Remember this?
Well, I finished that little lantern and I’m very happy with it! It was a bit of a bitch to secure those panels back inside because the tiny crimp tabs were really small for the thickness of the glass (next time I’ll use thinner glass. Yes, I can do that!)
But overall, a fun and simple little project. I have a couple of larger lanterns that I may work on next. These all came from Ikea! Remove the plain glass, add fused glass! (The other two arrived with broken glass, though. Not that it matters, I guess).
It’s been a few days since I’ve been in the glass studio; besides some stormy weather that makes me too nervous to turn on the kilns, I’ve been reading my Book Club book (“The Great Alone” by Kristen Hannah). I am…kind of…liking it. It’s not badly written, but it’s also no literary masterpiece. BUT. I have been rolling my eyes quite often, and I’m not even very far along. It requires a fair amount of suspension of belief. I know a lot of bad stuff is about to happen so I’m feeling some dread.
We missed the Blood Wolf Moon (or whatever they called it) because at its peak it was behind us (behind the trees, behind the hill) so we couldn’t see it. How amazing it would have been if it had been hanging over the water! After all the excellent photos I saw of it, I can just imagine how stunning that would have been! And I would have tried, unsuccessfully, to get a picture of it, which would have been a tiny, blurry blob.
We had some ALMOST excitement around here this past week. First, I heard a very strange sound from outside, from the water. It was dark out and I couldn’t see anything, but the sound really stuck with me. I’ve heard lots of seals over the years, but this was different; it was bellow-y. Almost cow-like. (There are no cows around here!) Then, a couple of days later, one of our neighbors reported seeing massive water movement below their house, just as dark was setting in. And THEN, there were reports all over our Harstine Island NextDoor of sightings of a humpback whale in Peale Passage (the body of water along our place)!! People saw it! It might have been what I heard that night! It might have been the cause of the massive water movement our neighbor saw a few nights later!
But we didn’t see it.
And, no sign of it since. (In the foggy, relentless rain).
I am aching to see Quinn. He is 16 months old now and we haven’t seen him since October. I feel like I’m missing out, missing his Quinn grins and his sweet dimple. He needs to know us, know our names! Nonna and Grandpa! It’s heartbreaking that they live far away. The kids send me videos and I see so much development, so much emerging personality that I am missing! So why haven’t we flown down to fill that desperate need? Well, Nate is now transitioning from his shore duty job he’s held for the last couple of years (teaching), and he is in schooling himself now. His schedule is not as flexible as it was. While our visits tended to be 4-day whirlwinds, he was able to take a Friday off (or leave early), and now he won’t be able to. We’d come on a Thursday afternoon knowing we’d see them that evening, and at least Nate on Friday, then have the weekend together (then fly home on Monday). But now, we have no back-up plan for ol’ Bailey while we’re gone, and then there’s the stupid, cruel trump government shutdown. Who can honestly feel safe flying when air traffic controllers are not being paid and they are stressed beyond belief? Or pissed off TSA agents, many who can’t afford the gas to get to work to do their unpaid jobs to ensure our security?
Baby Shark!!
