Small annoying stuff fixed and cake

I tried a new experimental cake based on the one Dolly's character in Steel Magnolias made. It seems to be going around, in honor of Dolly.

It's one cup self raising flour, one cup sugar, one can fruit cocktail. I had to adapt to what I have. So mine was whole-wheat plus baking powder and salt, sugar, 

dried cranberries, fresh apple dice, yogurt, milk, walnuts and lemon zest. I don't have a pie pan of the kind they want, so I used my all-purpose loaf pan.

Despite all this, it came out quite well. It went well with a cup of coffee for breakfast.

The lemon zest was a big part of why I like it. It's certainly sturdy, not having the texture you'd get with eggs and butter, but fine. 

I froze some for the next time Handsome Son comes over, and see what he thinks. He liked a similar apple cake I made a while ago. Here's to you, Dolly, anyway the part you played.

Speaking of experiments, in the interest of full disclosure, I have to describe a total boneheaded fail.

It's the apple cider vinegar. Weeks of saving and fermenting apple cores, stirring daily until they started to smell vinegary. Finally the day came to drain and preserve the liquid for more fermenting while discarding the apple debris.

So, completely absentmindedly I drained the jar into a sieve. And let the liquid drain away while the apple debris stayed safely in the sieve. Arghghgh. A moment's distraction was all it took. I may try it again when I get over my mad.

And other things I was annoyed about. First I hadn't got on with the embroidered jeans. So I finished it with outlines of the front pockets, whipped through the over stitching.

Done but not overdone.

Then I finished a second section of the weaving. This yarn does not like weaving. It's cotton,  braided rather than plied, so it has more tensile movement, springs off the loom, doesn't pack down. 

I'd forgotten this, but now realize it's why I couldn't keep the even tension when I tried the long warp. There was plenty of tension in the weaver, though. 

It's a great yarn for knitting or crochet, and it made a nice triangle scarf, which I'm pleased with.

I'll make a third woven panel then join them to make the kitchen mat, and move on. 

Meanwhile there was another annoying tiny thing, the fact that I most often need a kitchen cloth when I'm on the other side of the kitchen from the only spot I can stack cloths out of the way.

Solution: use the trial friendship bracelet samples, create loops, stitch them onto the corners of the cloths which can now hang in a cabinet handle near the action.

Then when I ran out of bracelet bits, a side bonus, used them up, I crocheted loops for more cloths.

Totally first world annoyances sorted while I listened to an Andy Carpenter audiobook involving dogs and murder and mystery.

As to the successful friendship bracelets, they're all on their way to some Navajo kids who wanted them in time for Halloween and after.

Another item that's left is the bookcase that used to be at the foot of the stairs and now there's no room. I couldn't find any other place for it, Handsome Son didn't want it, so I put it on Freecycle.

It was gone in less than an hour from posting. It served me well for years and now has a happy new owner.

The honesty harvest this year has now taken over from the little bouquet scenes.

And here's one reason I love my neighborhood 

A bunch of nice kids playing with a model airplane which made great loops.

Happy day everyone, what do you like about where you live? I hope there's something. And I'm not asking about boneheaded own goals you've scored. That can remain classified.

Mrs Soprano lives!

Friday was the Chair Installation Day, and Cody and his sidekick arrived and set to work.

How it works is pretty easy. You hold onto a switch thing indicating which direction, up or down, and it starts up slowly then gets up to speed, slightly faster than an athletic snail, and you ride sideways. 

At the top you push one of those paddles under the seat to turn the chair so you're facing the landing, and you get off, remembering your purse and carryon.

There are two remotes, so you can send it up or down, carrying stuff without a person. I could have used this the other day when I lugged up a big wandering dude, indoors for the winter. One remote stays downstairs, the other upstairs. The tech showed me how to use the seatbelt to secure big items! He knew.

I've been thinking about this for years and I'm glad it's finally done and seems to be working fine.  They are located about 40 minutes away, pretty good if service is required. 

That was one of the things that knocked some makers out of contention. One, based in Massachusetts, couldn't service where I live. Good to check because you don't want anyone other than techs trained on your brand tinkering with it. After I'd learned a bit and watched many videos, that service question was the first one I asked. 

So I'm all set to come down like Mrs Soprano and terrify people. Or, more likely, come down waving and screaming and eating cotton candy. You gotta take your fun where you can.

Interestingly, I priced these chairs many years ago when it still seemed possible for Handsome Partner to use one. They were almost as expensive then as this one now.  Maybe they were rarer then, but the various makes were comparable in price. 

And while the installation took place I went off for a nice hike to the pond, maybe to prove I can.  And to look for ducks.

I think this might have been a puffball. 

It was a beautiful day, great for walking and tossing stray golfballs back onto the course. These players are wild hitters but very strong.

And there were ducks, one male and three female friends. 

The "beef" plant stuff makes good burgers, mixed with egg to bind them, no spice needed, they're well seasoned. Just broiled and served with three bean salad, or, today, lovely roast diced potatoes and malt vinegar.

Since I'm weaving again, I ordered two more loom clamps from the Woolery, nice artisanal people to deal with. This is how they acknowledge an order 

This enthusiasm reminds me of Ivy! All joy all the time, that's Happy Whisk.

Happy day everyone, there's usually some reason to scream and wave and eat cotton candy.

Horse blankets, Misfits and a small life

This week's Textiles and Tea was a surprise. I wasn't sure I was interested in a weaver specializing in horse blankets. I wasn't even sure what they were about.

Turns out they're for protecting the horse's back from the saddle and they make a lot of difference. They're also decorative and people buy them for the back of the sofa. And this presenter was terrific.

Here she is, spins and natural-dyes her yarns,  from churro sheep fleece, classic Western yarn used by indigenous people for generations.  She grows and forages her dye material from plants and insects, as in cochineal.

She also makes garments like this

Dye samples in one of her notebooks 

It ended up being one of the most interesting episodes to date.

In other news, I skipped the knitters group because Handsome Son was visiting. He gave the chocolate pancakes a so-so rating, agreeing they'd be better breakfast food because they're not sweet. 

And the stair lift people came to measure.

Starting, as you see, at the wrong house, but I caught them before they left again and all was well. Mistake back at HQ, they called and got it corrected.

Then they measured everything including noting my height and weight! They think on account of my small size they can install the chair and preserve the banister and the grab bars on the opposite wall. 

Evidently the size, maybe height, of the user governs the installation space needed. My stairway is a bit narrow for bars on both sides, but they're important for safety. They'll be back to install Friday, and we'll see then. 

Before I get to Misfits, I have a question. I was involved recently in a discussion about living solo and getting out of the house.

The received wisdom is that unless you force yourself out and about, we're talking older people not going to a workplace, your world will shrink. And that's bad. 

But nobody can tell me why it's bad to be home occupying yourself happily with whatever you like doing.  So if you have any insight, please share. Why is it not good to have a small life? I wonder if this is another extrovert expectation, or FOMO, or what.

And on the subject of food the local food pantry is getting a windfall on account of the grifter in the White House trying to buy my vote, too late anyway, by depositing $90 in my bank account. 

He must think my vote is cheap, when in fact it's priceless. Anyway I'll round it up and send it to the food pantry to use for people whose need is definitely greater than mine.

To underline my privilege, Ron arrived to deliver another box of great food, driving a pink van evidently in the middle of a repaint job.

The makings of three bean salad, now made, black beans, cannellini on my shelf, green beans, scallions.

I made my dressing of the garlic ginger soy mix I made a while back, malt vinegar, red wine vinegar, olive oil and sugar. Now resting in the fridge.

Yogurt, different,  because my regular isn't available, but this is good. A spoonful of Meghan's raspberry spread with yogurt is a wonderful dessert.

Potatoes now parboiled and ready to roast, to serve with burgers of plant "beef" actually mushrooms and other plants.

Look at those beautiful eggs! I never get over how lovely they are. And they have sturdy shells which take a good thump on the counter to crack them.

Loads of spinach for future quiche and maybe soup with potatoes and veg stock on the shelf. Bananas for breakfast on toast. Apples for midmorning.  Small chicken on the freezer for whenever I feel like eating chicken again.

Beautiful happy day, and I sat on the deck in the sunshine, drinking tea, watching butterflies and feeling very good with my life. I hope yours has days like this, many of them.

Exhaling, baking experiment, final flowers

Update on the stair lift and permit: after I decided to go ahead anyway, this morning the township engineer got back to me to say no permit needed. So I've filed that away just in case. 

He was very prompt, considering I'd written close to closing time Friday and he got back early this morning. Clearly a man who attends to email first thing on Monday.

I had also given the go ahead to the stair man, at the weekend, and he too got back promptly, and we're on again. By Friday, all being well, the doings will be in place and carrying stuff up and down for me.

Meanwhile the cleaners wondered if they could use a newly opened slot this morning at my house, and that seems great timing to me, stairs newly cleaned before the installation. So they're at my house and I'm at the library.

And just now I heard from my contractor that he's ordered the bathtub kit, for delivery this weekend.  So with any luck that will move ahead too. It's all go.

In other news, I'm reading via audio while I weave, stay tuned, a book by Ashton  Applewhite about ageist stereotypes. 

It's a manifesto about ageist approaches to almost every aspect of living, written by a woman in her sixties coming to grips with her own aging, who used to believe a lot of the stereotypes herself. 

She's her own audiobook reader, and it's pretty good. I'm finding it a little disheartening to study all the ways, but it's useful reading.

Then last night I watched Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, from a wonderful novel by Elizabeth Taylor. I'd read and appreciated the book long ago. 

But the premise, an older once affluent now widowed lady, real sense of the word, moves into a cheapish residential hotel and what happens then, was much harder to tackle. 

With actors like Celia Johnson at work, and now in my own old age, my understanding is much greater. The poignancy of the people trying to keep up the appearance of having caring family was hard to navigate.

I'm baffled that it was marketed as a comedy, maybe to render the subject of old people having to live out their lives in a hotel more palatable. It would fit with the stereotypes described in Applewhite's book, if so.

More cheerful doings is the new weaving. I'm making a kitchen floor mat. At first I tried making a long warp, using the frame loom with the end piece unscrewed, but I had trouble keeping the tension as I warped. 

I've done it successfully before but this time, maybe the nature of the cotton yarn, not so much. So I decided to make it in sections to join together, rather than struggle.

It's the cotton yarn I made that long summer scarf from, nice color transition tan to pink to slate to white. It will be good against a white floor. And I really enjoy working with that curved shuttle.

 I did a baking experiment. Oatmeal chocolate pancakes, like a cake type thing.

I've added the recipe in case you fancy trying them.  I'll test them on Handsome Son next time I see him. He's done baking experiments himself so he gets the idea. Again I used aqua faba instead of eggs, and it works fine. 

And on the grounds that I'm worth it, I gave myself a present, from As Ever, a top of the line food source, owned and run by Meghan Sussex. Here's the unboxing 

Marmalade, raspberry and strawberry spreads. I've had the apricot spread and it really was excellent. I wonder if a touch of one of them might be good with the chocolate pancakes.

And in case I ran out of things to do, I repotted a couple of plants, creating a mess in the kitchen but finally getting done a couple of jobs I've been meaning to for eons.

Our state is now officially out of drought emergency, thanks to all the inches that fell lately.

 And the little bouquets are tapering off for the year, here Russian sage and chrysanthemums smelling wonderful.

That's Chez Boud for now, and my quiet uneventful days don't sound that way when I write it down. 

Happy day everyone, whether quiet or uproarious.