Friday thoughts:

Listening to old tunes with my 21yr old and Sophie B. Hawkins' "Damn', I Wish I Was Your Lover" came on.

I commented that it was around the time this song came out (1990s, pre-internet, basically) that I read an interview with her and first encountered the term "omnisexual". It was like pieces falling into place -- there was an actual word for my sexuality. (These days I just say that I'm attracted to people, except the ones to whom I'm not attracted. I've fully embraced "queer" as an all-encompassing term.)

I remember thinking that I wished there was also a word that described how I felt about my gender. At the time, I felt like a "tomboy" but one who was saddled with an uncomfortably feminine body -- "androgynous" was close, but not quite right. Claiming "non-binary" in my 40s has been like finding the most comfortable pair of shoes and swearing I will never wear anything else ever again.

I have a complicated relationship with my body (my breasts, in particular), but having words to describe how I identify makes me feel like I have more power over those feelings. #nonbinary #queer #ThisIs47

Prepping for the next (scariest) bit of this piece. It involves colour blending with a bunch of different shades of yarn.

For Folks interested in my "process", most of it is eyeballing measurements and using a Sharpie to sketch things out directly on the work surface.I just finished dividing the sky up into segments/gradients to (hopefully) keep my colour blending in track.

To give an idea of scale, this piece is 3 feet wide from border to border.

#makersgonnamake #rughooking #RugHooker #learnnewthings #thisis47 #BriggsAndLittle

We hauled out my grandfather's apple wood #sauerkraut stomper today and it gave me all the feels about why I love using vintage/antique #kitchenalia and #handtools.

It's made from wood trimmed from trees on his #AnnapolisValley, #NovaScotia farm, and has been used for #krautmaking for several decades. He passed along his knowledge of how to make kraut and, when he died, my grandmother passed along his stomper.

http://melissadimock.com/home/2023/4/2/patina-and-laugh-lines

#blog #blogger #thisis47 #lactofermentation #theoldways

Stopped at #LeeValleyTools and picked up some new toys to add to a gift I received a ear ago but haven't had out to use yet. (Garden kept me too busy last year.) I now have a decent range of gouges in various sizes, a few chisels, and some chipping knives.

I have a near infinite pile of burls in different sizes from a massive willow we trimmed, so I'll have no shortage of material to play with this summer while creating some whimsy for my garden. :)

#woodcarving #learnnewthings #thisis47

I am in the Costco parking lot. Some aggressive Dude who was revving his engine waiting for my spot was revving his engine while I packed the car. He just honked at me because I am not fast enough for him.

Now I am obligated to sit here until he leaves because he doesn't deserve this sweet, sweet parking spot near the doors. 🤷‍♂️

It's just the rules, Dude.

#alphamale #thisis47 #ihaveallday

When I was young, I was scared of the wind -- well, maybe not "scared", rather "deeply apprehensive". I didn't like it. There's an infamous story of my mother looking out the window at me around age 5, sitting on a swing set in the winter and yelling up at the sky for god to stop the wind.

I never outgrew that feeling, but I've often turned over *why* it bothered me as a child. It always felt like the wind was talking to me -- not in words, but in feelings. Sometimes it told things that were true, but as often as not it was "tricky" -- telling me things I was pretty sure were not correct, like an uncle telling tall tales and waiting to see if I believed them.

My discomfort with wind has persisted into adulthood. I am 47 now, and still find strong wind as unsettling as I do exhilarating. Short of a brief foray into psychedelics in my 20s and a terrible thunderstorm in the backwoods of Algonquin Park about 5.5 years ago, it stopped talking to me when I left childhood behind. Or maybe I stopped paying attention.

It is interesting to me that, as I enter another very different stage of life, that I can hear those whispers again when I'm walking in the woods. The trees talk when the wind is blowing if you let yourself listen.

#cathedraloftrees #getoutside #thisis47

Okay, first go at it, but I think I will have a lot of fun learning #linocut techniques.

#learnnewthings #thisis47 #makersgonnamake

Took myself for a birthday solo hike in the Marlborough Forest today -- a little over 4km. It took about an hour. Lovely little loop!

#forestbathing #getoutside #easternontario #hikingtrails #mosstodon #thisis47

I sat down for a sec after spending six hours taking down Christmas decorations and I guess I just live in this chair now. 😮‍💨 #NewYear #ThisIs47