Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Indigenous People Day, winterizing the sofa

Sunday evening, late, I winterized the sofa. The white cotton summer quilt is now in the washing machine, and the cozy blanket with knitted afghan is now in action

Fall Me is grateful to Spring Me for conscientiously putting them away laundered instead of saying oh, they'll do. 

That's pretty much it for winterizing, aside from changing the front door curtain from the striped canvas to the red felt. Simple life!

Since at the time of writing it's a holiday (!) my whole life is a holiday, I am wondering how much loafing I can fit in. Probably I'll do some visible mending, because I have socks to fix. And some stitching. And there's an interesting Yeung Man Cooking recipe to try, for which I have all, well most of, the ingredients already. 



I didn't have his exact veggies, also I added in chicken which he wouldn't, and this was great. There's at least one more meal available. I only had a small amount of rice in the house, or there would be more meals.

The sauce was wonderful. I had agave syrup, not maple, scallions not bell peppers, and lemon juice instead of some ingredient I don't know in the sauce. It didn't matter. And there's leftover sauce, for various other food.

Every forkful is a different combo, very interesting. I'm really glad I made that red chili oil a while back. I'll need more soon.

And for reading there's Austen. It may shape up to be a regular day around here.

But since the holiday honors our indigenous peoples, I will pay tribute to the Lenni Lenape, who lived and tended the land I now live on.

I do try to take care of the land, don't spray, don't kill anything I can avoid, don't buy when I can make from what's at hand, all that. Small effects, but good attempts. That includes the mending.

Tatters is offering a series of classes in mending, it's a thing.


Those socks definitely reminded me to get darning.

The Kindle is good for more than reading 



The yarn wasn't as contrasty as I expected. Also my skills are a bit rusty.  And, as you see, 


this hole went around a corner, challenging.
A couple more much smaller holes to fix and I'm set.

My flower garden is done for the year, the containers at least, the foliage tossed among the trees to rot down and feed the earth, containers stacked for next year. Just the little patch of wildflowers from the scattered seeds is still going cheerfully.

Soon I'll switch on the fireplace insert and have a bit of heat for an hour in the morning. Later I'll need to use the house heat, but I hope each year to wait on that. 

Usually late October is the time I have to start actual heat. I like the low cost times of year, to balance the higher ones, this year from heatwaves.

And here's a tribute to dahlias, which I don't currently have but used to


Happy Thanksgiving, Canadian friends, Happy Indigenous Peoples Day, or just plain have a nice Monday. There. Inclusive!




24 comments:

  1. The dish looks delish. I like replacing maple syrup with agave syrup.

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    1. It's what I had available. It seems to have worked fine.

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  2. I don’t winterise or for any season. The only difference is in winter we have the fire going. I do like your couch. It looks snuggley. And a perfect place to have a hot beverage, a blankie and a book

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    1. Yes, it's my reading place. Also knitting and crochet and stitching..

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  3. The Kindle in your sock! Jane Austen would approve.

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    1. When your darning mushroom just doesn't do it!

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  4. We haven’t turned on the heat yet, which is late for us. Saving the sock is a great project. Lots of wear left in it yet.

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    1. And I knitted it, so that's added motivation.

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  5. Love your use of the kindle and the way you use whatever you have for a recipe. Husband didn't have any wine recently so he used ginger ale. He liked it, I wasn't sure.

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  6. I made the NYT's ginger shrimp dish last night and by the time I was finished, the only thing it shared with the recipe was the shrimp and ginger. So many vegetables! And it was delicious.
    I like how you winterize your house. I don't think we do a thing. Of course, our winter is so much milder.
    That dahlia photo is amazing.

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    1. You don't need the cozy thing, really. Our light levels are lower than yours, too.

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  7. You did a good job with the sock by my eyes. I turned the heat on Tuesday.

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    1. Thank you! It's pretty much under the foot; the main thing was to be smooth, which it is, though bumpy looking.

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  8. You always come up with the best stuff in the kitchen. I am glad it was a good day for you.

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    1. That dish without the chicken would be great for you. It heats up well for the next time, too.

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  9. Winterizing the sofa! What a lovely thing to do.
    Darning socks. This time of year thoughts turn to hand sewing for sure.

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  10. That sock sure went south on you!
    My furnace has come on a couple of nights. Close to freezing outside.

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    1. I think because the hole started as thinning under my foot, I didn't register it until a bit late! Oops.

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  11. I replied over at mine, but your question about spam did go to spam, but no other comment appeared in spam. I don’t know if comments are spam at first bc I always see them. every now and then I do remember to check my spam folder and publish whatever is in there, which is usually not much.

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    1. Blogger, its ways are unsearchable! Thanks for checking. Sometimes comments appear in spam days later. Nothing deathless anyway!

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  12. Your winterized couch sure looks cozy!

    A friend is going to give me a lesson in darning as soon as we have a rainy day (if ever, in this drier-than-normal desert!), to rescue several lovely-other-than-the-toe wool socks. It will be good to get them back into the sock rotation.

    It's a good feeling to put the garden to bed for the winter, isn't it? We're doing the same here.

    A belated thoughtful Indigenous Peoples' Day to you too, from the ancestral land of the Shoshone-Bannock and Northern Paiute people.

    Chris from Boise

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    1. Thank you for acknowledging the indigenous people of your region. It's a good thing to remember we're treading in holy footsteps.
      I hope you do learn darning. It's just weaving with a needle and well worth doing for good socks.

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