Rain, but indoor excitement anyway

Breakfast was toast with plum and lemon jam I made last evening.  Some of the plums are a bit tart, and have plenty of pectin, so I used them.

Just a small batch, and the texture is very good, spreadable.  It works on yogurt, too.

I'm continuing the current socks while listening to murder mysteries 

Then my new little loom arrived, really nice, surprisingly good for the price.

It arrived prethreaded, and I tried inserting the heddle but was defeated by the cheap springy yarn jumping out of the slots. 

So I discarded it and tried the idea of detaching the end piece and trying the proof of concept with the long warp threads. This boucle cotton yarn didn't jump out so I'm hopeful I can manipulate it.

I think this will work. First I need to find C clamps to secure the top bar and the loom to the table. 

Then onward to another weave. What larks!

Happy day everyone, despite our cold wet nonjoyous holiday weekend weather. 

 

 

Daylilies, plum jam, bad day at Black Rock

 Yesterday. as I was tackling a bit of catbriar, I knocked off a daylily head, so it's now gracing the mantelpiece

This morning, out before 7 while it was still cool, I cut back and tied up the butterfly bush, and pruned the sage. Now you can sit out without fighting foliage.

And the plum jam, more info for them as likes it. This time, instead of just assembling fruit, sugar, lemon juice and just cooking from there, I thought I'd do  version of Birnbaum macerating.

So I put the fruit,sugar, lemon zest, nutmeg, fresh ground, cinnamon, the real thing, not the relative of it sold as cinnamon in the supermarket, sprinkling of cornstarch, in a big bowl, stirred it together. 

Then I left it for about an hour before cooking. Whoa, was that good.  It's how I'm going to make jam from now on.

And here you see it with the latest batch of yogurt, which is also the best yet, used more starter, and left it warming for 24 hours, not the overnight recipes often suggest. You can see the texture, really nice. Here it was breakfast with walnuts.

So this jam was good enough to give some to Gary, and I went over and met a plumber emerging, oh-oh. Gary explained he'd had to turn off the water, because of a problem with the mixing mechanism in the shower head. 

He'd tried to remove it, couldn't, in-law, burly guy, came over, removed it, but stripped the threads in the process.. Now a new part needed, meanwhile all water off till he figures it out. 

Except that he found a way to cut off water just to the shower head via the opening already there. The plumber had left, so I was conscripted as assistant plumber to watch the space while he ran downstairs and turned on the water again, to make sure he'd succeeded in shutting off the right supply. He had. 

Meanwhile he has water available everywhere except in his one shower, so I suggested he use my guest shower until his is fixed. He did this once before when the water heater failed.

And, yesterday being a bad day for him, he was just leaving his parking spot in his lovely new Beemer convertible when a new 17 year old driver in a new car, came shrieking down the street, hit Gary and totalled his own driver side door. 

The law faults the person leaving the parking place over the driver on the street, sadly, so no joy at all for Gary.  No way to prove the kid was over the speed limit, and even the limit of 25 is high for a street full of kids, head-in parking both sides, not much room.

So all in all, the jam was a good idea. He definitely needed a bit of jam today!

And see how the snake plant is finally under way. 

No holding her now -- see the three new babies.

And instead of a puzzle can you add any words to this list?

Go for it!  Happy day everyone, just remember if you struggle, you didn't set fire to Notre Dame, so there's that.

Triangles, couples and jam

 This morning's patio prowl before it gets too hot shows new buds happy with the heat and intermittent downpours

The Thai basil is flowering happily and new seedlings are coming in

No buds on the morning glory but it's swamped the shepherd's crook

tiny buds starting on the alyssum

And the first zinnia flower wheeee! These seed packets are more than paying their rent

 And yesterday I got a bag of prepped, pitted plums from the freezer to make an exclusive batch of jam

Which came out a lot better than the accidental apricot crumble stuff, so evidently I can still make jam

About the current skirt. Here's the inside showing the rectangle of fabric pinned in place

Then I laid dowels along the stitching line to show how I'm getting triangles off the pieces of batik

And here are the triangles ready to applique. I may take a strip off the biggest, for a bit of trim for the pocket edge. Today's about direct applique.

You'll notice I did this the easy way. A stitcher who's part engineer or who works for a dress pattern company would probably have painstakingly measured two triangles to fit the spaces, using protractors, slide rules and a piece of string tied to a pencil to determine the exact angles and slopes. So much easier to do it  this way, 

The inside finishing involves turning under and stitching the raw edges of the triangles. 

A couple of bloggers have posted early stories of their relationships very engrossing reading, and I have one, not so old, that became a family joke.

For many years  Handsome Partner and I were a married couple who couldn't in the end continue, divorced fairly amicably, continued as friends, more years, gradually realizing we were bonded for life but couldn't live together. 

Then came 9.11 and we realized it was ridiculous to be apart, who knew what could happen, so we coupled up again, with the proviso that we keep our own homes, share both.

We both owned the townhouse, bought together earlier, and I'd bought the condo personally.

Then his health deteriorated dramatically and we were forced into my moving into the townhouse where he had lived throughout the separation. Neither of us wanted this  but he simply couldn't manage alone with just shopping help from loyal and tactful handsome son.  He navigated his parents' unconventional relationship heroically, not taking sides, just being the grownup, and deserves tons of credit.

Anyway, neighbors noticed I seem to have moved in, and one, clearly out of the loop, fell in with me one day while I was walking KC the Dalmatian. How nice of you to take on the dog as well as the other tasks, she said. A was so smart to get this arrangement. I wish I could persuade my dad to do it, too.

I was sort of listening and wondering what we were talking about. Set up a relationship for her elderly frail father, what? Then she went on, would you mind telling me what agency sent you? I'd refer dad, too. Live-in is so good.

I explained that we were a couple, had been for many years, Handsome Son, whom she knew, was our son.  Her face was a picture. She recovered and we've had a lot of nice chats in the years since.  To be fair, she'd seized the wrong end of the stick because she was wanting to set up something for her dad, can't fault that. She'd assumed I was a live in paid  companion.

Evidently It had not crossed her ageist little mind that old frail men can have a relationship. Nor that older women can, too. Without consulting the neighbors! 

Hp was creased laughing when I told him and if we argued I'd threaten to get a new assignment from my agency if he didn't shape up. And he'd better upgrade my pay too, while we were at it!

Happy day, everyone, no need to get the neighbors to consent to your life! That's not what consensual means, hehehe.

Black plum jam! Ebullient!

 The black plums you saw in the Misfits box are now jam, no very tangy, nicely jelled.

I left the plums in the pot with the sugar and lemon juice, to let the juice start to flow, while I ate lunch, salad of course, romaine, Italian parsley, sharp cheddar, tomato.

I'd checked around for cooking times abd found a recipe for five cups of plum chunks and three of sugar. 

Here's where the realization dawned

I noticed it's a golden ratio!  Remember way back our discussion about the golden mean in art, the golden ratio, the three by five card an example of it! The balance and harmony of it? 

How could my jam go wrong, with these good omens? True, jam wasn't the focus of the people studying this, but what's a bunch of fruit and sugar between friends?

So here it's boiling merrily, reaching what ze French call ebullition 

It was when I was studying French and came upon the word ebullition meaning boiling, that the whole family of words suddenly made such sense. 

Bubbling, boiling, ebullient, bubbles, all related. So vivid to describe a person as ebullient when you know it means bubbling or boiling. And the bubbles forming on the liquid tell you it's boiling. 

Anyway where were we, oh yes, the colors in that pot are just amazing, even without bubbles.

And it turned out fine. Nicely jelled, lovely flavor. A modest amount, enough to eat and to carry a sample next door.

And here's a sample for the cook with the last of the pancake batter I've been having daily for breakfast for idunnohowlong. Nearest thing I had to bread to spread it on.

By tomorrow the flavor will have developed and will be mellower, though it's fine now.

This'll do.