Monday, September 30, 2024

Word Salad





I have an appetite for words.

I like thinking about words and their dressed up appearances.

I like arranging letters on my scrabble board, some standing, some reclining.

I like placing language on a page using space and shape.

Creating a word salad is tossing or not, situating the various letters around the page - “tomatoes” piled in one corner, “cucumbers” tucked in the edges of the lettuce and “onion rings” placed gently on top. Drizzle the “dressing”and ooo-la-la….my salad is complete. 

Dare I create my salad with words and abc’s just like that? 

From my viewpoint, word salad is quite sensical!

(The above was written for a current class in which I am enrolled. The prompts are one word prompts and we are to write 100 words. I do not abide completely by the latter parameter - sometimes more, sometimes less. However I do attempt succinctness. More about the class later. All my submissions will be posted here on jamajoanjottings.)

9/30/2024


Thursday, September 5, 2024

Sold!!



Our Jewel vintage trailer sold to the highest bidder. Unfortunately, the highest bid was for less than we had invested in this 1956 gem. However, it sold within one week on the online auction, Bring a Trailer, and it is a "done deal."

I spent one week photographing its many angles and processing them to the site. I had assistance from the auction site. It was a pleasant experience. Real humans responded very quickly to my questions.

Would I list the trailer again on such a site? Maybe .... because I did not have to deal with scammers and unreasonable questions and the few interactions were easy, some rather humorous. Remarks about how the trailer brought back memories were fun to read. However, the trailer bringing back memories did not bring the $$ I thought it would!

It sold for $4000, The gentleman who purchased it lives thirty minutes away and it was picked up four days following the completion of the auction. Out of sight and now pretty much, out of mind!

Next.... I am attempting to sell the Airstream Bambi and it is not the hottest item. Just a few inquiries and none too serious, that's for sure.

2003 19' Bambi For Sale In Ingram, Texas - Airstream Marketplace

I am not 100% convinced that I want to sell it so the price is firm. David is not planning to rv in such a small unit and I am not planning on buying anything bigger. Consequently, our rving days might be over. It's called "hanging up our keys."

That's not all bad either! Trains and planes are still options.

Tuesday, July 30, 2024

Catching Up!


We’ve been home for several weeks and are now preparing to depart for our longest trip this summer. We’re heading to North Idaho July 22 and will be gone for approximately 3 1/2 weeks. 

Dave is not happy with the small Bambi Airstream but I will try to keeps him chipper on this trip. We are visiting family and also attending a Stearns family reunion where he will be the patriarch. I want him to really enjoy himself as the reunion in Boise was scheduled around our travels.

Update from the weaving week - it was a great motivator for me and I look forward to spending many days pursuing this hobby, both tapestry and rigid heddle weaving. I have signed up for enough online classes to keep me busy for a year or more.  The two wall hangings I completed while in North Carolina are hung in my home. Now I am tackling the tapestry I started months ago and also working on my little Hackett loom.

Other interests such as the piano, the fiddle, the camera and the prayer bead making are all on my agenda for this coming year.  I am hesitating to join anything other than the book club twice a month at the senior center and the Bible study meeting Thursdays for one hour. Always in the background are hours required for my master gardening certification. 

Am I slowing down now that the octogenarian decade is beginning? Maybe I am deciding that having many obligations on my calendar takes energy away from what really is meaningful ~ seeking God’s leading and worshipping the Savior.

Due soon is a post about the book mobile - our Saturday morning commitment and an experience in joyful giving.

I hope to have pics to share from our Idaho trip too.

Stay comfy!

Wednesday, June 26, 2024

Loom Quandry





I prayed and sure enough, God answered! Why am I surprised???

I am currently in Brasstown, North Carolina for a weaving week on the rigid heddle loom, You may recall that this is part of my weave or leave the hobby I blogged about previously. ....guess what.....

I love it!

Monday: a tiring day with me receiving mixed messages from my heart about this rigid heddle loom. I decided to sell my new-to-me $350 loom that I purchased two weeks ago.

Tuesday: I had a wonderful time taking my weaving currently on a Schact rigid heddle table loom and doing a bit more creative weaving. I added various threads, fibers and had a very good time. I was prompted by a wall hanging in the folk school weaving studio where we are meeting daily. I was encouraged by the instructors and am now on a new inspired path.

Wednesday: Not certain what today will bring but I made a thrift store excursion yesterday after class, have purchased some old jewelry and collected nature's gifts from here in the campground. Plans are to create and meditate with techniques the teacher presents and fibers that are texturally unique.

                                          *                            *                      *                       *

I was introduced to a type of weaving called saori weaving. Strangely, there is a lady close by in Wimberly that is a certified teacher in this technique. More about this as I study the possibilities.

 Also sakori weaving, a type of rag rug weaving, is now presenting more possibilities.

I have decided that selling my loom is not such a good idea. I need to take it home or maybe even weave on it here in the class for my project. 

Oh me, oh my ~ another change of direction ~ another change of mind! I would regret selling my $350 investment, I believe. Maybe just sell the duplicate book for $10 and be content.....or give it away.
....



Wednesday, June 19, 2024

The Tower of Books

It’s time!

I bought another book shelf to get the books off the floor, piles of books toppling. I have been ordering books for several years now. Maybe an addiction or just maybe because it’s hard to resist a suggested title avilable from ThriftBooks. The price is almost always right. And when it isn’t I save it and watch it drop…or not!


It’s time!

I am goin to grab a book each week and read it from my shelves. No more using the library. I must make a literary dent in my stash. It is so easy to put a book on reserve and pick it up at the front desk of the local library. No need to trudge up the stairs and peruse the stacks. And now I have been reading e-books which I download onto my iPad. Free free free and yet, I have to begin the trek through my own shelves.


It’s time!

Currently I am about to finish The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan. The book was mentioned in a blog I read and the library had the hard copy. I have enjoyed the book but probably will not use it as my selection for our senior center book club. It is an eantertaining story. I tend to select books that are gritty, challenging to read, Pulitzer Prize winners, not always liked by everyone but definitely discussion prone.


It's time!

I think I’llj just grab and read and pick one or two off the shelves at a time. Then when completed, pass them on and start clearing the shelves making room for more?!?! Oh, dear….

I’ll keep you posted regarding my reading choice, my challenges and how this adventure of the shelf clearing goes.


Happy Reading to You, too!


Tuesday, May 7, 2024

My Write to Weave

 Below is an essay I just completed for my Sarah Lawrence memoir writing class.

The prompt was to write about a learning experience. Mine is present day and it became quite therapeutic as I wrote my frustrations and came to a surprising conclusion.

                                                           My Write to Weave


It is therapy for these arthritic fingers. To string fibers vertically on the lap loom 


up around a peg 

down around a peg

up around a peg 

down around a peg 


creating the warp. Already I feel accomplished. I have completed thirty-two vertical warps evenly spaced on the slotted loom. I struggle with the double half hitch knot, rewinding the video again and again.

It will get easier. Some days I have doubts yet remain persistent. My investment in several small looms, multiple types of yarns, many books and subscriptions to online classes are inspiring. Assistance is available for questions with these lifetime classes as long as the instructor remains in business.


Ten years ago


The dawn of this hobby began as I was camping.  Across the blacktop winding road in one of many idyllic Idaho State Parks was a woman perched on a stool with a small loom, the shuttle in rhythmic cadence to the fluttering tree leaves’ murmurs above. It was tempting to my senses and created within me a strong desire to recreate her song. I wanted to weave with the trees, my loom on the forest floor, threading nature’s colors as the breeze gently whispered in my ear, “in-out-in-out-in-out.”

I purchased my first loom, a rigid heddle loom, at a large shop in Spokane, Washington with walls of brilliant-colored yarns and a second floor filled with large looms. I was shown this small table loom that had an unfinished weaving on it. The young man was nonplussed about me purchasing his project. I brought the loom home and now, ten years later, his project is still on the loom. It is a length of woven plaid fabric, lovely turquoise blocks blended with smaller purple, rectangles and slimmer lines of black and yellow.

Six months ago

I signed up for a two-hour class at the local annual fiber festival, $75 with lap loom and all materials included. There were two of us in her class and my small wall hanging was completed in two hours. It was a “create as you weave” project, using a variety of yarns with no specific pattern. I enjoyed the process and was proud of my finished project. I wove horizontal rows with bulky white yarn, raggedy green yarn, various textured gray yarns and gold ribbon yarn. The other participant recognized various yarns, calling them by names all foreign to me. The completed project hangs from a large cinnamon stick on my bedroom wall. Yes, I can do this!


With this one class piece completed I became more confident and immediately tackled a second small project using yarns the teacher shared plus some I had purchased at a thrift store. This weaving is approximately six inches square, and I call it my sampler. Again, I created as I wove horizontal rows but taught myself how to change yarns in the middle of the sampler. I like the light orange ribbon yarn infused with the sparkly black/gray yarn plus white and gray textured fibers. It is not hanging on any wall yet. I am not sure how to neatly tuck the yarn ends into the weaving on the reverse side.  

I then started a third weaving project online where the teacher gave incremental steps over a four-week period. This class included a Facebook page where progress was shared. I couldn’t keep up. It is unfinished, tabled on the table beside me.  I quit weaving!


Three months ago

My tapestry of time management began unraveling. Threads of other lcommitments became untucked and demanded attention. Life’s fabric became a daily commitment here, a weekly foray into various meetings, a flip of the calendar as months passed with no weaving intertwined.


I became annoyed at myself. 

I began feeling guilty.

I began to list activities as hurdles, not joys.

I prioritized.

I began designing each day with less ragged edges, less untucked ends.

Today and coming

I signed up for a beginning weaving class at the marvelous John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, N.C. In years past I attended this wonderful venue, camped in their RV park, learned the Native American flute, tinkered with the hammered dulcimer. Among the Carolina woodlands I will reinvent my weaving.

The class is on the rigid heddle loom, bring your own and for five days I will be instructed by a professional. I peruse my rigid heddle loom nestled in its cardboard box, plaid project still intact. I wonder. Is it possible to teach myself how to remove this attractive weaving while maintaining its composition? 

I shall resurrect my lap loom weavings. I am breathing new life into my desirable Harris Highland yarns. I will contact teachers and let them know my weaving is coming alive. Surely dormancy has advantages.

What about writing? Do I just put the accumulated files away? Do I pay no attention to prompts coming monthly from my favorite online writing groups?  How can I collate these two interests? 

writing and weaving

weaving and writing

pen and yarns

yarn and pens,

looms and journaling

journals and looms

I have a possible solution! 

I will proceed with both strong interests.

I will set up a blog about arthritic fingers plying yarn, writing posts after each weaving wonder. 

I will encourage octogenarians to begin anew. 

Refresh, rejuvenate, realize one’s creative muse. 

Give breath to the Innovative Being within each of us.


There is an occasion for everything,

and a time for every activity under heaven.  Ecclesiastes 3:1


Joanconnor 05/07/24





Sunday, April 28, 2024

Friday, April 19, 2024

SNAP! - so nice among plants



SNAP! - so nice among plants

it only took a few minutes

to water the invisible zinnias

they're struggling, underground still

i should have planted petunias.


there is a small patch of dill

over where other herbs loom

as my nose develops, awakens

to the basil's lovely perfume.


a memory of maroon velvet nap - 

gently i touch the begonias' leaves

it's blooming, i repot carefully

and position it under a tree.


the garden awaits as i

stir this new pile of compost

scraps overturned, task not hard

no egg shells nor orange peels are lost


this evening i'll watch the sprinkler

as it sweeps the grass with water

weeds and wildflowers all want to drink

as our Texas weather gets hotter.


joanconnor 04/2024


(The above poem was written to a NaPoWri Mo prompt implementing rhyming words that I preselected. I struggled to use "snap" so figured it into the title.)

Friday, April 12, 2024

NaPoWriMo Prompt #11

 I’m taking a mental break!🤣. Here we go……


My one liner:
“the relevancy of nursery rhymes is with the believer”

Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Ode to My Hoe

Ode to My Hoe


Such a simple little tool -

a big assist in many ways.

I love my hoe, so strong is she,

my best friend these past few days.


We weeded; she diligently worked

as each pail full I then carried.

She’s a designer of lovely furrows

for the seeds we then buried.


Leaning now against the wall

she anticipates her next big chore.

No complaining do I hear,

but it’s a task she might abhor.


This newly created pile of compost

we must turn and water each day.

Coffee grounds, egg shells, orange peels

and stuff - we will stir her way.


Surely now you understand

our complex relationship.

We’re BFFs forever ….

to her my sunshade I flip.





Joan Connor 04/10/24

Tuesday, April 9, 2024

Becoming Related


With his arm around me

literal brotherly love

“You know you’ll be taking care

of him the rest of your life,

Or was it his life?

Either/or 

doesn’t matter

does it?

I smiled. Did I say?

“I know, for better or worse.”

He could and would 

take care of me, that I knew.


We married that day

No unusual caregiving

has transpired - just

routine Dr.’s appointments

post operative nursing

assorted aging concerns.


We don’t know what or when.

We do know our decision was

undeniably the best decision.


Compatibility - off the charts

Compassion = off the charts

Common interests - off the charts

Consideration - off the charts

Age difference - off the charts

Then - Ninety and seventy three 

Now -  Ninety seven and eighty 


“People always say you should live every day as though it's your last. I sort of have taken the opposite tack, where I think you should live every day as though it's going to go on forever. You should treat people like you're going to see them again in the future. You should start working on projects that may take a long time.”

― Peter Thiel









Word Salad

I have an appetite for words. I like thinking about words and their dressed up appearances. I like arranging letters on my scrabble board, s...