Pi Day and Misfits

In countries which write the date as month then day, March 14, 3.14, it's Pi Day. Celebrate accordingly! 

My pi Day cactus is booming 

Meanwhile, around here, it's Thursday and Misfits Day, speaking of pie and other foods.

Lovely Haleem arrived on the dot

And here's the doings. Yogurt and blueberries for desserts and I'll make yogurt dough for pasties stuffed with potato, carrots and scallions. Eggs tomatoes and cheese in house for those baked things I make, which I called Welsh rarebit. That is until I got a storm of criticism, wrong name, wrong name, like it mattered,which cracked me up.

Cannellini beans for I dunamany uses, all good.  Spinach for adding to soup and pasties.

All good! Happy π day everyone!

Today's activism was messages to both my senators demanding they vote NO on the cr cloture.

 Yesterday was a tense day because of close election races and mainstream media as usual confidently quoting fake polls -- five white guys in a diner in Iowa -- to foretell the defeat of democracy.

So I thought I'd improve the day with some leafy greens and made two spinach quiches, crustfree, one for now, one for the freezer. Fresh spinach, green bell pepper, cheddar cheese, milk, salt, pepper, nutmeg.

And I finished the fishy puzzle, which did, as I thought, have a piece missing, but it was still okay to work

And continued studying the genesis of fascism in the US, and knitting and fretting.

And watching Textiles and Tea, with a nice lady, beloved teacher interested in weave patterns who admits she could never do tapestry,  which involves image design. Honest lady who knows her limitations and does weaverly work and magazine editing within them.

Then the election results started to come in.

The noise you heard around 10pm Eastern time,  was the general exhaling and dancing and cheering as,  starting at home

 the NJ legislature held both houses blue

the Bucks County Pennsylvania fascist book-banning Moms for Liberty lost all five school board seats

 Virginia turned the legislature blue 

Beshear was returned as blue governor in red Kentucky

 and yay, thank you Ohio for securing women's reproductive rights in the constitutional amendment on the referendum.

So much for an uneventful off year!   It looks like reports of the death of democracy may have been greatly exaggerated, to quote Mark Twain, and there's enough egg to go around the faces of the mainstream media pundits and reporters who foretold it. 

We haven't done yet, but we're better off than before yesterday. Much more to do, but we're up for it. Today I'm messaging and thanking workers.

And here are the marigolds, still blooming in the house, and get all those new buds on the Christmas or maybe Thanksgiving cactus. They're clearly on the right track!

Happy day, everyone, let's build on yesterday. Not dead yet!

Changing of the doves, soup redux, lilac, cactus and dumpster finds

Yesterday after recycling various small items which never found a home on Freecycle and are not worth a long drive to the thriftie, I found a couple of  Good Things among a riot of stuff in the dumpster/recycling enclosure, someone's moving.

I love blue glass, 

and this bowl's in perfect condition, as is the big scarf, silky but probably not silk. It's got advertising,  I think, printed on it. Can anyone translate? It's possibly inside out, alphabet unfamiliar to me.

It's in new unused condition and I can definitely employ it one way or another.

Both items can probably be freecycled when they've run their course Chez Boud.

And here's the Christmas or by now practically Memorial Day cactus

Putting out a single blossom but what a winner.

Then there's chicken and cappellini soup. Yesterday's lunch, with pita bread toasted with sharp cheddar

And today's lunch with spiced (chili, cayenne, cumin) toasted chickpeas and tuna, dried sage toasted crisp and chucked on top of the soup.

Yesterday's reading outside involved smelling lovely lilac in bloom next door, and seeing the changing of the nest guardians. 

There was a sudden flutter behind me, and I looked up, to see Partner Dove on the fence waiting to take his place 

He saw me and I thought it best to sit unmoving, to let him calm down and fly down to the deck, which he eventually did. 

He strolled about looking elaborately casual, until the sitting dove left the nest and flew off,  the way the other dove had come. Then after a bit more strolling, I suppose not to betray the nest site, he finally took his place.

And here's the guardian in place this morning

I felt honored that they'd gone ahead despite the presence of a giant human. I think they've decided I'm basically harmless. Maybe I'll get that on my gravestone. Here lies Boud. She was basically harmless.  

 

There's worse things to be known for!

Happy day everyone, later there's Textiles and Tea which I'll catch you up on tomorrow, a Scotswoman, Cally Booker, weaver and teacher.

Food, nature notes and Battle of Puebla Day

Today is May 5, Battle of Puebla Day, a short -lived victory of Mexican forces against a French invasion. Not a public holiday in Mexico, but seemingly celebrated more in the US. 

It reminds me of St Patrick's Day which is pretty low key and religious in Ireland, but a blowout party day in the US. 

It's also not Mexican independence day, which comes September 16. But we can party twice.

On to food, and Misfits lovely cornucopia

Setting aside some fresh celery and carrots for salad, the rest is prepped and frozen, the carrot peelings and celery-end in the freezer stock bag.

And the arrival of the coconut milk, in anticipa-a-a-ation of chicken curry, I got out the Bill Veach book of curries and chutneys, opened it to my favorite Buckingham Palace chicken curry..

To be studied with tea, fresh hot biscuit/scone thing and newly arrived Misfits blueberries.

It's pretty clear when a recipe is a favorite, as you see.  Not particularly celebrating the KCIII party tomorrow, when an array of looted jewels will be set on a couple of heads for reasons which escape this anti monarchist old lady. This is just a nice recipe, ingredients come by honestly.

This is the book I use for my curry powder mixes, too. 

So that will happen in the next day or two after which the chicken carcase will take its place in soup.

Meanwhile, here's today's Dove Family sighting. 

As you see, the surrounding henbit is growing rapidly and providing great concealment. Smart choice chez Dove.

And here's the sum total of flowers to show you

Best the Christmas, or Easter, or maybe Whitsun, cactus can do at this time.

Happy day everyone, knitting group later and we'll see what's up there.

Tiny Misfits, clasped weft and puzzles

The current jigsaw puzzle is very satisfying, nicely made and an interesting image. It's coming along.  One or two pieces at a time is how I roll.

And today's weaving is a return to a favorite technique I've done and liked before, clasped weft. It's trickier with the backstrap loom, you need three hands, but it's working okay.

Non-weavers, see the yarn on both sides? You bring the shuttle over from  right to left, loop the other yarn around and draw the shuttle back. One yarn pulls the other to wherever you want to stop it, to create your design.

Weavers, have you done this? I really like it. Remembering what shed you're in helps,too. And I have to pay more attention to the selvedges, because this techie draws them in. So typical, as soon as I start backstrap I introduce complications.

I love doing this, because it's spontaneous if you want it to be. Anyway, this is where we are today.

While I was upstairs working on this, my Misfits box arrived, tiny order this week

Dandelion greens, spring tonic. I can pick a few, unsprayed on the patio, but these are much bigger and look good.

Another chicken for multiple uses, and fusilli, for my pasta needs. Otherwise fruit.

So that's where we are today, 

Yesterday I learned a new word at my discussion group, which I think is written naches.  Jewish word meaning the particular joy a parent gets from seeing their children grow and develop. 

It's very specific and I really like it, also I don't know an equivalent English word for exactly that. Does anyone? Or an equivalent in other languages? In this blogista group we have a number of languages, so please have a think and let us know.

And today two more discoveries

The Christmas cactus which had put out a couple of buds before Easter then given up on them, came through with this. 

And earlier I saw a mourning dove fly by with grass in his beak, clearly nesting nearby, and this morning here's the partner sitting peacefully on the ground near my patio door.

She sat there blinking but not apparently worried about my presence. So I'm hoping to see a young family soon. 

Also do you fancy a pretty easy, (!) puzzle? That's too bad, I don't have one, but anyway try this

Happy day, everyone, I'm having one. 

Cleaners, finally, Easter cactus maybe, and other breaking news

 Misfits arrived so promptly this morning I was still doing breakfast.  One item they had alerted me they couldn't provide, so that was missing.

 But what they did send is lovely greens in best condition, and the makings of some other good food, maybe from Meghan's cookbook, which also arrives today. 

Misfits has also sorted their timestamp issue, so now they're not showing that they delivered five hours hence. Not a big deal, just confusing if a delivery doesn't arrive. Up to now the new partnership deliveries have been excellent. Me, to quote lovely Elena,  I am not doing the complaining.

I'm at the library as I write, expecting the lovely cleaners back at home, sorting the results of all this activity.  

They're  a big reason I can continue here, not being up to much housework these days.  And they do a better job than I ever did, anyway. So I leave the place neatish, then stay out of their way.

I had put the two large bags of Freecycle pillows in the car, yesterday,  before I got a request for them.  

Soooo, early this morning I trudged to the car in my bathrobe, hauled the bags back to the step, labeled them, put a note for the cleaners not to mistake the bags for garbage, and then continued eating toast. 

Then Misfits arrived, it's all go around here, so I hauled the box in, no time to wash the greens till I get home again, put away the freezer and fridge items, broke down the box and tied up the pieces for recycle. Then continued eating toast.

Before nine, a very early hour around here, all this frantic activity had happened.

I also noted, among the fray, that there seem to be new buds on the Christmas cactus. 

Maybe it's got into the spirit and is planning on being an Easter cactus, too. 

Speaking of great spirit, I have been offered jigsaw puzzles by a blogista, which I gladly accepted. The deal is that I work them then donate to my library's collection. I'm definitely up for this, and thank you, R. She doesn't have a library which lends puzzles, so I'm her proxy donor. 

This afternoon it's prepping greens, doing a large  wash, and eventually sitting down. I'm out of afternoon tea little somethings, so there might also be a crazy chocolate cake in my near future.  Today's winnowing is yet to be done.And I plan to study  the Together cookbook. 

I didn't have much on my calendar today, but it appears to be filling up.

Happy day everyone! Watch out for that sneaky calendar, it'll fill up before you know it, if you relax your vigilance for a second.

Oh, and the mainly accepted answer to the puzzle, no brand names, no proper names, is

 JAI ALAI

a bit like racquetball, but originally Basque. Few frontons still active, but I've heard of tournaments in Florida. 

I think Chris was on this very fast and if anyone else has alternative answers, please share.