Valerean

I can usually read a book in a couple of hours. If the book is on the longer side, at most a couple of days. I started reading History of Food by Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat on September 18th of last year. I read at least two to four pages every day, and finished it yesterday. Since the book is 800 pages long it's not an easy or light read, and it's so packed with the history of food that I didn't want to read it quickly. Now I feel as if I've completed a master course on the subject over the last six months. The author takes you on a lengthy journey through the human experience of collecting, preparing and eating food, from the time we were of the tree dwelling variety that picked up anything that looked edible and put it in their mouth. She is not especially enthusiastic (or even kind) about human beings, but she does know and love the foods we have eaten since literally the dawn of our history. The amount of research that went into this magnificent book ...

Here's a truth that fits basically everyone: the older we get, the more often folks online (and in real life!) try to scam us. We've seen it happen to friends and neighbors, and now it seems the financial problems of the present are convincing more and more people to try swindling money out of the unwary. Example: every day I get Medicare junk mail. This is because I'm going to be sixty-five this year and I'm a hot prospect for ANY insurance agent who wants to make money off me. Do they say that in their junk mail? No. They say they want to HELP me. They make this sound like a public service they do out of the goodness of their heart. No, there's nothing in it for them! They claim I'm confused about Medicare and they can explain everything AND they can help me get the coverage I need for the lowest price. Because they're such good people. Sure. I agree that I'm a befuddled idiot who can't read, and I need you to help yourself to my mo...

Unlike the three previous months of my calendar project, during which I slogged right to the very end of the month to finish and assemble each tote, I'm having a lot of fun with April's edition. Adding crochet to this one definitely boosted my spirits. I crocheted and added the yarn elements all in one night. Here are the finished panels. I also crocheted the handles for the tote. I then decided to assemble it before I applied the embroidered carrots tag, just to see how it would look. It looks fine. I think I will line it, as the cutter quilt pieces are pretty thin and worn, so I need to look for some lining fabric. I'll probably use white or a neutral. Onward!

Now that I have the fabric elements for the tote I'm making this month for my calendar project, I actually need some yarn. I thought I'd raid my little stash of artsy yarns to see what I could pair with my cutter quilt pieces. I first selected these hanks as possibilities. The pink on the far left is fingering weight, which is too thin for my needs. The orange and brown hank and the white/darkblue/green/yellow skein don't pair well with the cutter quilt pieces. That left two possibilities. I do love this Juniper Moon yarn, and it would work well with the quilt pieces, but I have only one hank, which probably won't be enough for the project. In the end I went with the orange worsted wool, of which I have four hanks, which should be plenty to finish the crochet portion of the tote. I'm all set. I just have to review the pattern, cake the yarn and then I can get started.

Do I need more to do in 2026? Well, sometime over the next twelve months I have to seriously decide whether I should continue working or retire. This should be easy, right? Nope. I have already made some decisions, such as what I intend to do after I retire ( work as a volunteer transcribing hand-written documents for The National Archives ) and if I will ever self-publish for profit under my old bylines (absolutely not. When I stop working for money, I stop working .) These are non-negotiable decisions that I made for my general health, happiness and avoidance of all the unpleasantness associated with self-publishing as well as what I left behind when I stopped writing for the big NY publishers. While I am getting older by the day, so is my guy, who is twelve years older than me. He will soon be in his eighties and is starting to have some genuine issues with his cognitive and physical capabilities. Memory problems and falls are our two big problems at the moment (I'm...

If I've learned anything from the first three months of my 2026 calendar project, it's that I can surprise myself. Last month's tote seemed like it would never be finished, and then a change in my attitude helped me do that four days ahead of schedule. This month I really would like to take things a bit easier, and use some cutter quilt pieces I've been saving. I've never seen an orange wedding ring quilt. I'm also going to add a beautiful piece of art from my favorite Etsy Seller, 14carrot, who inspired last year's calendar project. She really outdid herself with this mini quilt, which is just gorgeous. Obviously orange is going to be the theme! Ha. As I'm writing this post it's March 28th, so I have a few days to figure out how I want to do this one. The shape and size of the cutter quilt pieces make me want to add a section on top of their long flat side, and I'll also need something for the handles, but the vintage crazy q...

Despite my best intentions the only quilting I did last month was my March tote for my calendar project, and there was barely any of that involved (basically some applique of the two fabric panels.) I want to say that I simply ran out of time and month, but honestly whenever I wanted to work on something I opted for crochet, as I'm better at that now. To get myself motivated I've made myself a mini-challenge: make something quilted every week in April. As a warmup for the challenge I decided to use was this flamingo novelty fabric I bought at the county quilt show last year to make a bowl mat for my nephew's dog. I sewed and quilted this mat almost entirely by machine, and it only took a couple hours. It's not perfect, but it turned out much better than I expected. I have to admit, part of my problem with quilting is that I resent having to do so much by machine now. I'm just not a machine quilter at heart. That said, it was a lot less painful th...

When my guy and I go out for a meal -- not very often these days -- I'm ordering the most diabetic-friendly items on the menu, like this chicken cranberry pecan salad I got when we stopped at Bob Evans on one of our day trips. The dressing has a lot of sugar in it, so I get that on the side and use it very sparingly (I only used about half of one of those cups.) My relationship with food is always going to be difficult, thanks to diabetes. In theory I can eat pretty much all the salad, meat, cheese and eggs I want, and limited amounts of rice and pasta now and then, but no bread, baked goods and especially potatoes, which are a trigger food for me. I drink coffee, herbal tea and sparkling mineral water, mostly the latter. I'm also trying to lose weight, so at this time I really can't eat all I want. It's very, very frustrating when I have to watch everyone else enjoy desserts and rolls (and french fries!) while I go without or nibble on a piece of celery. Pre...

Happy Easter from Valerean.

This looks a bit weird, I know, but a gift is all about the recipient. For my nephew's easter basket I found an exact copy of the little frying pan I have that he loves and has been threatening to steal when he moves into his new house. He'll be very surprised. I'm going to add some fake grass to the pan and fill it with Reese's peanut butter eggs, aka his favorite candy (I'm writing this on 4/1, so Easter is four days away.) For my guy I'm making a nice roasted chicken dinner and his favorite coffee cake, but no basket. I offered but he doesn't want one. I'm not going to dye eggs because my nephew already makes hard-boiled eggs weekly, and we wouldn't be able to eat them fast enough. As a diabetic there's not a lot about Easter I can consume. I did find a new treat I can have occasionally that is a consolation prize: a low sugar Oreo knockoff called Leos. They're quite sweet and a nice substitute for the real thing. I'm...

There aren't many words I dislike. This is because I need a huge arsenal of them for the day job, and using the majority of them has always made me happy. I think some of the old slang words when I first joined the online writing community bugged me a bit ( snark , podcast and webinar , I'm remembering you) or were what I considered unattractive ( blog , definitely) or trendy but silly ( chiaroscuro , and have mercy, it showed up in almost every SF book I read for years.) I also have names I don't care for or use because of unpleasant personal associations (Ryan is #1 on that list) but I think everyone does that. Who names their child Adolph, right? In any case, I'm a wordsmith, but not one who believes only the educated deserve access to ideas and stories. I avoid using gatekeeping language or any words employed to prevent a certain section of society from understanding what is being conveyed. I think that comes from being self-educated. I don't lik...

I considered doing another no-spend month in April, but after struggling through March (and falling off the wagon) I'm not enthusiastic. I was able to save quite a bit, but I also had to pass on a couple of very nice bargains, and say "I'm not spending this month" so many times I sounded like a broken record. My guy did not help a lot with my goal and sometimes even tempted me to spend, which is when I fell off the wagon. What March taught me -- other than it is really hard not to spend any money for 31 days -- is that my behavior has to change. I need to avoid temptation, like searching for yarn lots at the online auction site. It's a fun habit, but it also tempts me to bid. Aside from what I need for one big Wool Ease project and some gifts I have planned for this coming winter, I really have enough yarn now to last me for at least a year. If I see some good sales on Hobbii, or I spot Wool Ease for a good price when I'm out at the brick and mortar ...

To kick off March I finished crocheting the Sherwood throw out of forest-colored thrifted yarns. I used a vintage pillow sham to line a basket I thrifted. I crocheted a Project basket out of some bulky yarn I got in a Herrschners mystery bag. For the last cold spell of winter I crocheted a hat out of beautiful hand-dyed mystery yarn from an Etsy seller. I crocheted, yes, a chicken purse. I crocheted a bottom for the second of my thrifted baskets. I made a book sleeve out of some leftover blanket yarn. I taught myself to crochet bookmarks with scrap yarn. I made the March tote for my calendar project out of a thrifted curtain. I turned a bag of macrame cord sample skeins into a yarn basket. I crocheted a wrap completely out of scrap yarn. Finally, I sewed and machine quilted a mat for my nephew's dog.

Sometimes my curiosity about artists gets the better of me, and I go in search of information on them. In this case my search was spurred by the second panel of the tote that I was making from a vintage curtain for the March edition of my calendar project. While I was embroidering the panel I saw a copyright stamp on the fabric, and later decided to do a Goodle search on Cheri Blum, the artist. Sadly she passed away in 2003 at the heart-breaking young age of 34. This is part of the reason I've always devoted my free time to my own creativity. You never know how much time you'll have in life for your art. Cheri's work lives on in the home decor industry; her art has a timeless, effortless style that I think will continue to appeal for a long time. I was certainly swayed by it to thrift the curtain I'm using for this project; it was her painting on the edges (of narcissus, as it happens, not paperwhites) that caught my eye. I decided to get my butt in g...

I'm not sure if I will finish making the March tote for my calendar project, but here's an update on my progress. I finished embroidering and hand stitching one panel. I was going to embroider all the flowers, but since I was running out of month I went with mostly lace flower appliques along with some French knots. I also ditched my original idea to have lots of word appliques and instead did one big patch with spring elements, which turned out well, I think. I'm going to spend the rest of March on the tote and see if I can get it completed. Then next month I will definitely simplify my idea for the April tote.