Miss Anne's Prayer Shawl Sunday

There are many kinds of prayer shawls. Google those two words together and you can spend all day learning about intention, purpose, style, stitches, and yarns but until you make or receive one you can't understand the healing they bring. There isn't a blog big enough for all the stories our group could tell.

A circle of friends contributed fabric and clothing for the balls of fabric yarn* I made and then worked up in a simple knit stitch with velour fringe. It was given by all of us to someone who spends a lot of time on the front porch of her family farm out in the country and she looked wonderfully happy after we blessed and wrapped her in it. By coincidence, it was also her birthday.

The new shawl I'm working on now looks nothing like this one and for me, that's the part I like best. I've never felt moved to make more than one in the same yarn and pattern.

*Remove the selvages and then tear a strip starting from one edge, stopping about a half/three-eights of an inch from the opposite edge. Then move over about a half/three-eights of an inch and start tearing from that edge beating in the opposite direction. You'll be making a series of running z's from the top of your fabric to the bottom. Repeat until you've got enough yarn. Tie the ends together to make longer continuous pieces of fabric yarn if needed. Knit and serve warm.
You can also go here to learn how to cut fabric into a continuous strip.

Growing

So far our home gardening efforts have given us several types of tomatoes, radishes, carrots, dill, basil, strawberries, several kinds of lettuces, pickles, two types of green beans, and corn. Some have done better than others but in the end it's all been pretty satisfying, and tasty, eating our own homegrown food. We're even putting some by in the freezer and I'm looking into canning. A few minutes ago I was just told that there are tiny watermelons and cantaloupes in the nursery and we're still looking forward to eggplants, chard, onions, sunflowers, Brussels sprouts, a different kind of corn, figs, bananas (?), other possible tree fruit, and who knows what else. But we're not alone in our efforts as vegetable gardening is on the rise...

and communities are expanding their efforts to grow food, especially for people in need. I discovered one of Manna Food Pantries' plots on Martin Luther King Blvd - seen above and below - and all the vegetables are thriving and promise to deliver beaucoup fresh, healthy food to people who will appreciate a good meal of fresh food.


It's also been laid out as a park and when it's completed it should be a quiet, friendly place to spend some time. The song birds seem to feel at home already.
So, what are you growing in your vegetable garden?

Day's End: Memorial Day Rainbow Over Pensacola Bay

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It was a wonderful and rainy day
Not too hot and not too cold
Not good for digital cameras
There was a rainbow
There were two rainbows
Then none

This is actually two photos stitched into one panorama. I took them on the back porch of the Crab Trap and kept wiping off the slanting raindrops but they were very persistent. You can see the results on the table top in my Fuel posting.

It's hard to see but the second rainbow is to the right of the first. A man at the table next to us told us that once, when he was in Maine, he saw five rainbows at the same time.

The End of the Day: Cleaning Up At Joe Patti's Seafood

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After I posted this I read my friend Ilex's post about this, regarding the imminent demise of the bluefin tuna. It's sickening to think someone is deliberately exterminating a species for profit.

Sepia Scenes: Sun Settting on Downtown Pensacola

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No intentional sepia tinting here, I think this beautifully aged and meticulously cared for church speaks for itself.


The Sun
by Mary Oliver

Have you ever seen
anything
in your life
more wonderful

than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon

and into the clouds or the hills,
or the rumpled sea,
and is gone--
and how it slides again

out of the blackness,
every morning,
on the other side of the world,
like a red flower

streaming upward on its heavenly oils,
say, on a morning in early summer,
at its perfect imperial distance--
and have you ever felt for anything
such wild love--
do you think there is anywhere, in any language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure

that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you

as you stand there,
empty-handed--
or have you too
turned from this world--

or have you too
gone crazy
for power,
for things?

Today is Sepia Scenes hosted by the fabulous Mary the Teach and you can see all of the amazing sepia scenes here.

Theme Day: Feet(s)

Two sisters having fun playing at Fort George...

their joy expressed from the top of their heads to the tips of their familial toes.

Today is Theme Day and this month's theme is feet. Walk on to see all the interesting photographs people around the world have taken of their feet or those of others and Click here to view thumbnails for all participants (Or as my friend d moll lac said, view the toenails. Makes sense to me.).