Monday, warm, dry, puffy clouds, slider

Despite dragging fatigue, side effects of the allergies and the allergy remedies, I managed to change the bed and do the laundry, now all away.  

I wasn't up to anything much physically, other than falling asleep whenever I sat down, so I wrote the day off for walking and exercising.

The deck was lovely, all kinds of birds and insects and this accidental art which looks like an impressionist setup, the dappled shade and the multiple patterns 

Then while I was reading Trollope and resting my eyes, Michael the artist -contractor came over with the renovated base cabinet and the slider he built.

Tomorrow he'll install it, and I can stop working out of a crate of baking gear. It's beautifully finished, refurbished drawer now sliding in and out smoothly, I'm just very happy with it. What an improvement on the old cabinet. 

That geared me up to making a plum crumble using all the rest of the plums. The crumble is oatmeal, some of which I ground to flour, some I left as is.  Drizzle of molasses over the top. Usual nutmeg, cinnamon, butter, salt in the crumble. In the fruit there's cornstarch to thicken it, lemon zest, cinnamon, no sugar, I like it tart. 

And here's the cook's first taste. With Greek  yogurt and a sprinkle of sugar. 

He also brought a new set of locks, plain brass finish with keys. No codes and videos and Benny Hill music.  He'll install them Tuesday.

Foyle is now working for MI5 and still trying to retire to Hastings to go fishing. Some wartime colleagues show up in new secret jobs, and if they didn't shoot so many scenes in near darkness I'd manage to follow it better. 

Most of the secret men are in raincoats and hats, I have no hope of knowing who's who. But it's still good watching, including the terrible cardigans women were wearing, and austerity shoes. Women in their twenties looked about fifty in those big felt hats, designed to repel boarders.  

This was before the New Look came in, when skirts became long, bodices were fitted, and women looked pretty good if they could save the coupons to get a new outfit, big if at that time, clothes rationed for years.

The puzzle is still in the box. Maybe Tuesday.

Happy day everyone, don't worry if the puzzle's still in the box. To every puzzle there is a season or something.

Late summer reading, resting your eyes and art

Sunday feels like a day off because  one of my (many) pills is to be taken six mornings a week, and I chose Sunday as the day of rest. It means I don't have to time my breakfast, which seems like an amazing piece of freedom. I know, easily amused.

Then I started my day with this YouTube yes2next video.  It's great and you might consider it. 

Mom Aiko used 2lb  weights,  daughter April, aged 60(!) used 8 and 10lbs. I used 3 and 5 at different times.

My library, unlike one of my pills,  does not take a day off, so I went in to return Brideshead and take out the Foyle waiting for me. And I picked up a jigsaw puzzle because I haven't done one in months.

I found I'd skipped over one episode of Brideshead, so I watched the last one, by which time I was glad to be done with them, especially the popeyed Cordelia. On to Foyle!

Sunday lunch was more crisp breaded hake,  roasted potato dice seasoned with long red pepper (relative of black and white pepper but fruitier heat) and basil salt, which I'd ground from kosher salt and dried basil. 

Plus a side of portabella mushrooms sliced and cooked in butter and olive oil, with a peppermint leaf crushed and torn in. It looked like a quiet dish of food, but it was packed with flavor. 

Dessert was yogurt beaten with lime juice and sugar, blueberries added in.

My long awaited Anne Tyler came in Sunday morning and took me less than the afternoon to read, including watching butterflies and hummingbird moths 

and failing to capture them in pictures, listening to the cicadas beedling away, not the deafening ones this time, then resting my eyes, and dreaming, on the deck. Anyway, about the book -- it's very brief but vintage Tyler.

Definitely recommended. 

I returned unfinished the Lily King book Euphoria, set in some exotic part of the world among anthropologists, who, like the climate, are hot, humid and oppressive. 

I disliked it the same way I  dislike Kingsolver,  too green and intense. Which probably means that if you love Kingsolver you'll like this novel. This is a kind of negative recommendation. I'm not designed for the tropics,  even reading about them.

Gary has returned, singing to his dog, talking to his daughter and me  both at once, she on the phone, and looking well but thinner. He finds he's developed a gluten sensitivity. So I need to remember that,  when I bring baked food over. 

I do a nice fruit crumble with an oat flour topping, gluten free. That would work.  His health is less robust than mine these days, so I hope he does better. A nice dish of plum crumble would help.

Happy day everyone

It's worth fighting for. Resist! Read the preamble above aloud.

Birthday, library gallery exhibit

Today would have been my Dad's 130th birthday. He didn't quite make half of that. But these significant birthdays stay with us just about forever. I don't remember death dates, probably too much upset around them.

Cleaners here today and my car blessedly started, so I'm writing from the library, where there's a great departure from the usual exhibits.

I registered for the online discussion, and if you can scan the qr code, maybe you can too. 

While I was busy with this techie stuff, a gentleman asked me if I'd seen his earpiece charger. He'd put it down somewhere. Tech giveth and we lose the parts.

Beautiful day today and if the wind has dropped I'll get a walk here, around the fountain, now off for the winter.

Meanwhile, reading. The Atkinson was great, funny and confusing and vintage. It's back in the library now, for the next person on the long list.

It's odd to come to a library and spend time reading from my Kindle, come to think of it. Like bringing your own sandwich to a buffet.

Speaking of which, the libe has splurged on a puzzle table, with raised sides, which I guess keeps the pieces off the floor. After prolonged study, trial and many errors, I managed to place two, count them, pieces. Yay me. Not a world class puzzler. 

Happy day everyone, home soon to tomato cheese egg bake from last night, on toast. Fast food.

Great sadness about the California fires, along with relief that we still have a president willing and able to surge assistance to the region. 

'ear, 'ear! Ruth returns. And other nice stuff

Called the audiologist first thing Monday morning and to my amazement, got an appointment for 11. Same day. 

Well, second thing really, because the early morning sun came in like this, casting great shadows through the glass pitcher, so I had to record it.

It's a Jersey Lilypad, colonial design originally, hand blown, well, mouth blown, by a modern glass artisan, in the authentic color glass. Standing on a custom mantel handmade by a woodworking artisan, using antique mahogany.  We're posh.

So Dr H. and I met, I told her the workarounds, which she said she'd have tried first, too, then she checked my ear,  nothing happening there, then took a look at Ruth.  

It turned out the wire leading into the ear canal had gone. Simple replacement, took about twenty seconds, and I could hear again fine. 

She also gave me her email in case of sudden needs, so she could fit me in between appointments. Apparently she does this for hearing aid users.

Very happy hearer here.

Home again to soup and cheese toast and a walk around the block, more or less, not far, but I was out and walking. Helen Hip gets irritated if I go further just at the moment.

Then I cast on the Tunisian crochet I'd been wanting to try. I had to review stitches again and remembered Toni, excellent YouTube teacher 

If you want to learn or review any crochet, she's great, a designer and reviewer of yarns and hooks. Also she has killer nail styling.

Here's the start of a slip-on glove. I've made these before for myself and like them. You create a rectangle to fit around your hand, to the length you want, then stitch it into a tube leaving a gap in the seam for your thumb. They're very useful and I think they can go to the Sock 'n Glove Ministry.

What you're seeing is the length of the glove, and I'm working up and down it in bands of simple and knit stitches.  

I've been wanting to do a bit of Tunisian crochet for a while. 

And the jigsaw puzzle is coming along in five minute bursts. 

Good day. 

Happy day everyone, no need to shout, Ruth's working fine now, and I've learned a bit about her workings. Phonak doesn't offer these parts at retail, just the regular bits you replace when cleaning,  so I have to get this kind of repair done by Dr H.  It's part of the Audiologist Full Employment Act, no doubt.

The weather, puzzles and a pant

 Here are the weather forecasters studying conditions

So that was yesterday, more happening like that today.

However, the pant -- garment trade term -- is coming along. Here's the front. Today I'll pick up the live stitches and start the back, which will be a different shape. With a different yarn, since I've used up this one. So far so good. Any blogistas who knit with cotton yarn, what's a soft kind I can order?

And the puzzle is coming along slowly. Yesterday I made the usual discovery, that I was expecting it to be much bigger and more difficult, and found that truck section here actually fitted onto the flowers here, simplifying everything. 

I'm sure there's a sermon there, aren't you glad I'm not a lay preacher, yet again! I could bore many a congregation. 

Happy day everyone, piece by piece!

Decisions, decisions..

Continuing winnowing: art materials, here handmade paper I created from plant materials, quite a bit from local leaves, day lilies, iris, grasses, red onions in the kitchen, all kinds of flowers and foliage. 

Some of it's stamped, some could be framed as is, but it's all a lot of fun for collage, with or without kids. There's a few dyed coffee filters, too and other interesting stuff.

I'm

It's very light in weight and currently on Freecycle, pickup today. If you read the earlier text, I wrote before a local pickup came up.

I'm Freecycling this glass bowl,too, pickup today

The ruler resting on it for size indication. People tend to register pictures better than words. They'd rather squint at the ruler than read the descriptive text, search me why.

And here's another decision. It was at this point that I realized I was bored and impatient with this endlessly annoying puzzle. 

I checked and found they've repealed the law that says you have to finish everything you start. So it's boxed and back in the library collection now. 

I might borrow another, or I might take a puzzle holiday. I can't do my usual walk under the trees just now because 

We got two inches of rain, meaning slippery mud. I can walk on sidewalks, not quite as interesting but meanwhile I did free weights, various weird stretches and moves on the stairs.

So, when my doctor at this afternoon's routine visit asks if I'm active, I can say certainly! That's the main advice I get these days, that and watch salt, which I do anyway.

There's worse things than a doctor with little to suggest you should do.

Happy day, everyone, someone's coming this afternoon to get handmade paper to play with.

Surprise quilting and Pink Rabbit takes a bath

 Yesterday at the other, non-gallery, library, where the knitting group meets, there was a bonus, a show of hand quilting, which I had to show you.

This library only has an entrance corridor and a small glass case for art, no way to hang a show interestingly, but here's the current exhibit, overcoming the space.

KO

The bottom picture includes the bags in the glass case. If you're local to West Windsor, go take a look.

And the knitting group yielded this shawl by Serena, who's doing a kind of renovation and repair of a section she wants to improve.

It's alternating strips of mohair and merino singles, with feather and fan.

And here's a comfy knitting setup, everything to hand, as M gets to the end of an Icelandic wool sweater

And I finished my socks 

So now I can parcel up and send the gloves and socks for the Glove 'n Sock Ministry and turn my attention to other projects. 

I've redesigned the wallhanging a bit,now nearing completion, and I'm going to get back to the woven and sewn skirt. 

Meanwhile Pink Rabbit took a bath and is now sitting on a heat register to dry, looking quite a bit better than she did.

Get that baleful glare

We'll find a place with the bears once she's dry.

The puzzle is coming along but I'm still darkly suspicious about pieces missing.

All kinds of interesting sea animals, including a turtle, maybe a geoduck.

Happy day, everyone, enjoy the day before the US clocks change. Again. And upset everyone. Again.