Dear Deer

In the process of organizing and backing up my photos, I came across a few pictures of deer. Usually, they are tasting my tulips, gorging themselves on my hostas, or siphoning birdseed out of the feeder, but here they are just looking like sweet innocent creatures, eating grass or attempting to hide in the field behind us.

Here's hoping you can get out and enjoy some nature this weekend. 

Unraveled Wednesday

Joining Kat and friends for Unraveled Wednesday, today with Turtles on Parade. I am working on my Sunset Hitchhiker, and because it's so colorful and so much fun to knit, I haven't yet been able to tear myself away to weave in the ends on my Nervous Breakdown. One of these days ...

There were other things that did leave me feeling a bit unraveled this week -- more masks. Ryan had some suggestions for modifications to the previous ones I had made (larger overall and deeper pleats), so I finally sucked it up and sewed. He also wondered if I had a different fabric, so this time he gets Turtles on Parade. 

I made two of the pleated kind, and two of the close-to-the-face type. I went slowly, pressed as I sewed, and tried to sew carefully, so I feel like these look a little bit better than my previous attempts. Sewing is still outside of my comfort zone, but I'm afraid I may be getting a lot more comfortable with it in the upcoming months.

I don't have any more elastic, so there was a fun part of this project: cutting up a t-shirt to make t-shirt yarn. We have two trash bags full of old t-shirts so I've got plenty of supplies, and it's almost magic!

Who knows? Maybe I'll be making giant balls of t-shirt yarn and crocheting bathmats by the time the pandemic is over! (Don't count on it.)

I started and finished Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler as a quick, fun audiobook. My real reading treat is Apeirogon by Colum McCann. Like everyone else who has read it, I think it's wonderful and like nothing I have ever read before. I don't know whether to ignore everything and everybody in my life to rush through it or savor it slowly.
What are you making and reading this week?

Not Just for Yarn

There is an alpaca farm near our home in NJ that I love to visit. They raise alpacas, llamas, and yaks, and I always enjoy a visit there to see the animals and fondle the fiber.

But llamas may be more than cute faces and soft fiber! A study suggests that antibodies from llamas could help in the fight against COVID-19. 

"Researchers linked two copies of a special kind of antibody produced by llamas to create a new antibody that binds tightly to a key protein on the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. This protein, called the spike protein, allows the virus to break into host cells. Initial tests indicate that the antibody blocks viruses that display this spike protein from infecting cells in culture."

This was interesting to me because virus' spike proteins are a crucial part of how viruses get into host cells and replicate. I did not know about the camelids' immune system producing antibodies similar to humans, plus smaller ones called nanobodies that can be used in an inhaler. This means that the protective antibodies could possibly be given directly to humans to lessen or prevent the disease, without waiting for the immune system to respond as is the case with a vaccine. The Science Daily article is here, and the pre-proof Cell article can be found here. (It's long and scientifically complex, but presents a promising idea.) I can't pretend to understand all of it, but I'm glad that there are scientists who are thinking outside of the box and being helped by adorable llamas.

Signs of the Times

Some signs I've seen on my walks and during my travels:

This is a local fairly upscale restaurant. (As in $15.95 for half a head of romaine, grilled. Very good, but also quite pricy overall.) 
I wonder if their curbside pickup menu is within my budget?

Signs seen in Delaware. (They clearly don't want or need our NJ germs.)

A friend of Ryan's that lives in NYC sent him this one. She went home.

Signs seen along the driveway to the local hospital.

Our borough Dept. of Public Works guys are wonderful and hard-working, but maybe not the best grammarians. Although, I did look up "all though" and found this: "Originally, although was two words—all though—where the all was used to emphasize  though." They do get lots of extra points for also printing the signs in Spanish. 

This one is my favorite, despite being slightly faded from rain. It says "Hey you! Look at you taking a walk. I just want to say that's a great thing & you're a beautiful person." I saw this at the end of my three-mile walk and it put a spring in my step and a smile on my face. I've ordered some chalk of my own so I can create some cheerful messages on my sidewalk. 

Have you seen any good signs lately? 

But on the Bright Side ...

This has been a long and difficult week, but there have also been some bright spots. 

My SiL and her husband were involved in a fairly serious wood-stacking accident. He sustained a large gash on his head and had to adhere to a concussion protocol for three days after being knocked down by a cord of falling wood and a large iron pipe. She dislocated her shoulder and broke her ulna in her lower arm, but she's a family practice physician who is tougher-than-nails and maneuvered her own shoulder back into the socket after suturing her husband's head and worked a whole day at her office before getting her arm x-rayed and splinted.

But on the bright side, the local hospital is closing its respiratory assessment tent today after a decrease in patient volume. They have treated more than 520 patients in the last month, and that helped alleviate much of the strain on the ER.

======

It took me almost four hours to procure food yesterday and I had to travel to three different stores to do it.

But on the bright side, the last store I visited was well-stocked with most things, the shoppers were adhering to regulations by wearing face masks and staying six feet apart, and now I know where to shop in the future.

======

The weather here has been generally terrible with rain, flood watches, and 40 mph winds.

But on the bright side, the governor is re-opening state parks tomorrow, and there is no rain predicted for Saturday or Sunday.

======

New Jersey's coronavirus numbers are horrendous, with more than 116,000 people testing positive and almost 7,000 deaths. 

But on the very faint glimmer of hope side, our horrible numbers may be plateauing, with only 2,400 new cases reported yesterday. 

======

And because it looks like there may actually be more good news than bad, I'll leave you with three last bits of good news.

Ryan sent me this; it was delicious and gave me a new positive outlook this morning.

I saw a rose-breasted grosbeak at the feeder while I was typing this. 

And I caught an oarfish in Animal Crossing. Yes, I realize this is a game, but it's a rare fish and aside from grocery shopping, this may be my biggest accomplishment this week. 

Here's to a non-rainy weekend and a week ahead full of accomplishments for all of us. 

Three on Thursday

I'm joining Carole and friends for Three on Thursday, today with three poetry books, a magnificent snippet, and a poem that I wish I had written for and about my husband. 

I've lost a lot of my reading focus for my usual fiction, so I decided to wander through Overdrive and check out some of the available books of poetry.

The first book I read was The Circle Game by Margaret Atwood. While I've enjoyed much of Atwood's fiction, this volume of poetry left me feeling mainly puzzled and disoriented. Many of the poems interested me, but I didn't feel that I could relate or understand. I'm fairly sure the fault lay with this reader.

The second book was Easy by Marie Ponsot. The author was described by her publisher as "graceful", and I would describe her poetry the same way. I found these poems both beautiful and accessible, especially this brilliant one entitled "Magnanimous, Magnificent", which ends with these lines:

Say you like it. Admit you've had some good luck.
Thank your friends for arriving on time. To the others,
the ones you dream of as enemies,
smile and say Thank you., and then try to mean it. 
As the music stops you'll miss its lilt.
Keep dancing, keep listening. Speak up. 
Ask for more music, more. In case you don't know,
what you want is magnificent, yours for the asking,
the rhythm of magnanimous exchange.

The last one I read was Listening Through the Bone by Willy Conley. The author is deaf, and says he doesn't "write with the ear as most poets do, but with the eye." His poetry examines life cycles, the natural world, and his experiences as a deaf individual. This volume also contains some arresting photographs. I read this one to John as it felt very personal and could have written about him. 

The Proof of the Pudding

He loved rice pudding,
especially the way his mother made it.
When he and his girlfriend got married,
his bride cooked him rice pudding.
"Nope, not like my mother's."

His wife flipped through
another cookbook and 
tried a different recipe.
"Nope, not like my mother's."

She would take her husband
out to eat at a fancy restaurant.
For dessert, she ordered him rice pudding. 
"Nope, not like my mother's."

One of her friends, a gourmet cook,
prepared an extraordinarily
irresistible rice pudding recipe
when they came over.
"Nope, not like my mother's."

One day, his wife went to the A&P
and bought ready-made rice pudding.
When he wasn't looking, 
she spooned it out in a bowl
and sprinkled on a little cinnamon. 
"Yep, just like my mother's."

Read any good poetry lately? I'd love to hear about it!

Be sure to visit Carole for more Three on Thursday thoughts.

Unraveled Wednesday

Joining Kat and friends for Unraveled Wednesday, with a bound-off Hitchhiker and several others in progress. 

I bound off the last stitch on the Nervous Breakdown last night. There are still a few ends to carefully weave in, but I've heard that if I put it under my pillow tonight the Weaving-In Fairy might pay me a visit. I'm hoping that's true, but I may start on them myself this afternoon, just in case.

Then it will be time for blocking and moving on to the next few Hitchhikers in progress. 

I started The Ten Thousand Doors of January and A Keeper in audio, and while they are both good books, I seem to have lost much of my ability to concentrate and hold on to the thread of the story in audiobooks this week. They've been temporarily replaced by reading poetry, and that has been a good thing. 

What are you making and reading this week?