Textiles and Tea, peaches, rug in progress, stitching in progress

Yesterday's Textiles and Tea featured a cheerful, all the textile people are so happy, multi textile person who describes herself as a dabbler. More like a dazzler, with great output from dyeing to spinning,  award winning weaving, sashiko embroidery, knitting,  enameling, to a serious original study of the fiber from the American bison. Take a look

She's a popular teacher of weaving and spinning, too. 

Meanwhile back home, the rug is cut off the warping peg, one end now woven in while I watched Textiles and Tea.

And later I worked on the current stitching block

 While the cleaners were here yesterday, I read in the library, and went around the square to admire the new fountain, a circular garden with water. It's imaginative.

Then on the way home, I stopped by the farm, and bought plum tomatoes and peaches, wildly expensive hence the small haul.

 I had a great cheese and tomato sandwich for lunch, and the rest of the tomatoes will go to sauce.

I have a policy about fresh picked farm fruit -- if it's really good to eat, it's best just eaten. If not,  okay to cook it. I tried one peach, okay, sweet, but not memorable. I'll use the rest to make Mary Moon's Peach Thing.

I picked up my new reading glasses this morning, so that should help with the stitching. I forgot to put them on to write this, though.. new habit to get into.

Here's a quotation from Fresh Water for Flowers

Happy day, everyone! Hope you can see clearly today, in every sense.

Jigsaw anyone? New socks in action

 The socks are done and in action.

After I'd knitted to my preferred length, I even had leftover yarn, to my great surprise.

Knitting them side by side is definitely the way to go. Once one was cast off, the other was ready to cast off, and it was so much less laborious than one sock at a time. I think that's my m.o. from now on. 

And what treat to just keep knitting the same yarn instead of having to figure out stripes and other ways to eke out the supply. I did make some nice designs, but it's easier if you don't have to.

They're so comfortable, a bit warm for this weather but they'll be great when it's colder. 

Now the denim vest and the socks are done I feel free to think what next. 

Maybe the string mat thing. 

Meanwhile to my surprise I got out one of the jigsaw puzzles I acquired last winter for winter entertainment and never started.

And even found I quite liked doing my San Francisco street scene. Amazing, for someone who isn't a puzzler, crossword, Sudoku, Wordle, scrambles, all leaving me pretty much uninterested. So this is new. 

As a kid i liked to cut up pictures to make into puzzles, just straight cuts. And I created some pretty simple crosswords, and made up riddles to drive my sisters mad. But doing puzzles already thought up,  not so much. Maybe I'll actually do this puzzle thing this winter. 

The library puts out a puzzle now and then for anyone to sit and work on for a while. They set it up near the reference desk, because of experience with obstreperous kids and oblivious parents. 

I think their puzzles might be a bit beyond me, those solid color million pieces type. But we'll see if they resume,  now the pandemic is more or less manageable.

And food continues to happen, Roma plum tomatoes with seasalt, black pepper, blue cheese crumbles, parsley and flaked baked cod. 

Writing a blog like this one, with many ideas and observations and projects, it's always fun to see what people comment on. Often a random throwaway thought is what interests readers more than the ideas I thought were the point. Always good to see what people really like to talk about. 

So here goes again, from my desert island of a life, so many days with no company, no conversation, just my own resources. It's good to have a blog to anchor myself in the human race. 

Happy day everyone, puzzle on!

Photo AC 

Today's a new day

The week has reshaped itself suddenly. We are apparently in the path of what's left of Ida, with large amounts of rain tomorrow and Thursday, probably meaning flooding, since the waterways are still at capacity from  Henri. Tomorrow and Thursday are my worrying appointments. 

One called to postpone, the chimney dryer/ vent people. Till next week. The other, the routine doctor visit, I thought I'd better postpone because flooding possible. Next appointment December 21! I took it.

The reason the dryer vent appointment, required by township suddenly, and now by HOA, is a worry, is  that the dryer at the condo, the one that took me 18 months to find and install, is nonvented. 

So there's nothing to check the pressure of as in the vented ones. My fear is of a hassle from the HOA if they don't understand it's perfectly safe. 

I'm trying not to trigger a problem by bringing it up ahead of time. But I know what it's like to be defending against the HOA. On another issue where they sprang an impossible demand on me, I got the township to defend me! Which they gallantly did.

And another good thing: Gary Nextdoor says he will come over with me to help smooth it out if necessary. It's almost always easier when there's a man around at times like this. 

Even if there's no man present but you're known to have one in your life. I'm known to be widowed, and low income, it's open season. Much experience of this. And he offered, so that should help. He's a good peacemaker, too.

So, floods bad, help with dryer vent  folk and postponement good.

He's also going to help me lift and divide the compacted iris soon Another good.

Went to the farm for peaches and tomatoes and ran into a friend I haven't seen for many years, on the same mission. Huge good.

 We used to play music together, and our paths separated when she switched to baroque viola, which is different groups and teachers. So good to see JoLin again. It must be well over fifteen years, my caregiving having stopped my social life pretty much. But we knew each other despite masks.

And her low, measured voice still calms me. Such a brave woman, a refugee from the Red Guard in China, starting over with her father and brother, learning English, completely dignified. And defying her cultural norms, staying single by choice.

So seeing her was a gift.

And I thought this was a day for ice cream which I rarely eat, but you know, peaches.

I made chickpea fritter things, eggs, slightly mashed chickpeas, onions, parsley. Enough for tomorrow, too.

I checked Textiles Tuesday,  and the speaker was Joan Berner, with very little to show, no studio images, just chatting. Nice but not too visual. 

She's a weaver and nuno felter. This is felting by wet rolling silk fabric and roving for ages  to create fabric. You make clothing and wall art from nuno, and it's lovely. I added in here  some images from her website to do her more justice. 

She's a retired engineer, and the other serious nuno felter I know was a physicist before switching. There seem to be a lot of science folks in weaving, too. Must be the math.

So this was a much better day. 

Happy Canada Day, and White Rabbits, eh?

Happy Canada Day to our Canadian and Canada-adjacent blogistas.

White Rabbits, too.

I did dull but strenuous stuff this morning, cut back the foliage from the very feeble iris this year, brought the Thai basil out front so neighbors can pick. Note the qtips and read on 

Witnessed the almost frightening advance of the squash plant. It had set off across the gate so just yesterday I turned it back and tied it in a new direction. Whereupon it said Ho, that's how you want it? I'll show you. And proceeded to commandeer the top of the fence. All the growth you see at the top is since yesterday

The tomatoes really like their new watering system

And I did the annual Riddling of the AC Condenser pipe. This is below grade, for some "reason" and if you fail to riddle out the buildup of debris that drifts in over the winter, the AC will drain through the living room ceiling. I riddled out a bit of debris and water began to flow out very obligingly.

 That bit of screening covers the mouth of it and the tile behind keeps the screening in place. Simple, works a treat. The various other visible pipes and lines are not related. The actual condensation pipe is underground and not visible here. 

If I'd held off a couple of hours, my neighbor would have done it. I met him later, and  he said he was about to do his, did I want him to do mine, too. But I was done. In a hot humid place like this it's vital to remember to do it. Some people have elaborate hoses and pumps and things.

Then we got talking about the caterpillars that have eaten his kale and broccoli, and I looked and saw just sad little skeletons, where there were plants last week. I don't think he knew about putting collars to interrupt the caterpillars' climb. 

He also has squirrels digging merrily in the house plants he put out for the summer. There I could help, and I gave him some qtips soaked in peppermint essential oil to put in the pots. As you see above in the Thai basil. 

 I've had some success with it. It's not the stuff you get in the baking section, but the real thing, much more pungent.

The best deterrent for squirrels is a pair of nesting Carolina wrens with young. They take no prisoners. I've seen them run squirrels off, one tiny bird pecking furiously at his head, one likewise at his tail. 

We had a squirrel free season up to a couple of weeks ago, and then I knew the pair that nested near here must be done with child rearing when the squirrels came back, ransacking the feeder. 

Baharat, plum toms and tarts

Rainy cool weather is great for messing about in the kitchen, catching up on making things.

I mentioned that it was time to make more baharat, the Middle Eastern spice mix, from Ottolenghi.  I think baharat probably only means mixture, like masala, and there are millions of recipes for it.  But the one I use is Ottolenghi's, from his Jerusalem book, and it's great.  As is the book, an adventure in cultures and history as well as food.  Go here for the recipe and a bit of the book

I helps that I have all the spices in the list in the kitchen anyway. And here you see most of the cast of characters, the black peppercorns not having been unearthed at this point, but they did show up for the performance. 

You'll notice that I use the real cinnamon, which is not the stuff you get in the supermarket. That's not the actual plant, but it is related to it.  The real stuff is much more delicate in scent and in handling -- you can break a stick in your hands, so you have the amount you want. It's also a lot more expensive, but you're worth it.

This really is a great entertainment.  You sniff at each spice as you dole it out into the bowl, and it's a sensory trip.  Then into the coffee grinder, which I use to grind spices and flours, but actually not coffee.

Then once ground, another trip as you spoon it into the jar.  I keep it in a tightly lidded glass jar inside a cabinet as far from the stove as you can get in this kitchen. You'll see the recipe doesn't make a lot.  That way you always have fresh flavor. You can always make more when you run out.

It will come into play in a lot of recipes, since the combo is lovely for many sorts of dishes, chicken, fish, fruit, green vegetables, very varied in itself, so it adapts.

Then onward to the Roma plum tomatoes, a bunch from the farmstand, washed, cut into about thirds, these were quite big ones, and then frozen exactly like that. 

I will use them later in tomato sauce or any place I want tomatoes with not much juice.

Keeping with the plum motif, there were the first black plums in the  store so I got a couple of pounds, washed, halved and pitted them, and made a Plum Tart, according to Marian Burros, which I think is really a torte, but it's very good anyway. I have the cook's privilege of sucking on the pits, to get all of the fruit. No picture of that process.

To get the original recipe, where it's called a torte, see I toldya, go here


She talks about using a dozen halved plums, but I never have room for that many. I just stud it with as many as fit, and save the rest for a sauce next time I do chicken or fish.

 
And here, in my trusty castiron pan, is the lovely result.  You're supposed to use a springform pan, but until they invent a castiron one, I'm going with this pan.

The topping is lemon juice, a sprinkling of sugar, and cinnamon, but I was a bit heavy on this last, hand sort of slipped.  Still tastes fine, though.  The plums were wonderful, must be a good year.

Had one warm slice with tea, managing to burn the side of my hand on the pan, forgot it was still hot, quick application of aloe juice, from kitchen plant, fixed that, then I froze the rest of the tart or torte for future use.  If I just refrigerate, I'll feel I have to finish the slices faster before they go stale, and that would never do.. 

Next time Handsome Son comes calling, I think he's in for pumpkin soup, roast chicken, probably seasoned with baharat,  with plum sauce and brown jasmine rice, and plum tart. All the best establishments have echoes in their food.. at least that'll be my story.