It's been a typical week for me, stupid busy. Yesterday was Cooking Day for Kate's social group. They meet in the basement of a big old church. There is an old graveyard next to the church that I have been wanting to explore. Yesterday, in the two minutes I have before arriving home from work and jumping back in the car, I grabbed some muslin, some pastel chalk, some charcoal and a fat lead pencil. I decided to try to do grave rubbings on fabric.
Results were mixed. First of all I am uncomfortable doing that kind of thing. I don't really want anyone to see me. They might say something like, "Excuse me, what the hell are you doing?" and I will have to tell them and then I will have to endure whatever reaction they might bestow upon me. Yes, yes, I'm weird. I know.
I suppose you have to do things wrong to learn how to do them right. Next time I will get someone to come with me to stretch the fabric around the stones. I tried taping the fabric, but it was a joke. Try taping fabric to crusty, lichen-covered stone, you'll see. I discovered that charcoal is useless, and pastels are only a little better. All of the rubbings you see were done with the fat lead pencil. I discovered that the stones I most wanted to rub were too rough. I got the best results from granite stones, but they tended to be newer and were less likely to have a poem or quote on them. (I'm particularly interested in that.) I did get a half-decent rubbing of a small tombstone. I'm not even sure what I am doing with all this, I think really I just wasted some cheap muslin. We'll see.
One other thing about my cemetary tour, I came across a rather worn American Flag in a bush. It is tattered in a way I would dare not do myself. I want to use it in a quilt, and I don't think it would be considered disrespectful. I will consult my son, who is an ex-Marine. He is in charge of the flag we hang from our porch. He is very serious about flag etiquette. Did you know I have a son? I talk so much about Kate. I will tell you about him sometime.
OK, final cool thing that happened yesterday. When I was finished with my cemetary exploits, I went in to the church to wait, and it was all set up for a rummage sale the next day!!! I love rummage sales. Pretty much everything in the sale is .50 or .25; that's my kind of price. I scored some cool lace, wine glasses, a tiny twig chair, excellent old utensils, a ceramic butter dish, and an old Cha-Cha album that looks like it was never played. The cover graphics alone were brilliant. Kate copped 2 expired calendars with pictures of old European advertising posters.
Thursday was a way better day than I ever expected!
ost of today at the Fairfield racquet club. It was Sectionals for Special Olympic Tennis. Kate is in division 2. As you can see, there are all men in her division. She beat 2 of them and gave the third a run for his money. Go Kate! Summer games are mid-June.
