Jamaica

It's good to be back working in Jamaica for a short time. In addition to doing some work, I've been stuffing my face with mango, as predicted in an earlier post as well as other yummy fruit. The house we're staying in has several fruit trees in the yard including a lime, avocado (called pear in Jamaica), two types of  mango (okay, technically not in our yard but limbs from a neighbor's tree hang over into our yard :) and a grapefruit.

On the work front, we've been jointly running an archaeological field school with the University of West Indies and have had good luck locating some sugar plantation buildings we were hunting for using old survey maps. The crew had fun macheting our way through bush in order to uncover some of the overgrown treasures.

All this is providing a little break from the sewing machine and though I find myself twitching a little and sewing in my sleep I think it's probably a good thing :)

Quote Tuesday

I'm participating in Pepper Stitches' "quote Tuesday" this week...

Ten years ago I left my job in Georgia to drive out west to Washington state, stay with some friends and find a new job. It was short lived (I ended up coming back to the east coast in three months) but it was fun nonetheless and I got to drive cross-country twice! A friend in Georgia painted this lovely gourd as a going away gift and wrote the following on the bottom:

Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.       ~Aristotle

It always makes me smile when I turn it over.

The Owl and the Pussycat and David Sedaris

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
‘O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!’

Pussy said to the Owl, ‘You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?’
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.

‘Dear pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?’ Said the Piggy, ‘I will.’
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

"The Owl and the Pussycat" poem by Edward Lear

The fabric lines by Kokka based on artist Heather Ross's illustrations are irresistible. I especially like the Far Far Away collections based on fairy tales and other stories (Far Away I and II have been out for some time with III scheduled to come out this summer). The Owl and the Pussycat is from Far Far Away II and makes me smile (especially in plum, pictured above :). I made some tea towels out of it for the show I did a couple of weeks ago.

Lear's poem makes me think of David Sedaris's essay about the Squirrel and the Chipmunk, another unlikely romantic pair. He writes,

"The squirrel and the chipmunk had been dating for two weeks when they ran out of things to talk about: acorns, parasites, the inevitable approach of autumn."

You should check him out if you haven't. He's a humorist and writer who does book tours and recently came to Charlottesville during one. I was lucky enough to get to see him with some friends this April. My belly was sore the next day from all the laughing. He's hysterical.

P.S. The Kokka fabric is also really nice to work with. It's a heavier-than-usual quilting weight and is a cotton/linen blend. It's got good hand.