April Days 2024

April seemed really long. There was the first and only school snow-day of the 23-24 year. Some family things happened this month. One family member made a decision about the next four years of her life. Another family member who had passed on was remembered at a special celebration with love and many stories. Here are some more memories and little things from the month of April.

Favorites

The solar eclipse on Monday, April 8, was pretty cool. Where we live it was a 96% eclipse. The light got gray. The air got cold and things felt... strange. Everyone had eclipse-viewing glasses and our family sat on the front lawn and watched the eclipse while chatting with our neighbors who were also watching. For about 30 minutes during the peak of the eclipes, it seemed that everyone stopped what they were doing and just looked up at the sky. I didn't hear any cars going by during that time--it was just a unique, quiet, focused few moments. Then life started up again and everyone went back to what they were doing.

A family member and I took a trip to IKEA during spring break, the Swedish furniture+more store. The two nearest IKEAs are about equidistant from where I live. One is in New Haven, CT, and the other is south of Boston. We chose the Boston one and had a great time exploring the showrooms, the marketplace full of all kinds of useful items like lamps and spatulas and plastic plants, and then the warehouse where you serve yourself from the tremendous aisles of packaged goods.

 

Part of a showroom--I was interested in
how there is shelving ABOVE the TV unit.
Maybe a future living room idea?

Of course we had lunch in the IKEA cafeteria.
I had the "plant balls" which were a vegetarian version
of Swedish meatballs. However my partner couldn't
finish their regular meatballs so I got to try
those too. Pretty good, and very inexpensive.

Warehouse

New Things

I am on a roll with my collection of divination cards! I got a new deck this month, the Moonology Messages Oracle by Yasmin Boland with artwork by Ali Vermilio, produced by Hay House. Here are a few examples of the cards:

The IKEA trip yielded an exciting new furniture addition: the RASKOG rolling cart. I had been dreaming of having studio space where I could arrange all my little hobbies and creative materials, and I realized that a simple cart like this could be an easy way to have current projects at my fingertips! I love my "art cart" so much, and it's even the perfect metal canvas for showing off some of my magnet collection.

The current projects in my art cart are divination/
tarot cards on the top, crochet in the middle,
and drawing materials on the bottom.

Close-up of top shelf--the cool felt caddy
for my little tarot bags is also from IKEA.

Bottom shelf has my drawing pad, pencil case,
and colored pencil collection.

Consumed

This month we watched the 2001 movie Amelie, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. I remember that the movie made a big impression on me at the time, but I hadn't seen it in many years. I'm happy to report that it holds up extremely well and is completely charming. We just laughed and smiled throughout the movie and it was a lovely escape. The soundtrack by Yann Tiersen is also iconic.

Phone Photos

These are flowers I saw while running in the woods this month.

I believe this is Hepatica americana
(Round-lobed liverleaf)

This is the purple version of the same plant, growing
right next to the white one
(this web photo does not do it justice--
it is a gorgeous violet color)

I believe this is Wild Oats or Uvularia sessilifolia
(also known as Sessile Bellwort)