Travelling Carrots

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I had wonderful adventures in Tennessee and Mississippi last week.  My trip started off a little rocky with winter weather messing up my flights.  I ended up spending some quality time in the Detroit air port waiting to fly into Memphis.  To make matters worse, I had been routed to Minneapolis and was walking down the entryway to the plane when I heard my name faintly called, rescuing me from a few more unwanted hours in transit.  The good news was that I decided to see about checking in my needle felting materials on the TSA sites before I left and learned that they were acceptable as part of my carry-on stash, along with with some snacks.  I sat in Detroit and poking away at carrots.  There’s always a bright side and my progress was good, although I suppose I got a few interested looks.

At the end of my expedition I found the welcoming arms of the the Memphis Guild of Handloom Weavers.  They had invited me to do a workshop for their group and fourteen people signed up.  That’s a good size and they comprised an incredibly enthusiastic bunch with varied experiences.  

 Some had been doing tapestry weaving for years, while others were learning to distinguish the warp and weft.  We all held hands and worked through the process together.  I was well supplied with yarns and materials for inclusion into the weavings.  I had shipped three big boxes of supplies, plus I jam-packed a checked suitcase full of more recycled weaving materials.  Off we went!

I always start my workshops with a little history of who I am and how I got to the point of my fiber art career.  It’s fun to watch people’s faces when they hear about my path to my fiber artist career.  I have a Ph.D. from the University of Western Ontario in the Plant Sciences department doing molecular genetics.  

 I enjoy trying to convince people that creating fiber art and planning a genetic screen are both very creative processes that depend heavily on planning, creative thinking and problem solving. 

I’ve done a lot of workshops, and I always enjoy traveling to meet new people and put them on.  In part, I think that’s because I don’t do cookie-cutter workshops.  I don’t want everyone to have the same object to compare at the end.  Each person is encouraged to delve into their own creative abilities and create something that truly reflects them.  

 Some people come to workshops with a photo, and one in particular this time brought a beautiful image from a trip to China.  The colors of orangey-red branches on a tree that I think was in the birch family stood in the foreground with fabulous teal blue water and shore in the background.  In the mid ground there were reticulated white branches, which came together in a beautiful composition.  That’s what she wanted to emulate, and she did!  

 I’m looking forward to getting an image of the completed piece.  Another person traveled a fair distance to attend the workshop and must have woven all night in the hotel room to create the art that came together over the weekend.  She had a very clear vision of where she was going with her piece.  Others very very happy to just do samplers and experience all of the varied techniques that I introduce and explore using the mountain of materials and colors available for their compositions. 

In so many ways my workshops prove to be a starting point for the participants.  I give them permission to be creative without all the rules and structure they have embraced in the past.  It’s a lot of fun to look at the weavings and watch how tight and rigid and consistent the first few rows appear.  The emerging rows tell a temporal story, with the highest rows revealing the most relaxed and undulating structures.   

The emerging artwork parallels my relationship with the participants as we become more relaxed with each other and are able to share our experiences.  I feel that I come home with mountains of new ideas.  It’s hard to say goodbye to all of my new friends. 

I need to mention my side excursion that accompanied my trip to Memphis, which was a visit with relatives in Oxford Mississippi.  They told me that their house was only an hour or so from Memphis, and they volunteered to host me for a couple of days outside of the workshop.  It was so much fun to see all of the places and people connected with the family stories I’ve heard over the years.  Now when Martha talks about the basketball arena and her seats I’ll know exactly where she is.  When they talk about McEwen’s restaurant downtown I can remember our table, which is right in the middle of the website picture.  We stopped into Martha’s daughter’s store, Amy Head Cosmetics, and I had a wonderful visit with the store manager.  She turned out to be a fiber artist and we bonded immediately. 

When I got home I hit the ground running on my suspended projects in Bloomington.  Friday was the opening reception at the Blueline Gallery for a subset of my Beauty and the Beast costumes.  They were paired with sketches of fashion from the fifties, which was beautiful artwork from the grandmother of the owners of Blueline.  The exhibit is called Fashion and Fantasy.  It was great fun to revisit with all of my costumes. 

 Distance does make the heart grow fonder, and I haven’t seen them since November.  I love the way that Jim Andrews has curated the exhibit—there is a flow and a logic to the interactions and a color story so it feels very natural.  The exhibit will be up until April 29^th and there will be a second reception on the first Friday in April.  Come visit if you’re in town. 

While it was wonderful to visit with family and to make new friends, there’s no place like home.  I found a bouquet of roses and a delightful fish dinner with wine when I got home, and I relished sleeping in my own bed.  Best of all, on Saturday morning a tart cherry pie appeared!  I’m going to have to travel more often! 

Until next week,

Martina Celerin

Painting, pumpkin pie and Pippin

My carpe diem project for today is to paint a new set of frames before the harsh cold days of winter set in.  This past week saw me puttying and sanding frames that Thom Bertolacini made for me.  They’re locally sourced oak frames that he builds and I finish.  I need a stockpile for the new weavings I’ll create this winter, and today is predicted to be the last fifty-degree day for a while.  That’s the critical temperature for success with my frame paint, so I have my afternoon blocked off. 

I also began work on the subjects for my next weaving, which will be ‘Fall Stew’.  I told the family story of Fall Stew in the last blog if you’re interested, but basically it used to be a fall tradition to prepare a medley stew of fall roots and vegetables from the Farmer’s Market.   

I’ve pulling dyed fleece from my extensive collection this week and matched it up with the vegetables I’ve selected.  Now I’ll work on needle felting vegetables in my down time.  The boys have lots of activities that will be helpful, but I have my own ‘welcome to 50’ screening procedure that will give me lots of down time to fill with vegetable felting.  I imagine I’ll have my harvest of roots ready before the Christmas holiday. 

My latest Thanksgiving tradition, started last year, was to sketch costumes for next year’s musical production for Sounds of South.  Next year they’ll do Pippin, which will be set in a circus.  I’m imagining the chorus as an ensemble of vintage-costumed circus performers with a hint of steam punk and Alexander McQueen – a little funky and a little wacky!   

The color palette I’m presently envisioning is emerald, amethyst and sapphire, with silver and black as the neutral colors.  With the caveat that these are just my musings that haven’t been agreed upon with the key players, here’s a peek at a first draft of a small set of costumes as I imagined them on my trip.  If you’re interested in my costuming efforts, I'm sure you’ll see more on the blog and Facebook as the year unfolds. 

On the family front we drove to Michigan for the Thanksgiving holiday.   

We made ginger glazed salmon and a skillet dish that I have yet-to-name with sautéed butternut squash, potatoes, onions, garlic and thyme.  I topped it with some feta cheese and broiled it briefly before serving.  Along with broccoli and cheese sauce, the salad from Aunt Lois, Grandma made pumpkin pies topped with pecans swimming in a brown sugar and butter glaze.  Add family and whipping cream and it was a fine thanksgiving dinner!

Back at home, before I was even awake Sunday morning, scouring the kitchen for coffee, I noticed Tommie in the back yard raking the last of the fall leaves!  How terrific is that!  Could there be any sad news amidst all the sketching, art making and family time? 

If you need a hint, here’s what my pie pan currently looks like.  Something’s missing!

Until next week,

Martina Celerin

Two day school weeks

Help! The boys spent more time at home this week than they did in school. Monday brought the Martin Luther King Jr. day holiday and Tuesday was an in-service day. That brought on the usual parade of breadsticks, pizza and popcorn-snurfing kids over for play dates to fill the hours. That made me a little less productive, but I was able to keep my art projects moving forward. Luckily, in my house MLK day is also a pie holiday. The boys and I bought nine big apples, three each of ambrosia, pink lady and Sonias. I gave Jim my best ‘I need a pie very badly’ look. It worked! I had a nice week of pie and espresso for breakfast after a week of intense 6:30 am Zumba classes (thanks Liz and Cera!).

In art news, my big commission piece took a few steps forward as I worked on weaving the sky. I also started cranking on the carrots and beets during the week, which I can work on just about anywhere. The four carrots are done, and I must say that they look delightful. My completed beets needed leaves, which was an evening job this week. It was very cold several nights, and that meant fires in the fireplace. I sat in front of the flames and embers to keep my fingers warm as I worked. When the fire started to die down I called out ‘krb!’, which translates into fireplace in Czech. That brought a well-trained Jim in the living room to poke at the wood and get the fire stoked up again so I could focus. To make the leaf veins for each leaf I use somewhere between six and twelve cut remnant copper wires. Beet leaf veins require a lovely deep purple yarn, which I was lucky enough to have through a typically unusual twist of fate. When the boys were very small I ordered a few toys from an educational catalog. It also offered remnant yarn lots for sale and I bought a bunch. One of the first yarns I received was, I thought, a really awful color that I would never be able to use. Of course I didn’t know I’d have beet veins in my future. I wrapped my copper wires to create the veins, attached them to last week’s leaves and connected the leaves to the beets. Another vegetable done! Next it’s on to the onions.

Another big milestone this week for the giant veggie piece was receiving the frame. My friend and woodworker Tom Bertolacini made and delivered one of the oak frames and it looks great! My greatest concern was that it needed to be sturdy enough to support the large weaving. I’ve had problems in the past with frame-members bowing under the strain of the horizontal pieces. But Tom’s frame is made of thick oak with three central support bars. I have great confidence that it’s going to support the piece with ease.

The boys did manage to get back to school on Wednesday, even though a big storm was looming on the Wundermap. That gave me some time to have a delightful chat with my aunt and uncle, Maruska and Martin, in Pisek (in the Czech Republic). I haven’t spoken with Martin in over three years, and then the hour-long call cost me a lot of money. This time we talked using Skype and I took advantage of the internet. It’s great to be able to see each other as you speak and really connect with them. After this talk, and my Skype conversations with my aunt and uncle Mila and Pepik, and my cousins Renata and Milan in Prague over the holidays, I really have a warm and fuzzy feeling to be part of my bigger Czech family.

On Thursday the big snow hit. Of course school was called off and the boys were excited to have yet another day at home. Friday was back to school, and Saturday meant getting back into our routine with Taekwondo in the morning, a play date in the afternoon, and kluski for dinner. And next week my life gets even busier. Monday are more arts organization meetings, Tuesday at 5:30pm I’ll give a presentation at City Hall in the ArtsWorks series entitled, “Transitioning into an Art Career” and the big story about me in the Home and Lifestyles magazine should appear at the end of this week. And there are still giant onions to create!

Until next week…

Martina Celerin

Attacked by flying pens and falling dirt.

The whirlwind of holiday activities lessened and the boys went back to school this week. That let me get right back into the art studio and weave like the wind! A big focus this week was my large format commissioned piece. I got out my weaving equivalent of the big shovels and heaped some of dirt and stones into the piece. Now you might imagine that weaving a five-foot wide by three-foot high piece while sitting on the ground would force me to hold up my arms up all day, and you’d be right. In a minor cosmic convergence, my Zumba instructors decided it was time to bring out some new moves that focused on arm strength. It feels like I just flew in from Chicago, and boy are my arms ever tired! I do see the results, though—I’m becoming the new Arnold Schwarzenegger of the Midwest. I just need a couple of rocket launchers and some determined liquid-metal androids to chase me around town. Instead I’ve got baling wire that I’m wrapping to create the carrot stems. I’m using a green wool yarn that I dyed the last time my dye pots were out, bringing back nice memories of summer activities. I still have to leaf them out, but everything seems to be coming together nicely.

In between weaving, wrapping and generally getting buffed up I worked in a few other projects and activities this week. I have a commission to make five round ornamental pieces. I’ve been literally poking away all week in my spare time to move them forward. I also took a little time for catching up this week, doing a little housework and traveling to Indianapolis for lunch with my friend Erin. We worked together in Mimi Zolan’s lab a few years back, and we were both pregnant with our first children together. We were reminiscing about maneuvering ourselves around in restaurants at a time when turning sideways didn’t help you get past obstacles. We had a good chuckle about that. I then met up with Chad, the artistic director at the Bloomington Playwright’s Project to talk about a commission they’d like me to do for them. I’m pretty excited about creating a signature piece for the BPP based on their logo, but the project has to wait until I’ve finished with the other commissions in progress. I have to create some evil flying pens before tax day in April. Somehow that seems fitting.

That covers the big news. I’ll close with a proud moment from the week. I’ve managed to lose fifteen pounds doing Zumba over the past few months. Some of my favorite pants are falling off me, and some of my exercise pants won’t stay up any more. I forced myself to go shopping this week to upgrade my image a little. The BloomZum owners wanted a ‘before’ and ‘after’ set of pictures to show how well the program worked for me. I’ll share the ‘after’ photo here. It has been a lot of fun, and I’ve made new friends along the way.

Until next week…

Martina Celerin

Holiday week 2, the sequel...

What a full week! The holiday season is winding down, with only one houseguest left. Grandma and Aunt Lois flew home on Monday, and Vojta heads back to LA tomorrow afternoon. We tried to fatten him up a little on Kluski, flatbread, salmon and American beer and chocolate, but it’s hard to see the effects. He and I drove out to Sheep Street this week to bond a little and pick up my new drum carder. I’ve been borrowing the Spinner’s and Weaver’s Guild carder, but it’s clear I needed my own when I got into my big-format commission piece. It was a win-win situation: he got to take a lot of pictures of the Indiana countryside for his picture-hungry grandfather Pepik, and I got my shiny new carder with all its teeth. We shared a nice conversation in Czech on the way. I’ll christen the carder with some carrot orange fleece—I can’t wait to get carding! I even managed to sneak down to my art studio a few mornings and evenings when the world was quiet and do some weaving. I laid down my browns yarns and did some serious dirt creation to grow carrots and beets. Oh, and I enlisted Tommie to help with a big year-end yarn organization project. His brother got a Beyblade for Christmas, and he wanted one too. To earn a little extra cash he offered to organize a giant bag of mixed yarns. I couldn’t imagine when I’d get around to organizing it, so I beyond delighted to have the help. It feels great to start the New Year off with an organized art studio.

Wednesday was a big day in our house, since it was my birthday! I turned 35, again. I got a nice pan-seared tuna dinner with a spinach salad and a special bottle of wine. And since I got to pick the kind of cake for dessert, which is a family tradition. I chose—you guessed it—pie! Jim made a delightful apple pie for me from frozen Mutsu apples we got at the farmer’s market last summer. Yum! He’s really got the oil crust recipe down. I’ve had a slice of pie and an espresso for breakfast the last couple of days after Zumba. Life is good! The only down side was that the photographer for the Herald Times was scheduled to stop by Thursday morning to take a few pictures. That meant a lot of cleaning and picking up after a big dinner and wine—we should have planned that out better. In the end, just about all the pictures Pete the photographer took were taken in the art studio and the surrounding storage areas. All that work cleaning in the kitchen, living room and dining room were misdirected, although we do have a clean house. On the bright side, Jacob did ask if Pete would take some pictures in his newly cleaned up room. We got a family portrait, including Shadow the hamster, on Jacob’s bed at the end of the shoot. The article and pictures should appear in the February Home and Living magazine that is published by the Herald-Times newspaper, so watch your mailboxes. In my case, I’ll watch the puddle at the end of the driveway where our delivery person aims every time it rains.

The last stories I can think to tell involve Vojta, our 20-year-old cousin and guest from Prague via Los Angeles. We had pleasant Skype conversations with grandparents Pepik and Mila, and later Renata (his mom), this week. They all wanted to know what we’d be doing for New Year’s Eve. In our house New Year’s Eve usually means going to bed early. They were shocked! Shocked I say! Renata said they stayed out to seven a.m. last year, yikes! If there’s any reward to being, um, 35, it’s that you can go to bed early if you want to. Renata said that that Vojta was expecting fireworks, and he injected ‘giant fireworks’. I magnanimously offered him a sparker. Heck, I’d have given him two if he’d asked. Instead, for fireworks we went to the IU women’s basketball game against Northwestern. Unlike the last men’s game, when we sat so high up that the little oxygen masks dropped down during emergencies, we got to sit in the third row near center court. It was like we were in the game. The finish was intense, with IU pulling out a hard-fought and well-earned win. We even won a free Buccettos pizza in a give-away at the game, so a good time was had by all.

That’s enough for 2010, I suppose. Vojta flies back to LA today and the boys head back to school tomorrow. The Christmas tree ornaments went back into storage today and the tree hits the recycle truck on Monday morning. And then I become an artist again!

Until next week…

Martina Celerin

Holiday week: Art takes a back seat to family and food.

The week has been packed fuller than Santa’s sleigh. I’ll try to hit the highlights, but so much is happening that it’s hard to stop and write much. The biggest news is that the house filled up. Vojta came last week from the Czech Republic via Los Angeles where he’s learning English in a Kaplan school. Grandma and Aunt Lois came on Wednesday in time for dinner, so people are now sleeping on all three levels of the house. That means lots of baking, cooking, eating and generally enjoying each other’s company. I finished my two varieties of stollen for Christmas breakfast, which is traditional. Jim suggested that we try to spread out eating some of the goodies, so we cut one loaf for Christmas Eve breakfast and one for Christmas morning. Brilliant! With all the other goodies, including rumballs, ice cream, and brownies, we’re on holiday eating overload. Thank goodness for Zumba on Monday!

Even with all the family events, my art projects are slowly advancing. I have a commission to make five ornaments, and I’ve managed to finish three of the bases. For my two large commission pieces, I made all the beet root parts and I’m working through a second large carrot. I expect to see giant rabbits peering in through the windows any time now. I packed away all my scarves for the year and transformed my art studio into a bedroom for Aunt Lois. All my art toys, such as looms and tools, are hidden behind a blue curtain…nothing to see here! If I wake up in the middle of the night and listen carefully, though, I can hear them calling to me. Next week will bring a major house clean-up and art studio reclamation project before I launch back into work full time.

Everything else in my life is kind of a blur. Let’s see. We had a big snowfall, and grandma went out and shoveled the sidewalk, driveway and path to the house. If the grass were showing she’d be trying to cut that, too. I had a great Skype conversation with a subset of my family in the Czech Republic. It was good to see their faces and talk as if there were no distance between us. I remember wanting to call my grandmother in Prague, but at two dollars a minute my father wouldn’t let me. It seems like that wasn’t so long ago, back in the late seventies. Thursday we went to the Cardinal Stage Company’s production of ‘A Christmas Carol’, by Dickens. That was truly amazing. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it for different reasons. Grandma was touched by the songs, saying it brought back wonderful memories. Lois popped up and gave them a standing ovation at the end. Vojta thought the English accents were amusing. I just love going to the theatre, where I can be transported to a different world. We’re very fortunate in Bloomington to have vibrant theatre groups with high caliber actors. A big cheer and thanks to them!

Christmas dinner was salmon, scalloped potatoes, broccoli and Lois’ famous cranberry salad. Everyone was so full we opted to skip the chocolate pecan pie. That will be dessert for lunch today, after a modest bowl of soup. The boys stayed in their jammies until dinner, building their Legos and Megablock construction projects. They did take a break for lunch and about an hour off for playing with remote-controlled cars. They basically kept themselves busy all day so the grown-ups could have pleasant conversation. My big score at Christmas was a tool kit from Vojta—it’s as though he knows me! I think it’s going to become my art fair traveling toolkit. As well as a lovely bottle of Amarone from my hubby...to be saved for a nice, quiet evening.

It’s just been a wonderful holiday week for us, and I hope you and your family have found some holiday cheer with your family.

Until next week…

Martina Celerin

‘Tis the Season!

I just don’t know which one it is yet! I concluded my fall art fair season this week by throwing myself into wet felting. I finished all six scarf commissions (and one very elegant black shawl) this week. At that point I declared it the holiday season! Things slow down a bit in my art studio, except for wrapping presents. I did manage to make a big carrot and another beet for my giant commission piece, so I felt good about that. This is a project I’ll keep moving forward as I sit in meetings and waiting for the boys at taekwondo. Plus I’ve been buying up all the chocolate-y earth tone yarns I can find on my shopping adventures. Between presents and work I’m a one-woman economic stimulator.

Toward the end of the week I had a nice interview with Lee Hadley. He writes a weekly column for the Bloomington Herald Times and now the accompanying H & L (Home and Living) magazine. He’s also a TKD parent, so I see him regularly. I do so much poking at critters, hands and vegetables that I’m bound to draw attention. He came to interview and we ended up having a delightful conversation. We both came away absolutely certain that we couldn’t live anywhere except Bloomington, Indiana. It’s such a wonderful town. Bloomingtonians are so supportive of creative people and the arts. It’s an open-minded and nurturing community of people and I just feel so at home here. The interview gave me a chance to reflect on how far I’ve come over the years as an artist. I’m still experimenting with new ideas, processes and directions for my career, but my confidence in being able to turn what I visualize into art has never been stronger.

The Christmas season marks the beginning of an important family time for us as well. The official kick-off is December 11^th, Jim’s birthday. It’s also our day to get a Christmas tree, but I’ll come to that event in turn. The first thing Saturday I baked a flourless chocolate cake while the boys were off at TKD. They did the class and sparring sessions, so I had plenty of time to create a chocophile’s delight. Fortunately, Jim-the-chocophile also got a delivery of brownies from his mom the night before, but unfortunately he overdosed a little. He shared them with the family, but I think he must have snuck a bonus piece or two... After pizza and cake for lunch, we all went roller skating. Jacob was eager to go again after learning how last week. He took his share of spills and bumps, but now he zips around the track like a pro. I haven’t been skating since I was a teenager, but it’s just like riding a bike. After a few loops I was having a great time, dancing with Jacob to the music as we skated in the flashing lights of the disco ball. Suddenly I had big blonde hair again! Tommie and Jim were out for their first try at roller skating. Fortunately, Tommie is made of rubber. He started out creeping along the rails and taking quite a few falls. If there’s a word that described him yesterday, though, it was determination. After three hours he was skating the entire loop without falling. Jim picked it up pretty fast, I’m sure because he did plenty of ice skating as a Michigan kid. He did take a nasty fall when he was helping Tommie. And so with his pre-injured shoulder, birthday tummy rumblings and badly bruised hip, he looked a little sad in the rain as we went to get our Christmas tree. Luckily, the boys and I were eager and enthusiastic, and so we took over and brought home a nice tree. Yesterday we trimmed it, put up some decorations outside, and got a load of candy to decorate the traditional candy house. We were settled in before the big snow hit us. On top of everything else I managed to make a huge pot of pumpkin-red pepper soup to keep us going through the winter. On to Christmas!

Until next week…

Martina Celerin

Baby Carrots Find a Home

My maternal instinct kicked in this week. I wanted to finish the background for the ‘Baby Carrots’ commissioned piece I’ve been working on so my little friends could have a home. Not only did I finish the weaving, I even stretched it out and stitched it on the frame. After the frantic scarf-making and shows over the last few weeks I decided this was just the right thing to do—get in my art studio and weave! Now I just need to create the carrot tops. The cold weather is upon us, and babies lose most of their heat through their heads, you know. Oh, and I also cleaned up the back of the weaving. That process always brings back warm memories for me. My grandmother always said that a piece of art should look as good from the back as it does from the front. I’ve kept that idea to myself for years. When I first started having my work photographed by Tom Bertolacini, though, I had to laugh out loud at his first effort. He actually photographed the back of one of my abstract pieces, thinking it was the front! In his defense he said that it looked good—how could I be upset?

The events from last weekend spilled over into this week in some unexpected and funny ways. At the Fiber Arts Show I met a delightful woman, originally from Argentina, who was very kind and complimentary toward my work. She asked me if I taught what I do, and I said I really didn’t. I basked in the glow of many similar kindnesses from last weekend as I prepared to do a long-planned workshop in Danville, Indiana. Anyway, I had a beautiful drive through rural Indiana along highway 39. Full disclosure—it isn’t much of a highway. It has wonderful switchbacks through southern Indiana limestone country and lots of cornfields farther north at the southern end of the glacier track. The towns were tiny and quaint and a lot of the barns were leaning to embrace mother earth. I was richly and repeatedly reminded that Bloomington, my little oasis, does not represent Indiana. When I arrived at the highschool in Danville I was greeted by an enthusiastic bunch of people, including—you guessed it—my new friend from Argentina. It turns out she’s a teacher at the school. We laughed and laughed, and I guess I was busted for saying I didn’t teach my craft. The group was delightful and we had fun creating needle felted ornaments. This was actually a repeat visit for me, and Tiffany (the organizer) and her friend (another workshop repeater) had created some truly beautiful patterns on their ornaments. I’m scheduled to go back in the spring to run yet another workshop on whimsical felted turtles. That should be a lot of fun!

This week some of my summer veggies showed their displeasure with being ignored over the summer. In the bottom of the crisper I found half a cabbage from July and couple of old squash that were starting to get a little moldy. I just handed the whole drawer to my husband Jim for a trip to the compost pile. I did feel a little badly about my best-laid (but failed) plans to cook with the squash into soup. To atone for my errant ways, I whipped up some ‘Lois soup’ using kale that came to me from a generous neighbor, Nicola. The soup is named after the boy’s fairy godmother, Lois Graham. She lives an active life of retirement, split between Cross Village Michigan and somewhere in southern Texas, depending on the season. Her soup (in my hands) has greens, black-eyed peas and veggie sausages, plus a little spice to warm it up. It’s tasty and the perfect cold-weather soup. We had some the night I made it, along with fresh focaccia. Yum! The timing was good, because the rosemary plant that lives on my kitchen counter needed a trim.

Now it’s time to get ready for Thanksgiving. I’m planning on doing a little sketching to get some fresh ideas down, and the boys are looking forward to getting some time off from school. The only dark moment from the week came in Jim’s Tae kwon do class Wednesday, when he separated his shoulder on an ill-timed fall. He kept on going until the X-rays Saturday showed what happened, and now he’s a little disappointed about having to cut back his activities for a while. He does look cute in the sling, though!

Until next week…

Martina Celerin