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Today I did what I started to do yesterday but didn't because it felt like cheating – I just stitched a real feather to the circle. It is a beautiful feather. I lovelovelove the polka dots on it, and how they remain visible towards the ends of the feather barba.

The little picture is the disaster (a disaster along multiple axes) from yesterday.

In the simple amusements department, I have a new camera. I took my old one to see if they could fix the lens cover not opening. They said they couldn't, and told me things to do, and I realized I really needed a reliable camera. So I started testing the next ones. I turned mine on, to see about a feature it had, and it opened FINE. The sales woman said "bummer, I mean, good? I mean…" and then we both started laughing and laughing. I decided reliable mattered, so Alice has my camera, and I have a lovely new one, and the old one is working just fine now.

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Happy Graduation Aerin.

Aunt Nancy calls her a Graduette, and Al and I are Gradumom and Gradudad, which makes my mother a Gradugranny? Maybe not! We're all proud of her and pleased to be done.

This is another crow feather, printed using bleach, and stitched to emphasize shapes.

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All of May's circles, with some random other things (cake, larger piece, strange photography) that happened in May.

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Or maybe June is the month with feathers, to misquote the Belle of Amherst. I was wondering this morning what I would choose, because even though I have a list, I also win when I stay open to serendipity.

And then I was mobbed with birds. In a good way. I saw a lovely bi-colored tree swallow coming out of the bakery, and an enormous woodpecker flew across the road in front of the car, and a host of tiny twinkling things flew along beside me through a field in Hadley. So it seemed like birds would be a good subject for the month.

This is a stitched print of a crow feather Alice found for me Thursday night. Another sign!

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I've pulled something small but painful under the edge of my right shoulder blade – probably from something at Family Camp. I was icing it yesterday, and part of this morning. It comes and goes.

After I finished the first circle I realized I knew how I wanted to do it instead (with organza instead of opaque fabric) so I made one more. I think I am kind of behind in the May circle department.

I'll post a June 1 circle later, and a mosaic of all the May circles as well.

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On the plus side for today: I dropped Alice off at school and popped down the road to see my dad. He's using less painkillers, is sturdier, more himself, and managed to galvanize the entire place yesterday by letting himself out the front door and stomping around the building for exercise.

Then I rode a horse. Then I found kids at school, and after some scrimmage got them correctly distributed.

On the minus side: My camera is working but won't open the lens cover, so the pictures are only a sideways slit. It is really hot, which is making Alice and me miserable.

But: I can take reasonable pictures with my phone, and a bank of thunderstorms is rolling through making big noises and cooling the place down.

On the whole, more pluses than minuses.

This leave is from a Very Large Sumac, it is nearly a tree, and I am embarrassed to say I am running out of trees I recognize.

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Too tired to describe the fun we had!

Becket/Chimney Corners YMCA Memorial Day Family Camp – fun for all concerned.

Another of the trees in Mack's yard.

I think I need more practice writing with the sewing machine.

A hand stitched circle from yesterday. This is a Linden leaf from the tree outside the rehab where my Dad was in Maine. I stayed one more day so I could drive him home today.

He's in a new rehab two minutes past Alice's school, so I can check in on him more easily. the trip was easier than I'd hoped; good drugs and smooth little car. He has fractures in two vertebrae from a fall two days before they moved here, so he's been recuperating there until we could move him. Which happened today.

but this is a rose leaf! I'm afraid I don't search very far for leaves when it is raining. This is rose bush I planted for Alice Rose on one of her birthdays. I love the way the veining branches at at the edges of the leaf, and I am very pleased with myself for getting the stitching under the organza on one side and over on the other. It makes me feel clever.