Baking, cooking,Pilates, in the moment

On this Superb Owl Sunday, admire 

And a great moment from the monk leading the Peace Walk 

While he was speaking a drone flew over head, distracting his audience, and he instantly used the moment to remind everyone to note for a moment, let it pass, then return to the moment. He's a wonderful teacher.

Because I can't get out again and it's dispiriting, I did some Pilates first thing and felt much better. April and Aiko on yes2next.

This was created for a past Christmas but it's legal to do it in February, too.

And there was baking because cold weather is baking weather. Here's a banana chocolate chip loaf

Cook's first slice with a spoonful of plain yogurt.

Then I found lovely Alberto of the Waving Hands, at Spain on a Fork on YouTube, with a great sauce. 

I dressed roast potatoes with it, he did boiled. I used Greek black kalamata olives, he used green Spanish ones. 

The package is frozen thyme from the garden years ago but still with plenty of flavor.

Second picture's the sauce and boiled potatoes awaiting roasting. I dressed them right before eating, and forgot a picture, but they were excellent. Enough sauce to do this a couple times more, too.

The other good thing was that it finished up, finally, the capers and olives I've been using for ages. Bananaz honey and yogurt for dessert.

He used a food processor because I guess he's advertising them. I don't have one but my stick blender and a narrow container usually work just as well, and did here.

For other purposes, a hand held mixer will work fine, too, where YouTube chefs are using fancy food processors. We don't hafta.

About the fiberarts presentations, I think I'm still okay with Textiles and Tea. They know I blog about them, and I think they're okay with it. I've recommended a number of presenters to them, so I don't think they look on me as a passenger.   

The others, TMASC, Hajii Baba, New England Rug Society I'll give you a heads-up when they notify me, and you can sign up.  

TMASC has a lovely long, picture-rich monthly newsletter, too.

Pro tip: they get hundreds of viewers from many countries and usually fill up before they start, sending latecomers to YouTube, where they can watch but not participate in q and a. So I sign in at least five minutes early or more, because I like to have my say.

Happy day everyone, keeping warm here and hoping that warmer weather gets here 

Temps in the thirties! I don't know how I'm going to manage.

 

Cold outside and Tibet

Here's where I am just now

Indoors I'm listening to The Queen who Came in from the Cold while trying this with the cotton yarn. 20 gauge copper wire ribs, with 28 gauge wrapping in the middle.

This may or may not work.  Nice try.

I saw a great online presentation from Textile Museum Associates of Southern California, TMASC,  about Tibet, textiles and culture, and found they were not permitting screenshots and write ups. 

There's another program in March which looks good, but I won't be doing screenshots. If you're interested, you can get in touch directly with TMASC and go from there. Registration is free and they send a link and reminders

Here's the March one

And the host recommended a couple of books

So that's us for now. People are less open to screenshots than they were -- when  they started doing online presentations, they were happy to boost the signal since I always give credit very clearly, complete with website information. 

But now I plan to just recommend good programs and let you follow up. I think you'll like them, definitely worth the extra effort.

The Queen who Came in from the Cold was very good, with all kinds of shocking twists and turns, highly recommended. Even the afternotes are good.

Now I've embarked on 

By Martin Edwards, whom I last heard on the Shedunnit podcast talking about clue detectives, and the mystery writer's skill in leaving clues for the attentive reader.

I came to find that this one is written in the form of a murder game, where the reader can take part at various levels of involvement. 

My first reaction was similar to when I encounter diy store check-outs -- I didn't come here to work!  But I'll give it a try. I really fancied just being a passenger in a mystery story where the writer did the work but I won't be too hasty here.  

Bitter wind today, not helped by sunshine. I'm not going out. I plan to read, bake banana bread and later eat some of same. 

Happy day everyone, keep warm/dry/cool/hydrated, rayez ce qui est inutile. 

That's my favorite bit of French bureaucratese, meaning delete that which is not applicable, hilarious in English, too. 

How does it go in Spanish? I bet the ancient Sumerian clay tablets have an equivalent.

 

Cold, oh well, there's lentils

 Up very early today, before dawn 

The bedroom is the warmest room, nearest the furnace, so after breakfast I went back there to read, and fell asleep again. 

Once it got up to "feels like 10°f"  I needed to get out of the house, so I did the recycling and garbage and collected the mail, most of which landed in the recycle, and picked my way home watching for ice. 

Home again I made red lentil tofu, since the Misfits box I planned for today isn't here yet, weather moving my delivery to Friday.

I'll probably make crunchy cubes with a dipping sauce for dinner.    

I did, seen here with dipping sauce and peppermint sprig.

Gary, looking much better, came dashing over to return containers from various baked goods I'd given him and a handy glass jar. I recycle a lot of things he presents me with, but the jar is a good size to make mayo.

Happy day everyone. I'm resting a bit today, to get less frazzled.  Then back to resisting tomorrow. Thanks for understanding my current state, which a lot of us are feeling just now.

Cold, so indoor things happened

this is why I didn't go out. I did listen to podcasts, while I made peanut butter granola bars 

I make them a bit differently each time. This time the syrup ingredient was honey and a bit of molasses,. I added in cacao nibs, a dash of ground flaxseed, and pumpkin spice. 

Breakfast bars, so much easier than toast..

And I read more of the Yorkshire mystery with Inspector Blades agonizing his way through another murder.

Knitting happened and I'm beginning to think there's enough yarn for a small cowl, but I have a Plan B, anyway.

Then I suddenly fancied doing a bit of spinning, very inexpertly, with a bandaid on my sore thumb, and lack of practice.

Various bits of unlabeled roving, some easier to manage than others. It's not all about the spinner -- some roving is friendlier than others. Also some is better suited to needlefelting than to spinning.  

Disclaimers aside, I'm not a very good spinner, hands too cool and slippery to handle roving well. It slips through my hand.  But I like doing it, so there's that.

These activities are good for anxiety. When you feel tuned into history, spinning as women have for centuries,  you feel less distraught about now. My theory anyway. 

Happy day everyone, what's your equivalent to fiberarts for self care?

Return of 8 pieces of silk

 The weather is like this this morning 

Walking is not happening. Instead I thought I'd try a return to Qigong, which I used to do regularly. I found a good leader here and tried the ten minute routine to see how Helen manages.

I love Qigong, which suits me better than Tai chi, so we'll see.

I needed a calming routine this morning after an exciting late evening. About 10:30 Gary came over to get my keys. The plows were coming around and he wanted to move my car, with his, to get our spots cleared.

Wind-chill well below zero f. at that point. He and another neighbor dug out the ice left by the plow and scattered ice melt. 

Then he tried to bring my car back. It looked like the battery wasn't working. Again. Eventually they did get it started. I couldn't see much but I think they had to use the jumper kit. It was one am before they got my car running and back home. Then they went home. What gallant friends. 

Then this morning Gary called and confirmed they did jump it, and he'll start looking for a new one. We went through all this last year, they were none anywhere to be had, and he ended up charging it overnight himself. He'll try again for a new one. Terminals crossed!

Last night I had not only the draft stopper between storm and front doors and the door curtain drawn, but I propped a pillow on end against the curtain to try to exclude drafts. They were whistling in.

You see why I needed to get calm this morning.  By Thursday the cold will abate.  Meanwhile it's staying home, heating soup and knitting gloves. Or maybe socks. 

The attempts to use pinloom squares is back to the drawing board. There seems to be a mismatch between weaving and knitting, which I haven't figured out yet. Perhaps the squares will be better employed as the center of another lapghan. We'll see.

This afternoon it's Textiles and Tea, so you'll hear about it later.

Meanwhile, I plan to have this blog be an oasis for activism, good food, good making and good hope. Any comments trying to draw attention to bad news will remain in the ether. Just sayin.

Photo AC 

The weather, puzzles and a pant

 Here are the weather forecasters studying conditions

So that was yesterday, more happening like that today.

However, the pant -- garment trade term -- is coming along. Here's the front. Today I'll pick up the live stitches and start the back, which will be a different shape. With a different yarn, since I've used up this one. So far so good. Any blogistas who knit with cotton yarn, what's a soft kind I can order?

And the puzzle is coming along slowly. Yesterday I made the usual discovery, that I was expecting it to be much bigger and more difficult, and found that truck section here actually fitted onto the flowers here, simplifying everything. 

I'm sure there's a sermon there, aren't you glad I'm not a lay preacher, yet again! I could bore many a congregation. 

Happy day everyone, piece by piece!

Roast chicken, spinning, and yarn chicken

This is why I'm staying indoors, not even a brief round trip to the mailbox today.

Sunny, yesterday's cruel wind which kept the house cold has abated now, after felling trees, but it's not a good idea for me to be out.

Meanwhile I'm about to roast a plump little Misfits free-range chicken who had a brief life but a merry one, if the farmer is to be believed.  I literally thanked her as I seasoned and buttered.  First whole chicken I've had in decades.  Picture later when cooked with roast potatoes.

And aside from sleeping when I was sure I was knitting and listening to an audiobook, I've been spinning, knitting, and, halfway up the first glove realized that I was into yarn chicken. 

That's a knitting expression,  meaning knitting on feverishly in the hope of finishing before the yarn runs out.

No hope, as you see, with only this much matching roving left. So I tried my go-to Goats Magosh and found she was sold out, help. 

Another search through various Etsy shops in search of something approximating the color of spinning roving I need. So many sites only have roving suitable for felting or needle felting, not for spinning.

I did find something likely, and it will be here in a couple of days, with luck. I also fell prey to some beautiful sari silk reclaimed fiber for spinning, in a marvellous golden, yellow range. A present for me. Pictures when the rovings arrive. 

This afternoon I order Misfits and hope for eggs and various other items which will let me stay home. I made another batch of mix brownies, for which eggs are vital, so my supply is low. 

And there's my favorite supper of pita bread filled with egg salad. Last night's had blue cheese crumbles and kale. I freeze kale solid in a bag, then thump the bag angrily with my fist, releasing my annoyance with everything, and reducing the kale to splinters just right for mixing raw into egg salad.

So that's where we are Chez Boud, so thankful not to lose power,  fallen trees not having fallen on any power lines. I'm wearing gloves in the house though, even to knit and spin,  aged digits easily chilled. I even wore them sleeping last night and slept well. Who knew? 

Also thankful that my investment people who usually only put tax forms online making me scan and print, underwent a change of structure last year. 

This year I got actual paper tax reports in the mail. This saves my having to buy a cartridge for the printer, not in my current budget, and that's a cause of joy in itself.

I always do my own taxes, even back when they were more complex, hanged if I'll pay someone to do what I can do by keeping calm and following the instructions wherever they lead, also known as a merry dance.

One year a tax accountant friend of Handsome Partner was worried that I might be missing out on valuable deductions and persuaded me to show him the returns for his advice.

Two days later he came back and said how the heck did you do this? You found things I'd have missed. After that he didn't worry, I guess. 

The clever part about taxes isn't filling out the forms, which takes patience and calm more than anything. It's planning ahead to avoid accidentally incurring charges and missing legal  tax-abating opportunities. 

But if all you do is take a bag of receipts and pay someone at tax time hundreds of dollars to fill out forms, you're missing the most important part. 

Most of us aren't in the income levels where we need tax advisers moving money, postponing and timing income, all that. So we may as well diy. 

No criticism of people who hate it so much they gladly hire someone else to do it, none at all, different strokes, different folks. 

Keep warm or cool as the case may be where you are. Happy day everyone, may all the good stuff arrive in the mail. Keep well

And take a look at these women hand carding fleece for spinning. Look at their unlikely location, too!