First of all - I finished the poppy quilt over a week ago but never photographed it.
So here:
I hung it out on the clothesline in my backyard (yes, it's kind of at an angle - the clotheslines are old and saggy and I'm not sure how to tighten them up - they're not attached in a way that makes it immediately obvious how you'd do it.)
I also worked some more on the Bacteriophage socks. I am kind of designing these on the fly and when I got up to the heel flap, I decided I wanted to incorporate the burgundy color again. So I'm doing a striped heel flap, and I'm going to do similar striping on the toe (starting probably about 3" short of the end).
I also worked in the garden a lot this weekend (and I have the scratches and ant bites to show for it). I am slowly clearing out the side-garden (which is a shade garden; it is on the north side of the house and is in the shadow of the house next door). I want to get more shade-loving plants for that area. (but NOT artemesia...I bought one several years ago and I am still pulling its babies up all over the place).
I also got my beans planted. I had got some "Tenderpod" at the Lowe's, but then I went to Target and found the "French Fingerling" that I'd grown before and liked. So I put the fingerling beans in the back garden and the tenderpods in a little area of earth on the west side of my house, between the house and the drive. (We'll see how that works; I've never really tried growing anything there before). I also planted starts of tomatoes indoors (which is good; it's supposed to get cool again later this week and tomatoes don't like getting chilly).
Also: this is courtesy of "A Sweet, Familiar Dissonance" and I kind of hate to link to it because I don't like to believe that there are such people on this Earth, but
this story makes me see red. ("Boys don't like girls who read big books").
There are so many things wrong with that attitude I can only list a few of them here:
1. Who says boys don't like girls who read big books? I know more than a few MEN who are very very fond of women who read big books. (Maybe that's the difference: boys vs. men).
2. The kind of "boy" who prefers that the "girl" in his life not read probably isn't the kind of person you want in your life, if you're a "girl" who likes to read.
3. What's to say that there's a "lid for every pot"? I would argue that it's in everyone's best interest to read a lot, further their educations, etc., etc. In my own family - I had two aunts who were both widowed young. Were they not capable of working on their own, they would have been in a lot of trouble. And what happens if the fellow who's "taking care of you" decides it's time for someone younger. Or any of the million vagaries of life....I think telling a girl that she's basically cannon fodder in the dating wars is really horrible.
3a. And what if the boys don't like her anyway? Then what has she gained?
3b. And what if she realizes that she doesn't like boys, she likes girls? Are the rules the same or different then?
4. What's to say that the young woman's be-all and end-all in life is being "liked" by the "boys"? There is more to existence, you know.
5. What happens if the girl needs glasses...or braces. Or she's in a disfiguring car accident? What's mom going to say then? "Oh, honey, sorry that we're locking you away in this back room but it's really for your own good; you're so unsightly now that no boy will ever like you." Pfah.
6. The girl was like 13. That's waaaaaay too young to lay that kind of "you must be accomodating to the wishes of boys" stuff on her. It would serve the mother right (although it would be hell for the girl) if her daughter turned up pregnant in another year or two and said, "But mom! You told me I needed to do things to make boys like me!"
I don't know. These kind of things make me see red. Like someone else said in a comment on their blog, "It's the damn Taliban in a minivan."
That said....someone else commented that "she will probably be sneaking books into her room and hiding them under her mattress as a teenager." That's a bit more of a cheering thought. But still: what kind of a mean person do you have to be to deny your daughter something that costs no more than what you're buying your son, and use the justification that it reduces her sex appeal.
And yeah, yeah, maybe it's just the Bitter Spinster Girl talking, the person who doesn't believe in love at first sight, or soul mates, or that there's a lid for every pot. But if I were there? I'd want to take that girl aside and tell her, "Don't listen to your mom. Do what makes YOU happy. Don't depend on boys to make you happy...don't depend on anyone else to. Because other people are too good at disappointing you; you're the only person you can really depend on."
5 comments:
while, yes, i do agree heartily with you about t he crap about boys and girls who read, i do have another aspect to this one. she did do as her mother asked (even if her mother was screwed in the head). unfortunately, someone like that will teach her the wrong way to be.
as a mother, i wouldn't have liked an arguement in front of store personell about the book. i do refuse books that my children request, but not because they "make them look bad." it's usually money (sean asked for a $50 star wars book!), or behavior. at t he age of 10, i let sean buy a college level chemistry book. i asked him if he understood it, and when he started spouting facts, i let him.
it's not the media dumbing us down, it's our own families. oy
i suppose my biggest problem with this whole thing is pushing the girl to rebel against her mother at such a young age. while13 isprime time for angst and craziness, i don't think adding the book thing to the mix is a good thing. (this from a mother of 4, of whom i've lived through 2 teenagerdoms, and am living t hrough 2 more)
The quilt is so pretty - the colors are beautiful and I love the black surronding each box. So vibrant (I would have never noticed the sagging clothes line, so enthralled was I by the quilt).
The socks are coming out really cute. It could be cool to show one of the phages attacking a bacterium, or is that just too gross?
Regarding the bookstore story - I don't know what I would do if I had been that clerk. It is easy to say "I would have told the mother off", but different in reality. I would have wanted to tell her off. I think the worst of it is that she is telling her daughter that she should define herself by what boys like. All people should be free of such restrictions. Who cares that there are plenty of boys who like girls who read "big books". The important thing is that if a girl wants to read a book, she should do so regarless of what boys think.
Love the quilt! It looks like wonderful stained glass.
Sounds like the mother has strange priorities, but unfortunately, she is the parent. With luck, daughter will decide on her own what she wants to read, and whether or not she cares what boys think. All the boys I ever cared about liked smart girls; of course, I didn't much care until I went to college!
First off, your quilt is gorgeous. I love the stained glass look that the black borders give the squares.
I grew up in a family of serious readers, so it is often strange to me to hear about people that don't value books or reading. That poor girl.
Your quilt is beautiful! It will certainly warm the room with its colors as well as the bed.
Charlotte
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