Shortbread and welcome blankets

Sudden need for shortbread, today, and since it's hot and the ac is on it's not too wild to bake.  So after studying my Big Australian Baking Book, and Martha Stewart's Cookies, and noting the lengths both go to to make a simple project into an olympic feat, I fell back on the old simple Sunset book.  Same results, basically, with many fewer fiddly steps.  I added some lemon zest into the mix, like that subtle taste.

So the beloved castiron baking pan came into play, and afternoon tea included a couple of squares of shortbread, plain, unpretentious. Next time Handsome Son shows up for a cup of tea, there will be a little something for him to go with it. He loves shortbread.  Well, he dives into any food I offer him, but some items he likes more than others.

And my blanket project, knitting sections for Warm Up America, has now been swept into the successor to the Pussyhat Project, the Welcome Blanket project to be exhibited then donated to incoming refugees, as a token of welcome and warmth.  Some knitters are getting into this with significant icons and colors, and I'm mainly knitting my stash.  

There will be a pocket containing a note of welcome, though.  And I'm using acrylic, so as not to add to the burden of people coming through such an ordeal.  Acrylic washes easily, no worries.  No hand washing, nor blocking. So I refrained from using my handspun.

I knitted one section today, and I think I can do one a day without busting up my hands.  They're hoping to start receiving in July, blankets, not people, that is.  I'm heartened by the number of refugees who have been quietly welcomed throughout all the blustering of politicians trying to stop them, and would like to add my bit. I will be doing my own joining up, though, not just sending a stack of sections.

And I got a reward this afternoon, when I looked up and saw a hummingbird browsing busily among the lantana, flying between the stems, backwards, too.