give enough. When you burn out (only occasionally), I try not to say "I told you so." You never show these moments to your colleagues or really anyone else, but I help you pick up your pieces and reassemble them. Mostly, I am impressed with all that you are capable of giving and doing.

I am your proof-reader, your walking dictionary, sometimes your secretary, sometimes your assistant at grading papers. I know you like to eat dessert every night, that you are not bothered by greasiness on your utensil handles, and that you prefer floppy sloppy squishy pillows with feathers.
We agree about how to parent our boys. I am your champion and I am your critic. I will always tell you what I think, especially about your clothing choices (striped vest does not ever go with a striped shirt). The parents of your students remark to me that you always look so dapper at assemblies, and yup, that's me. I am the one who tells you when your pants are not school-worthy anymore. It makes me happy when your car pulls up in the driveway. We don't go to bed mad at each other.

Here is what we said to each other almost ten years ago:

Our friendship is the sacred foundation on which we have built our love.
I will always speak to you as a friend.
I promise to make you laugh and help you laugh at yourself.

I honor your individuality and I respect your opinions and needs
that are different from my own.
I take pride in your accomplishments.
I will challenge you to be your best self.

We are two trees, grown together;
we have separate roots and we grow independently.
But we lean on one another and give each other shade,
twined in an embrace for all time.
With these vows I take you as my life partner.

Full Fall Day

Green Smoothie Part II
Remember my Green Smoothie Experience from my last post? Well I wanted to show you how my yummy 2nd Green Smoothie turned out. This time I had mostly chard (rainbow, the chocolatey brown leaves) and only a little kale (the first one was too kale-y), a banana, thawed strawberries from our local organic U-Pick, and water. Tomorrow, I will try it all again and go work out. Hmmm, a little fresh pineapple?
Sylvan Rides Again
Sylvan and George, our local adopted Grandpa and also our plumber, took an excursion by motorcycle to the Owl's Head Transportation Museum to look at some old cars and were gone most of the day. Sylvan even got to ride in a Model T! Here is our little dude in his riding gear:
Bye, Mom, and they were off.
Golfing
While Sylvan was gone, we three wanted to do something in the lovely fall weather.
I wanted to hike, but was out-voted by some golfing fans. Not being a golfer (more of a bowler), I took along my knitting.
(New socks on the way for Jake, two-at-a-time method! Do you love this Kaffe Fassett yarn or what?)
But I did try out one hole. It was OK, but not better than knitting. Mostly I was just happy to watch for balls flying into piles of leaves, being with my boys out in the sunshine. Jonas had some great shots.
Scarecrow Contest
Then we hustled over to our local breakfast place/farmstand to find out the results of the Scarecrow Contest, in which Jonas and Sylvan had an entry called Two Brothers. Awww.
They didn't win. But no one was too disappointed, and the Brothers will stay on display til Halloween.

And there were plenty of Delicatas on sale (79 cents a pound!), my favorite squash. A little butter and maple syrup makes them even better.

I'm ready for bed!
Good night.