Summer’s not letting Labour Day push her out the door, not here, at least, where we went swimming in the (not so very warm) Pacific last night — delicious!
Still, I expect rhythms and activities will begin to change in the coming weeks. We have two granddaughters in school now, so our visits will be arranged around their new schedules. . . I always feel excited about Fall and the changes it brings, but I also always feel most conscious of time slipping away as the days shorten. Some atavistic core in me counts out my life in summers, and another one is almost gone. . . .
As for Labour Day, now that I’m retired it’s lost much of its immediate significance, although I have plenty of projects I’m working on. They don’t feel much like labour, though, given their voluntary nature (although down in the gym, just before I wrote this post, sweating away on that mat, hefting those weights. . . . hmmm, that didn’t feel so much like play). Even my mending I’m turning into fun, having taken that sashiko course this spring. I put it aside for the summer, but finally ordered more supplies last week. They arrived promptly from A Threaded Needle — what fun it was to open that envelope pictured above. The thread and needles were tucked into that sweet little rabbit-printed bag along with freebies: the “Hand Made” label for stitching inside the next sweater I make for a grandchild, perhaps; a stamped, wooden button; and a postcard inviting me to the upcoming Knit City event here — with handwritten greetings on postcard and on the tag to which button and label were stapled.
So I’ll be celebrating my Not-Going-Back-to-Campus status today by mending some cashmere that a few moths have clearly laboured over. . . .
Happy Labour Day to those who are lucky enough for it to make a difference in your daily rhythm. A day that I’m very aware of my privilege indeed. . . . May workers everywhere have their labour honoured and may we make choices that ensure progress toward fair compensation for all that labour.
How fun that you have a new project and new cool supplies to "start the school year"! I'm a little behind the curve on that aspect of fall since planning some trips in the next several weeks is preoccupying a bit, but I think I should try to add something along these lines just to be seasonable.
I wonder if you are continuing to see your finch visitor?
ceci
It's just a wee project, but something to feed that Fall habit, which I miss now after a lifetime's adherence to the school calendar.
No, I suspect that poor little visitor was doomed from the moment he left the cage….
"May workers everywhere have their labour honoured and may we make choices that ensure progress toward fair compensation for all that labour." Thank you for this. I'd even add, may we make progress towards a more shared definition of what "fair" means. In the US that is hotly debated.
Here too, I'd say, although perhaps not so hotly. . .
It's a pleasure to come back to your blog even if I had to face the moths… I have beaten them back to only a few in a 4-6 week window, but what will it take to vanquish them? On a more serious note, Labour Day alway reminds me that I am grateful to have had work- and mostly fairly paid, and in safe conditions, since I was 16, a situation that is far more precarious for our children.
I suspect that living as we now do in the city, in much closer proximity to our neighbours than ever before, complete victory will elude us. I rarely had a problem at previous homes, although once we had our first city apartment, Paul would bring them home in his case, I'm sure. I tried to get garments out of the closet and into the sun (which the moths hate!) as often as I can remember — I think part of the problem has been simply having too much to care for properly, and I'm working on that. . . . What you say about Labour Day, so very true. So far, my kids (now moving, if you can believe it — and don't tell them! — steadily into their middle years) are decently employed, but I look at the spread of precarity and worry for my grandkids.