Pond life and pressing issues

 Yesterday's walk to the pond disturbed many big frogs, see the circles where they'd leaped when I got near, and I could see eyes above the surface checking for when I'd gone. The drake hurried away when he saw me.

And the linen tunic is done.

Now I need to get my pressing mojo going, and it will be ready for primetime.

Speaking of pressing, the last couple of days have acted on my life like a high wind clearing dead foliage from the trees. The bitter disappointment of the "debate", followed by the even more bitter ageism and misogynoir that followed,  even from people I'd thought better of, served as a reset in my online life. 

I take it personally when people, after a hugely successful presidency to date, saving our economy, putting us back on the world stage, are willing to throw it all away because of one fall at a fence. And then say a great president, five years younger than me, isn't up for it. When he's doing the whole job. 

And then go on to say there's no backup. As if Harris weren't there, campaigning brilliantly, crisscrossing the country. The mainstream media aren't covering her, so sheltered people who believe the newspapers think she's not out there.  She'd be a great president.  We'd be in good hands. 

I can't help thinking the people still crying after Biden himself got back up and gave a barn burner of a speech the next day, well, they'd never make it as immigrants!

The Philadelphia Inquirer, locally known as the Philly Inkwire, came out with a great editorial saying if anyone needs to step down, it's the convicted felon rapist T***p. Yay, signs of intelligent life. I hope they pick up the subscriptions the other newspaper is currently hemorrhaging.

So I've cleared away blogs and accounts which now seem to shed more heat than light.  So that's me, today. 

I don't mind disagreement. A difference between friends can teach both of them a little something, and I'm still learning. But I've definitely found out who my friends are.  And I need to protect myself from ageism. 

Happy day, everyone! Now I'm taking Sandy Boynton's advice here

Pride isn't just June. It's a lifetime. So the flag will continue after June's over.

Pets and other mixed blessings

 Here's the current reading 

He also wonders to what extent pets really are good for our health, an interesting and provocative question.

My own experience of fifty years of sharing my home with multiple animals, all rescues one way or another, is that I loved them a great deal. I wondered how I'd manage after Duncan, my last cat, died in old age. 

Then I found that I experienced great relief from the incessant worry about aging and frail pets. The financial burden was very real. 

Most of all, I found my own company was enough, surprisingly. When single people with pets say they live alone, they don't. You're alone when you have no animals nor people. 

I'm surprised to realize that worry, as the only human in the house, without a partner to share the responsibility and cost, had overtaken pleasure in the company of my aging frail pets. Live and learn.  

So that's where I am.  We do have a confused and confusing relationship with animals, and I don't claim all the wisdom, just observation of my own experience.  

The age of the human is a factor. After eighty, things are different, at least for me. Back in my seventies, no problem, but later, not so much.  Right now I'm happy to have a puppy next door, kitties across the street. 

The owners of same were over yesterday to admire my flower garden and I'm going to be given another clump of daisies from a prolific bed of them across the street. 

More like these, which I have out front. I'll put them outside the back fence to proliferate at will.

So that's me. Still cool enough to walk today. My hip appreciates that, much less owie when I get out walking.

On the home front, more demands, sigh. I still have to replace the water heater at the condo to satisfy HOA needs. And now I'm getting reminders that I have to get the chimney and dryer vents inspected and cleaned at the townhouse I live in.  Also proof of insurance, which I did right away, that was easy.

These are all safety issues, but arghgh, another expensive summer, what with hearing aids. Good thing my idea of vacation is sitting reading on the deck.  I haven't used the fireplace in years, but getting it sealed is more expensive than getting it inspected when they notice it's due.

Last summer it was fridges, two, one for each property, oh well.  Summertime, and the livin's expensive, tra-la.

Update on the ficus: she's been repotted in a much bigger, terracotta, pot, pruned a bit and is in excellent hands. I don't have the strength to do what her new custodians have done for her, so it's all good. And she's now in a place with soaring ceilings and overhead light, so she'll probably get taller. I feel rewarded. 

Next time I'm there I'll get a picture if they'll let me. Photos have been banned thanks to the antics of right wing book banners trying to doxx library staff. But they might let me do a sneaky snap. 

Happy day, everyone, life's a banquet. Off to walk now and stitch while listening to Herzog, later.

And a request: bloggers who routinely get my comments. In the last few days almost all are vanishing, probably into spam. I often ask about this, and some people are very obliging in checking their spam and rescuing comments. Please check! Otherwise it's not a functioning dialog. Anyway, just sayin'.

Knitting group, breakfast and other rigid assumptions.

Just a note: I am a committed political activist, plenty of opinions about last night and plenty of political action plans with my buds, and my blog is not the place to discuss it today. Thank you.

I was eating blueberries and wheat bread for breakfast and thinking it seems natural to have grains and fruit with a hot drink for breakfast. Just as it seems better to read fiction in the afternoon, not before lunch. 

And I remember how upset we all were when we started high school (age 11 in the UK) and had to do math in the afternoon! We practically revolted against such an affront to nature! Everyone knew math was in the morning, literature in the afternoon.  It was right, that's all. 

One of my US friends used to like a bowl of egg drop soup for breakfast. Not a Chinese friend, just liked it then.  It sounded so wrong. What rigid ideas I still seem to have, to be sure. Just as everyone knows the label end of the pillow goes in the case first. And the open end goes to the middle of the bed. No, I don't know why either.

I suppose it simplifies life to have these fixed points, but they tend to develop into railings shutting us inside without a key if we're not careful.

Friday knitting group was fun, a combo of knitting, weaving and stitching. 

One person learned how to use the pinloom, seen here in a beautiful top she knitted, while her retro table cover stitching waited, another is completing an Icelandic sweater, and my socks go on and on.

A couple of women, mother and daughter, stopped by for a  while, in the hope, we think, of free lessons. We were nice but unyielding.

Convo ranged over being mistaken for employees in libraries and stores, seventies home decor, Gary's horror at the space where the ficus was,  shoulder issues, the entitlement of certain volunteers,  libraries imposed on for supervision and entertainment by relatives of older people, cultish knitting businesses. All in all, interesting!

Beautiful today, low 80s, sunshine very liveable.

Happy day, everyone, off to make egg salad sandwiches for supper, with plums. The plums to follow, that is.

Misfits box and walking

Thursday was 70°f in the early morning, so I seized the day and went walking. Not around trees and grass because of several inches of overnight rain, no doubt good for frogs but wet and slippery to walk on.

So I did the development circuit via sidewalk, meeting several people out cheerfully walking, probably feeling the way I did. I was flagging when I got home, a bit out of condition from being in the house.

Later lovely Haleem delivered the Misfits box, took away the bags and here we are. I'm glad to say Misfits now has a tipping function, happy to do that for great service.

Everything present and in great condition.

Bread, because it's too hot to bake, and I need my toast. The ground turkey will go into several meals, immediately to make a couple of sausage rolls with the last of the pastry. The rest of the turkey is in the freezer for future dining, probably spaghetti sauce with some of the tomatoes. Burgers, too.

I may make a baked thing for supper of some of that cheddar, in chunks, diced tomatoes, an egg broken over, plenty of black pepper, served on toast. It's so easy with a toaster oven, and the kitchen doesn't get hot.  Cilantro with everything, because I can.

The plums will be either baked in a torte or a snacking cake, or eaten fresh, depending on how sweet they are. Or maybe all the above.

Steamed broccoli bits with cheese, or anything, really, poached egg on top. Misfits rescues the broccoli bits, perfectly good food, trimmed off when broccoli stems are banded. Definitely my wavelength.

So these are the current plans, which are subject to all kinds of change, you never know. But I always think it's good to have plans to depart from.

Cool enough to sit out, watch the clouds and doze off.

Happy day, everyone, don't let your plans get in the way of what you want to do.

More heat, so early morning outside

I'm getting out these mornings very early, to enjoy the patio and water my flourishing flowers.  After that I'm hiding from the heat, reading and making things, including food.

Here's Wednesday morning in the garden 

The hibiscus is definitely getting there now

The scattered seeds are doing their best 

Last year I got a ton of morning glory foliage, no flowers. I think the mix was too rich. This year let's hope for flowers 

The tired looking coleus is from last year's seeds, kept over the winter and now out with her friends 

Zinnias and marigolds are booming, and the feathery foliage of cosmos is showing. 

Then out front a young morning dove was strolling on the path, apparently there's good pickings there, the doves are around often.

He took off when he noticed me.

Then for stitching, and I only need to hem the linen tunic and it's done. 

I like how the sleeve pleats improve how the sleeves fall. Pretty much as planned.

On the food front, the pastry is going further than expected. One more pasty today and enough filling for one more. Then still enough for sausage rolls, when Misfits brings me my ground turkey Thursday. It's practically a lifetime supply.

This small recipe makes the kind of thin crisp crust I like. It can also make crackers, rolled even thinner and and with spices rolled in. I like an all purpose food, I must say. This is a kind of good fast food.

Today's reading is the wonderful 

in my Kindle collection, and she's such a powerful writer I have to be ready for her. Not a casual summer read, despite the title.

Wednesday seems to have been a productive day despite dragging myself mournfully about wishing for walking weather.

Happy day everyone, there are people in freezing temperatures just now, finding it hard to imagine this heat, as in "feels like 99°f". 

Stitch on! Whatever form your stitching takes, wheelchair repair, to vegetable picking!

Many arrangements, textiles and tea, and a reveal.

Gary stopped in briefly Tuesday afternoon, when I was home, the 90+ temperatures ruling out the Tuesday knitting group for me, and in the course of a couple of minutes we arrived at the following decisions:

1.  I will consider replacing my stepladder with a better one from another neighbor and dispose of mine. I pointed out that Gary's the only person who uses it anyway, so either way is fine. Dispose of either one, keep one.

2. I will save my ice blocks from Misfits for him to use in his cooler over the summer and resume recycling later.

3. He will replace the beat up old outdoor storage  doors for himself, me and another neighbor, if I will find out the paint color required by the HOA. This won't happen till later this summer, because of various trips and projects and this is situation normal.

That and plant chat about the houseplant broken by squirrels, and the meeting concluded. We should run a company, never any wasted time.

I got back to the pinloom weaving and finished the vest. I plan to do an adjustment to the arm holes, usual requirement for my curvy back; it's looking ok.

Textiles and Tea this week was Sam Goates, a Scottish weaver of wool yardage for menswear, using some amazing old looms. She left Glasgow after university, to spend twenty years in Australia working in textile design, then returned to Scotland to open her own company, Woven in the Bone.

The machinery was intriguing, noisy to the point of needing ear protectors, but work horses for yardage production.

I'm listening to new YouTube uploads of various Margery Allingham mysteries while I'm making these days. Today one of my favorites, Flowers for the Judge. Full of the quirky characters she specializes in. 

And here's an analysis of the biased mainstream media on Biden's age. Just sayin'. Just been sayin' for a while now.

Happy day, everyone, weave on. Or don't, it's so hot.

Honesty, chipmunks, stitching and stuff. Also kittens.

The temperature was down to the 80s Monday, with a breeze, and I was up early looking at my flowers. 

I surprised a chipmunk, nearly trod on him. Then I noticed a stem of honesty broken off and lying on the deck.

A closer look and I realized it was bitten off, which is what M. Chipmunk had been doing when I interrupted him. He's the reason I don't plant them in the earth. Chipmunks like to reach up and bite them off before the seed pods mature. I put them in pots now, so they they're too high for chipmunks to reach. This stem probably got knocked down by the rain.

Anyway I harvested it, did a Steve and let the seeds drop where they wanted, and brought the stem in to join its friends.

I finally managed a walk, great after being in the house for a few days. This is how my backyard looks, the one with the Japanese maple and lovely June display of day lilies.

I did make that yogurt pastry I mentioned for the pasties, using some of the yogurt batch I started yesterday.

I baked this in the toaster oven, not wishing to heat up the kitchen. One cup AP, half a cup chickpea flour, and a bit over half a cup of yogurt, half tsp baking powder and salt.

This is one of those soft pastries that likes to rest before you roll it out, then it needs to be cool so it holds together.

There was enough for two more pasties, also enough stuffing, carrots, chard and baby bellas. The mushrooms are important for flavor, since I didn't spice this much.  

This is a very filling meal, what with all the veg, the yogurt and the chickpea flour, protein, all that.

I refrigerated the other two pastry circles so I can make fresh pasties, not reheated ones, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Making got in there, too, today, and I did a bit of stitching on the linen shirt.

The neckline needs to be pressed and I think it's done. Then for the sleeves and hem. At this rate the shirt and vest will be finished about the same time. So we'll see if they work together. The vest will work with various tops, and jeans. At least that's the plan.

In case you wondered if we were getting very serious around here, I found a contrast to solemn talk.

Happy day, everyone, happy kitties all round. Kitties for Ukraine!