Back to Basics
Jonathan >
My fingers, itching to get on with the task of expressing the thoughts still crystalizing in my head, got started without me, as it were, and so that’s how I come to be looking at these words on the screen –
With more time on my hands these days …
Really? Not as far as I’d noticed!
Ah, but now that my brain has caught up with the fingers, I see that all I have to do is complete the sentence.
… for life outside of civil engineering, building and construction generally, …
And as I’m now warming to my subject, and brain and fingers are fully synchromeshed, I can move the conversation on to what it is that, these days, I’m now finding more time for. [There, fingers, that’s how it should have come out!]
… I’m getting back to basics.
The basics? The things that have been part of our lives as long as we can remember, like the home-grown fruit and vegetables of childhood, and the spinning and wool crafts that we learned together soon after we were married. The foundations of our life-values. The things without which we wouldn’t even be us at all.
These are by me. The skeins in the basket are for the Hebridean Woolshed’s garden shop. The blackberry wine and the liver pate are by me, too – but not for selling!
English
Basque
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Irish
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Polish
Portuguese
Scottish Gaelic
Spanish
Welsh
How long has it been since you left the world of civil engineering?
J > It already seems half a lifetime ago, but on fact it’s barely two years ago.
That wool looks gorgeous – and I’m so envious of the blackberry wine and pate!
Our daughter Becky is staying with us for a while and is threatening to make inroads into our stores of home -grown comestibles!
Sounds the same hungry sort as my girls!
I so love yarns, and wine, and spiritually join you in getting back to basics but the hard work leaves my mind spinning….but it is all so lovely
What lovely spinning! Very nice work!
Yes Jonathon and Denise, I understand. It can be difficult to deal with the expense of electronics and not having the important amenities they provide. One must keep warm in the winter, but the temperature needs regulation. Foods, whether cooked or fresh, that aren’t eaten as quickly must be stored in a refrigeration unit or it goes bad and is thus wasted, though you can probably at least compost it. Being able to communicate with family and friends is certainly a priority, especially in times of an emergency. Running a farm or croft to produce saleable items necessitates being able to advertise to as large of an audience as possible through the intetnet and some type of computer.
I completely understand the pleasure of returning back to doing something that involves simpler mechanics and is not so dependent on any outside power other than our own limbs to accomplish. I have been a hand spinner of various fibers for over 30 years; I still find it magical how the yarns draft out from the fiber mass and are transformed into something useful and beautiful. Adding twist to fiber as the glue-like component still makes me feel as if I am creating special yarn that will enrich and improve either my own or someone else’s life.
The transformation process still amazes and fascinates me. It’s always interesting to scour and rinse the wool; I feel as if I am an archeologist digging down to the true color of the wool under the dirt, plant matter, and greasey lanolin. I love experiencing the joy of feeling the fiber become yarn in my fingers, hearing the quiet rasp of the handcarders and the soft tapping of the bobbin on the flyer as the newly spun yarn winds on. I am an a adventurer discovering color, sometimes unexpected, on the fiber and yarn in the dyepot. I feel I am an artist painting with colored yarns when I weave my handspun. There is a peaceful domestic rhythm to the whole process that brings me strong contentment.
I am truly grateful for such blessings. These things delight me, though they are simple and perhaps small to others, they make my life better. I am sure you and Denise often feel much the same. 🙂
Beautiful!
Love the colours of those dyed hanks – have they all been dyed with natural vegetation dyes?
J > Thank you, Katherine. Plant-dyeing was by Denise, in the fleece. That’s the wool, not Denise. ;~)