America and I share a birthday weekend this year. It feels rather subdued.
I remember the bicentennial, how extravagant and excited we all were! The parades, the tall ships, merriment everywhere, much laughing with friends. This year feels quieter. Yes there are fireworks, and Independence Day celebrations, but it doesn’t really feel any different from any other year. I find that sad. I also find it understandable in a way because so many people seem to feel anxious and subdued, and question what it really means to be an American. I certainly don’t have answers.
My birthday is this weekend also. I turn 68. It is not a significant milestone, but in some ways this has felt like a transitional year, more transitional than say 60, or 65 were. I’m not yet sure how it is all going to turn out. I know I’ll be fine whatever the future brings. I am not anxious or depressed and yet a subdued birthday weekend feels right to me this year.
I finished mulching the western. bed in the front yard this morning. I’ve probably focused most of my gardening efforts on cleaning out this bed, pruning, trimming, adding compost, and now, finally adding a nice layer of mulch. This morning was slightly cooler than yesterday, and it felt like a nice thing to do on my nation’s birthday, protecting a little piece of soil. I don’t really like “groomed suburban beds” with lots of mulch and isolated plants, so I have plans to add more perennials and ground covers, and fill in with annuals. But early July, in the middle of a heat wave is not the time to do that.
My intention has been to focus on one thing at a time and finish it before moving to the next. I’ve done that here. Next up will be the east bed, which may be in even worse shape than the west bed was. And I have to keep this bed nice as well — maintain what I’ve done — not keep falling back into endless cycles.
That is my tendency, to take on too many things, and constantly keep recycling through them. But right now a tighter focus feels good.
I am even attempting to be relatively monogamous with my knitting, although I had two projects on the needles the last couple of weeks.
I made these socks shorter than I have of late. I used to always knit my socks this length, it is the length I prefer on my legs/feet. But lately I had been knitting longer socks to wear with specific boots. I have enough of those socks, and not enough short socks. These are about six inches from the top of the sock to the heel shaping, and I love them. I knit the from La Jolla by Baah Yarns, which I purchased when I was visiting my friend Liana in Nebraska at the beginning of February. Shorter socks means more yarn left over. I used just about 2/3 of the skein, so I have 144 yards left over to add to the “odd ball” box.
I am also knitting a prayer shawl for my church.
This is knit from oddments in roughly DK weights, I am alternating rows with three yarns, although one has been, and will be, consistent throughout the entire shawl, the other bits and bobs change. I had hoped to finish this shawl this weekend but that appears unlikely as it is already well into Saturday. I am about 2/3 finished, and I’m not sure I want to devote the time I need to finish it completely.
I’m already dreaming of the next project though and eager to get started. I’ll be traveling some soon, and I always worry about having enough kitting. I usually pack too much. But one traumatic trip 30 years ago when I ran out of yarn in the middle of west Texas looms large in my memory. I’d rather have a new project than the tail end of an old project, but when I think about it , that I started with a new project, I just finished it faster than anticipated.
I’ve also decided to rip part of the big alpaca blanket I’ve been working on off and on. I added to it in May, but I knew there was an error in the previous section. I ignored it, and now I realize that this was a mistake and it will bother me forever if I don’t rip it out. I knew that in May also, but I apparently wasn’t thinking all that clearly, so now I have even more to rip back. But that is not going to happen today, or even this week.
Oh foolish Human! Dost thou ever learn?
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