Loose Ends Make Plarn

After sealing one of my dragon diamond paintings, I found a need to do something while listening to my newest Libby. I remembered a few years before we moved I had gathered plastic bags. I took the time to fold them so they would be ready to start cutting the strips. Today seemed like a good day to get some plarn going. Here’s my process.

Here’s the plastic bag folded.

Cut off handles.

And bottom.

A stack of bags detopped and debottomed.

Tops and bottoms heading for the trash.

Lined up folded bags under strip cutter. I run the rotary blade up an inch apart.

This creates a bunch of flat loops ready to link up.

Loop one opened

Create this knot by placing loop B over loop A. Reach under the conjunction. Pull end of loop B under loop A and through the middle of loop B. Now gently pull. This creates a little knot.

Keep looping and soon there is a ball of plarn to knit or crochet

I still have a lot of bags to process into plarn. Unlike when I first started recycling plastic bags, when bags needed to be recycled, now there are fewer bags due to laws. So I’m planning to be more conservative with what I have.

I’ll let you know how I decide to use my new plarn.

Happy Sunday!

This and That Thursday

For a little old lady puppy, Kali breaks my heart with cute. For some reason, she looks like a little hand puppet as she climbs into bed at night.

A gift my hubby bought both of us. Not the expensive, does everything Fitbit, but it does keep track of the basics. Now I just need to get used to wearing it. And then it needs to be warmer than 32 outside so walks won’t hurt.

This weekend we might get rain. I’m thinking wellies, raincoat and umbrella and rain dance of thankfulness.

Hopeful.

Carpenters’ Blues

I didn’t feel the blues because it was either Monday or sort of rainy. But with my cataracts, my wonderful husband agreed to help me find my medical insurance today.

We started with this book:

Yeah, useless.

Our tiny hamlet doesn’t have anything for older people. No flu shots without albumin, no vaccines. To get those, we need to spend $50 for something free. And indeed, finding helpful insurance has been stressful and sad. We finally settled on something… I think. Meanwhile, I need only green spray paint to recycle/reuse this piece of *&#$+*for the trees wasted.

Calling for green spray paint and glitter.

Daycares in Finland Built Their Own ‘Forests’, And It Changed Kids’ Immune Systems

Incredible.

Source: Daycares in Finland Built Their Own ‘Forests’, And It Changed Kids’ Immune Systems

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, Photo

The mustachioed sky is nothing like a pistachioed sky which sounds more delicious. Instead it seemed the sky didn’t want us to relax with clouds. More than 22 lightning strikes were counted. Though it sounds like all were taken care of quickly. The day was cooler with spits of rain so I can’t complain. Even Kali was happy to go outside as the mist was so light she could barely feel it. Oh, and that fresh clean smell that brings such peace. But can it be trusted?

Thank you, Linda G. Hill. Here’s her prompt instructions:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “the last photo you took.” Take the last photo you snapped. What’s the first word that comes to mind when you look at it? That word is your prompt. Enjoy!

Home At Last

Yesterday (actually today but I plan to schedule this for tomorrow) my daughter drove me home. It was so nice to spend the extra time together. We listened to these podcasts:

Sorry for the bad quality shot but I felt that would be the easiest way to look up the podcasts. Type the second line in the Google.

The following is as we entered the heavy smoke of the Bootleg Fire. Sorry about the chatter and podcasts in the background.

I feel badly that my daughter has to drive home alone and go back through that smoke. But then there are people who live there some of my writers group live there. Send prayers and healthy thoughts.

Yes, It Does Exist!

I can think of names of people I know who have heard me say that I didn’t believe Pyramid Lake existed. Julie, Cheryl, Chris, Yve are a few.

The thing is, while I lived in Reno, NV, I made many plans to see said lake. But plans fell through every single time.

Finally, I got there. It was beautiful and peaceful. Unfortunately, it was very hot so we didn’t stay long. But here is the proof:

Please Wiki the lake. It had quite the story to tell. Tufa and all

The Fire I Left in Oregon

https://katu.com/news/local/bootleg-fire-burns-area-larger-than-portland-eugene-and-salem-combined-in-under-a-week

Blurry Dark Friday

I was on the Zoom meeting with my friends around 4 in the afternoon. Suddenly my face disappeared on the screen. I looked around and it was dark. I turned on the light. I thought nothing of it. Too busy chatting to notice.

Kali needed outside. I put the laptop to the side. When I got to the door, I thought my cataracts had gotten way worse. My eyes burned. I rubbed them gently. Nothing cleared. This is what I saw:

The world was smokey and yellow. The sky was dark as 9PM not 4PM. You should see a field or two, trucks or cars on a highway, and Green Mountain which is only 12 miles away.

The only good of all the smoke is that our temperature didn’t reach the 90s. But as I said to my son, not breathing and cooler is not a goal I would endorse.

For those who are curious, this is from the Bootleg fire in Chiloquin, Oregon.

There are so many fires in Northern California and Oregon. It feels like a rerun of last year. The draught is so bad lakes are drying up. Again, I realized that the folks in the fires and those in the east with hurricanes and floods have it worse by far.

But maybe, don’t you think, global warming/climate change should take the lead beside the epidemic as something to work harder on than the band aid approach we’re giving it?

Snow Friday

I woke early this last official day of winter to this scene:

It was still snowing with big flakes maybe a inch or more across. Yet there was blue in the sky above our house.

Then a huge monster came with it’s mouth agape.

I wish we would have had more snow this winter. Maybe it will be a rainy spring Or pre-summer as I call it.

Happy Friday, and Happy Spring