We used to get a lot of stuff via junk mail. Now it’s junk email. My email program has a filter on it that’s supposed to sort through the incoming stuff and sort it to relevant and junk status, depending on what’s in the title. And it does, to a point, but I still get a lot of junk in with the other stuff.

One thing that I do, whether it’s email or snail mail, is to throw out anything, unread or unopened, that has my name spelled wrong. With a first name like Adrien, there is a lot of latitude in spelling options, so that takes care of a lot of the junk.

–aft–

I lied unintentionally when I wrote that I would do no canning this year. My sister came for the Moab Music Festival and brought peaches from Palisade with her. Giant peaches. And so we canned. Or, rather, she canned while I offered hints and moral support. I’ve been canning now for over 50 years, so it’s old hat to me, and I still have full bottles left from previous years. Some are really previous years, such as the dark brown apricot jam from 2001, or was it 1991? It’s good not to keep this stuff around for too long. I remember cleaning out Sam’s mother’s cellar after her passing. I don’t want to wish that on anybody else.

Anyway, I’d rather be spinning or knitting.

But wait!

Sena brought over a satchel full of very large, dark red Colorado chokecherries. I sure like chokecherry jelly. So they are getting juiced out a batch at a time, and if it comes to that, the juice freezes well for later jelly making

–aft–

It’s still only September, but the holiday catalogs have started to arrive in abundance. This requires some judicious sorting, sort of like the junk mail. If I have ordered from the outfit before and been pleased with products offered, I’ll give the piece a fairly good look-through. If it’s a company that’s new to me, it goes in the trash. Being in the printing business, I shudder to think of the volume of catalogs that hit the trash bin unopened. Those that do order from the shunned catalogs pay for the future printing of more catalogs, so the lesson is that it’s best to shop at home.

–aft–

The Saturday morning spinning group at Desert Thread has decided to expand its horizons and to take on a name. Since there is no national, international or goddess-sanctioned organization to which we have to apply (that we know of) to become our own entity, we’re just striking off on our own. We are the Canyonlands Fiberarts Guild. So far, no bylaws, dues or other structure, but I suppose those things will have to come in time. Our first event will be a fiberarts demonstration day on Oct. 12 on the lawn next to the Museum of Moab. More details on that later.