Toward the End of Our Long Winter

There is life after winter. It will, we continue to hope, manifest itself in white blossoms, pale pink blossoms, shocking pink blossoms---all in good time. Fruit trees and mock fruit trees will flaunt their ruffles before our cold-shrivelled souls, inviting us to romp—to leave our months-old fetal position and actually romp.

 

Do we dare? Well, I'll need more than one day of double-digit temperatures before I give up my duvet and my flannel nightgown. I'll be a doubting Thomas until I hear that robin with my own ears. See more than three crocuses in my yard. I'll have to know that the back yard ice is gone for good before I take my winter coats to the cleaners.

 

I talk tough. But I already feel the urge to grab the rake and see who else is pushing green through the still-frozen ground. To whip off those rotting leaf layers and free the crocus tips. It doesn't take much to put the spring back in my step—the spring, the spring, the spring!

 

 

 

Copyright © 2023 Ann Tudor
Musings blog: http://www.scenesfromthejourney.blogspot.com

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The Apron

My first 4-H project (though I may be lying here, because I have no idea whether it was the first) was to make an apron. In those days it was customary to wear a bibbed apron for serious kitchen duties. But for show—to wear when dinner was being carried in to serve hubby at the table--a dear little flowered demi-apron was just the thing, trimmed with ruffles or rickrack.

 

This apron is the simplest form of sewing: a rectangle for the skirt, another for the waistband, and two long, skinny ones for the ties that meet in mid-back in a neat, sweet bow. Gather the large rectangle with two rows of running stitches along one long edge. Neaten the sides (the two shorter edges of the rectangle) with a narrow hem. Apply one long edge of the waistband, right sides together, to the gathered rectangle, then fold the waistband in half, turn under a seam allowance on the long edge, and stitch the waistband to the wrong side of the skirt. Or, if your teacher is an old-fashioned type, sew it by hand, neatly, instead of by machine.

 

Narrowly hem the two long sides of each of the sash rectangles as well as one short end. Alternatively, you could fold and stitch these to make tube-like ties. Insert the ties into the two openings of the waistband, turning in the edges of the waistband. Ideally you would have pressed these to the wrong side a long time ago, but I forgot to mention this.

 

Double-stitch the ties to the waistband openings. Hem the bottom of the apron. Press the whole thing and admire the gathered waist and long tails that you will tie into a neat bow at your back.

 

Did you forget to tell me that you wanted a pocket? Apron pockets are handy. So make a patch pocket, which you should have done earlier but can still do now on the finished apron. Cut a rectangle. Fold one short side down to make a hem at the top, then press the seam allowances on the remaining three sides to the wrong side. Stitch this onto the apron in a place convenient to your needs (to the right of center if you are right-handed, for example). Be sure to sew only three sides of the pocket, leaving the top open. Otherwise you won't have a pocket but a decorative patch.

 

Wear your pretty apron for company or for romantic dinners for two. For actual cooking, hook a sturdy bibbed apron around your neck and get to work.

 

 

Copyright © 2023 Ann Tudor
Musings blog: http://www.scenesfromthejourney.blogspot.com

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The Lives of Others

Oh, those lives of others. How empty our thoughts would be if we weren't able to fantasize about the lives of others. Our meat and drink, our sustenance, our comfort come from the hours we spend imagining the lives of others.

 

Who are these others? How can you even ask? Are you not a sentient being yourself? Well then, do you not notice others? They are everywhere you look. Some even share your home or your bed. They stand beside you on public transit. They walk ahead of you on the street. They live in the house next door or across the street. Some you never even see but you read of them, and that's enough to include them in your list.

 

Do you judge these others? You're durn tootin' you judge them! Before movies and TV, your only entertainment consisted of judging others. The problem was so bad they even had to issue a proclamation against it in the Bible: Judge not lest ye be judged. (And you can bet your last quarter that you are being judged. All the time. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.)

 

The lives of others are juicy. You don't really know anything about those lives, which is where your imagination comes in.  You make things up to fill the lack of real knowledge, and as long as you're making it up you might as well make it good, depending on your style; some like salacious tidbits, while others might base their judgment on, say, dietary habits. Or, when it's a question of completely unknown others, like subway riders, the judging might be limited to fashion sins. Hair, say, or shoes. Too much skin showing. Those judgments are fleeting. The closer we get to home with the others, the deeper we can go. The lives of others reveal themselves in so many ways: their demeanor, friendliness, reliability, cleanliness, propriety, political views, aesthetics, landscaping. The opportunities for judging are endless, when we are considering the lives of others.

 

The next step in our awareness of the judging we do, of course, is to stop it. Just quit it. Cut it out. Stop imagining the lives of others because we just don't know enough to come to an informed opinion. Leave the poor people alone. Don't subject them to your amateur psychologizing. Live and let live. Remember that one? Tend to your own moutons. MYOB. Stop sticking your pointy nose into the precious lives of others.

 

 

 

Copyright © 2023 Ann Tudor
Musings blog: http://www.scenesfromthejourney.blogspot.com

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Reach Inside

The guts of the matter await.

All you have to do is reach inside

and don't bother telling me

how messy that will be.

I already know it.

 

Your choice:

Remain pristine and crisply ironed,

shoes shined

and hair slicked back.

Or go for it.

 

Put on an apron if you must,

but plunge your mitts into the heart of the matter;

the heart, the liver and the lights.

Messy as all get-out

and no real guarantees

that you'll like what you find.

Or even that it will be useful to you,

in that utilitarian universe

(bubble, really)

you live in.

 

But think of the aphorisms that urge you on:

If not now, when?

Take the plunge!

Go for it!

You're not getting any younger!

 

Reach inside with both hands

and take what comes.

You've nothing to lose!

 

 

Copyright © 2023 Ann Tudor
Musings blog: http://www.scenesfromthejourney.blogspot.com

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