magic sock

the last bright yellow leaves in my garden, just outside my kitchen window

- beautiful crisp quiet morning, not a puff of wind, the sky is filled with stars and it's -2C

- new putty colour (creamy deep beige) 100% cotton, freshly laundered and hung outside to dry, flannel sheets on the nest last night. Heavenly.

- pounds lost, week 1 of 5 week (who can lose the most lbs in 5 weeks) competition with my sister- 0. Drat! Sunday's are weigh-in day, Sunday's she and I talk on the phone for at least an hour. Sunday is my favourite day of the week.

- bad things cooked by me and eaten almost entirely by me - only 1 (Creme Brulee Bread Pudding). I took Harry over a big slab that I had warmed up and drizzled with cream, he purred like a kitten while eating it. The optimum response hoped for. He's a fantastic cook and we have an ongoing thing where we give each other samples of our wares to taste always vying for the "purr, hmmm, yum, wow, this-is-SO-good or the ultimate this is the best _______ I've ever tasted" response. It's a bit of an ongoing, and very friendly, competition of sorts.

- I made (that's a stretch, let's say I put together) a magic bag, or magic sock. I fell twice this week, at the beach. It's quite a hike we do every morning and the terrain is varied -it's not all sandy beaches. It's muddy cliffs, rocky areas, slippery seaweed covered boulders and lots of sandy beach. I'm trying to train myself to fall on my left side but I seem naturally to always put my right arm out to brace my fall (my bread and butter arm). The first fall was on rocks, a very spectacular fall - looking far worse than it actually was, Carol and I in were in mid chatter and she was looking right at me when I fell. I could tell by the look of concern on her face, as I lie there for a few seconds thinking (bad words), that she thought that I was seriously injured. But pas, I bruised my hip and the base of my thumb (but not affecting my ability to grip a mechanical pencil). The second fall was on slippery red muck going down a hill - a real cartoon fall, very fast and Vvoomp! les chiens the only spectators this time, legs out from under me, feet in the air and down hard on my bum and somehow managed to get that right arm involved, this time at the shoulder -twisted it, strained it (still not affecting, thankfully, my drawing ability) but tender & sore none the less.

I've been meaning to make myself a magic bag for, hhhmmmm, lets say 15 years or so, ideally I would sew two long rectangles (18" x 8") of snugly soft material (fleece or flannel) together on three sides, fill with 3 or 4 bags of barley, throw in some fresh lavender buds (if you have any kickin' around) and sow up the fourth end. Way too big a production to get my sewing machine set-up (in my dream scheme it will have an area where it can remain set up and ready to go at a moments notice ... but let's not get started on my dream scheme) so ... magic bag in a pinch – one big long sock, one heavy elastic band (say the kind that comes on broccoli) and 2 bags of barley. Pour barley into sock, wrap heavy elastic around top half a dozen times - voila! Put in microwave for 5-6 minutes and you get an amazing moist heat, heating pad or sock, that you can drape over any tender, sore parts. The barley holds the heat for an incredibly long time. I think you can also keep one in the freezer for moist cold heat.

Oh yeah, and that darn tool-supply-stuff cabinet clean out. Today? Tomorrow?
I want to get it over with! Stay tuned.