Paper, Misfits and a phone

 Yesterday was a good day for drying paper

So here's my yield. There's such a pleasure to lifting the pieces off the felts. It's a friendly material. 

I embedded some Japanese maple foliage from my tree, saved since last year in the freezer, and these paper pieces can be mounted on cardstock. The narrow one can be a bookmark, after I've leatherized it by painting white glue and letting it dry.

As you see, dye seeps out of the leaves on addition to the shapes they form.  Red maple is a good natural dye which I've used on fabric.  

One new idea I got from Magpie's link was to add cornstarch to the pulp, to strengthen the paper. Good idea, because newspaper is the cheapest formulation and very crumbly in use.  

This paper won't have the endless longevity of paper made from abaca or other plant fibers, because it's originally wood pulp, high acid content. But for my purposes, just a fun project. 

Misfits box arrived, and as usual I opened it outside, too heavy to lift.

You see the freezer blocks in the foil bag. I tossed them over to Gary's front path for him to collect and put in his outdoor freezer.

Then unloaded onto the counter where pasta for lunch was underway.

I used up the liquid from that recent tomato thing I made, drained from the can of whole tomatoes, plus butter, onions and tomato paste. Simple, good. 

And I have a new supply of yellow potatoes, apples and cilantro. I do love the scent of cilantro. There was a time when I really didn't, likewise privet and marigold. 

They smelled terrible to my younger nose. And now they're delicious. There's privet growing outside the library, and I no longer dash past it to escape the smell.

Have you experienced changes like that? 

Anyway shortly after I'd sorted and washed and put away the Misfits, Gary came dashing over, all excited. I can't TELL you how happy I am you tossed the freezer blocks over, practically dancing with excitement.

He explained he'd noticed them and gone out to put them away, opened his outdoor storage closet to put them in the freezer he keeps there. 

And finally found his phone, on the freezer. He'd been searching literally all morning, and had run out of places to look.

So he dashed off to catch up with his life now that he was reunited with his lifeline. Very happy guy.

Happy day everyone, try to remember where you put your phone. I wear mine in one of a collection of tiny crossbody purses, because I can't be trusted to remember anything.

The Great Freezer Caper Is On! 6WS

I know there are new readers to this blog, and I need to explain 6WS.  Short for Six Word Saturday, as you see from the button in my right column, it's just a bit of fun, where my header is six words only, but does reflect where I am at this point. And some commenters even respond in six words, very skilled of them.  If you want to do a 6WS on your own blog, click on the button, and it will take you to the right place to proceed from.

So, as the days lengthen, and since I've signed up for another year's farmshare, it's time to be serious about what's in the freezer.  Already prepped the same day as picked, chopped, sliced, made into sticks and so on, in many summer frenzied afternoons, all the veggies are ready to cook with.

And remembering I also have a cache of prepped vegs in the freezer next door (!) I need to get busy on my own freezer.  I've made a lot of soup recently, and wanted something a bit different.

So here's today's Zucchini Stick/Red Bell Pepper/Onion bake, flavored with curry leaves you see resting on top -- they'll be removed before serving -- and a big sprinkling of lemon zest, also from the freezer, shake of Parmesan, kosher salt, red pepper.

I'll bake it at about 380 for half an hour, give or take.

The poundcake went over well with both friend and me, and will be dessert.  It was also, toasted, breakfast this morning, with lovely Vietnamese coffee.  Felt quite Viennese. Son missed out on it up to now, because car trouble changed all his plans for the evening and today.  But I'll save some for him.

Update on the Lost and Found: the slippers turned up, wedged underneath and high up, behind the skirt at the front of the sofabed, no idea how they managed to climb up there, invisible to eye or hand during previous searches.  But now they're home.  The bag of beads is still MIA.