Thoughts

I think I may be closer to renunciation. I need to have a long discussion with the kids. Those of you who know me know that this has been on my mind for several years. It comes in waves.
That said, I'm still an American resident overseas and a member of AARO and I still support AARO and think it is a good association. I encourage Americans residing overseas, or thinking of it, to become members of AARO. I especially encourage young adults, even those Americans born abroad to be become members.
To take my mind off such matters, I've been knitting. My aim is to reduce the stash of yarn I have. Some of it has been stashed since we moved to this house in 1985. Some, most, is more recent because I got over-enthusiastic in my purchases since bringing my machine out of hibernation. I've since added more machines, but I only work on one project at a time.

On Sunday morning, before going out, I experimented and made a poppy. I based it on Safia Addnan's YouTube demonstration of a five-petal flower. It only took a few minutes to make. Of course, in England and other Commonwealth countries, the sale of poppies goes to support veterans and if you can, you should contribute, even if you wear this nice knitted poppy. I wore it the other day and got compliments.
In France, the symbolic flower for WWI is a cornflower, not a poppy. I haven't figured out how to knit that. They don't make such a big thing of it, here. If there is a charity to donate to for this, specifically, I don't know what it is. Here's the story and the poem behind it and in English. Looking at the picture on the wikipedia page, it looks like it could be done: two five petal flowers, where you create slits (cast off and cast on again) to avoid the rolling. One larger than the other. I'll try it out. In the evening, hand-knitting. I'm on socks, again.