Somehow, it struck me this morning that it has gotten to be Thursday and my blogging has fallen into arrears despite the fact that I have been working on four, yes four, separate blog posts. It seems to have simply been that kind of week, and I am hoping, since today is cold and rainy, that I can manage to pull something together, even though I am not inclined toward tackling any of those bigger, although not really weightier, posts or projects. Instead perhaps a few small things that have brought me joy this week, not so much a coherent statement, but a gathering of various bits of fluff.
(Success! I posted to the knitting. blog, and this is now the second blog post of the day, one I intend to finish.)
Above and below are photos of the finished Autumn Vine cushion. The lower photo is the pillow in its final home with two other homemade pillows, both of which I have probably posted to this blog over the years. In the photo above you can see the error in the vertical stripe, where I miscounted once between the green and wine strips. At the time I was constantly tired and suffering from terrible back pain, so I intentionally decided not to rip back. I do love the pillow, inordinately, despite the flaw. It is not its existence so much that annoys me as the fact that it would have been easy enough to fix. I suspect there is a lesson in that.
Anyway, my apologies for the overlap today. Both of these photos were also posted over on purlsandmurmurs, along with others, as I wrote a rambling post about pillow placement and the process of finding a home for Autumn Vine. These same photos will probably show up on instagram as well, so if you follow me there you may face repetitious overload.
Yesterday was sunny and warm and I spent some time working in the garden. I planted a few remaining daffodils, which should have been planted long ago and which may or may not bloom this year. And I prepared garden beds for fava beans and peas, perhaps some spigariello and other greens. While I was outside I noticed how pretty the thyme looked in the afternoon sun.
Yes, that photo, too, was lifted from Instagram. Some thyme plants had clearly survived their first summer and winter, but this was one that I feared had died as it was all dried up and shriveled, at least until it burst into new growth. Change. How often it surprises us when we least expect it.
In the kitchen I was admiring my new oven gloves:
I bought these small sized welding gloves from Amazon in January, and they are at the moment probably my favorite kitchen tool. I have kept a pair of welding gloves by the gill for some time, but they are too large for me, and although they work when grilling, I need more manual dexterity in the kitchen. These seem to make everything easier and every time I wear them to lift some heavy pan out of the oven, or remove a hot lid from a pot, I feel like dancing around the kitchen as if I was in some kind of musical.
And while I am on the subject of small kitchen improvements, enter the bar mat. I Intended to buy this long ago, but instead was making do with a microfiber cloth, or a paper towel, or nothing under the coffee grinder and the constant little bits of ground coffee would drive me to distraction. Oh I know they are still there, and I still have to clean the mat, but somehow it feels more contained and intentional now. There are no more little bits of coffee dust skittering across the countertop and the mat is easily lifted and rinsed. It even cuts down on the noise from the grinder. Such a tiny thing, but it elevates my coffee making experience.
Small things, big joys.
