Ouf, I am very tired after our return from Farm Sanctuary. I was quite cranky right before dinner, and just now my foot almost cramped up. I’m glad to be home.
Our time in Orland was meant to be a working vacation, so I lugged a mini-library of books and magazines, my sketchbook, markers, and my notebook up with me. But of course, we were only there for forty-eight hours, and things always take so much longer than I think they will! I didn’t get nearly as much done as I’d hoped. I did finish reading Patricia Pearson’s A Brief History of Anxiety and an issue of Yoga Journal, began and finished Christina Pirello’s enjoyable (and inspiring) This Crazy Vegan Life, marked some more projects in my various sewing books, and began Tamora Pierce’s gripping Terrier. I leafed through a free issue of VegNews (as far as I am concerned, this magazine is total fluff, poorly written and laid out — Vegetarian Times is far superior), a book on starting a small business, a new vegan cookbook I bought at the sanctuary gift shop, and Burne Hogarth’s Dynamic Anatomy (which I’ve been meaning to take a look at for week. If I get a chance tomorrow, I’ll read through some of it more thoroughly before drawing studio). We also took a tour of the farm and met the sweet animals, and rambled quite a bit at the striking Black Butte Lake trails across the street. I actually hit 10,000 steps both Sunday and yesterday, for the first time since I bought my pedometer!
I guess, writing this all out, I actually did do a fair amount. I did not find time or energy to do my morning pages for the second two days, but I plan to get back to that tomorrow — and I have an awful lot to say; being at the sanctuary and being surrounded by farm animals and vegan literature (some might say propaganda, but I’ve seen enough really militant vegan propaganda to not think their materials merit the label), I have many thoughts which I need my pages to help me sift through. I’d like to write a blog entry about my feelings, but I need them to be very clearly articulated before I can make my thoughts public. I will leave that to tomorrow.
Unbelievably, someone down the street is playing the oldie “Mashed Potato” and kids are actually singing along to it.
Oh, I also did crafting foundation work! While exploring the small town of Orland, I found a thrift shop with a real crafting section, and scored several yards of blue muslin, a delightful 1959 knitting guide that I bought just for inspiration (it’s for “college” styles so the photos are all of impeccably made-up slim women dressed to look like college students), a skirt pattern, and an enormous quantity of lightweight cottons in pre-collected sets meant for quiltmaking. These were put together in sets of about six fabrics, usually mostly prints with one or two solids, and were given themes like “Cavendish” and “Kashmir Shawl.” Some of the fabrics are very charming, some are kind of hideous and dated, but they’re all perfect weight to make omiyage pouches, so I’m very pleased with my purchase. I spent much of this afternoon washing, drying, and folding the fabrics in preparation for use.
satsumabug.com | Lisa Hsia 