- Equinox

Today was my personal equinox: the day on which I switched from waiting all morning for things to warm up before working outside in the afternoon, to working outside in the morning to avoid the afternoon heat (with apologies to those of you in northern latitudes, it was 80 degrees F at 4:00 pm, so I've also switched from jeans to capris).

More on that later, but first ...

Patch #63

This pale yellow patch was mordanted with alum, then immersed three times in agarita wood chip tea brewed in an old coffee pot ...

I think I'll try contact dyeing the next time as much of the color came out in the wash.

And here's the promised re-revision of sunset Patch #54 ...

Now, back to the equinox ... did you know that there is not, in fact, equal night and day all over the world on the first day of spring (which is to say, the first day of fall for those living down under)? It was something I had assumed, wrongly as I recently discovered ...

Sunrise and sunset times for San Marcos, TX

As you can see from this timeanddate.com chart, equal day and night actually occurs between March 15 and 16 in my neck of the woods. But wait ... it gets better (or more confusing, as the case may be). Because here's what timeanddate.com says ...

You can go to the website to plug in your location and find out when your own personal equinox is and/or click here if you really, truly want to know more about the whole not-exactly-12-hours thing.

Meanwhile, Mother Nature has no doubt that spring has already arrived in the Hill Country. Today's picture walk included the first bluebonnets in the neighborhood ...

Evening primrose in early morning repose (hence the name) ...

Redbud (I think ... trees aren't my strong suit) ...

Close up

and the soon-to-be blooming Texas mountain laurel, so different from the mountain laurel that was always my favorite on the East Coast ...

This smells like grape bubble gum when blooming ... not my favorite fragrance

Plus micro-mini blooms easily overlooked and as yet unidentified ...

All this in just one day ... which is why I've realized I'm not going to be creating patches for the first appearance of each flower. I'm just going to relax and enjoy the view (while taking some dye runs along the way).

- Playing by the rules

Sometimes the day's patch is the last thing I do ...

Patch #62

Today I settled for a simple purple patch to recall this beauty ...

Anemone, possibly heterophylla

because earlier attempts at a reverse appliqué homage to this flower ...

False Garlic aka Crow Poison (sorry Mo)

didn't make the cut (so to speak) ...

All in all, it was a wonderfully full day ... a trip to the thrift store yielded two ceramic pots (Don's finds), a $3 Sibley bird book (originally $39.95), and a Mirro cookie press (also $3).

After our usual salad lunch, the afternoon was spent whacking cactus. However, when I find one like this, it ends up in a pot rather than the compost ...

Prickly pear, with a curved pad like I've never seen before

and I made time for a picture walk, spotting this flower for the first time this year ...

Probably a variety of bitterweed,
but for sure one of many LYFs aka "Little Yellow Flowers"

and a riot of goldeneye phlox, now well-established ...

I also made my own ricotta for the first time (harder than I expected), which went well with homemade pasta and sauce to make a pretty darn good lasagna.

Oh, and we FaceTimed with both daughters and respective grandchildren this morning and this evening.

Which led me to reflect on the task I've set myself of making a mere two patches a day. How hard could that be, right? But today brought home the realization that there isn't always time to do experimentation and embellishment while ending up with an acceptable (to me) piece at the end of the day.

So I'm hereby giving myself permission to bend my rules a bit from time to time, because this is supposed to be fun after all. Therefore, stay tuned for the removal and replacement of that dratted sunset patch from last week. I can't wait!

- Super Tuesday?

In Texas, you don't have to register your party affiliation, although voting in a primary tethers you to that party for two years. This year I made the (arguably unethical) choice to vote in a party I don't usually support in order to vote against a candidate by choosing the least objectionable in a long slate of bad actors.

Really, I would much have preferred this ...

Patch #61

On the brighter side, my first bit of agarita cloth came out well and I'm getting ready to do a second run with alum mordant to see what difference that might make.

The varying hues of naturally-dyed yellows from pomegranate, prairie tea, etc. are giving a wonderful subtlety to the weather patches. And as you can see, today was once again cloudy turning to sunshine ...

Likewise, Don brightened my day by finishing a frame made from an old screen door and milk painted ...

to hold my last By the Bridge purchase: a tile knockoff of Gustav Klimt's Embrace ...

I especially like this relict bit of joinery on the side of the frame ...

- Sunshine on a cloudy day

I've been trying different ways of combining cloudy gray with sunny yellow on my weather patches since our Hill Country days often start off cloudy, but end up sunny. Previous attempts were somewhat successful, but not much fun to make. Today, that changed, so much so that I made a full-size patch to mark the breakthrough ...

Patch #60

I did debate in my mind whether to put the morning clouds on the top or the bottom, but on the weather patches themselves I've gone with putting the grey to the left and the yellow to the right ...

Perfect timing as the past two days have been perfect examples of cloudy mornings turning into glorious afternoons ...

Luckily, the sun came out in time to shine on both the January and February strips of daily patches ...

Then I put them on the bed, where I think they may someday become a part of a full quilt ...

Of course I've got a long way to go, but the biggest hurdle was overcoming my decades-long aversion to doing patchwork and quilting ... so contemplating a full-size quilt is truly a leap of faith (pun intended).

Never say never.

My patchplay is admitedly a bit eccentric, but I love the serendipity of it when the two strips are brought together ...

crescent moons ...

lighthouse and anchor ...

grasses and wildflowers ...

and the arcs of sotol barbs and migrating sandhill cranes.

For now, I've hung the strips from a door frame in the living room until they can be joined by some additional months ...

• and I still don't like the sunset patch from last week (sigh)

- Catching up

How can this happen when I've been posting everyday? I'm already two days behind documenting the first agarita blossoms with some impressionistic stitching on Deb Lacativa dyed cloth ...

Patch #59

a reprise of this scene ...

Then there's the latest weather week, a-side ...

and b-side, which better shows yesterday's red seam for the death on the floodplain ...

Not to mention Melissa's birthday towel from two weeks ago ...

with her own saying ...

and a bevy of anchors to make the point (ha!) ...

front ...

and back ...

I also revised last Tuesday's Patch #54 with an Inktense sunset ...

which I'm calling "just okay" compared to the real thing ...

The view from Meg's dining room

And the addition of herbage (can you believe that's a word?) ...

to Wednesday's droughted floodplain Patch #55 ...

which has already been revised in real life by 1.2" of rain this past week ...

Finally, I'm now thinking of doing some agarita dyeing ... 

 

From Edible and Useful Plants of the Southwest by Delena Tull

which I'll surely do with the sweet strains of Tupelo Honey running through my mind.