April's End

Hello Gentle Readers. April ends with rain showers. I will miss the April light shining on the fresh new green of trees and other foliage. Soon the gentle unfolding of Spring will give way to the rapid growth of May. The lilacs are almost spent while the bleeding heart blooms. Lily of the Valley have visible buds. Usually these plants bloom in the second week of May. 

I'm late in writing because this morning I was at a monthly gathering of my Crafting friends. We call ourselves the Crafters, although only a couple of us bring handwork anymore. We have met monthly for over forty years. I joined them in 1984, a year we held a bridal shower for one member. Now we age together. One very spry great grandmother recently celebrated her 90th birthday. The youngest is in her late 60's with the rest of us in between. We met each other working in the public schools Special Education department. Most of us wanted a few hours a month to stitch, knit, or craft.  It's good to have friends. 

Kat is on vacation but Wednesday is still a day to post. I enjoy knitting on the Red Forager sweater. I knit a smaller size because a sweater or two from years past ended up too big. To make sure the yoke depth was good and the armhole the right size, I knit part of one sleeve. There is a tiny ball of yarn cinched up inside the stitches on waste yarn. I've tried it on multiple times, blocked it once and it fits. Whew. Knitting a sweater that fits always feels like a crap shoot but I've learned a few things from reading your blogs. So thank you. 

This week I read The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich. Monday I watched an interview with Erdrich about this novel. She talked about growing up in the valley of the Red River that runs north on the border of Minnesota and North Dakota before it empties into Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada. Erdrich talked about her respect for farmers but also noted the irony in growing sugar beets in this rich fertile valley. How is it that "a nutrition-less substance" is grown on such fertile land? She also stated her characters flow from the geographical setting and indeed these characters were connected to the river, albeit in different ways. There is a strong sweet mother/daughter connection as well as some beautiful descriptions of the area. I loved the stories of the quirky but very human characters in all kind of love relationships. For me, Erdrich and her writing are a treasure. 

Here's my bit of personal irony. The previous week I read The Frozen River and for no particular reason overlapped it with The Mighty Red. In the former novel, the river is most often threatening and recognized as commercial benefit to those who use their access for milling and transporting lumber out of the Maine forest. In Erdrich's novel, the river takes but also gives life. However her characters are more connected to and part of the river and it's valley.  I found this to be a thought provoking comparison. I'm not taking anything away from the author of The Frozen River because it has a strong important emphasis on a women's rights. However Erdrich's perspective, coming from her heritage as part Native American, has much to teach us about the place of human beings in the natural world.  I'm still thinking about all of this. And of course, the sweater I'm knitting is red. Sometimes life is full of coincidence. 

What are you learning from your reading this week?