Old Ways

Finally today I tended to some mending. It made me feel like I lived 200 hundred years ago, patching a pair of linen pants so I can wear them longer.  Okay, so maybe the use of an electric machine isn't quite "200 years," but you get my drift.  These days, clothing is pretty much disposable. Patching clothing is a lost art.  But hey, I really like these pants! I also patched a shirt and a dress.

And as I was digging around in my sewing paraphernalia (into which I dig rarely), I found this, a most elegant and gossamer glove.

Before I married, my mother gave me some gloves. I believe they'd come from an elderly friend of hers, a very dear friend, who'd died. I adored this glove, but alas! It was just that - one glove.  Not a pair.  So I chose another pair to wear at my wedding, not quite so elegant nor so gossamer.  But because of its sheer beauty -- not its usefulness -- I kept this one. It nearly turns the hand to lace.

Our local egg man, who has been bringing eggs to my front door weekly for many months, told me on Wednesday that his hens are slowing down, and his new hens aren't quite laying yet, and well ... he can't get me any eggs for at least several weeks.  Eek!  I'm so used to farm-fresh eggs, I had a serious aversion to getting a dozen at the grocery.  And then I remembered my neighbors -- right next door! -- who have chickens.  I asked Allie on facebook if she had eggs, and she did.  They gave us 18 gorgeous ones, and she didn't want me to pay her.  Does she know how expensive farm-fresh eggs are?  Bless her.  Well, I made pumpkin bread today, and took over a min-loaf, plus a nice clump of fresh rosemary, which I know she likes.

Not exactly bartering;  it's more like helping each other out.  Still, in a little way it sent me back to the past much like the patching of clothes.  Swapping fresh eggs for herbs and bread is such a savoring to the soul.  I like it. So much more fun than sliding the credit card through the machine and lugging the plastic bag to the van in the parking lot. Perhaps old ways are best.