Yesterday I went to get more pictures of the chicken of the woods which had been exploding on all sides of the fallen logs, and found it has a very short life.
Wonderful October day
Where there had been big brackets, only a couple of shriveled little bits remained.
A short and vivid life. I also noticed a downed tree trunk from a couple of seasons ago showing what I think is damage from Sandy.
That twisting happened to a lot of mature trees from the force of the storm, bringing them down all around us. Think Ian, only over my house.
The short and merry life meme can't be said of the endless jigsaw puzzle about the parrot. After about three months of occasionally managing to get a piece in, I'm here
And as a change of pace, I marked out the lines for overstitching around edges of the upcycled vest.* The lines are done in ink which disappears in heat, so if they don't disappear with handling, ironing will do it.
And since the pumpkin walnut bread was so great, completely displacing banana bread as a go-to, I thought I'd make it again, but ended up changing it.
It became pumpkin cranberry muffins, same batter, higher oven temp, shorter baking. Handsome Son is visiting tomorrow, so he'll have a selection of paneer cookies, the last one, pumpkin walnut bread and pumpkin cranberry muffins. I don't think he comes for the food, but it doesn't hurt.
Rain today, and I still haven't put on the heating, mild October despite recent light frosts.
Happy day everyone, enjoy your stitching and knitting and cooking and puzzling and walking, or just sitting peacefully on the sofa not bothering anyone.
*New readers: this is made from an upcycled pair of jeans, and lined with sari fabric. I'm a hand stitcher. Anyway this is a way to stabilize the lining at the same time as echoing the sashiko stitching on the back, as well as the running stitches on the original pockets.
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Wow, that chicken of the woods sure changes quickly! Thanks for documenting its rapid rise and decline. I wonder if woodland creatures have been nibbling it, or if it just releases spores and says "OK, I'm done". The inky caps in our garden mulch have the same fast senescence.
ReplyDeleteThose muffins look scrumptious enough to eat! :-)
First frost here last night - garden is finally toast after many weeks of perfect fall weather. We welcomed the rain that pushed in with the cold front. I love seasonal changes.
Chris from Boise
One of my neighbors last year, city lady, was ranting about the sudden overnight crop of giant puffballs, saying it was the landscapers job to get rid of them!I explained they'd be gone anyway in a day or two. She looked very disbelieving though.
Deleteoooh boy - we search for puffballs every year in hopes of finding one to eat!
DeleteI think it just collapsed. No sign of biting on it, just deflated.
ReplyDeleteDid I just read on another blog or elsewhere of a mother and child who ate the wrong mushrooms and became very very ill? As memory kicks in, yes, it was a blog that I read just a bit earlier this morning.
ReplyDeleteThe heat is gone from our canyon, so time for baking again. Your bread sounds yummy.
ReplyDeleteYes. The life of a fungi is short unless, I suppose, we include the continuation of its line in which case- ancient.
ReplyDeleteI finally gave my completely over-ripe bananas to the chickens this morning. I am not going to make banana bread. I already have focaccia and bagels! Enough! More than enough!
Your vest is lovely.
And your puzzle is a perfect example of persistence!
I see Ellen has also joined the anti banana bread movement. It must be a thing.
DeleteI read that as a short life for muffins, too. Which makes sense to me as if I made them, they would be gone shortly! I do like your vest and I think it's an excellent idea to extend your life lease.
ReplyDeleteYou got the joke! And I need to investigate the protocols for life extension waivers. I think it involves exercise and green leafy vegs.
DeleteHA!
DeleteI have three lengths of saris and I would like to make something with ithen but I have no idea what the fabric is. One is cotton I'm sure but the other two? One of them silk maybe, the other I think is also cotton but has a heavy design in silver thread. How on earth do I launder them? or iron them?
ReplyDeleteI have two very ripe bananas that are going in the compost pile. I used to make sweet breads for snacking when the kids were little but that was before I needed to watch my blood sugar and the last thing my husband needs is unnecessary calories.
Pumpkin is such great stuff for sweet and savory, goes with so many other things, and its good for us. Your muffins look great.
ReplyDeleteCan you put your name in the comment box? I like to know which friend is commenting. Ty.
DeleteI can't wait to see what that parrot looks like in the end!
ReplyDeleteYou and me both, Steve. Good thing it's mine not a library puzzle with a waiting list.
DeleteI made pumpkin apple cake today. I froze it in pieces for dessert or afternoon tea or coffee. Pumpkin is great for cakes.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering now about using some of that apple mixture I made for crumbles into a cake or muffin ingredient instead. Thanks for the nudge.
DeleteI've changed my settings back to embedded replies from me. I had changed before because there was concerns that the embedding was interfering with comments. But full page is cumbersome, so I'm back.
ReplyDeleteI bet those muffins are wonderful! Not a banana bread fan myself, so the pumpkin muffins are much more appealing.
ReplyDeleteYou're SO close to being done with that parrot puzzle! Perhaps you can bribe yourself with one or more of those delicious looking muffins to finish it.
ReplyDeleteIt's not lack of effort. It's just no piece will fit anywhere at this point! I've literally tried every piece everywhere in all directions..
ReplyDeleteSince that cry of desperation I've fitted two count them more pieces.
DeleteInteresting way you do your jigsaw puzzle. I always do the border first. You seem to go from the top left down.
ReplyDeleteNormally I do that too. But this one has many interchangeable parts all so identical that I could only do part of the border. It's really difficult, so I ended up just doing whatever section I could and building from there in a kind of circle! And I had to take out quite a few pieces that looked fine until a couple of pieces later, it wasn't working. This one's much harder than the San Francisco one I did before which looked harder.
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ReplyDeleteThe women here generally have one or two puzzles going at once. One is pine trees on a beige background. I am no puzzler, but sit and sort and keep company. Last week they got nowhere, until I counted the border pieces, ostensible completed. One side had one extra, which I pointed out. Women who know more than I do followed the intricate pattern, found the three that did not work and switched them.
Maybe they'd like to be puzzle consultants. I could use their expertise.
DeleteAdmittedly, I know very little (OK next to zero) about fungi, but the chicken of the wood name was interesting to read about. Now, baking is something I do recognize and your pumpkin-cranberry muffins looked great. My Sunday baking was homemade cinnamon buns because I convinced my husband that we did not need to buy the Pillsbury grand ones at over $6 a can. You have more patience than myself for working on the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteHomemade baking is usually better. You know what's in it!
ReplyDeletePumpkin muffins will be on the list here now that we have such a vast amount of pumpkin puree in the freezer. Have to eat up the current lot of zucchini ones first though.
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