Leaves and late harvest

I got back to the stitching today, and having decided Bayeux stitch won't work here, went to long and short stitching for the leaf. Three colors.

And here's what's up at Tatters in their ongoing embroidery workshops

Embroidery supporting people in place of the crops they can't count on. Whole communities are engaged in this art form. Climate change economy.

 In the middle of thinking about all this,  I realized that a forgetmenot we found at Gary's yesterday and he gave me, still needed to be housed.

So I took out the second potato harvest and planted the forgetmenot in its place.

Considering how many times this potato plant was dug up by squirrels, it's amazing it didn't just quit. Two little potatoes are pretty good considering.

Since this forgetmenot found its way yards over in a different garden, I'm hopeful of more of them next year. 

And it was time to finish dealing with the chicken which I've been eating in various forms for a week. Also to cook the shrimp.

I now have a container of chicken breast slices and a pot of cream of chicken soup full of pickings from the simmered carcase. 

Also a bowl of shrimp which will be Boud's Plain Mayo Shrimp for Sandwiches.  No fancy extras. You want the good shrimp salad, you go to Mary's.

Thursday Handsome Son is taking me to a dental appointment late morning, so in case he needs a quick sandwich and soup, once we get home, before he gets on with his day, I have the makings. 

My life lately is all about medical appointments. I'm perfectly well, but all these appointments. I was complaining about this to a retired nurse recently, and she said that's how you stay well, so hush up

About cars, if it's not doors it's cars. Gary got to work on the tire pressure situation. Then our friend across the street, the one with a good tire gauge, joined in and we had Men at Work 

After establishing that neighbor's Florida daughter is as safe as possible considering, they checked and inflated my tires to the right levels, then did a couple of other cars. 

I wheeled the crying grandbaby around. She fell asleep and we were all happy, I because I got to wheel a baby, so long since I did that. When the convo got to serious male car talk I withdrew quietly.

I have to admit to shameless larceny from She Who Seeks, go there for a whole lot more funny ghostly items,  with this very great Gallery of Ghosts

Chicken soup, visitors and Shakespeare

Yesterday I simmered and simmered the rest of the roast chicken, still with meat on it, with plenty of garlic powder and onion powder, then added in the last of the corn and peas from Christmas, and the spaghetti. 

And now I have half a  dozen bowls of really good chicken soup, doesn't look exciting, but it's really lovely. Those little free range chickens from Misfits evidently have a short life but a  happy one,  judging from the old fashioned flavor.

And yesterday's plans to read and veg out were punctuated by many sudden  irruptions from Gary  with a variety of things he suddenly wanted to tell me, largely about wildlife he'd found indoors in the course of removing built-ins in order  to replace the floor.

Evidently he had a colony of crickets and a habitat in one place, a nest of ants in another. So he's added in  removing these to the plans.

Then in the evening, these plants came to visit until after the floor is finished. The bear is  examining them with interest.

 

Yes, this senior is far from isolated and lonely! For someone who lives alone, it's amazing how often my activities are interrupted!

And after I'd finished shellacking Shakespeare the other day, the poem of the day yielded this gem, to remind us he's a great poet.

Happy day,  everyone, when the rain stops and our local flooding recedes, I'll get out walking, to see the  shapes of winter trees again.

Changing of the doves, soup redux, lilac, cactus and dumpster finds

Yesterday after recycling various small items which never found a home on Freecycle and are not worth a long drive to the thriftie, I found a couple of  Good Things among a riot of stuff in the dumpster/recycling enclosure, someone's moving.

I love blue glass, 

and this bowl's in perfect condition, as is the big scarf, silky but probably not silk. It's got advertising,  I think, printed on it. Can anyone translate? It's possibly inside out, alphabet unfamiliar to me.

It's in new unused condition and I can definitely employ it one way or another.

Both items can probably be freecycled when they've run their course Chez Boud.

And here's the Christmas or by now practically Memorial Day cactus

Putting out a single blossom but what a winner.

Then there's chicken and cappellini soup. Yesterday's lunch, with pita bread toasted with sharp cheddar

And today's lunch with spiced (chili, cayenne, cumin) toasted chickpeas and tuna, dried sage toasted crisp and chucked on top of the soup.

Yesterday's reading outside involved smelling lovely lilac in bloom next door, and seeing the changing of the nest guardians. 

There was a sudden flutter behind me, and I looked up, to see Partner Dove on the fence waiting to take his place 

He saw me and I thought it best to sit unmoving, to let him calm down and fly down to the deck, which he eventually did. 

He strolled about looking elaborately casual, until the sitting dove left the nest and flew off,  the way the other dove had come. Then after a bit more strolling, I suppose not to betray the nest site, he finally took his place.

And here's the guardian in place this morning

I felt honored that they'd gone ahead despite the presence of a giant human. I think they've decided I'm basically harmless. Maybe I'll get that on my gravestone. Here lies Boud. She was basically harmless.  

 

There's worse things to be known for!

Happy day everyone, later there's Textiles and Tea which I'll catch you up on tomorrow, a Scotswoman, Cally Booker, weaver and teacher.

Misfits, gloves, aww factor, mystery pic

 Misfits box arrived, mid morning, amidst a soup making frenzy

The real beauty of fresh clean food, the leeks squeaky, making my eyes tear as I chop, so fresh, lovely stuff. Big brown eggs. Excellent yogurt. It's always a pleasure. They're having supply issues, like most people: no apples, spinach, parsley, cod, oh well. But look at the supplies I do have.

I was polishing off the rest of the chicken into soup, when the box arrived.

Cream of chicken soup with cannellini.

Chicken carcase in broth, onions, garlic. After removing the carcase, I blended it then added the final bits of chicken, picked off the bones, and the beans. Dash of lemon, bit more salt, done.

Five more containers in the freezer.

This two pound chicken has given: two meals with roast chicken breast, two of curried chicken, one 9" potpie, and now six helpings of soup. I think I got my chickensworth. And will desist from chicken chat for the time being, you'll be relieved to know.

I've been spinning the new roving, blended with the old

And while I was at it, finished Glove One

It's quite hard work making gloves with three strands, so before I do Glove Two,. I'll return to the sock, restful, easy knitting on small needies, with one strand.

Here's an intriguing view, not exactly a puzzle but study it and see if you can fathom where you are

No, we're not in an eerie warehouse or the opening of a gothic novel. We're inside a cello.

And the aww factor I promised

Indigenous people and their working dogs rule!

Happy evening, everyone, enjoy the rest of your day. Zelenskyy is in London, finally a grownup in Downing Street. 

Celebrating October and soup and crumble and women's talents

The immediate Good Thing TM,  is the chicken pasta soup, which was great. That broth made it taste really old fashioned, like your grandma might have made it.

Seen with a sprig of Thai basil, now growing in the kitchen, slice of wholewheat and oat bread, Vermont butter.

And yesterday's apple cranberry crumble. I combined again Martha Stewart and Rose Birnbaum. Martha's recipe for oatmeal crumble is gluten free, a big deal for some, not an issue here, I just like it. And I learned to macerate fruit from Rose.

Since you're doing a lot of steps making crumble anyway, may as well make it even better by macerating the fruit.

Just prepare the fruit as usual, then add the brown sugar, cinnamon, cornstarch, lemon zest, ginger and salt, mix up with the fruit and leave for an hour. 

Then drain off the liquid it's made, reduce it by half and add it back to the fruit now in the buttered glass pan. Add the crumble bit, bake.

You get to a flourishoftrumpets good crumble with your afternoon cup of tea.

Handsome Son will get some of this. Gary is still away so he's missing it.

It's the taste of October. And here's some more October from Edith Holden's diary.

And seasonal drawings, look who drew these horse chestnuts, conkers, beloved of kids 

Never assume that the thing you know a person for is all they do. I have a real life example: a visitor invited into my recorder group while she was on a project at the Institute for Advanced Study, just along the street, was chatting with us, introducing herself.  

I said, oh, then you know my voice coach, the opera singer. I named her and the visiting prof said, no, can't be her, she's our department admin. I explained that by day she was the admin and by night taught singers her operatic techniques. 

She didn't tour in opera since her son was born, but still did occasional recitals. First the visitor had heard that people do more than one thing at a professional level. Around here that's not at all unusual.

Then there's the Nobel. It's Nobel season, so let's honor

Happy day everyone, enjoy whatever crumble equivalent is in your plans for the day.

Ukraine has taken back an "annexed" city and cut off vital transportation from the invaders, yay.

Birthday joy, and chicken soup

Lovely day today, total lazy lounging about, receiving greetings, tweets, and this bouquet from sister dogonart

Just lovely, many colors,  has to be seen from all sides.  Posed in the kitchen, because the winter light's best there, hence the colander which got in there.  Perfect for a winter's day, as well as a birthday, thank you!

And since it's cold enough for snow, in fact it's snowing, it was a good day for chicken soup.  

Chicken thighs, carrots, yam, onions, scallions, garlic, extra chicken bones, big sprig of thyme, half a dozen curry leaves, salt, pepper, bit of Worcestershire added at the end.  Blended just a bit but leaving plenty of whole vegetable pieces.  Duncan bullied me into a bit of shredded chicken in his bowl, on the grounds that he wanted some. So now I have supplies of soup, always a good thing.

And I made a cool discovery, after the cable cord on my tablet sort of wore out.  In the course of looking online to see what I should buy to replace it, I discovered in the q and a that I could try any micro charger.  So I tried my Kindle charger, and it works a treat. Also has a much longer cord.  I was so used the notion that each device had its own charger and none matched any other, that I hadn't noticed this distinct improvement. My phone charger works, too. No shopping required after all.

Yesterday's joys included a visit from a couple in search of a birthday present for the wife, and we had a visit, tea, cake, chat, and found that her birthday is in fact today!  Happy Birthday Irene!  Not sister Irene, another one, but she pronounces it the same way.

So I guess we were all happy, they because they liked the monotype they chose, I because I was happy to send it to a good new home, and we were amused to find we were birthmates.