night creatures

I just went out across the brook to watch the fireflies. Sunset was half an hour ago, and it's not very dark yet, but getting to be. I stood at the end of the bridge and they began to appear, one or two on the right, and then a few way over into the clearing, flashing and sparkling as they do. Then, a possum (opossum, really) came along from the right hand side. He didn't see me, just traveled along the edge of our property, sniffing at an evergreen shrub. I cleared my throat but he didn't stop. But when I moved, and my keys jingled (I brought them in case I got locked out), he stopped. I stayed still and said something encouraging; he continued over to the brook. They used to put me in mind of a big rat, but I find them rather endearing now. I was glad to see him. 

According to Silent Sparks, by Sara Lewis, adult fireflies live only a few weeks! How many strange things there are in this world. I'm grateful for the yearly show.

home

 "Home! It showed you its face when you sat quiet within it at that moment when daylight was passing to night, but it could only reveal its spirit, its eternal meaning, when you stood at a little distance, just turning to leave it or just returning to it, seeing it at that transition moment when a larger world was claiming or releasing you. It was always at these transition times, it seemed, when for a moment, nothing owned you and you owned nothing, that you saw things so very clearly."

                                                            -  Elizabeth Goudge, Gentian Hill

" a city of peace"

 "Be careful to never let your heart be disturbed or get involved in things that upset it, but always work to keep it calm. In this way the Lord will build in your soul a city of peace, and your heart will be a place of delights. Every time you get upset, Jesus simply wants you to come back to silence and calm yourself again in all your works and thoughts."

                                               - Blessed Clelia Merloni

it's summer

 Well, the humidity is way up, and it feels like summer, all of a sudden. Because yesterday it was down in the sixties. 

I have a new thermometer outside my window, with a humidity needle. I'm not sure the percentage of humidity interests me, just the feeling of it. My energy levels decline as it goes up. But yesterday it felt drier and I made good progress on my linen dress. I like the way it's looking, except that I didn't line up the back center seams: for the top and the bottom, since the dress has a horizontal seam in the back.

I ripped out part of it, hoping I could shift things and correct it, but it didn't work. Blast! I don't want to re-do the seam; I'll leave it and learn from it, hopefully, but I won't cry over it. Speaking of crying, though, I could sometimes cry over things like this:

Cats who play on bedsheets. 

I am also trying really hard to move along with my summer quilting project, and have been picking it up while listening to podcasts or whatever. I've got a few colors of embroidery floss: pale yellow, deep gold, taupe, off-white. Whatever suits my fancy, and I sometimes put them close, other times further apart.

And, when the time comes to bind it, I think the blue linen of the dress will go very nicely, and there is plenty of it.

I finished the Isabella Stewart Gardner book.

For supper, we had a tuna sandwich recipe I haven't made for a few years, but it seemed special for Mid-Summer's Eve. Right now I hear baby birds chucking outside and robins laughing. It's good.

"I have a naturalist's love for the road that winds from Muskrat Pond to the borders of Big Oak Woods. In June, the poet's month, I follow it for two miles southward, past fields white with elderberry and Queen Anne's lace and trumpet creeper in scarlet flower. Cardinals and mockingbirds sing from the roadside thickets and bluebirds warble softly from the sky. In the early morning, when the dew sparkles on the grass, I hear the wild, sweet singing of the field sparrows and the first daylight calls of the quail."

                                    -  John K. Terres, From Laurel Hill to Siler's Bog

little neighbors

 There is almost no time when a rabbit will not be seen in our yard.

There's a lot of clover in the grass. 

We're glad they like it.

strawberry season

 Juicy strawberries from the farmers' market, courtesy of a very nice friend.

he's using the drill

and it's loud.

but her curiosity is too great to keep her away.

little tribulations

Yesterday. In line at the supermarket, and, going through. the cap to the liquid laundry detergent popped off and detergent ran out. It went all over the checkout area, where the bagging takes place. My brother was bagging and he helped the cashier wipe it all up, but liquid soap? Not so easy to clean up. (Thank God, no fragrance!) I ran and got another, but what a strange thing!  

At home, I was unpacking the groceries and I realized the long shrink-wrapped cukes felt soapy. And so did one of the bags. I had to rinse everything in the utility sink in the basement. With Daisy's help. She arrived in time to watch the water go out of the sink.

Meanwhile, my brother has ripped out many of the tiles in the tub area, and it has to dry out thoroughly before he can put them back, so it's sponge baths for a while. I helped him out by scrubbing the tiles clean; this took a while, and I ended up stabbing a screwdriver into my palm. Not as bad as it sounds! It wasn't sharp, so didn't hurt so much. I just have to keep it clean (which is a bit hard with hands).

in just two hundred years

 "Small communities grow great through harmony, great ones fall to pieces through discord."

                              -      Sallust, quoted in a letter from John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 1812

the in-between of things

 We've got two bunnies in the yard. One little, one big. What is the fascination with these creatures? I look for them every day. They are quiet, they seem content with their grazing. (of course, wild animals have to spend most of their time eating, or looking for food)

The solid blue fabric in the photo is a medium weight linen I was cutting out today; I'm thinking of a dress. 

Basically, the sleeveless one on the left. I'm not using a contrast fabric for the side panels, and I hope it'll be a little longer than the picture. I'll make a narrower hem. But I have the fabric, I have the pattern, and I've been seeing this style here and there. 

this one's a knit, but that's neither here nor there. I forget where I saw the other, but the v-neck, sleeveless, a-line style is out there. So, I'll give it a go. And I am trying to finish quilting the summer throw I started last year. Trying to use my creativity.

the first one

 I saw a firefly last night -  only one. So far. Just for the record.

nothing more important

 After Mass this morning, it being the feast of Corpus Christi, the congregation processed outside to four altars in different places on the property, singing hymn and hearing Fr. read from the Bible and prayers. I don't know which other Catholic church in the area does this, but I don't think they do it outdoors. Our church is on a busy intersection, which makes it a very interesting thing for motorists, I don't doubt. Father T. was reading something when a motorcycle went roaring by - he just stopped, and waited for the sounds to die down. 

I haven't picked up Eamon Duffy's The Stripping of the Altars for a while, but I remember a mention of this day in the book. In the Middle Ages it was a spectacularly celebrated holiday, from 1318 onward, until, "in 1535 the Crown abolished most of the local and national festa ferianda occurring in ...the busy summer months, on the grounds that the excessive numbers of holidays were impoverishing the people by hindering agriculture." This apparently caused widespread resentment and "subsequent anti-reform feeling." (Sounds familiar.)

"In his discourse at the synagogue at Capernaum, Jesus says, I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. ...In many places in the Old Testament, the eating of an animal's flesh with blood in it is strictly forbidden. How much more, therefore, would the eating of the flesh of a man be appalling to them.

Given every opportunity to soften his speech, to explain that he is speaking only metaphorically, as he was when he told Nicodemus that one must be born again, Jesus instead intensifies his rhetoric, insisting on the literalness of his meaning. Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. It is telling that the Greek term used for "eat" here is not the customary phagein, which describes the manner in which human beings eat, but rather trogein, which carried the sense of "gnaw" or "chew" in the manner of an animal. Once his listeners took in his meaning, the Gospel writer tells us, many returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.

The doctrine... has always been a standing or falling point for followers of Jesus. If the Eucharist is but a symbol of Jesus, who cares? But if it is the flesh and blood of the Master, nothing could possibly be more important."

                                                      -  Bishop Robert Barron

1,000 paper cranes

 The elementary school kids made a thousand paper cranes, and they're hanging at the library for a while.

what the world does not seem to understand

 I was just reading a blogpost from the monks about a new member taking some vows. Here is what the abbot said.

And then I went to Gretchen's blog, and this is what she posted.

and Daisy has nothing to do with any of it

salvaging a quilt

 Years ago, I bought a quilt for my brother's room, with a nice plaid patchwork design in navy and dark red with bits of green and whitish - very nice. He didn't like the weight of it. It was cotton, with a cotton batting. And, while cotton batting is preferred for its naturalness, polyester batting is way lighter. So, it doesn't get used much, but the cats have been laying on it so I thought it should be washed.

A while back I had a nice knitted cotton throw from Garnet Hill, which was pretty over the rocker in summer, because it was white with a coral red. But when we got our new washing machine, as much as I like it, it couldn't handle a heavy, wet piece of cotton. It just stopped during the spin cycle.  And that's what happened today with this plaid quilt. There it lay in the washer, sopping wet. I tried to wring it out, but it was difficult. I'd had to get rid of the pretty throw, but I wanted to salvage this quilt. I got my sewing scissors and cut it in half, and half again. I've been drying the pieces one at a time in the dryer. 

I will have to bind the raw edges, but each one is throw-size. I'm sure they can be used somewhere, even if only for the cats to sleep on. 

the raptures of Psalm 148

 "The hyperbolic flights of the Psalmist may often be followed with approbation, even with rapture; and I have no hesitation in giving him the palm over all the Hymnists of every language, and of every time. Turn to the 148th psalm, in Brady and Tate's version Have such conceptions been ever before expressed?"

                                                       -  Thomas Jefferson in a letter to John Adams, Oct. 12, 1813

Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights.
Praise him, all his Angels, praise him, all his hosts.
Praise him, O sun and moon, praise him, all shining stars.
Praise him, O heavens of heavens, and the waters which are above the heavens:
let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created.
And he established them forever and forever: he gave a law, which shall not pass away.

Praise the Lord from the earth, ye sea-monsters and all the depths of the sea.
Let fire and hail, snow and mist, let the storm-wind, which fulfills his word,
let mountains and all hills, let fruit trees and all cedars,
let wild beasts and all cattle, let reptiles and feathered birds,
let kings of the earth and all nations, let princes and all judges of the earth,
let young men and virgins too, let old men together with children:
let them praise the name of the Lord, because his name alone is exalted;
his majesty transcends the earth and heaven, he has given a high horn to his people.
Praise for all his faithful, for the children of Israel, for a people that is under him.
Amen.

(not the Brady-Tate version)