random thoughts – Day 2,393 (Monday 10/5) – mummu's birthday

Mummu, FHS 1934.

On October 5, 1916 my Mummu was born, the youngest of ten children. Her mother was 45 years old and her eldest living sister was 20 years old, married, and had a child of her own when Mummu was born. Three of Mummu’s siblings (John W, Lilja, and John) died in infancy or early childhood. Mummu loved introducing “my nephew John, and he is 13 months older than me.”

She was the only one of the kids in her family to graduate high school (Fitchburg High School, 1934), but that was likely because with the Great Depression underway, there were no jobs for her to leave school for after the eighth grade like her brothers and sisters before her did.

There are stories Mummu told us from her life growing up. All the females slept on one bed and all the males in another. Her brothers shared one pair of shoes to alternate attending school. Her sister Julia, ten years older, once stepped into the pantry and landed feet first in some pies that were cooling on the floor. As a teen, Mummu wrote a winning essay about citizenship and received a gold medal (which I now have, and wonder if,  at the time, groceries might have been more helpful). She said she was a ballroom dancer before she married Grandpa Ray. When they divorced (an uncommon thing to do in the 1940s) she went to work in the yarn factory.

Mummu never drove and got up at 5:00 am Monday through Friday and walked to work for a 6:00 am start. She cleaned one room each weekday after work during the commercial breaks of the soaps. Laundry was done on weekends using the washer in the big, dark, slightly scary basement and hung to dry on the clothes lines on her porch. Ironing was performed on Mondays after work in front of the soaps playing on the giant TV with the loud remote clicker.

Mummu's Arabia of Finland cups and saucers.

Many Saturdays, when we weren’t watching candlepin bowling or horse racing or golf on TV, we walked downtown to shop. On Sundays, her white nursing shoes worn for work were polished (often by me) and the laces washed by hand. She always wore a skirt, blouse, and white ankle socks with the nursing shoes, and I still have the gray and white striped cotton work skirt with a metal zipper she wore for years. 

One summer when I was probably eight or nine, Mummu took me to the factory to see where she worked. It was a vacation week and the shop was closed for machine maintenance. There were wood floors, big machines, and dust motes dancing in the light coming through the windows. She was a union rep, and once took me to a union meeting at the British American Club. With no idea what the room of adults was discussing I was bored out of my mind. That union meeting stands out as the only time I did something with Mummu where I wished I was doing something else.  

Mummu loved knitting, General Hospital, and watching football, basketball, baseball, horse racing, and golf on TV. Her favorite golfer was Lee Trevino. She usually had one sport on the TV and another on the radio and kept up with both games while knitting and holding a conversation. When I worked at a bank downtown after graduating college and Mummu lived downtown in the elderly high rise, we would sometimes have lunch together at her apartment.

Mummu and me, 2001.

Mummu died in 2005 at the age of 88. She is buried in the only piece of land she ever owned – a plot at Forest Hill Cemetery in Fitchburg. I was living in Tennessee at the time, and flew home in time to see her before she passed away. I miss her. I think about her when I make her recipes for carrot cake, poultry stuffing, and meringue cookies and avoid making the complicated recipe for the raspberry truffle layered brownies that I loved. I think about her when I look at the black raw silk dress she bought in 1960 for her brother’s funeral that she later gave me and was one of the first vintage dresses in my collection. It went from a bit too big to fitting well and now no longer fits me. I think about her when I see any of the many sweaters she knit for me, and when I see her green and white coffee cups and saucers from Finland in my buffet. All the time, basically.

Happy birthday Mummu. Miss you.

random thoughts – Day 2,392 (Sunday 10/4) – pieces and parts

Pieces.

Part of Saturday night was spent obsessing over art deco stained glass designs. The whole thing kicked off because of the interesting art deco wood design in the elevator of the office scenes in a drama I’ve been watching. The diagonals and different colors of wood are fascinating, and I paused the show frequently to look at the overall effect to analyze how to design something similar in glass. The next step of the process was looking online for existing windows, transoms, and decorative panels for inspiration. The hard part will be reigning in all the ideas.

After a Sunday morning that included yoga stretching and working on some belly dance moves, there was a stop for groceries and the victorious find of B&M brown bread in a can, which often accompanied our usual Saturday night hot dogs and beans supper when I was a kid. It is not always easy to find. 

The rest of the day was lost somewhere in preparing a late lunch, playing Words with Friends, spacing out on the couch, talking to Kiki, running to various windows to take pictures of the turkeys in the yard, making supper, and washing pots and pans.

The magical dichroic rectangle bevel.

Then it got more fun again. The scrap glass containers were reviewed again, this time with consideration for the new larger panel in the early drawing process. Triangles, rectangles, and square scraps were pulled out. One of the fun parts of scrap panels is placing the available glass in the template and then drawing the pattern lines around them, instead of drawing the pattern and then searching for glass to fit.

There was also an Internet search for a specific one-inch by four-inch rectangle bevel with a dichroic center. I have one left from a long ago project and I want more to balance it. This is a tricky search. Some were found in larger sizes but not the size needed so the search will continue. It’s all part of the fun.

random thoughts – Day 2,391 (Saturday 10/3) – at the farm

Beautiful day at Hollis Hills Farm.

The day was another gift of a warm temperature, sunshine, and a blue sky, which was perfect for the day’s plans. The first stop was in Ashburnham to visit with friends who had a table at the art center for the citywide yard sale. 

After a while, I headed to Fitchburg on a gorgeous ride along winding country roads flanked by the changing foliage. The destination was a meetup with my sister at Hollis Hills Farm to sit outside, enjoy the weather, and hear the musician who is an acquaintance of hers.

When I arrived, several parking areas were full or nearly full. The picnic area still had plenty of tables available, but over the couple hours we were there, it filled up and lines grew for food and drinks outside and ice cream inside the barn. Mostly country music wafted in the air and I, not a country fan, knew a couple of the songs the singer performed, especially when it was old school Johnny Cash. I knew more songs when it was the recorded music on the singer's break (White Stripes!).

Pumpkins outside the barn shop.

Families chatted, babies occasionally cried, and kids chased chickens. The singer offered up $5 to any kid who caught a chicken and the younglings got busy trying. Meanwhile, I was trying to offer the chickens refuge under our table and cheering on the ones who found safety under a food truck. One highly motivated boy pulled it off, caught a chicken, collected his pay, and then declared to his family he should get a job as a chicken catcher.

Hollis Hills has flowers and fruit for picking if you like to do the farm labor yourself and displayed in bins if you prefer to be a consumer. There is honey, locally raised meat, ice cream, and more in the large barn shop. Outside has plentiful outdoor seating, the chickens running freely, penned goats for hand feeding, and a big green tractor popular for climbing up and sitting on. The musician was set up on a trailer with a beautiful backdrop of rolling hills and local mountains.

Apple cider slushie - yum!

The Farm's kitchen menu is impressively full and varied, with hummus, burgers, wraps, mac and cheese, poutines, pulled pork, chicken, and more. We had both already eaten so we stuck with cold beverages. 

Apple cider slushies beat out water as our beverages of choice. Thick and frosty with a rich apple flavor, it is possibly my new favorite chilled drink. I may need to return to Hollis Hills soon for another one. And maybe some cider donuts as long as I'm out there.

random thoughts – Day 2,390 (Friday 10/2) – like christmas

Hedge looks like Christmas.

Sometimes, an ordinary day can feel like Christmas. The temperature was around 80, which felt like a gift, and I finally got around to taking the kitchen runner outside to hose it off and wash it. This specific project had been on the list since spring and just hadn’t happened, and every time I looked at the runner I was annoyed with myself. Now, if I can get a dresser sanded and painted, and then paint the shed, I’ll be right on schedule. Sort of.

While putzing around in the yard I noticed the smaller of the hedges, which also had the least trimming done this summer, has red berries and looks a bit like Christmas. I didn't notice berries last year. I used a plant ID app to identify the hedge and it is some type of yew. The two larger hedges don’t have berries, but they also got a lot more pruning over the summer which could be a factor. Or. they are different types of bush with similar needles.

Getting started on a panel.

When I bought the house a year ago, I had a plan to make a stained glass piece for the opening between the kitchen and living room. There was a colorful panel hanging in the space when I first looked at the house, and it looked great. Today, I revisited the book of patterns I drafted ages ago, which include pieces I forgot I made because, except for two small pieces and a couple gift pieces, I sold everything I made. Worse, I neglected to get photos of the larger pieces, or if I did, they are not in the binder and are lost somewhere.

The trip through the patterns was great inspiration to finally get started on the piece for the house. The tape measure, pencil, ruler, and graph paper came out, along with the boxes of bevels which will be placed and then designed around. Six pieces of graph paper were taped together to make a sheet large enough for a 26-inch by 14-inch panel. Pencil lines began. The boxes of bevels were fetched and some were rough placed to get things going.

English muffle glass!

Beneath the smaller boxes of bevels that were in a bigger box lay the surprise of another box labeled “English Muffle Glass.” In the several recent visits with the bevels, I didn’t realize there was another box below them. The box held sheets of gorgeous, deep colored glass and twice as many sheets of various textures of clear glass. The good day had gotten even better. 

Now I need to get busy drawing the colored elements in the panel design, and decide if it will be done with lead came or copper foil. Let the fun begin!

random thoughts – Day 2,389 (Thursday 10/1) – falling gently

The ferns are changing.

The day was warmer than recent days with a springlike high of 71 degrees and I was on board with it. During an early afternoon walk to fetch the mail, drop off a book at The Little Library, and admire the neighborhood leaves, there was a quick chat about books with a neighbor while at the mailboxes and then we were each on our way.

Day by day, the foliage is turning colors and it’s pretty. The trees are taking on shades of red, orange, and gold. It’s still a gentle transition, but soon, it may look like a riot of color. Even the ferns are getting in on the wardrobe change from summer green to fall yellow. I don’t remember noticing this last year, but it’s possible they were mowed down before the color change.

Along with foliage season, dance season is in full swing with new choreography in the works with the dance bestie/duet partner. The music was chosen quite a while ago, the research was underway, and ideas were percolating. She arrived at my house with an outline for the dance and we got busy reviewing traditional steps found in our initial research. It was fun. It is always fun. 

random thoughts – Day 2,388 (Wednesday) – prepping projects

The scrap bins.

With nothing on the calendar for the morning I was free to make it up as it went along (like many days, because life is good). I decided to browse the containers of scrap glass and cut some pieces for new patterns for the next time I’m in the glass studio.

It had been years since I last looked in the scrap bins. More precisely, the “bins” are two frozen mini éclair containers, one cardboard box, and one rectangle Rubbermaid container that live on the future cutting table in the future craft room at the house. The bins have existed for nearly 20 years since the last time I worked in glass. They contain a variety of colored, patterned, and clear glass. 

While looking for pieces that would have minimal cutting for the patterns, I discovered a trove of scrap already clean-cut in rectangles, triangles, and squares. These were set aside for a project that could be arranged to require no cutting or grinding.

Purple project number one,
cut and ready for grinding.

During the cutting of glass for the second project, there was an abnormal of bloodletting. I don’t usually get cut working with glass, but today was a different story. There were several tiny nicks but the many dots of blood on the pattern paper, the newspaper covering the table, and the glass made it look worse. 

Partly because of the cuts, and partly because it was a good stopping point, it was decided to stop when the pieces were rough cut for the second project. The glass for each was set into a plastic bag, ready for grinding and assembly. And it was good.

random thoughts – Day 2,387 (Tuesday) – dancing double header

Tuesday dance bag.

Tuesday is dance day. For a few years, there was belly dance on Tuesday nights in Hudson. This past summer, when belly dance class was on holiday, there was Denishawn in Fitchburg on Tuesdays in the late afternoon, which has been running for many years without me due to the inconvenience of a job that prevented attending an afternoon class, and then the conflict with the timing of belly dance class.

After a couple months of Tuesday afternoon dancing, beginning three weeks ago, belly dance resumed and the time space continuum caused the two dance forms to overlap. The distance between Fitchburg and Marlboro prevented attending both without missing a chunk of one, the other, or both.

As of this week, the Fitchburg dance group (two hours long) starts earlier, leaving me just enough time to get to the Marlboro class (one hour long), barring traffic jams, accidents, etc. And so it was done. The dance bag was packed with suede-soled ballet shoes and volleyball knee pads for the floor work, plus belly dance coin belts, a pouch with zills, and the light rubber soled shoes I wear for belly dance. That worked out, because the floor in Fitchburg was so slippery today I ended up wearing the rubber soled shoes to avoid wiping out and breaking something. As belly dance progresses, there will be veils and skirts needed, increasing the wardrobe packing.

The biggest impediment to connecting the two dance classes, roughly one hour’s drive apart, lies in leaving Fitchburg. Route 2 is across town from the dance site, with traffic lights and heavy volume in the way. With a lifetime connection to Fitchburg, I had anticipated this, so it wasn’t a surprise, just mildly annoying.

Another impediment in the journey is the inconsistent volume of the navigation on the phone. It might be the phone, it might be the app, I don’t know. What I do know is if I turn down the volume while playing chess on Duolingo, when it is turned back up for Waze, most of the time the navigation is at whisper level, at best. This leaves me on high alert the entire drive, radio silenced, ears staining to hear the traffic alerts and navigation, which can change based on traffic conditions.

Despite the navigation challenge, the driving was tolerable and both dance session were great. In the first dance group, we ran through all the warmups, stretching, and center technique, followed by the repertoire of dances. In the belly dance group we did an warmup and some hip technique exercises, followed by working on choreography. We finished up with arm technique exercises and a touch of improvisational movement. I almost wish every day was a double header dance class day, just without  the driving part. At least the scenery was pretty, with the leaves turning red, orange, and yellow along much of the routes.