sprite writes
broodings from the burrow

April 12, 2018


greetings from washington, d.c.
posted by soe 1:01 am

It’s cherry blossom season!

Dupont Cherry Tree

Georgetown Cherry Trees

D.C. is home to the famous cherry trees down on the Tidal Basin, but also to a surprising number in neighborhoods all over town. Both these shots are from within half a mile of where I live.

Category: dc life. There is/are 2 Comments.

April 11, 2018


mid-april unraveling
posted by soe 1:53 am

Mid-April Unraveling

The knitting this week looks much the same. I have turned the heel and picked up the gusset stitches on the sock, so that’s ready to turn back into purse knitting. The hat, on the other hand, has reached the point where I’ll need to add that second ball of yarn (which it took me two hours to find over the weekend!) and beads (which I need to buy — I’ve resigned myself that cherry blossoms really are not red and that the red beads I have will not do), so now I’ll need to be home and able to follow a chart to move forward with that.

Luckily, I’ve just started Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology on audiobook, so that’s 6 1/2 hours of swoon-worthy listening during which I should be able to get a chunk of knitting done.

In paper, as I mentioned over the weekend, I’ve been reading #NotYourPrincess, a collection of poetry and short prose pieces by Indigenous North American women, and just have a couple pages left, having dozed off trying to finish it the other night. I’m down to my final 100 pages of Strange the Dreamer, and as all the characters are currently in relative safety, I have to leave it until such a point as I can tear through them all in a single go. So I’ve picked up Obsidio, the final book in the Illuminae Files trilogy, which I asked the library to buy (and which they obligingly did quite quickly). It’s written in an epistolary style with the short chunks of text comprised of video logs, email conversations, and philosophical musings from a sentient and formerly murderous AI currently housed in a tablet, all of which are evidence in a court trial (in space). Finally, in my bag, I’m only a few pages into Sing, Unburied, Sing, but nothing really sets the tone of your day like reading about the killing of livestock while on your way to work. I’m hoping it gets less graphic as it goes along, or we’re in for a bit of a slog through a book that’s already overdue back to the library.

What are you reading or crafting? If you’d like to see what others are up to, stop by As Kat Knits.

Category: books,knitting. There is/are 2 Comments.

April 10, 2018


favorites in bloom
posted by soe 1:59 am

I dug up all the violets in my strawberry patch last year and transplanted them to the edges of my plot, hoping to maximize space for both of these early producers. Unfortunately, I’m not sure it’s paid off, since I saw hardly any when I was there yesterday.

Luckily, there were violets elsewhere, and maybe I’ll try transplanting some wild ones later in the season.

In the meantime, here are both purple and white violets growing wild in my neighborhood:

Purple Violets

White Violets

Category: garden. There is/are 3 Comments.

April 9, 2018


music on monday: cry cry cry
posted by soe 1:07 am

As I mentioned on Friday, back in February Rudi gave me concert tickets for a reunion show of Cry Cry Cry today at the historic Sixth and I Synagogue here in D.C.

Cry Cry Cry, 2018

Cry Cry Cry was the name that folk singers Dar Williams, Richard Shindell, and Lucy Kaplansky went by when they performed together 20 years ago, covering a dozen songs or so on their eponymous album including James Keelaghan’s “Cold Missouri Water”, REM’s “Fall on Me,” and Buddy Mondlock’s “The Kid.”

We found seats in the front row of the side balcony, which was a pleasant surprise given we hadn’t arrived especially early for a show without assigned seats, and we had a great view for the whole show. They broke up the concert into roughly equal parts of songs off their original album (which I recommend), solo songs they’ve each written (including Dar’s “Iowa,” which is always great in a crowd), and new covers they liked.

Cry Cry Cry at Sixth & I

I decided to include here one of the new songs they’re performing on tour, “Cathedrals,” a Jay Clifford song written for Jump Little Children.

Category: arts. There is/are 1 Comment.

April 8, 2018


‘when i have a daughter’
posted by soe 1:48 am

April is National Poetry Month, so I thought I’d share some of the poems I’m reading throughout the month. This week’s is from one of the books I’m currently reading, #NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women, edited by Lisa Charleyboy and Mary Beth Leatherdale:

When I Have a Daughter
Ntawnis Piapot (Piapot Cree Nation)

When I have a daughter . . . I’ll tell her,
Don’t wait. Don’t whine. Don’t “pine.”
Go for it. Work for it. Earn it.
I’ll tell her stories of my younger years.
Spilt beers, unfounded fears.
I’ll hold her close as my mother did . . .
When her heart is broken, when her spirit is down.
When all the men have left and all the women have turned their backs.
And I’ll cry with her . . . knowing this won’t be the last time.
Knowing there’s more hurt in the world that I can’t protect her from.
I’ll hold her up when she succeeds and hold her more when she fails.
When I have a daughter . . . I’ll remind her of what happened.
Of why she never met her kokum. And what happened to our people.
I’ll tell her grand stories of her mushum . . . and how he made it rain.
How he fought and sacrificed and envisioned her in this moment . . .
I’ll dance with her in my arms late at night as a baby.
And imagine the beauty she’ll hold as a young woman.
When I have a daughter . . . I’ll tell her to never lower her standards.
That as women, our ambition and strong words scare weak-minded people.
That as much as you want to be an opinionated woman fighting for justice —
You’ll be shunned.
You’ll be ostracized.
You’ll be labeled an emotional rebel.
Troublemaker. Truth-teller.
And I hope I’ll instill enough courage for her to walk alone. And love wholeheartedly.
And laugh that Cree laugh and be proud of her features.
When I have a daughter . . . I’ll name her and hold her high.
And I’ll look at her as you looked at me.

Category: arts. There is/are 1 Comment.

April 7, 2018


post-easter weekend to-do list
posted by soe 1:25 am

Spring Yard

Here are some of the things I’m hoping to accomplish this weekend:

  • Go see the cherry blossoms.
  • Take part in the garden clean-up day (which has been postponed to Sunday).
  • Attend a Cry Cry Cry concert (Rudi gave me tickets for my birthday).
  • Get some laundry done.
  • Drink the apple cider in the fridge.
  • Finish Strange the Dreamer.
  • Find the brown yarn for my hat.
  • Buy flowers at the farmers market.
  • Sleep in.
  • Send a belated birthday card.
  • Watch Ferdinand.
  • Retrieve our duvet from the dry cleaner.

How about you? What are you hoping your weekend includes?

Category: life -- uncategorized. There is/are 1 Comment.