SOLSMarch 9: 50 Objects, a Cuban grasshopper

This is a grasshopper woven from grass. I bought it at a bus rest stop while on a tour of Cuba in December 2016. A young man, and possibly his sister, was sitting at the rest stop with a collection of these freshly woven grasshoppers for sale to any tourist who might wander by.

            My daughter and I were with Go Ahead Tours, and this trip was focused on art and music, with stops at a music school for children and with various artists. The rest stop may have been when we went from Havana to Cienfuegos. We got out of the bus to walk around, and when I saw these hand-woven grass grasshoppers, I had to have one. Even now that it’s dried, it’s still lovely.

            This trip was just a month after our election, and on our last day, we had a chance to ask our tour guide about Cuba, but he wanted to know, what about Trump? What kind of president would he be? He was obviously wondering what Trump would mean for Cuba, since travel like ours was still linked to art and education. And Trump did ban individuals going to Cuba for these purposes in 2017 and group travel in 2019.

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I’m participating in the 17th annual Slice of Life Challenge over at Two Writing Teachers. This is day 9 of the 31-day challenge.  It’s not too late to make space for daily writing in a community that is encouraging, enthusiastic, and eager to read what you have to slice about.  Join in!

SOLTuesday: My Life in 50 Objects, #12

            Some years ago, I posted the first of what I intended to be a series. At the beginning of the pandemic I posted several more, then stopped. As you can see, I'm good at starting projects, but not so good at continuing and completing them. Let's see whether I can finish this one.

            I don’t know yet whether there will be as many as 50 objects or more than 50. We’ll how it develops. What I am aiming for is to describe the objects in my apartment and why I have kept them, what they mean to me, so that after I’m gone (which I don’t expect to be any time soon) my younger relatives won’t be saying,“Why did she keep this old thing?” My mother said she would do that for her jewelry, but she never did.

 

My mother was a craftswoman. She sewed, she knitted (while reading a book or watching TV, no less), she embroidered. Along the way she picked up needlepoint. This project started from a UNICEF greeting card I sent her. She liked the image so much she had it imprinted on a 30”x25” piece of canvas and copied it in yarn. At the bottom, she  stitiched her name and I think she meant to add the year, but the only numbers there are 197 (1970 something). After she died, she left many framed embroideries. I posted photos online so relatives could have their pick, but I didn’t post this one. I wanted it for myself.

 

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It’s Slice of Life Tuesday over at Two Writing Teachers. Check out this encouraging and enthusiastic writing community and their slices of life every Tuesday. And add one of your own.