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50th Birthday Gift for Tim

This is the 50th birthday piece I made for a friend from grad school.

I used cream wool to loom knit the band, 51 pennies (1966-2016), and fiber for binding and code.

Tim 50th Birthday Piece

50th Birthday Piece for Tim

Tim 50th Birthday Piece Untied

Birthday Piece Untied

Tim Birthday Piece Bound

Bound Pennies 1966-2016. Each Penny is bound as part of code for Tim’s Name.
Dashes-Yellow, Dots-Green, Spacers-Orange.

1966 Penny

1968, 1967, 1966 Pennies

2016 Penny

2016 Penny

Ties

Top tie code is 09091966 and 09092016. Bottom tie code is Happy Birthday.
Dots knots are rust yarn, Dashes knots are green yarn, and spacers are cream.

Triangle Pattern

Loom Knit Pattern


Garden Damage and Critters

Every morning this summer the gardens have been damaged. Loads of digging.

Flower Damage

Digging in flower pots.

Four squirrels have moved in.The squirrels have eaten my potted plants, vegetables, and herbs.

Plant Damage

This was a pot of parsley, clover, and chard for my house bunnies.

Missing Bean Plants

Where are the bean plants?

One squirrel sat on a wisteria branch and ate the top of my Norfolk pine.

Are they the ones digging up plants and the patio?

Skunk Damage

We decided that the squirrels needed to be relocated. We set up a humane trap. Placed a cracker with peanut butter inside and waited.

I heard the trap snap close. What did we find? The cracker gone and the trap empty.

Two of the squirrels are quite small, so it could have been one of them.

We put another cracher spread with peanut butter in the trap. Nothing happened.

Last night we forgot to close the trap.

And this morning we found this–

Skunk in Trap

Yep, that is black fur with a white stripe.

We are fortunate to live in a city that has an animal control service. They came and removed the skunk.

What did we learn? The trap is too large for a squirrel. And if we use the trap again, close it or remove it at night.


Beyond the Pale

Recently the expression, “beyond the pale” has been used numerous times in reference to numerous things said by the republican presidential candidate. Yes that is numerous and numerous.

I knew what “beyond the pale” meant in the context, but did not know the origin.

Of course I did a google search. I found this great site, The Phrase Finder.

According to the site, beyond the pale is defined as the following:

This ‘pale’ is the noun meaning ‘a stake or pointed piece of wood’, a meaning now virtually obsolete except as used in this phrase, but still in use in the associated words ‘paling’ (as in paling fence) and ‘impale’ (as in Dracula movies).

The space within the paling fence was safe. Beyond the pale, not so much. Unless, protection becomes a trap.

I do like sharp and pointy things, so I am delighted with the definition. Several years ago I made the series Tools for Rent. It consisted of 11 bronze daggers, each bound into a cedar box.

Tools For Rent Dagger 2

The Phrase Finder is a truly fun site to find meanings and origins of phrases you may be using and to find phrases you might like to add to your future conversations.

Pale is also a homophone (pail), so that could have possibly lead to some confusion. Loads of words when heard can be confused for other words.

A few confusion words in the previous paragraph:
so (sew)
Some (sum)
heard (herd)
for (four)

I will end with this quote from The Phrase Finder site bulletin:

The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones.

From Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare