Fountain views, sheep and making drawing sticks

Yesterday was a cleaners day as well as a busy freecycling event. So this meant I went out to the library to do some knitting, work a bit of the public puzzle, and walk around the square.

Near the fountain is a favorite spot for lunchers and there was one young Asian  woman rapidly running worry beads through her fingers. It's a meditative spot with little landscapes in the design.

 Clumps of mint growing round the rim, too.

Home again and all the biggest freecycling items were picked up, leaving me with several boxes to sort. More to go today but now I'm 

It turns out that the fireplace sealing was responsible for the extent of this large amount of winnowing chez Handsome Son.

In case they needed to access the roof, he'd cleared a space in his walk in closet because that's where the roof access is, and once started, figured he may as well keep going! Usually it's one small box now and then.

Out of this large consignment, I scored some black jeans, nearly new, which didn't fit him but do fit me, yay. And they're men's which means great pockets. So that's my fee for service.

About the rare breed sheep, here's a bit more information 

And here's an experiment I am absolutely going to try soon.

Where I live is more likely to be sandy rather than the desirable clay, but I may try a bit of digging in the tree area, because it's relatively untouched by amending, and see what I get.

This artist lives in Montana, different geology, and creates pastel sticks and watercolor from natural materials around her.  I would just like to create a couple of sticks to draw with, always love making my own materials. So we'll see.  

Meanwhile today misfits arrives and, at the local farm, a sign of spring

Happy day, everyone, have new adventures. And

Sad, but grateful to allies

Sad today, feeling betrayed, and besieged by the SCOTUS leap back to the world of my youth, when friends died of desperate abortions.

First, a shout out to allies Franklin Habit and Steve Reed. I knew we could count on you. You didn't fail us.

Then Gladstone Mog sums up the day and the mood

It's May the Fourth, for those needing Star Wars footnotes.

And on the lifelong belief that even the worst days have glimpses of joy, here's beautiful steamed asparagus with the lemon butter sauce at the ready, with chicken and a green salad.

And a new sock with a new design. This is a tube sock with a spiral variation. 

After a lot of arithmetic and testing, I settled on this, five knit, three purl repeat over an odd number of stitches. The odd number and the even repeat number cause the spiralling to happen. 

This yarn is very soft and grainy in appearance, so stitch definition is hard to come by, but seems to be working here. And it's a lot easier to keep track of  than the previous six knit two purl variation I did in earlier versions.

Non knitters: you can wake up now. 

Today's one foot in front of the other. This afternoon there's a a fun interval, a Downton Abbey movie at the library. So I'll do that. 

Meanwhile to everyone in the world under siege one way or another, try to be like Ukraine.

Fight back the forces of darkness at home and abroad.

Happy day despite all, everyone. We won't let ignorance and cruelty win. 

Opening day at the farm and other excitements

Early May is the opening of the asparagus season at the local farm. First day today, 10 this morning till sold out, that's usually about an hour later.

So I showed up at 10.30,  saw an even earlier bird leaving as I arrived.

Picked this morning from the field you see  across the street.

Now on the menu for this evening. Steamed, dipped in lemon butter sauce. Doesn't get much better.

Meanwhile, Handsome Son is visiting this afternoon, to test the new patio chair and whatever baked goods are on offer with his pot of tea.

Yesterday I tried the idea of ganache (my word recall not being too swift at the moment, I ran through soutache and gazpacho before landing on  the right word). using cocoa instead of chocolate, which I didn't have, and heavy cream powder instead of whipping cream which I also didn't have. 

It didn't exactly come together as something you could spread between layers, so I added cornstarch and brought it to the boil and made a really really rich and lovely chocolate sauce, to pour over slices of the chocolate cake I was also making.

So he'll have a choice of plain chocolate cake, or enrobed (!) chocolate cake. Or both if he wants.

Full disclosure: I tested this for breakfast this morning, why not, I had a wonderful bill of health from yesterday's annual Wellness Visit, Medicarespeak for physical. 

It was definitely good, the cake and the physical. I'm struggling to be nice enough not to reserve the rest of the helpings to myself. 

I'm definitely not giving oxygen to the current apology for a Supreme Court, supreme? as if, draft decision. 

Other than being profoundly glad my State this year enshrined reproductive rights into the State constitution, as a firewall against the current dumpster fire known as the judiciary.

Meanwhile Nancy Pelosi and other Dems, Republicans refusing to make the trip, made a hazardous and timely visit to Zelenskyy in Kyev. Showing up is a big part of being an ally.

As is men speaking up when other men slag off women and make rhetorical speeches about reproduction,  men refusing ordination to a religion which denies it to women, that'll be the day, or anyone speaking up when your immigrant friend isn't being served lunch when you are, at the same table, yes, this happens.   If you don't walk the walk you're not an ally.  Please remember to notice, act, be an ally 

One last note about brave young immigrants, this from today's local obituaries. She died a while back, but this just appeared.

Isn't she great? Someone who brought value!

Happy day everyone!

May Day,asparagus part two, condo part 1,354

Yesterday was mostly about asparagus and stitching up the Mitered Square jacket in knitting group.

We will draw a veil over the stitching. I was chatting and stitched a sleeve square to the back by accident. Had to unpick. Onward.

The asparagus was more successful. 

First a steamed plate of spears, with Irish butter and lemon juice sauce. Nothing else needed. Springtime on a plate.

Then a pot of cream of asparagus and dandelion greens soup. Spring tonic.

Just a bit of Old Bay, not enough to show. The flavor here is delicate. I added in the leftover lemon butter sauce, too. 

Ahead of the game in the food department.

Still very much in the good fight on the plumbing and electrical front. Friend finally managed to find a shutoff he hopes will fit, and two possible electric outlet parts, different sizes. 

So this afternoon fitted into his busy schedule, is yet another meeting at the condo to see if we can get the washer working st least. If all goes well, I can order the dryer. 

We're not yet any further on than before. The last meeting was just to let him see the shutoff to determine if it's soldered or not in place. Evidently not, so he can try replacing it and save me a big plumber's bill.

My doctor also, speaking of parts, noticed a little something and wants a special mammogram and ultrasound. I've scheduled that for earliest possible, week after next. At that point all may be changed anyway, and possibly the whole condo issue may seem comparatively trivial. We'll see. Good vibes please.

White Rabbits and May Day!

Asparagus is in!

What opening day is for baseball fans, first asparagus day is for local farm fans. The farm team.. couldn't resist.

Honor box in place under the roof there. You make change using what's in the unlocked box, put bigger bills in the locked one. 

Now to decide. Some steamed with lemon butter, the rest in a cream soup, I think. First to make sure all the sand is washed off.

From walking to pomegranates with tangents thrown in

 I've been walking outdoors most days as usual, but I haven't been doing much other exercise. Walking's fine, but it's just one form of movement, and it's good to have more.  I was getting bored with the Hasfit series, good as it is, and tried a couple of yoga ones, which were good, too, but today I thought I should do something involving not being in a chair.

So I found this mother and daughter channel.  Really good stuff.  And, instead of a young athletic person instructing older people how to go on, she has her mother working out alongside no, great illustration of what to look out for, how to pace it. I don't know the age of the mother -- often people are presented as seniors and turn out to be my son's age, but never mind.

I just did the ten minute walking workout this morning and I'll do more of these.  It's walking types of movement, but sideways, backwards, using arms, lifting alternate knees to touch, a variety of movements, punctuated by marching in place.  I think this is a great one for people who don't walk outside, too, especially when the weather gets a bit trickier, and there's ice.  And it exercises your thinking, too, to keep doing the actions without mixing yourself up.  At least for me it does.  Not gifted physically.

And then I needed some good music going while I was dressing and generally getting ready for the day.  This is Pinchas Zuckerman with a Korean prodigy, SoHyun Ko, when she was 12, playing Bach's Concerto in D minor, in Korea.  He's conducting baroque style, from his own instrument.   He's a great promoter of young musicians, offering opportunities, founding programs to help them get established.

He recorded this same piece with Midori when she was about ten.  When she was an adult, she performed locally and I got to see and hear her in person, unforgettable.

And while I was in search of more information, I came across a great don't miss it opportunity to add Samuel Pepys to my emergency Kindle reading.  He lived through the Great Plague, and the Fire of London, and various other disasters, and still kept on writing his diary.  Not the nicest of chaps, but an interesting writer to dip into. I doubt if he'd been happy at the price I paid, though.

Then, since food inevitably makes its way into everyday life at regular intervals, I thought I'd do something with the pomegranates from yesterday's Misfits box.  I looked at a few ideas online, found them way too elaborate for what I was looking for, and decided just to juice them.  

Way back in history, I made a peach curry, using canned peaches, and drained the syrup off the peaches thinking I could freeze that and use it one day.  Today turned out to be the day.  And I bust up the pomegranates and separated out the seeds, like little rubies, from the pith and the rind

and blended them briefly with the peach syrup.  I didn't want to blend too long, because each little ruby has a seed, which I didn't want to crush, probably bitter, just blend enough to get the jelly like part off the seeds. 

Then I strained it, with a lot of help from a spoon to push the material through leaving behind the seeds

Here's the debris from that operation, except there wasn't much waste, since the rinds on the plate are now in the freezer for future natural dyeing experiments.

And here's the result, two cups of the most wonderful juice, nothing better than fresh. Worth all the fiddling about that preceded it.  Not that I'm rushing to do it again very soon, I must admit.

But, having done all that prep, I can see why pomegranate juice is expensive, since I doubt whether there's a machine that can do all those stages without ruining something. It's very fiddly getting all the little bits of membrane separated after you remove the rind.

Like asparagus, which grows like a weed around here, but there's no machine that can harvest it successfully, since it has to be cut stem by stem at just the right place.  So the labor adds up and it sells as a luxury item.  I see the local farm family in spring patiently harvesting their field by hand.  It used to grow wild around here before development happened.  And I had a huge unruly bed of it in my backyard at the first house we had, used to invite neighbors to come and pick, since they were countryfolk and knew how to pick without damaging the plants.

Walking, to Bach, to Pepys, to pomegranates, to asparagus.  You can't say I stay too long on one topic!

Asparagus tip tips, and first world problems

So I washed and washed the asparagus to get the sand out, then you know about determining where the tender part of the asparagus tip ends? I used to grow it, so I've done a lot of this.

You snap each stalk. Where it breaks is where the tip ends and the tougher part starts. It tells you.

So here, tips for steaming, and stalks for soup.

Meanwhile back at the dryer. The supplier now tells me the dryer I told him about does after all exist, but he has no mounting  bracket and installers are on leave because of the virus.

I had found the dryer he said didn't exist, he grudgingly found it's still made, but, oh oh..the mfr won't take orders, made in China, completely shut down. No dryer, no bracket, no installer. Aside from that, Mrs Lincoln.. I'm pursuing another supplier but not with much hope.

First world problem, but I'm still not impressed that the supplier guy claimed the dryer didn't exist. Claimed their chief salesman agreed with him (!) One o' them there hoaxes.

Asparagus is in!

Over as soon as they opened. Several other cars there already when I arrived. When the day's crop is gone, it's over till the next lot is ready. Very slow growing this cold season. Could be a day or two. So people who know that are prompt.

Picked this morning from the field next to the trees you see.  All the precautions in place. Everyone masked, polite, friendly.

And now for a lovely dish of steamed sparrowgrass with lemon butter sauce. No need to get more fancy. This is Jersey Fresh!

It's a nice change from the excitement of the weekend. It wasn't all sitting on the patio. There was a urgent call late Saturday from tenant about sparks shooting out of the wall in the laundry area. We both feared an electrical fire, and he had had the presence of mind to spring for the breaker box and turn the circuit to the washer and dryer off.

Then various tests and consultations with Mike and my neighbor over Saturday and Sunday, all done by text and phone, indicated that probably the dryer was shorting out, not the circuit.

Which means replacing it. Which may be very tricky. It's wall mounted in an alcove, water heater one side, wall the other, no floor space because door. It's small and the appliance people who usually save me are telling me dryers like this don't exist, where did I get the idea etc. I sent pix, model info etc. Silence now.

I'm pursuing this with other suppliers but they usually have nothing this small, that's how I ended up with the current supplier, who did great detective work when I needed to replace the washer.

 I think that man has left, though. Maybe I drove him out! So tenant will be getting his clothes dried by his mother, that would be me, until, and if ever, we get a solution.

Really didn't need this added stress. I thought I was doing okay up to now. Until neighbor told me of two close friends who died this week of the virus. And doctors now think his sister in law who died in February, probably had it too, not detected.

So this is what's up. Where I live is very much affected.

But I'll still steam the asparagus. And maybe make soup, too.

Asparagus is in!

Celebrating the new asparagus season.  Here are a few spears, briefly simmered, and added to this salad of local mozzarella, apples, cheddar cheese, almonds.

 

East meets West on my table

Perfect early summer supper.  

Asparagus, growing in the field this morning, steamed and on my plate this evening.  Dipping sauce made from a mixture of plain yogurt, sour cream, using up what's left actually, and a spoonful of mayonnaise.  And after I tasted, I decided it needed a little something, and added a pinch of baharat, that wonderful spice mixture I made recently.  I really recommend this one.  Just lovely.  Nice glass of wine with, of course.

I think I might share pinches of baharat with my Bite Club next month. Aside from anything I might cook.

True confessions: despite my very modest income and froogle ways, there are times when you just need to buy something.  And when I found I'd used up all my collection of bookmarks marking items in Jerusalem and now Plenty, same authors, I decided I needed to own these two books. So they're on their way. Then I can write in them.  Even scanning and printing was going to mean many pages, silly really, better just buy the book and let them have their royalty.