Various life threads

I started working on a new(-ish) weaving project yesterday and I'm sure feeling it today! Last fall I wound a warp and tied it to the back beam of the loom and just left it sitting there. I'd walk by the doorway and see the warp hanging off the loom and then look away, not now, not today. But two days ago I thought, maybe now, maybe today. Yesterday turned out to be the day.

Threading the warp through the heddles and reed is the most difficult and time-consuming part. Bending over the loom to do it is the back-breaking part, being able to see the threads and slots clearly enough to actually do the threading is the difficult part. This warp is 320 threads wide and that means threading it through 640 tiny slots in the heddles and reed: the time-consuming part. I did 80 yesterday and my neck and back feel very stiff and sore today. It is 2-ply cotton, very fine threads, but I couldn't resist the colours so I bought a whole bunch of it.

While working on it I was thinking about my last weaving teacher, I really should email her. She was making a living selling her work and teaching, so I'm guessing she took a massive hit in income this spring. I hope she is okay.

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The heat wave is supposedly still going on but around here it backed off two days ago. There was a moment in the mid-afternoon when instead of climbing yet another couple of degrees the temperature suddenly dropped a couple of degrees, and never quite regained its momentum. So for the last couple of days Environment Canada's forecast has been rather inaccurate. Not complaining!

During the last big rainstorm (eons ago) I collected as much rainwater as I could from downspouts off the house and shed, I am down to the dregs now. A lot of seeds I put in the ground just peeked above the soil surface, withered and died. The old standbys, tomatoes, onions and potatoes are doing fine, peas and beans look like they will survive too. Squashes are looking iffy. Already harvested all the spinach and replanted that plot with some rapini and bok choi; that's a third attempt for both of them so we'll see how it goes. I may plant some carrots, I don't know. Not a big fan of carrots. Sadly my cherry tomatoes are not doing so well. I love them, they are like candy. Not this year I guess.

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My next door neighbour rents the house out to students and periodically shows up to do repairs. He wants to dig up along one side of his shed which borders my property. Have at 'er I said. There's a huge rosebush in there that I quite dislike. My horse chestnut is scraping his shed roof, he wants to trim that back too and that's also fine by me. The tree used to have a lovely ball-shape, but I've trimmed some of its branches to bring in more sunshine for my garden so it's already a bit lopsided.

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It has been almost two weeks since there was a new case of Covid-19 in this province, currently there are no active cases. It has been well over a month since there was a case in my health zone. We never had any cases in nursing homes in this area. My friend B comes out of quarantine tomorrow and she will be allowed visitors outside the building, so I will need to book a visit for Hapi and me. She has not seen Hapi since Christmas and she always asks about her.

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This afternoon I went out for a drink with a neighbour, we went to a local pub that has a very nice patio. Before entering we had to answer a couple of health and travel related questions and then wash our hands. The tables were all well-spaced. Not quite back to normal but close enough. We discussed the various styles of face masks and where to buy them, the state of our gardens and our dogs. Her dog loves people but hates all other dogs. I forget the breed name but it is one of those lapdog breeds that don't just get their fur trimmed but styled. My neighbour said she looked at pictures on the internet of various styles for this breed and picked out one she liked. She showed me pictures but warned me I was going to laugh. She was right.