Mysteries in the fridge and happy finds

Yesterday was a Misfits box day, and it arrived in time for my Friday evening salad

which was a welcome supper, easy.

Before that was the library knitting group, which was a huge number, three, one very nice new member deep in making a massive shawl, just right for knitting and chatting.

And I'd mentioned that I couldn't find any blank books at the library booksale, so they loyally searched and came up with a box of them, two of which were exactly right. 

The fabric covered Renner Davis notebook is already in use, as my purse notebook, and the other has paper sturdy enough for some watercolor playtime this summer. I like watercolor in summer, just casual sketches.

This was definitely yay!

Then today an interesting discovery in the fridge, garlic growing because it felt like it.

I found that the little container was full of liquid, who knows how. So I thought I'd better do something about this.

Around here, to think is to do, so it's now planted among the herb containers, for a supply of garlic scapes as well as the little pot already growing in the kitchen.

Today I'm planning to bake maslen bread from the Midnight chicken book,

 make stock, bake blueberry hot biscuits, make curtain liners from the muslin I got at a great price from Dharma Trading, before the summer gets more advanced. 

Then I guess I'll take the rest of the day off.

Happy day everyone! Don't overdo. That's my job 

Easter yet to happen here, catch-up, and Franklin Habit's vlog

Today is about setting the table, organizing food and looking forward to tomorrow's celebration of Easter. A little out of step as usual because of Handsome Son's work schedule, but it will be good.

Meanwhile winter seems to have returned.

I was out walking yesterday in bright sun, but quickly fastened my coat and put up the hood, because of stiff icy winds.  Deceptive from inside the house. But as Mary and Ellen would agree, you need to keep moving in order to be able to keep moving.  Even a couple of days off and my legs feel soooo tired, but strength soon comes back.

Meanwhile s couple of updates: the paper tubes have proved to be too much for my hands to manage. I didn't have newspaper so I used catalog type pages, all I had. I think newspaper is vital, soft enough to manipulate. So next time the local shopper comes, I'll try it again.  The tubes will become beads, possibly for a doorway. Anyway they're away safely, nothing wasted.

The other update is the progress of the garlic scapes

No commentary needed here.

Last night I made a cafe au lait, using a filter made into a coffee bag, like a teabag. 

It worked okay once it started. I wonder if coffee bags exist and if they're ground coffee like this or instant. Coffee doesn't usually affect my sleep but last night was all about reading and tossing. But the moon was brilliant, so that may be another reason. Beautiful moon, bitter cold, clear sky.

And I finished these, sincee my paper crafting us in hiatus

Already into the next, a narrow stripe of black and beigy color, tres raffine, insert your own accent there over the e. As I use up the supplies, there may be more narrow stripes in future, possibly multiple colors.

And if you're not familiar with teacher and knitter also crocheter and sewing expert and spinner Franklin Habit's vlog, yesterday he posted a wonderful one about a stitchery gala he attended recently. He's moved from Chicago to Paris and is getting right into the textile art scene there.

Here's a taste of the Aiguille en Fete 

Anyway he's a lovely guy, very entertaining, very encouraging to people at all levels of expertise or interest, take a look. He's crocheting while he talks, in his Paris apartment. 

Late breaking news. Fence Demolition has started 

Gardening notes, haze, heat and hair

The garlic scapes, which I've been using in all kinds of food, are flagging now, so I pulled them up to see what had happened to the garlic heads

Evidently they've finished their cycle, but since they have roots, I replanted them and took them outside to continue. They have a long growing season so we'll see.

It was cleaning day, but before I left, I put in a bit of time on the doll's hair. And I had the divil of a time remembering how to do the lark's head knot I was clickety clicking yesterday.

Finally realized I was threading the needle wrong. Like this

Don't do this. It will lock your needle into the knot. As I found.

But do this

It will work. At one point I was so exasperated that I looked back at my own directions from yesterday!  It's one of those things you can't do if you think about it. Fine now.

Anyway a few more locks have appeared

 Quite a way to go yet

Then I had to leave to let the cleaners have free range. Very hot, and I'd usually prefer not to go out. 

Did a couple of  shopping errands, then ran out of cool places, and went to the park to sit in the car in the shade and read a cracking good Charles Todd, set in a snowdrift at the beginning, very welcome. I had had a sudden clever thought. Bring a cooling source with me.

Namely my trusty Coleman ice thing. It worked very well. I set it between my knees, wrapped in a towel and it was surprisingly effective at making the hour tolerable. Now back in the freezer for the next time I need it.

Today's hazy, a kind of orange effect. I found that it's smoke haze from the California wildfires reaching this area and blotting out the sky. We're all more closely connected than we seem. California's the opposite coast, yet here's their smoke.

Wonderful Textiles and Tea today which will get its own post. Way too big to squash the wonderful Evee Erb into these ramblings.

I need a rest. Very full interesting day. I need to sit and watch butterflies for a while.

Summer Film Fest 2021

 I seem to be working through Jane Austen in my local Tiny Book Group, currently Sense and Sensibility is next in line when I can fit it in.

So I thought it's time for a Film Fest. Last year it was Alec Guinness comedies. This year I'm watching movie adaptations and plot adjacent productions of Jane Austen.

Here, in the rest of the library haul, are the first two. Sense and Sensibility is the brilliant Emma Thompson who not only wrote the screenplay, getting one of her multiple Oscars for it, but acted one of the best renditions ever of Elinor. This will be a rewatch.

And Clueless is a first watch, based on Emma, spare me from the misery of rewatching that Paltrow rendition of Emma, despite the supporting cast. Are there better versions you can recommend?

I'm  familiar with the Ehle, and whatsisname Firth  Pride and Prejudice. I'll watch that again, despite the miscast Jane, because the other actors are so good. There have been several versions of it. Also there's a Northanger Abbey, and probably a Mansfield park.

If you have recommendations, please make them. This is a summer long project, so I'm up for more than one version of them all.

Meanwhile downstairs among the books I'm reading for the first time, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. 

For various reasons, history, birth order, economics, a son who could not be read to, different story, I have a sparse acquaintance with picture books and have finally paid attention to them for a couple of years now, to catch up. But I'm still far behind. 

Since Eric Carle, the writer and illustrator of VHC just died, in his nineties, these guys are tough, it's time to pay my respects and read it.

Then Chris's recommended Giraffe book ( I did try the bee one, Chris, but the whole concept was a personal stressor, so I had to abandon it, but not without trying!) 

And Sylvia Ashton Warner, library doesn't have much, so this is what's up. A writer friend recommended a novel, but her essays will have to stand in.

And Tim Kreider, new to me but what I've seen I thought I'd follow up on.

First I need to finish Austen Years, a wonderful examination of Austen and her impact at different times on Rachel Cohen, the writer's, life. 

I may have to return A Woman of no Importance for now, because there's a line waiting, and I'll reborrow later. It's a slow read because I keep having to rest from the endless pain and setbacks she endured. The writing's great though.

Meanwhile in the world of plants, here's my prayer plant, leaves wide open to collect sun in the morning. 

As it gets dusk,the leaves stand up vertically, like praying hands, I suppose, in their native rain forest, to conserve moisture overnight.

And The Great Scapes are booming along, soon ready to pick. Just a couple of days. 

To be clear, I'm growing scapes here, not head garlic. This is like getting more leaves from the base of the lettuce head.

Some of the lavender is now across the street waiting for my cook/artist/contractor friend to see about lavender ice cream. We'll see.

All sorts of cultivation happening today.