Fridgescaping, art, ducks, fall copper

 Fridgescaping, my minimalist take. This is after shopping. Just sayin'.

In the container at the bottom is this, cooked Saturday from Yeung Man Cooking

Here the cartoon is nice, and the quotation is everything

Art is not to make a living, it's to make a life.

And in order for our lives to continue as planned, democracy work continues. I write a few cards then rest my hand a while, then resume. I've timed it to be done in time for the mailing date.

Today's art is setup, the latest color combinations chosen, ready to stitch.

Meanwhile I went for a walk, lovely sunny weather, saw fall copper, goldenrod and some white fluffy stuff 

And at the pond, the little flock of wild ducks is back. Briefly. As soon as they spotted me, one warning quack, and they were off 

Back at the ranch, the pioneer lady is ready to make a gallon of clothes washing liquid.

 

It suits my budget and I know what's in it, no scented additives or whiteners other than what I put there. This recipe gets the laundry as clean as the expensive stuff. The container at the back is empty. It's what I use as a dispenser, disregard the label.

So that's where I am at the time of writing.

I finished Clever Girl, and find that Tessa Hadley is the only writer I've found whose novel and short story writing both work well for me. 

Alice Walker, wonderful essays, but novels not for me. Anne LaMott, great nonfiction, oh dear on the novels. Hadley, more of both,  please.

Happy day everyone! You do you.

 

Cookapalooza, leaf, flowers, Clever Girl

Today was mainly about the Yeung Man Cooking dish of jasmine rice, tofu, mushrooms and broccoli, with all kinds of stages, including making an umami seasoning.

At the same time as

I was making a batch of yogurt, which you see on the stove.  This picture series works backwards from the finished meal which was a whole lot more interesting than it looks, back to creating the seasoning.

It involved, aside from the umami seasoning, the surrounding ingredients ground together to a powder, some of the red chili oil you saw me make a while back, hot peppers and soy sauce. 

Tofu is like cannellini beans, bland enough you can go wild with flavoring and it will work. I was missing a few ingredients but I don't think I noticed. I love the steady progression of Will as he stages the dish so everything arrives as planned, flavors in layers you find as you eat.  

It doesn't take as long as you'd think. About 30 minutes including finding the spices and dicing the mushrooms, crumbling the tofu and cooking the rice. 

And things like the red chili oil and umami seasoning last a while. I've found that roast potatoes in red chili oil are an order of magnitude better than in olive oil.

You have to stay alert though, particularly if you get involved in making and timing yogurt at the same time.   But wise people try to keep things simple. I still have to bake the muffins, but maybe Sunday..

The lunch was really good, and did I mention I made chocolate pudding? Too late for a picture, all gone. It was a great contrast to the spicy main dish.

Meanwhile I'm posting things to keep people's spirits up, away from the T person trying to take up all the oxygen.

Here's the latest bunch of flowers

And this lovely leaf. Look at the design, the colors, shape, contrasts.

Happy day everyone, I'm writing postcards, trying to be legible, reading Clever Girl, sitting out drinking tea, watching a silver spot butterfly engrossed in the butterfly bush, hearing a happy birthday party down the street, laughing, singing, little kids running about, I love my neighborhood.

I wouldn't mind this one either

 

Friday knitting group, plants in new home, beanz

Friday's knitting group was great, with a real-time success, C, brand new crocheter managed an even piece of work, having mastered the very last stitch on the row consistently for the first time 

This is where a supportive group works. She's an accomplished stitcher but crochet is a new venture.

And here's a sweater in progress by S, great knitter 

And M's Rowan tweed felted yarn temperature blanket, with maximum and minimum temps worked in each day 

Black squares are divisions between months, black outlines are family birthdays, and that double black line is the youngest grandson's day of birth.

Here's her color chart, can you tell she's a reference librarian by day?

And here's what I've borrowed 

Lovely afternoon, chat ranging from Harris to Swift to friendship bracelets, hummingbirds, mosquitoes, frogs, hearing aids, doctors, subtitles, bonsai, Tunisian crochet, hawks, expertise in the arts, and cochlear implants.  More, too.

While I was there, I visited the ficus tree in her new home, looking so much smaller than when she towered over my living room 

And the snake plant, both looking happy in their new homes.

So happy they're in good hands, and being appreciated.

Happy day everyone, this is what I came home to on the doormat 

Gary's crop of beanz.

Postcards, Misfits and Emma again

The current Misfits box arrived, the ice blocks went to Gary, for his cooler, the foil insulated bag to be picked up by the Misfits driver and recycled. 

Once the summer's over, and Gary doesn't need portable ice  I'll resume leaving out the ice blocks for Misfits pickup with the other packing materials.

The tofu and mushrooms are for a Yeung Man Cooking recipe I'll make Friday,  the yellowtail because I haven't had it in a while, to be poached and later fishcakes.

I love that very hot spicy plant based "sausage", which works like burgers and meatballs. Cheese is always a staple,  and fruit is for breakfasts and desserts. I seem to have forgotten to order bread, so I expect blueberry muffins will need to happen. 

All set up now.

Gary is impressed with my improved hearing and is once again thinking about hearing aids for himself. He also started thinking about cataract surgery when I had it, but it's been a couple of years with no action yet. We'll see. 

This morning was about writing postcards to voters, very unexciting work but vital,  so, oh well. Democracy is a dull old business when it's working right.  

This afternoon involves reading,  listening to a podcast, sitting outside and some stitching

 with another Emma. 

This the best production of Emma I've seen, great casting, just very worth watching.

Then the mail brought this

After a year of informing me that my fuel pump could check out any time, causing a recall, but they didn't have parts yet, finally they've laid hands on them. 

My first ungrateful thought was, arghgh another thing to do dangit. Anyway I'll call and set up an appointment for the repair. I'll get them to check routinely while I'm there, usual points. 

My credit card bill which I've been paying buggywhip style, mailing in checks, also arrived and I found I was out of stamps. So I got into the 20th century, though the rest of the world is well into the 21st, and arranged to pay online.  I'm so clever, I am. 

And the flower patch is still blooming though cool nights have slowed things down 

Happy day everyone,  sometimes dull work has exciting results. At least that's the plan,with the postcards. The rest of the day is pretty good already.

More mealus interruptus, doors and other minor concerns

I sadly remember 9/11, very local to us, our commuter train station full of cars never to be driven home, our neighbors and friends lost.  If we succeed in electing Harris, the danger of a repeat, and the subsequent presidential bungling, Bush the Second,  will remain far off the table. Meanwhile we remember and honor the dead.

In more trivial vein, I was boiling shells and simmering a lovely spicy red sauce, for lunch,  when two neighbors came over to discuss those doors again. So I switched everything off while we discussed bringing the door situation to the HOA, tablecloth repair, plant care, fall pruning, stiff joints, public furniture, postcards to voters, and finally, placed a call to the HOA, and left a message.

Then they finally left,  I had my,  now slightly overdone,  pasta, the sauce was great, and I was enjoying a bite of dessert when I was roped into a door-related conference call with the HOA manager. He's going to come Friday and look, before presenting his ideas about remediation to the board. One step further on.

I didn't watch the "debate"  because I can't bear to watch or hear that person. I notice Harris had dressed like a prosecutor, yay! and proceeded to get her policies across while wiping the floor with tfg.  A few minutes later, Taylor Swift endorsed, bringing a huge potential youth vote with her. 

This is a good day. Labwork this morning, would have been good to remember to put in Ruth and Laura, but we managed anyway.

Now I'm going to loaf, walk, read, get into another Austen drama, so many productions of so few novels, and stitch. Maybe on the proposed fusion throw, which uses fabric and crochet.  

It's Northanger Abbey, not my favorite novel, but the drama, great cast, Googie Withers, Geoffrey Chater -- from Lucia -- and very good production values. This one's from the 1980's.

Here's something I didn't make,but I'm glad van Gogh did. 

Happy day, everyone, Harris has got this, with our help.,

Curry leaves, knitting/stitching group, Textiles and Tea

 My neighbor stopped in with these curry leaves, from  her garden

Curry leaves, great deep flavor for practically any savory dish. I'll share with friends.

A few leaves have now gone to friends at the Tuesday Knitting Group.

New participant today, crocheting a scarf for an October trip to Wisconsin, she'll be ready for fall.

She also won a ribbon recently at the County Fair for a mancala board she crocheted, featuring waves and 3D ducks in the design. She's very creative, good to know her.

I did a brief demo with the spurtzleur, using a length of yarn, so a spinning friend could see the action, and try it.

Our conversation ranged over state fairs, spinning, flax, Viking ships, library work, heat waves, the DMV, kitchen renovation cooking with curry leaves, slot and tab fabric books, the art of teaching, YouTube demos, Sheep and Wool Festivals, and housing regulations.

Home again, just in time, as I pulled in, to see the first hummingbird of the year,  working on the Russian sage flowers. Too fleeting for a picture, but thrilling.

Then I sat out on the deck,  with a cup of tea, having a stare-off with a squirrel,  probably waiting for me to go away and let him collect the cantaloupe rind he left lying around on the deck

Textiles and Tea brought Caroline Hicks Sawyer, a weaver in floating warps, making massive installation art.

Here's a work in progress on the loom

earlier she used to create functional clothing

She was an electrical engineer, then in retirement developed her lifelong weaving interest into a serious art career. She uses various looms including the rigid heddle loom, and likes to move the warp relative to the heddle rather than the other way around.

Her physicist husband collaborates on some technical aspects of the work, designing bits of equipment to help float the warp threads evenly, hang installations and other ideas needing a  second opinion!

Happy day everyone! Weave the way you want, whatever anyone says.