Relevant Acknowledgement

Day 335: Many things have changed at the Washington State Fair since I last visited it pre-covid. I had hoped to find the Sheep-to-Shawl demonstration in its old location (I never did find it), but the spot now contained this acknowledgement of previous injustices inflicted on a targeted population by the United States government. I do not know if the display is new this year, but its relevance in current times sent chills up my spine. I thought it was quite daring of Fair management to create the exhibit, especially since I felt a certain degree of apprehension that ICE might make a raid on the Fairgrounds where I heard almost as much Spanish being spoken as I did English, and where there were numerous vendors of food and goods from Mexico and South America. History is not kind to those who rule by fear and oppression.

Arctium Sp.

Day 334: "How'd we miss that on the way up?" I asked. Arnie replied, "Burr, Cocklebur...that's the common name I know it by. You know weeds..." I said, "Burdock. Hang on..." Great digging in the mental archives was causing smoke to come out my ears. "Arctium!" I said at last. "Arctium...it's in there somewhere" (tapping my head) "Arctium...lappa. Arctium minor? Minus? There's two of them, and they're hard to tell apart." At that point, Arnie wrapped his hands around the base, and I could tell he was getting ready to take decisive action. "And they've got a tap root that goes all the way to China!" I warned. There was a loud snap, and Arnie was left holding three stalks which had broken off from the root right at ground level. "Um...the other one is bigger," I pointed at the second plant. He dug down an inch in the soil to reveal where someone had previously cut a 3/4" stem. New growth was coming out from just below the cut. "They're godawful hard to get rid of," I elaborated. "Got one on my Land Trust property that's about ten feet tall." Arnie broke the stems to inhibit photosynthesis, if nothing else, but neither of us had anything to bag them in, so we wound up leaving them behind. Sometimes seeds continue to develop even after the stalk has been cut, but that appeared to be our only option. My trouser pockets were already full of chanterelles, and there are some sacrifices I'm simply not willing to make. Nor was I particularly keen on hiking with burdock burrs in my britches! As it turned out, my pictures aren't good enough to tell if the petioles have ridges, so whether this is Arctium lappa or Arctium minus, I can't say. "Arctium sp." will have to do.

Memories and Mushrooms

Day 333: I seldom think to take pictures of human subjects, and now I'm kicking myself because Merry got to meet a new uncle yesterday, a friend I have not seen for years. Arnie was up from southern Oregon visiting family, and took a day out to make a long detour to spend time with me. The possibility of rain had led us both to think that we wouldn't be able to get in the hike we'd hoped to take, but by noon, the weather looked good enough to chance it. En route to Big Bridge, we picked a handful of early chanterelles, reminding me of one of the last times I'd gone hiking with Arnie in the Park before he retired. We got to Big Bridge, decided to go on a little further, and as these things go when you have two people who don't like to file flight plans, we thought we'd make a loop out of the trip and headed up another trail, hoping to make a connection. As it turned out, the connector was so overgrown that we missed it and kept going, climbing instead of descending, and about three miles in, we both decided that going back was preferable to going on when we had no idea where we might end up. We laughed over our old Park escapades in pursuit of rare and elusive plants: Arnie losing the route, me getting stuck in a bog, and others. It seemed like every time we went out in the field together, there was some Event-with-a-capital-E. Good memories, those! In the end, we covered about six miles, each of us pointing out plants and challenging the other one to remember the names (neither of us is as young as we used to be). We got back to the house, solved several of the world's and the Park's problems vicariously, and Merry got to spend more time with his new uncle. It wasn't until after Arnie left that I realized we hadn't eaten all day! I had a quick bowl of yogurt before going to bed, worn out in a good way and happier than I've been in months.

All-der Smilie

Day 332: Forgive the brevity! This smilie group of alder cones represents how I feel after a long day with a good friend who I haven't seen in years. I'll talk more about our adventures tomorrow!

Fair Dahlias

Day 331: One of the exhibits on my "must-do" list when I attend the Puyallup Fair is the floral exhibit. It is now housed in the same building as the grange displays. Dahlias occupy a full half of its space, the rest being devoted to roses, bonsai and other types of flowers. I do not know what goes into judging florals or what makes a prize-winning dahlia, but it seems to me that there is an inordinate number of blue ribbons here with an equal number of red second-place ribbons hiding behind them. Surely "first place" should be unique, or in case of a hard-to-make decision, a tie for first...not an entire rank of blue-ribbon blooms. Is this a case of "no child (flower) left behind?" And what must those poor second-placers must feel, to have been beat out by dozens...dozens, mind you...of others? I walked away from this exhibit feeling very, very confused.

Record Non-Attendance, Maybe?

Day 330: Don't get me wrong. I am grateful to Kevin and Kelli for taking me to the Fair so that I could see the "Judges' Craftsmanship" ribbon attached to my tartan shawl and a disappointing third-place on my "Friend Evelyn" overshot yardage, but the Fair just ain't what it used to be, and apparently I'm not the only one who feels that way. In years past, this spot would have been so crammed with people lining up to buy scones that you could hardly elbow your way through them. Scones, of course, were 75 cents in those days, not $3 like today (up from $1.75 five years ago), but very few of the vender stalls had customers in them, whether they were selling motorized recliners or cheap Fair trinkets. One of the first things I noticed (besides the absence of people) was that the displays were smaller, even those in the Home Arts Pavilion. Rock and gem clubs had only a 12' x 12' space and two showcases instead of half a room. International and regional photography exhibits were smaller by half, poorly lighted. Animal barns were closed or had only a few critters...a few pens of pygmy goats, no sheep, no poultry, no exotics. The grange displays are in another poorly lit building, but they were moved there several years ago. Perhaps the most shocking symptom of declining attendance was the fact that there were only a handful of people admiring the piglets in the pig palace. Generally, that's a spot where you need sharp elbows to even get close to the pens. As for Home Arts, I don't want to be accused of sour grapes, but I do think we must have a new round of inexperienced judges. I did not enter anything in the spinning category this year, and was stunned to see a skein of lumpy, poorly twisted two-ply grey wool with a first place award when right next to it was a skein of very fine singles done with an expert hand...and no ribbon. At double the prices of previous years, you could buy bubble guns, local honey, a hot tub, shiny fake jewelry, get a quote for insurance or eat, the last option being the one most people seemed to prefer. I had my usual gyros, which was served on the stalest pita I have ever had the misfortune of trying to bite through.

Four Weeks In

Day 329: I'm four weeks into my first English paper piecing quilt, and I'm almost a third done with the top. Operative words in that sentence: "the top." This is not like the hexagon quilts I've zipped through recently. When I'm done with this top, it will have to be backed, batted, bound and hand-quilted, a process which will have it on the quilting frame for at least a couple more months. I've discovered that while I like putting together the 9-patches, sewing them to the center hexagons is less enjoyable. However, sewing the completed blocks into the quilt is very satisfying. The good thing is that this quilt can be assembled one block at a time ("block" being the center hexagon and the six 9-patches and triangles surrounding it) with the addition of a few "filler" triangles to round out the curves where the next block fits in. There are other ways to build the pattern, but this one works best for me. Using this order of assembly, I never have to stitch the apex of a triangle into the bottom of a V-shape. When sewing the longer seams, I tack each junction first to be sure the "meets" stay in place. It's an extra step some might not wish to take, but I find it increases accuracy and saves time in the long run.