friday bits

 

We had been out to the farmer's market last night, and then I had a small route to run this morning.  I woke up way too early for it *puff air up forehead*  So I would like to get myself to sleep earlier tonight for the larger route tomorrow, but so far I've gotten up and strung the warp (above) and haven't achieved laying down to try to sleep yet.  I haven't done anything on the blue weaving for a little while - and I didn't add anything else to this but the warp because I want to save my hands for tomorrow.

Last night at the farmer's market I had gotten some peppers that weren't quite 'sweet' and weren't entirely hot - but my fingers stung a little for three hours after chopping them up.  So I made sure to get some sweet peppers to cut up today to mix in with them in food to counteract. 

When I got home from that route, I chopped the vegetables and kielbasa I had bought and put them away in the freezer for quick dinner stuff.  I took care of the garden, then since it was way too early for Mark and Esme to have dinner - and they had just finished making cashew butter fudge, I made my own beans and rice dinner at 3 pm.  They made a larger dinner later, at 'regular' dinner time. 

Did finish the 'smurf blue' bag just a few minutes into starting the market yesterday, and started another one.  I've been thinking about other things to make to bring to the market - dishcloths and potholders and so forth...   I've been thinking of what to do with the cone of cotton yarn I bought and looking at ideas on Pinterest for different textures and designs.  I like some of the fancy things I see but they aren't practical things, wall hangings and such - and for sale as art is one thing, but for myself I like it to be something with a purpose and something that can be washed and used.  Most of what we are selling lately is plants - begonia and coleus, and a few 3D printed things Mark has made.

I did French, and Spanish, and Danish today, and played a bit more on the farming game to get it into the Winter months, and start being able to have cows, make cheese and so forth.  

Mark caught Loki sleeping in the downstairs bathroom sink - and asked me to sneak up on him with the camera.  But, he heard me coming!  I had posted that he is our 'Batman' because of the little double cloak shape that is on the back of his neck.

bits of surrealism

a sketch : Turkey Mama and her Chicks

I couldn't convince myself to get into paints or pencils last night, even though I've been sort of 'itching' to - I can't get over the hump of spreading out even more things, among the things I've put away and those I haven't yet ... and doing messy work that takes physical time, and then putting it away or leaving it out - having yet another physical thing that no one else will ever see except maybe here etc etc... even though the urge to create is really really strong -- I understand most of our society's response to such a creative SPLAT as I used to make daily was : 'Do you ever sleep?  What do you do with all of that?' and those are both valid and further confusing questions

it's an ongoing existential crisis thing and I feel like I deal with it pretty well considering the absolute event-horizon space-warp thing that goes on in my head all the time.  I've worked hard to 'slow my clockrate' as Mark calls it - we're both 'high clockrate' people in his terms, but it's all mental work and sometimes especially after waking up from dreaming, it feels a bit futile and like I really SHOULD race around doing eighteen things, and then I remind myself that I'm only human and it's impossible to do everything at once, no matter how much coffee you drink.  It all feels so surreal, finite vs. infinite, NOW time vs. all other time.

 

So part of my coping with the exact difficulty of 'create--don't create' at the moment is reminding myself I can open my graphic processor, which is not very technically advanced, use it to choose colors and put some things down like a digital etch-a-sketch and just because I don't want to go to my studio table or art easel, it doesn't mean I have to choke that urge down to put an image 'out' of my brain, or play with the process, like the turkey mama and her chicks above.

 

 

and I can try to urge myself to finish other things I've started

pulled this off the little loom and finished it up  

It has a button closure underneath there and is big enough for a pair of glasses, a checkbook or several pens

It's 8 am.  I stayed up until 10 last night (didn't even make nine the night before) and was up only once with a dog, and then slept until 6:30 am.  

Finished the A1 Russian course.  I'll keep going on Duolingo now as I had sort of held off of it and done the other languages because I was guaranteed to get some practice every day doing that.  I feel I can read Cyrillic a lot better than when I started that - which was a goal for Bulgarian learning.  The Bulgarian site sends me a word of the day every day, written in Cyrillic, and I've been able to pronounce it from the word quite a bit better before clicking it to go to the page with the translation, trans-literation and pronunciation audio clip.

did a smattering of Greek, Danish, Spanish and French, will do something on my phone later

started another crochet tote bag to make during television time, it's smurf blue

have to call the mechanic later today (he didn't respond yesterday but I only called him once) and see if he has ordered the parts for the truck.  Work Saturday - of course that is still a worry about getting home, but what can I do about it other than call the mechanic today, which has to happen a little later.  I'm feeling lately like Samuel Beckett just before the Quantum Leap... like I have way too much energy but if I begin to expend it instead of save it for the things I need to do, I will fall to exhaustion instead.  So it's a bit like having your physical body on a leash while the brain is a bouncing puppy.  And yet - I don't want to get into other huge things either, because I can't sustain them.

Baking might help.

Watching a bee gathering nectar in the clover, while watering the garden and filling the chicken dishes, helped a little, too.

Made breakfast, egg and cheese on toast.  Set out a stick of butter from the freezer to thaw to make something with later.

Made cinnamon rolls, with just a glance at a recipe and hardly any measuring (the butter was pre-measured, because it comes in a stick) - they turned out pretty good, at least, while hot and with coffee.  Sometimes these things get hard as a rock when they cool down - will look at that.  I can see why some people use cream cheese in this type of recipe, and perhaps with more flour and something like that I could roll the dough even thinner on the parchment paper and still get it back up without it becoming lace.  It's been years since I even tried to make them from scratch, coffee cake used to be my goto because it didn't require the rolling.

thoughts, pensées

 I had planted ordinary plain basil in my garden for what the fifth time, from seed - recently?  It was a few of those dollar store packets, 4 for a dollar, not much seed in them etc etc.. It was one of those experiments in futility I've been laughed at again and again for... but I thought, yea, why not, this time I'm standing in front of this, pondering buying and planting again as an exercise in futility perhaps, but also in hope - and 'this time for sure' as Mark says.  So instead of waiting months and putting it away for some day - I went out that very day with the little packets and put them in a pot that had been sitting in my garden getting watered - and I made sure to keep watering it, with the rest of the strawberries and such, just in case those seeds succeeded.  And so far, if I can keep water to it - they have - the basil is up and has second leaves all over that little pot.  

So, why did my other attempts at basil fail?  I don't know - I waited too long with the seed, I put them 'someplace special' in the garden that wasn't already a part of everything, and thus, they somehow didn't get enough attention?  The one lime basil I thought failed actually didn't - there are four plants, but they're tiny and I had overlooked them up until now considering the amount of seed I had planted the 'germination' rate vs the cheap packets is dismal.  But - I don't really think that anything was truly wrong with all the regular basil before - it's just perhaps luck as well as utilizing what was in front of me at the right time.  I'm hoping I'll get some good basil leaves to use in cooking later.  

 

a pink tomato variety I'm waiting on ripening

 

I thought about all this while I was pulling a strawberry plant out of a nearby brick out there, it having wandered -- and looking at that pot, and the one next to it with the last strawberry plant I pulled out of somewhere, that is also thriving there.  As I walked down to the garage with the pulled plant, asking it if it had a chance, telling it I was going to give it one, and we'll see what happened, this was the best I could do - I thought about the other situation right next to it, and what philosophically I could get out of this, besides 'keep at it', 'keep looking in front of you' and 'do what you can where you can'... basically, just keep trying.

 

The other thing I did was bring my new garden hose and fittings up from the kitchen into the studio, to be closer to the front door -- I keep passing it by where we dumped it that day putting away the groceries, and knowing I need to do the work to put it on the hydrant and check if all the fittings work together - but I keep passing it by all the same. Bringing it up here will be one less step for when I pick it up and take it outside.  I don't feel I was ready to do the project the day we bought it - it was my birthday gift - and I've been dragging my heels since.  I wonder if there is a fitting I'm missing, and yet, I haven't pushed myself to check because I don't want to break anything taking the old one off the hydrant when we need it so badly in the heat.  It's not going to do itself.  *kick tail* 

 There.  I did it.  Bringing it upstairs first, and then going out after another hour or so for the rest was the key factor.  Besides carrying it upstairs there was the cutting of all the zipties and untwisting the twist ties and unwrapping it from the coil and doing all the rest.  I didn't need any other fittings - but now I'm wondering about the old hose if it would do best as a secondary switchout (would buy another quick connect end for it) or move it elsewhere.

 

 

little butterfly asked me why I was chasing it - well, look at those colors!

It's the Fourth of July, and we're not sure if we'll do anything tonight.  I have to work for four solid days after this - so I always look at that horizon and say 'I'm already tired for next week'...  It is also going to be stupendously hot.  We bought a watermelon yesterday and cut it up, shared some of it out.  That's celebrating, right?  

Speaking of starting and keeping at it, I finished one knit dishcloth yesterday and am part way through a second one.  I know those don't take very long, but they still take some time, preferably while I'm doing something else, like listening to the French podcast or watching a movie.  If we don't go anywhere later I'll take the green and navy weaving off the little loom at the very least and tie off the warp strings, but maybe not weave all the other ends in.

my left hand picked up a pen today and I saw this little dragon nesting with rabbits in the scribbles 

The Catalan is kicking my tail today working with some of the idioms and phrases

I read an article about how many words you know in any language, and of course, it was an ad for a kind of learning software that uses that as a term 'known words' and you mark if you know it or not in all the lessons they have.  I used that software for Japanese for a little bit - but I haven't been back to it since it now wants me to join with a payment plan.  

 

But I was thinking, after reading just a bit of that - how many words do I know in Latvian.... I know it actually is a lot, since I do the vocab program (which is free, BaltoSlav) and regularly score 60-80 in a session, with maybe an average of three sessions being what I mark as an occurrence on this chart. When I do the other program (Babadum) I choose to goto 50 or 100 or 200 points, which means I got at least that many (but maybe some duplicates) correct.  DuoLingo only thinks I know about 4000 French words - but is it true, or do I know more?  It feels like a lot more there - and many more than 3000 Welsh words.  But in actuality, we usually use a small portion of the words we 'know' to actually speak the things we need to every day - unless you are a voracious writer of many topics.  *eyebrow*  

 

I decided to do a little 'reverse' Czech - that is, as if I was an English learner and using the interface in Czech - which really battened down some words for me when I am learning Catalan from Spanish (the only way it is available).  I found the same thing with the Czech - words I only previously knew one 'facet' of suddenly made much more sense and seemed more 'whole' when using them in the interface and having to select the English word for them and reverse-translate sentences.

And I mean, I like charts.  I was doing a Czech word list (that contained lots of declensions, forms of the same word) for Mark, but I'm not about to go counting them on my own for every language.  Stands back and thinks about that... tempting, but no, at least not right now, I've got other things to do. // but maybe I could do a little book in several languages, if I get any ambition towards quantifying a set of words that would be good to make a set for.  I just can't even keep track of flashcards anymore.

Tourne à droite et textiles

 

 

I was thinking on textiles again last night, and working a bit on the navy item above - and then started another small pouch one and got it almost all the way to done, in comparison, the one above isn't too much wider but the density of the weave is much much tighter.  I have that bigger rug to finish in orange and grey (crochet, acrylic scraps), and I keep saying to myself I need to make new kitchen dishcloths (knit in cotton) again.  And this is another reason I feel I don't have enough time to make a lot of things to sell at the markets right now... or in September even, as I barely make time to make the things I want to use in my home, but I'm trying to make time for that, at least.

It's going to be very very hot today, especially if it does not rain.  So, I watered the garden in the early morning and just went out and got some vegetables and milk and bread etc. this morning - and then retreated back into the cool house.  I've done a little bit of language exercise - and we were trying to get some pictures of the tile set Mark has made for my Czech spelling.

 jam, carrot, seven, hoe, tiger, dishwasher, wing, wave, claws, garage, frog, apple, cheese, straw, barn, wire

Hey, I remember them all, too!

/yawn

I really liked that 'plateau' last night that I felt, for at least that moment, that I was doing about the best I could for the day and I had done a LOT.. four loads of laundry, dishes twice, cooking, languages, gardening... and then I took time with music and that green and navy weaving until I was tired enough to sleep.

I did Greek and even Japanese this morning, but as you can see by the title. the French review is on my mind.  I should listen to some radio or podcast or something...after I do the Russian lesson.  I also still need to cook my eggplant lunch, since I settled for using up leftovers last night - the last bit of our pork barbeque leftover from last week, refried with peppers and tomato on a few pancakes and with peaches on the side- which was a huge dinner but Esme ate it with me.  

 

I had read something about the heat-related thing that my inner knee, just to the left/right of the kneecap on the inside, does swelling when it's hot, and the veins popping out there (but nowhere else, my weird body *sigh* probably harder for people with Ehlers Danlos syndrome and hEDS in general, as I'm reading up on it now) and realized I hadn't been getting or eating bananas lately because of the heat and how they don't keep so well then - and that bananas, and peaches, and making sure you are drinking enough fluids (I never drink enough normally, even when it's NOT hot, I have this thing about the pH of water and choking on it, so I drink mostly coffee and very specific liquids I have come to tolerate, like the kool-aid/tea mixture I bring cold in my thermos) and not sitting putting hard pressure on your legs all day long is the key to all of that -- I have only had trouble the past two years in the hottest part of the year with it - and it was odd I hadn't connected the bananas <--> hottest part of the year bit, but yes, I tend to stave off them for a month or two there, and I need to stop doing that and buy one or two and stick them in the fridge and make sure I eat them...  they turn black on the outside in the fridge, but a day or two they're still good to eat plain, and anything beyond that they can still be baked with

 

with tomorrow a holiday, and then work the next two days after that - I expect the variety to fall off... we'll see what happens.  I'm glad I got what I consider some of the harder languages in today.  I need to keep up with the Japanese it can get so easy sometimes to just let the words 'fall to pieces' in the hiragana and be staring at it trying to guess instead of decode and remember... but for not having done it for several months I still did good - one or two errors, and a good refresher on vocabulary.  In Greek I consistently got 'seventeen' wrong *smack forehead*.. guess there's a gap there and I've got to write it out a couple of times (along with several other words, to reinforce the differences)

 

Sauce Recipe for Eggplant :

light olive oil, water, balsamic vinegar - set in pan to heat

add 1.5 tablespoons to 2 tablespoons brown sugar (not packed)

stir while adding 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, and a large squeeze of lime juice

once heated, add about 1/4 tsp of less of garlic powder (Mark says I always put in more garlic than other people can survive next to *ha*) or however much minced garlic you want 

taste, and adjust ingredients if needed - there is a taste right in the middle of everything balanced that is SO good - for stronger sauce, less water at the beginning, but you'll have to watch the soy sauce and oil with the sugar closer as well

This same sauce is really good on kale - wash the kale, make the sauce, and then put the kale in the pan with the sauce and place a cover on it, steaming the kale in the sauce.  Maybe add some red peppers to that and it would be amazing.

I baked five small thai eggplants in some sauce at 350 degrees while I made other things - but putting them in the recipe below makes their skins less hard

What I made Esme tonight : 

light olive oil

1 large tomato cut up

a good handful of frozen onion

a handful of frozen kielbasa pieces

three kinds of frozen peppers (orange, yellow and green banana peppers)

some sauce from above PLUS some smoked paprika

I served that to her beside some of the chicken rice she likes and peaches from the last of the big can we had opened up a few days ago.  I put several strips of eggplant and some extra sauce on my plate with a bit of aged white cheddar on each piece.  It doesn't look great, and it's a bit slimy, but it tasted pretty good anyway.  I never get even that good of a result from trying to cook the large 'regular' eggplants - the long skinny ones seem to be the best fit for me.  Although, I'd like to get more eggplant after another week or so and make it in the recipe to get it written down better.

bit

 So our internet was down when I got back from the short route today - and you would think I would get some things done?  Well, I made rice to put up for making fried rice for dinner... but other than that I played an hour of Stardew Valley (in French) and did language lessons on my phone and took a nap.  I thought maybe I'd read some of my library book (did a little bit the past few days, it is 'Beautiful World, Where are You?' by Sally Rooney) but it was a bit depressing in the interpersonal relationship descriptions and felt like 'rolling in mud and leaves' the other day, stuff sticks, and rolls along, and then stuff falls off and more sticks, and it just keeps rolling without much too much significant, but then maybe it's still building the story.  

When the net came back up I finished the other two language sites (Czech and Russian, I did French on my phone earlier) and we made dinner.  Mark has finished the rest of my 192! tile set for spelling Czech - I was playing with the first 48 and it hadn't been quite enough.  Mark made a pizza for him and Esme - which opened me up to try to make a Black Sesame Seed Chahan recipe with the black sesame seeds I had bought at the natural food store.  I couldn't really tell the difference from regular fried rice - but maybe if I make it again without the seeds and then with it again I can see what the added taste is.  I have a longer, hot route tomorrow - and am needing to make liquid to bring with (Sharkleberry Fin Kool-Aid) in my thermos - and probably head back to bed again.  I have done a little bit more on the blue 'whale shark' weaving, but it still has a long way to go.

They've also announced the application for the September arts program I did for two years, but skipped last year.  I told Mark I am not deciding tonight about it - I'm tired, and I'm not sure 'what I have to say'... I have the new book, but not a lot of copies to bring to a sale table.  We have a nice sale setup now, a canopy and a folding table for the flea market, so it would not be so hard to make a nice setup - but I'm not sure what exactly I have to sell (Mark says I have so much, and then, there is the 3D stuff we have that he has made, as well)... but still, I don't have to decide tonight.  And it's better not to decide when the highest things on my mind are sleep, laundry and getting through tomorrow's 110 degree Fahrenheit heat index.  I work Sunday and also Monday again, as well.

recipe : 

2 eggs fried in olive oil, set aside on a plate

add butter to pan - fry green onions (the white parts), yellow squash (diced) and orange pepper

once that is sizzling and cooked through, add two large heaping tablespoons (probably more equal to four regular) of cooked rice (it had some white sesame seeds in it, but no sugar this time, just put up in the fridge after being made in the mid-morning)

bring back to sizzling, add 1 tablespoon ground black sesame seeds ( I ground 2 tablespoons, but one looked like way too much in the pan), add back the egg and stir it through and some green onion tops (which I keep in sep. bag from the white onion parts in the freezer), add a good big dash of soy sauce 

once that is heated through serve up on a plate

note: the other day I did make some fried rice (yakimeshi, apparently, is a word for this in Japanese) with some sushi rice that had sugar, rice wine vinegar and white sesame seeds in it - I just put an array of vegetables in oil and then added the rice and then the egg and soy sauce at the end, simple .. but with the sugar in it almost made it taste like what I've had in imitation crab cakes ... which I found an interesting comparison. 

the thing I didn't have that was in the recipe was Japanese mayonnaise (which is made with duck eggs?) but they do sell it at one of my stores.  I'm not sure if that would have contained the black sesame seed from staining the rice gray - which it really did.. but since I knew everything that was in the recipe I didn't find that unappealing (although, Mark screamed and said it looked like zombie food - zombie chow!  oh no!) and put a piece of pizza on my plate with it (for protection)

pvc loom crochet hamper huge cat

 

I had set up a very simple pvc loom, but a bit more complicated than this, about eight years ago.  Of course, I drew three plans last night thinking about it, and then went and looked in the box of stuff in the garage, and slapped this together without having to cut anything or go to town for parts. Currently, waiting for my brain to kick in what I've forgotten - or throw some simple acrylic yarn on there and see what the in-real-time issues are that show themselves.  I made a purse on this last time and I know it had a cross-bar of some type.. and it was always falling over with JUST ts on the bottom, so I put some extensions on this one to hold behind the brick.  But still - I know this is only 1.0.. maybe even .99, because I didn't even have to cut anything.  

(curiosity / techie : the height is a good 36 inches (plus a few, so finished 36 is possible), by a potential 36, more likely a 30 or 24 inch width.. we'll have to see.  The bars are now glued in such a way that the top 'u' can be removed, and extended with a coupling and more pipe for greater height, but the bottom cross-bar is glued tight to keep that from slipping and the elbow and T are glued at the top corners, as well)

I would like to try a twill or a herringbone type thing again, and that takes some distance to make it look really nice, but it's also 'tetchy'.  I'd like to try multiple coloured warps.

Mark wants to bake today, and make candy. 

He made terrariums for propagating begonias with Esme the other day, planted coleus and tomatoes etc etc.. They've been very busy there.  Esme bought a new bike with the money I had set aside for her, as her other one was not adult sized and she has grown.  She could have bought whatever she wanted I told her - and that is what she wanted.  It was on sale, and we had to replace some parts on it right away, and it was a bit fraught and tense, but between the three of us we did get it operational and she learned how to use the new gears and brakes which were different from her old bike.  Sometimes when Mark and I are arguing about tools (wrench type and sizes) and methods though, Esme feels like she is caught in the middle... but we got through it, even with my dyslexia that always adds to that.

I made a little distance on the orange weaving although I have no immediate use for it at the moment.

 

Mark was watching a horror film last night (well, historical vampire thing) and I had just begun this, so I continued working on it so I could look at it and not the screen most of the time.  Still, images tried to repeat later when I wanted to sleep - such is a half-photographic memory.  But I made a good progress and I love the colours on it - it is almost all black with the red thread on the bottom, and then it will stripe, then be the lighter color on top with the handles - I made a bit larger one a few years ago and use it as a hamper hanging up, but keep forgetting it by the washing machine and then coming upstairs and saying 'oh, the hamper is gone'.  A second one won't help that entirely, but it can't hurt, and I do love the stripes.

 

Loki cat with all his stripes

telling me I can't make the bed because he is so huge and can't move... it's a queen sized bed, and I usually do put all the blankets right in the morning - but with twenty pounds of parked cat, it's a bit difficult.

 

Charlotte and Minion cat

Languages : Czech, Catalan, Spanish, French, 

bit of still very introductory Russian to compare the Cyrillic

 spellings with the Czech

I tested into third section with the Spanish on my phone, only in the first section of Catalan (tiene muy poco!) which is in Spanish (so it's really double-duty and fun because of that), and into the middle of the first section of Czech, which I was quite happy with as I didn't remember how much I remembered.  Doing the (high level grammar) French and Russian alternatively on the other profile to round out the xp there daily.  Sometimes I can do the French all day and that is the best thing - sometimes I only want to do that grammar once and then move onto something simpler.  I really appreciated alternating with the Cyrillic alphabet today - it felt like I was using another part of my brain that needed the exercise.  I've been considering updating and practicing the Greek again for exactly the same reason, but not quite ready to dive back into Japanese - I feel like that needs more time to percolate through layers and then well back up to be interesting again.

Charlotte snoring loudly and having what seems to be an excellent afternoon nap...  We've made four dozen cookies, Esme has put a ring with the hatchet around a tree that we intend to cut down sometime in the coming years, and I've used some pvc glue on half of the joints of the loom and warped up a strap to test it out with.  I remember I had made myself a 'nail apron' pocket thing to tie to the bottom rail to hold bits of yarn bobbins that were in use - going to have to find that again, it's in the gardening things likely.

Mini Pouch for eyeglasses or other small things

Mini Pouch

sewn from woven fabric about 6x9 inches

 

 

I had hoped it would be large enough to fit a pair of eyeglasses, and it just about does perfectly - maybe a bit too snug.  I'm going to put two more screw pegs on the little loom I had finished making yesterday - and that will give it enough width to make an eyeglass case each time.  

 NOTES:

I had been experimenting with using only some of the width of the big frame - which produces about 15 x 18 inch cloth if I go all the way to the very top with a needle for the last few rows.  To make the handbag I warped it only halfway across and also stopped a few inches from the top, making 10 x 15 fabric.  But then I wanted the smaller frame as well to reduce the time to make something smaller, and to not have to support the entire weight of the bigger frame on something every time I wanted to work.

So now I have three sizes I can make something out of 

15 x 18, table mat, pillow, larger bags

10 x 15, small handbag, small pillow

6 x 9, eyeglass case or small pouch, pockets for inside of other bags

If I really wanted to get fancy I could make four panels of the largest and sew them together and make a pillowcase or a rug - but after doing that much work on something I doubt I'd *really* want to use it as a rug - but it might be a nice thing to lay across the top edge or bottom edge of a bed over the top cover sort of thing (is there a name for that?  Coverlet? I guess just a throw? I use some of my thrifted afghans like that, because I find it pretty, and it gives a 'landing zone' for the cat as well, and keeps the dog off my pillows (sometimes) or at least gives me an idea she jumped up there and I can stare at her disapprovingly as she asks 'but how do you KNOW Mom?' //Charlotte) 

for the record : My standard pillowcase sham looks like it is 30 inches by about 20,22 inches.   A coverlet, a throw?  For that use it would have to be 60 (give or take) by 42-48 inches.

 If I somehow managed to put all the screws into my larger frame that I already have marked out (it's a lot of work, just ten into the little loom yesterday hurt my arm - Mark says I should use the drill press) that would make an area about 22 by 16 inches.  And if I put screws on the cross-wise of that frame, it would make an area 16-18 inches by 40 inches.  That's a lot of screws. And that frame needs a stand really to make anything larger on it - it is heavy and hard to make sit still when you're working on anything.  I was using it mainly for making really long thin straps warped continuously around the whole thing - the way I used to use doorframes when I was a teen and in college to make belts - and had worked up only a 2 inch by 22 inch set of pegs on it to make one strap a while back, but hated the way that yarn combined with the warp so I took it off after only about 8 inches and stuck it in a drawer *sigh*.

 

 the small frame, warped for a second piece, complete with electrical tape repair when I busted a little part of it

 

The Bits:

I did too much weaving that yesterday - but I am sending it off as a birthday present.  I have five days on starting tomorrow at the post office, so I need to resist starting another project and make soup, do laundry et al.  I have a book to read I've started but then haven't been stagnant enough to grab back up.  I'm continuing to learn Spanish through the French interface at DuoLingo, and I feel that it is helping to sort out some of the grammar things that seem much more natural for French but when I try to translate them to Spanish I make mistakes by adding too many articles etc.  

Pineapple Banana Cake, projects, garden thoughts

 

I had read somewhere that pineapple juice will curdle milk, but that heat-processed canned pineapple will not do this.  I had saved some pineapple juice from dinner last night and when I made my banana cake (which has milk and egg in it) I put the pineapple juice in after I had added the flour, and thinned it back out, and then put it directly in the oven.  We'll see how that turns out.

OK, it was a success, and I ate it with peanut butter

2 eggs

2 bananas

some milk

a couple of packed tablespoons of brown sugar

mixed all together - add all purpose flour, baking powder and salt

slowly mix in pineapple juice with the flour 

bake immediately in 350 degree oven for 30-40 minutes until edges are brown

Working on some projects, looking up things on seeds and trees :

The Hazel tree we have needs a partner (or more) in order to produce nuts.

--looked into costs and season times etc.

The Black cherry tree we have is having a problem that looks like the trunk is splitting - asked an extension agent (from the wrong state, but they answered, awesome!) and they told me perhaps frost split and it might heal itself - but it will also be a place where fungus and insects can further damage the tree.  We will watch it this year for more of either of that - brown withering leaves etc etc.. and we might finally chop it down.

 

 possible frost split on a black cherry tree, or black knot, or cytospora canker

I got a hori-hori knife for one birthday for the garden, and I use it, both to dig with and to cut small razor vines and underground roots and such.  I got a Japanese sickle last year or the one before as well (boy the tractor supply guy's eyes were wide on that one) and have used it to cut grasses and lespedeza around here.  I talked with Esme about what both tools were, and that maybe I will look at getting a little hatchet this year to cut down small trees and bushes - Dad got her a machete for one of her birthdays but she doesn't use it, and I don't really feel like that is the right thing for my tasks, either.  I need to track down where my hoe-axe went that I normally keep upstairs here but somehow disappeared during the Fall.  I took the hori-hori out to plant peas yesterday because I could not find the hoe.

Bought some lemon cucumber seeds, they did unexpectedly well last year when the other cucumbers planted with them failed.  Need to plant kale soon.  Been thinking about trying Kenearly beans again, in that front bed where the peppers were - and putting the peppers only in the one bed (I had separated hot from banana this year after mistakenly buying both).  The one little squash I was thinking about planting is not available from the place that was selling it - Lakota, so I dug in my collection and found Little Gem which I had bought and not started any of.  Carrots need to be planted in March? for July.  Sorrel has to be planted in March.  There are already potatoes planted and will have to see if they bring up leaves.  Esme keeps looking for the lambsear plant but I think something dug it up and ate it - so we have talked about getting some more of those.  I see them on my route in several places growing in 'you have to be kidding' conditions between gravel etc.. so I think it had to have some help to entirely disappear.

handcrafted meditation

 

I do a lot of handcrafts, still, even now.  My hands often hate me for it now, but still - I press on, although sometimes a project will sit until I can take the 'balancing point' again between I have to do 'other things' (like driving, etc) with my hands that are more pressing than this.

 That sounds a bit depressing, but it's not -really.  It's a nice thing to have 'in my back pocket' to do in the middle of the night or when I need to think something over.  I'm not solving deep math problems or physics or etc.. but I do let my mind wander far and deep and wide and sometimes that 'doing nothing while doing something' is valuable beyond compare.

 I do tend to use these things - washcloths, and bags, and baskets, hats and scarves and mittens.  They always get used somewhere.  And I do like the 'encapsulated time' effect I also have with items I have made.  I can remember where I was, some of what I was thinking - maybe a movie that was on, by looking at the work.

 A handful of washcloths in different cotton and linen yarns - and a crochet hamper basket, because FB keeps advertising one to me and I scoff and say 'if I wanted to - I could make something as useful, maybe not as 'chic' as that one - but it would be mine.

 

 

The green shawl I made this summer while I was waiting for them to do my eye surgeries. It was something I could do (all one stitch straight across) and keep my mind off things. 

 

I finally sewed up all the ends yesterday and patched the one spot where the dark green yarn had frayed to a single strand and I hadn't noticed until after they fixed my eyes -- when I was at the end of it. It looks like it will hold with the repair and I am still quite happy with it. It fits around my shoulders and neck and is very warm, just like the one I had made with this yarn before. 

 

More than that - it's a sort of 'container' for that time and all the thoughts and uncertainty that was in those hours, but I was still pressing on with doing things rather than sit there and stare at the wall thinking about things I couldn't make happen faster or fix by myself.

a Raised Bed garden for vegetables

The raised bed garden I built between yesterday and today for Irene. 

along with her cat and dog helpers :)

It is 16 standard cement blocks, and about 12 bags of different soils, a third of which is 'container gardening mix'   We lined the bottom of the area with cardboard before we put the soil on top, just like I did in my own raised bed garden three years ago.  The next step is to water it down good, and let it drain a little, and plant a few test quick-germinate things to make sure the ph level is good. 

Radishes like pH of 4 to 5.  If they come up purple instead of green - it is WAY too 'hot' of soil.  Komatsuna and mustard greens like 5 to 6 pH, and cabbage likes 6 to 7.  All of these things should show 'signs of life' within 3 to 6 days if the soil mixture is good.  If it is, then put the greenhouse plants in it.  If you see any warning signs, get a pH kit or, in the case of knowing that it is 'hot' - add pelletized lime, water down and let drain again before trying again.

bits and pieces

I have been knitting more dishcloths, finished one net bag and halfway through another.  The first one was too big for books but probably just right for beach towels.  I miss those sweet days going to the Carroll Lake beach with Esme last summer, sitting with my big floppy hat and knitting while she played in the sand and water, trying out her new swimming skills.  Back then, I was stressed out but had no idea exactly what was coming in the next few months, June, July and then August - which as when everything hit the fan - Tony ramping up his intimidation thing at work, and Dad getting sicker, and my teeth... all of it came into play.  And of course, if anyone had told me about everything that has happened with the coronavirus even last November, I would have told them that it sounded like a science fiction story plot for a B rated movie.

Today I have been playing Minecraft survival mode with monsters, Normal Mode (get hungry from walking, swimming, jumping, and need to eat or start to lose health).. and binge watching Stargate SG-1.  Esme played some Skyrim, and then went to her room to play Minecraft server mode with her online friends.  Mark and I talked a lot about the news.  Paid some bills.  Ready to run my postal route tomorrow.  Not sure about the medical supply/ device job - they say it is essential but the supplies are not 'essential' for most people.  But it would be for some.  Trying to think how to phrase that when calling my customer to ask if they need the item now or want to wait a few days...

Brought some eggs up to Irene today.  Did lots of laundry that needed doing.  It was getting much nicer outside, sunny but still cold.  The seedlings in the window have to be transplanted to new bigger pots soon or put outside - and with the hard downpours we've been having I'm reluctant to put them out.  I need to plant the kale, lettuces and mustard , too - and maybe some radishes.

Had French onion soup for breakfast and that was excellent.. then rice pudding with zante currants and cinnamon for lunch.  Been thinking about getting more supply of my miso soup and green tea that I like but they were hard to find even before everyone started panic buying... and I don't want to make a trip out to find them.  I have other green tea, and have been drinking that and my citrus vitamin C rosehips tea. 

some handicrafts

I could get the better camera, but these are not fancy things.  I've been knitting to keep my boredom and thoughts calm while I watch TV the past week or so - even before the panic really started with everyone and the coronavirus...

Esme stayed home from school.  I gave her the choice, as Benton county, McKenzie and Paris all shut down for the week but Huntingdon was holding out.  Everyone says Huntingdon will do it as well this week -- they have Spring Break next week but so did everyone else who closed.  I'll see what the news rolls in over the course of the day.

I made about eight washcloths (not all shown here) in cotton and linen.  They will be used in the bathtub and the kitchen sink, depending on the material and texture.  And I worked more on the lap blanket I began in December and finished it.  It was made of one huge skein of hot neon pink yarn and stripes of bits and bobs I had lying around.  It is very warm - but not much more than covering your lap while reading or knitting on the couch.

 picture is blurry, but they're already in the washing machine now, so this is what we got.  I found some really nice color combinations at Hobby Lobby the other day, and I also made up some plain cotton ones and some two-tone linen ones.

 this is a really bright neon pink Esme and/or Mark gave me for Christmas one year.. and there was so much of it I wasn't sure what to do.. so I broke it up with bits of other scraps in stripes.  I still have to weave in all the ends now - one bad thing about stripes!  It is very warm - sitting under it will half cook your feet.  Which, lately, is what we need.  It has been just so cold.

We doctored Minerva's eye yesterday, our sweet 'mama' dog who adopted Rex.  We couldn't find a cut or scrape either there or on her ears or neck or anywhere - but she had a bump near it and the eye was swelling  and weeping.  After a few hours the swelling had gone down.  This morning she looks almost better, just a little redness in that eye still.  I hope it stays okay now.  We bought a bit more medicine in Tractor Supply in case it starts up again after all this crazy is going on in the markets.

I am working on a green net market bag, that is coming close to getting to the top band and handle.  It has been sitting in my desk drawer for months at an odd stage .. something wasn't working.. I ripped it back last night and started it again, seems to be doing properly now.

Haven't been out to the garden today yet.. the cabbage seedlings seemed to do okay with their sun yesterday, no burning showing.  I picked up extra kale and mustard seed at the co-op while we were there picking up two bags of dog food. 

A visit to my LYS in Murray, Kentucky Red Bug Yarn and Gifts

I found a good quantity of 'Linsey' yarn by Berrocco, which is 65% cotton, 35% linen, and 'Creative Linen' by Rowan, which is 50/50.  The yarns have a beautiful drape and the contrast will go nicely in a woven project.  I need to build a new larger skinny frame loom to do the project I'm thinking of.

The drape and feel of it was a big draw.

 Esme also found some 100% wool and a cute measuring tape. 

I told her if she is going to a yarn store she should at least buy one skein of yarn to experiment with.

 

This is the 'Shawl in a Ball' continuation.  I found a circular needle to help make this project not so heavy on my elbow.  I had started it on straight needles before I realized how much it would weigh as the project got longer and longer.

 

This is what the tapestry project looked like at stage one

And I'll call this one stage two point five...

A showy butterfly on the zinnias

The only 'Teddy Bear' sunflower that has bloomed so far

Blast from the Past :
I was trying to remember the name of the yarn store in Fargo, North Dakota when I used to live there.  It was called 'Yarn Renaissance" and it was in the downtown area., but within biking or walking distance (2 miles) of my duplex on 7th avenue.  I remember biking down that long stretch straight to the store and then cruising back with whatever little thing I had found, usually a skein of Baby Ull DK (merino wool 6 dollars) or Sugar n Cream cotton.  I made a green and white woven wool purse from their materials (they had wool felt, too) with green glass turtle buttons that I used the year that I graduated from NDSU.  I remember swinging that purse on my shoulder in my graduation gown and then having to hand it off to my mom and dad when it was time to line up.  I found a news article that said it closed in July, 2007.

bits and bobs

Did a little cleaning out yesterday - unearthing projects in my sewing table, finishing some things and organizing.  Cleaned out the hats and scarves and gloves bag by our door - and all the hopeless cases are removed and only useable things (and gloves with matches) are in there now.

WIPs work in processes :
I have a pair of gloves in a gray discontinued yarn that I hope will be enough to make them complete.. started them before Christmas and only got as far as the index finger on one hand.

There is a satiny mulberry yarn scarf in simple garter stitch that I have been working on for more than a year -- did a bit on that.

Unravelled the zigzag thing I was trying the other day back to yarn and three gray hats that we never used much.. yarn for something else and more practice.  There are several hats in the bag that we do use.. although I have to repair one of them.

Sewing WIP : I have cut down Esme's old kangaroo cloak for 'parts'... making a stack of four kitchen cloths out of it and will have scraps to put in another project.  She was a little sad about this but the young dogs (Kif and Rex)  grabbed it down from a hook the other month and began chewing around the button... rescued it but no, it is no longer 'heirloom' save it for her kid territory... and the rest of the cloth is very good - so make it into something useful.  I also have a bolster from our bed that, now that we have the new headboard last fall, is too large to be under the pillows.  The old board had a much larger gap between the mattress and the board and now the bolster is just 'too much'... going to cut it down for parts and make it longer and skinnier.

Found an old sweater I was knitting last year.. and all the yarn to complete that... not sure if I will continue on that.  Looking it over trying to figure out 'what in the world' I was doing with it.  I never use a pattern so.. I'm probably lucky the piece that is finished looks like it would fit any part of me.  It does.. look like it will fit some part of me.. but I know there are measurements and such in a notebook if I can find them I'll know more than 'make a mirror of this one and then guess'...

Not bad for a start!  Cleaning up that is.

I'm still learning Welsh... bought an English-language cookbook about old Welsh traditional cooking... interesting and a bit 'archaic'.. the recipes are little more than lists of basic instructions 'start with a pound of flour' etc... not like a typical recipe nowadays.  Still, lots to be learned there.

I've also given in and for Esme's sake, as that is the language she wants to learn when they offer it in school, I've begun doing a Spanish language lesson each morning while I wait for her to get ready before the school bus.  She doesn't hear it.. but it helps to do it then and keep it 'separate' in my head from my Welsh studies later in the day.  It doesn't do badly for keeping me at the top of the charts in my 'video game of Duolingo' as Mark calls it.. either...

Today would have been my mom's birthday.  I lit a candle for her last night.. since I had missed doing that in February.

This was a scarf at first.  Then I made it a shrug by sewing the sides together to make sleeves.  Then the other night I was wearing it and I was STILL cold.  So, I added a tighter rim around it and longer sleeves and a clasp at the front with a button to hold it on.  So, its makeshift.. but I'm wearing it and that really counts.  It's there to throw on when I'm freezing.


recipe for Bulgur Wheat and Cabbage with Celery Seed, Red Beans and Tobasco

I made this for lunch and everyone was following their noses to the breakroom when I had it in the microwave.  I took inspiration from a 2017 BHG recipe.. which, of course, I didn't have everything for.    The things in the other recipe I substituted were green cabbage for radicchio, and tobasco sauce in lieu of green or Kalamata olives.  I also added some red beans because they were in the fridge already next to the cabbage.

Ingredients:
Fresh Green cabbage
Bulgur wheat (red or white, I used red)
garlic clove
olive oil
tabasco sauce
cauliflower (frozen okay)
canned red beans
lime juice
garam masala
salt
pepper
 celery seed

step 1:
Boil 1.5 (plus a little more) cups of water in a glass beaker and pour into a glass mason jar containing 3/4 cup of red bulgur wheat.  Cover mostly with a lid and let steep for 10 to 15 minutes (while you do everything else)
step 2:
About a cup of steamed cauliflower, pulsed in food processor with one clove of garlic, generous topping of black pepper and a few squirts of lime juice and tabasco sauce


step 3:
chop up some green cabbage - maybe 3/4 cup? and sprinkle with salt, pepper and celery seed.  Heat 1 tbsp olive oil (and I put a tiny bit of walnut oil on top of that because my olive oil is getting slim).  Toss seasoned cabbage in the oil until it begins to wilt.  Add the cauliflower mix from step 1.. stir well, let steam a little with a lid over it.

step 4: 
drain the remaining water from the wheat and add to the cabbage and cauliflower mix - stir up well.  Add about 1/2 cup of canned beans to mixture and also 3/4 cup of water.  Add a smidge of garam masala over the surface.. maybe even less than 1/8 teaspoon - I just did a pinch and didn't measure.  Put lid back on and steam some more on medium to low heat for about 7 minutes... we want the wheat to soak up some more of the spiced liquid and get a little less chewy.. and the beans to soften up a little as well.  Make sure nothing sticks to the bottom of the pan, turn it o ver and steam until the wheat is the right texture (add more moisture if needed ,but should be okay).

I added this to some slightly sweetened cornbread and it was a very spicy good meal.

Two new bags

Esme's gym bag had disappeared out of her school bag... but it might still be around here somewhere... But I used this fabric to make her a very distinctive new one with a pink shoelace tie, and made myself a new larger lunch bag to bring my quart jars and containers in.  Mine has a pocket on the side and is actually a little larger than I wanted it to be.  The size of her gym bag is just right - it was one fat quarter for the bottom and half a fat quarter for the top piece.

chickens moving on up

T

The chickens are moving on up to the bigger cage - the one that Esme and Mark built for the rat and the hamster.  They will be warm and safe here until they feather out and we can build something better for them outside.  For posterity : they are 'Cinnamon Queen' variety.

I've been busy today.  I went through Esme's old clothes again (because she just tends to hide them or stack them when they don't fit or are torn) and also moved up her bookshelf in her room with all of the new 'older' books we've been getting.  It fell once - and I had to pound the supports down into the standards on the wall and lighten the load.

Where the shelf was before was exactly at 'sit down on the couch and smack yourself on it' level.. and we needed it a little higher.  She has been sitting there tucking up with me to watch Welsh cartoons at night, and I hope we might get to reading again.

Hello Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly was excellent - I read it on my Kindle today.  I'm reading her Wolves of the Beyond 'Lone Wolf' book by Kathryn Lasky, too - before she does.. and it seems like it will be a really good match for her.   I have 'The Hazel Wood' by Melissa Albert on my Kindle now, it was highly reviewed.

I need to get her 'The Mage' by Inbali Iserles and a copy of the Hello Universe but both of them are a bit high right now as they are new releases.  Have them on lists and alerts if one gets cheap.

Our plants arrive on Friday!  We had ordered hosta and day lilies and some other ornamentals from Gilbert H. Wild and sons.   And it is supposed to be nice this weekend.  yay!

Lucy thinks the chickens are hers to look after.  She has been sitting here with Esme and watching them.  She had to sniff every other one as Mark put them from one cage to the other.  She said they didn't smell right on the tail end.  *ha*  People raise strange puppies, apparently.

Construction Projects and Chicken

We've done a lot these past few days.  Esme's bed and mattress had come (it's early birthday and something we've been wanting to do for a long time).  She loves her new room.  It was such a project putting it together!

All finished and everything is in place.

 Looking down at me like a teenager

 

 I swear I will be careful with this ladder!

Her room looks so bright and colorful, -- also, very full, but a cool room!

 

There was some swearing happening during this stage - things had to be forced into place...

 

I love this expression on Esme's face! 

Slat, Key, Scalpel, What?

And Mark bought ten pounds of chicken on special and fried it up.  He put it away in the fridge for later and Esme took some up to Grandma.

 Chicken!

 I was able to eat this with some lime juice, which is a first for me.  I've avoided chicken cooked on the bone for years and years - more than twenty.  But I had this idea that lime or orange juice is 'the opposite color' of what I don't like about the bone taste.