cats, crafts and penguins

Monday

2012-01-30T08:36:00.000-05:00

Monday morning, 8:30 am and I am ready to call it a day. ;-)
We released our little prisoner today and she is making up for the 5 days in the cage, catching up on all the missed running around and getting into trouble. I just hope her stitches can keep up with her.

I dedicated the last week of the month to finishing as many yarn projects as possible and I think I did well. Here they are:

2 scarves, 2 scarf-hat-mittens sets, 1 giant granny square blanket made from last year's yarn leftovers, 2 knitted hats (one of them is Del's birthday gift), 1 cat litter catcher made from cotton yarn leftovers, and my Pimpelliese (which turned out to be more of a scarf than a shawl because of the thin yarn)

I will use the last two days of the month to catch up on some housework and to get a head start on spring cleaning. For some reason our house is covered with a layer of fine white dust and I wonder where it comes from, maybe it has to do with the heavy construction going on in the area. Today I am also going to deep clean the stove - always a favorite thing to do and begin to climb mount ironing (where is all that coming from anyway, how can two people use so many clothes?). I will also take some time to plan a bit what to do next month.

Have a great Monday everyone, see you soon!

"New" Books

2012-01-28T13:30:00.000-05:00

Just as we had finished our nice and quiet (the kittens were confined to the living room) weekend breakfast and had begun to settle in for a 'domestic' day, it dawned on me that there was something we wanted to do this morning. Oh yeah, the library's used book sale. We got dressed in a hurry and off we went. Here is what I came home with.

The craft books had either been picked over good already or there were not too many this year. Del found the quilting book for me. And since we were already out and about we ran a few errands and now we will settle in for a nice 'domestic' weekend.
Have a good one y'all!

A Treat for Myself

2012-01-26T12:54:00.001-05:00

With two stressful events this week - Del had a checkup on Monday, all is well, and Miss P.'s surgery yesterday - I decided I needed a little something for myself. So I went and bought some yarn. I plan to make a few small things for myself from it. I was looking for blue yarn but somehow all these yummy purples jumped at me instead.

Our Little Prisoner

2012-01-26T12:51:00.000-05:00

This morning we got Miss Precious back from the vet after her surgery yesterday. She is supposed to be on restricted activity for 5 days. Not easy with a kitten. So we went and bought a large dog crate. We figure with 5 more cats to have surgery it will come in handy and can also double as shelter for the whole furry family during the next tornado warning.
Precious is doing well and seems to be just a little woozy from the meds. The boys are wondering what exactly that big black thing is and why their little sister is inside of it.

Frankie

2012-01-24T06:57:00.000-05:00

Monday Musings

2012-01-23T08:30:00.000-05:00

Good morning world. I hope the weather is better somewhere else. Here it has been grey and wet and cold all weekend long and it still is. We were out and about on Saturday but stayed in on Sunday.

I took some PDF files to Staples to have them printed since I am out of printer ink and I am neither willing nor able to pay more than $70.- for ink cartridges. While waiting for my printouts I was playing around with the Kindles on display and I was wondering if it would work to get the cheapest one to keep my knitting patterns on rather than printing them out all the time. The cheapest Kindle is $79.-. Maybe I should start saving up.
Once all the medical needs of our little furry ones are met we will start saving up for a new printer anyway. We can get an all-in-one for around $80.- and the ink cartridges for that one are a lot cheaper than the ones for our old model. Isn't it nice how the technology industry forces you to give up your old stuff even if it still works, by making the accessories horribly expensive and thus contributing to the ever growing garbage ~~heap~~ mountain?

Speaking of our furry ones. They are now entering the cat equivalent of the human teenage years and I can just hope that we will all survive that phase. ;-) We already have one prematurely maturing female and it looks like the second one is about ready to go into heat. They are only 4 months old but the vet said it can happen, and of course if something can happen it will happen to us. Miss Precious will be spayed this Wednesday and if Miss Maggie goes the way I think she is going, she will be next. All our wonderful plans for financing the vet visits have gone out the window.

And speaking of money. Postage fees are a joke. I mailed two things I sold on Ebay and Amazon last week and the postage for a book I got $10.- for would have been more than $8.-. It no longer pays to sell anything, I might as well take it to the thrift shop or donate it to the library. We did manage to find a way to send it for less, but still, not much fun.

Other than that I had a pretty good weekend, with good food and some knitting and reading and I even baked a batch of ranger cookies. Today is major cleaning day. Del has this week off and we will try to make the best of it.

Have a wonderful beginning of the week everyone!

Yarn Along

2012-01-18T07:44:00.000-05:00

Happy Wednesday everyone!
This week I show you the beginnings of my ripple blanket and I am also working on a pair of two needle mittens for this year's charity project. I just started reading "Star of the Sea" by Joseph O'Connor. The NY Times calls it a "ripping yarn" and now I am wondering if that book is actually appropriate for a yarn along. :-)
Please ignore the various cat parts in the photos, these days it is hard to take a picture of anything without getting at least bits and pieces of the gang in them.

Joining Ginny at small things.

Then and Now

2012-01-17T07:11:00.000-05:00

Long Weekend

2012-01-16T19:11:00.000-05:00

Well, our weekend was nothing like the last one, not very relaxing and a bit stressful.
It included

monthly flea prevention for all cats
a trip to the vet
worm medicine for all cats

In between was some reading, knitting, cooking and game playing. The trip to the vet was unplanned and became necessary because on of my 16 weeks old kitten is in heat. Now we have an equally unplanned surgery ahead of us and we have decided to just stop planning and roll with the punches and go with the flow in the future. Plans seem absolutely obsolete around here. Just in case you wonder, our plan was to have the three boys fixed first because it would be easier on the finances and then do the girls as we have the money for it. Now it is going to be one of the ladies, then the rabies shots all around (required by law in NC even for inside cats) and then the boys and the remaining girls. Anyone want to donate to a worthy cause? I still have some stuff for sale. ;-)
I am not as rested as I was after last weekend and don't feel very creative. I will spend the rest of the week with housework and reading. Yay!

Armchair/Sofa Caddy

2012-01-12T16:19:00.000-05:00

In hopes of finding my sewing mojo I joined the SewingRoom SewAlong on Liz's Blog. This month we are making an armchair caddy. I just finished mine. I used the basic instructions in this tutorial but did not used pieced blocks. I am going to make all the projects with a cat theme (what a surprise, isn't it?).

Here is the caddy laying flat

and here it is 'in action'. My little ones seem to approve of the sayings on the fabric. :)

Yarn Along

2012-01-11T07:50:00.000-05:00

And it is Wednesday again, time sure flies. My Pimpelliese is progressing nicely towards the finish and I set last week's book aside when "The Scottish Prisoner" became available at the library. I am also doing a little rippling on the side but more about that next week. Hop on over to Ginny's blog to see what everyone else is knitting and reading this week.

Kitten Playground

2012-01-10T08:12:00.000-05:00

Weekend

2012-01-09T09:12:00.000-05:00

I had a wonderfully relaxing weekend, it included

shopping at Whole Foods
knitting and reading
playing games
making and enjoying good food
enjoying the warm weather
playing with my kitties and watching them sleep

buying yarn for my ripple blanket

I wish you all a wonderful week filled with moments of happiness.

Yarn Along

2012-01-04T08:03:00.001-05:00

I am glad to be back for a new yarn along with Ginny. I am working on one of the unfinished projects from last year, my Pimpelliese, and I WILL finish it this time. ;-) As for reading, well I am reading one of the books I got at the Dollar Tree - All Other Nights by Dara Horn. I am not far enough into it yet to say much about it only that I think the story seems a bit strange to me.

WIP Wednesday

2012-01-04T07:47:00.000-05:00

I pulled two small unfinished projects from last year from the UFO pile and I hope to get my sewing mojo back with them. They are both meant to become gifts so I cannot give more details. One is a cross stitch piece the other ones are redwork and both are a part of bigger projects.

Cross Sleepers

2012-01-03T06:36:00.001-05:00

Weekend

2012-01-02T08:57:00.000-05:00

The first weekend of the new year was nice, quiet and relaxing. It started with a trip to the now almost empty farmer's market. Our favorite farmers are still there, they have a nicely diversified farm and offer an interesting range of goodies. After all the sweet stuff we ate during the holidays it was time to stock up on greens. I got a big bag of kale, a smaller one of spinach and a jar of sorghum molasses (shoo-fly pies in the future).
I tried this recipe for the first time on Saturday and served it with some grilled salmon on the side. It is very good. I will also try this one towards the end of the week.
The rest of the weekend was spent puttering around the house, putting away what little Christmas decorations we had out and just relaxing, knitting, playing games, taking naps and lots of kitten cuddles.

It was also this weekend that we left the living room door open at night for the first time to see how the little ones would spend the night. They are surprisingly quiet. Some of them slept on the bed with us but all of them were really good about not waking us up until morning.
Del has today off so our weekend is not quite over. I will spend some time with my lovely new calendar and some knitting.
Have a great start of the week everyone. See you soon.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T00:00:00.002-05:00

This picture pretty much sums up what we did for New Year's Eve. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ! The new year begins whether we are awake or asleep.

In the past few years I made plans for the new year, set myself goals and life had other ideas. This year I am just making a list of things I would like to do.

In 2012 I would like to

learn a new craft
take a re-fresher course in Spanish
plant new things in the garden
finish most of the projects that did not get finished last year
make a ripple blanket
knit a sweater for Del
be open to new opportunities and new projects
continue eating healthy and buying local
explore those great hiking trails in our area

Well, lets wait and see what I can cross off this least a year from now. ;-)

2011

2011-12-30T13:53:00.001-05:00

Well, it was a year of ups and downs, sadness and happiness, joy and depression. But it is nearly over, here are some random things we did or did not do this year.

In 2011:

We ate mostly locally grown fruits and vegetables and farm raised meat, poultry and eggs.
We shopped at the farmer's market almost every weekend and for the first time ever at Whole Foods (while staying within our budget).
We both lost weight without even trying.
We eliminated artificial sweeteners, fast food, margarine, soft drinks and television from our lives.
We used 2236 KWH less electricity than in 2010.
Del was transferred to an office closer to home which means spending less money on gas and having a bit more time at home.
We made new friends.
We found a new church.
We said good bye to our beloved Miss Kitty.
We said hello to Ms. Elsa and her five kittens.
We were fairly healthy, apart from the usual colds.
Our garden did very well.
I did not finish any of the projects I had planned to work on in the second half of the year.
We did not have a Christmas tree and very little decoration overall.
We did not send Christmas cards.

Wow, I lead an exciting life. ;-)

I wish you all a happy and healthy 2012, may it bring you everything you hope for and then some.

Peace on Earth

2011-12-24T09:19:00.002-05:00

Or at least in this house. Merry Christmas to all my lovely readers.

Happy Cats

2011-12-20T09:50:00.000-05:00

Weekend

2011-12-19T08:13:00.001-05:00

Wow, I hope Monday morning was not an indication how the rest of the week is going to be. It is 8 am and I am already exhausted. ;-)
The weekend on the other hand was one of those nice and quiet 'domestic' ones where we do stuff around the house and just relax. My biggest problem with Christmas is that people think it is the perfect time for parties and going out while all I want to do is stay home and be with my family. Over the past years we have pretty much cut out everything from 'our' Christmas that would cause stress, too much work or just does not feel right for us. And I can say that almost all our Christmases past were stress free. So, this weekend, with both of us fighting our traditional holiday cold, we stayed in and kept warm. We did our usual grocery shopping run Friday night and we did not go to the farmer's market. It is pretty much winding down now and we stocked up on meat the last time we went. Both of our sources for eggs are no longer coming to market so we will switch to bi-weekly trips to Whole Foods for eggs, chicken and meat, these are the things we will not change to regular grocery store fare.
On Saturday Del cleaned the porch and made it kitten friendly and boy, did the little guys enjoy it. It is enclosed with plexiglass and gets nice and warm when the sun shines, even in Winter. I baked bread and started my main knitting project for 2012. I will buy a ball of yarn every Friday during our grocery shopping trip and - hopefully - work it up during the week into hats and scarves and mittens for the homeless shelter.
Here are some photos of our babies from this weekend.

Today is major cleaning and laundry day. I wish you all a wonderful week and I hope I will be back soon with more kitty cuteness. ;-)

Our Kittens

2011-12-16T11:08:00.002-05:00

Our Kittens are now 12 weeks old. Last weekend we took them to the vet for their second round of shots and we also introduced them to the rest of the family (MamaCat and Brownie). At first there was a lot of hissing on both sides but by now they are starting to play with each other. The little ones are now big enough that I don't have to worry about them getting hurt when things get rough, they play rather roughly with each other anyway. I spend a lot of time checking on them and making sure they are not getting in trouble - a favorite sport of kittens. Whenever I find them playing with something they should not I take it away or make the area kitten safe. Needless to say that I am quite tired at the end of the day. ;-) Every morning they help Del with his shoe laces and it is a lot of fun watching them learning and discovering new things. They can now jump up on the bed, the chairs and from the chairs to the dining table. They know their names and even come when we call them. And they associate one of us standing at the kitchen counter with food coming their way. They eat mostly dry food but every morning I give them a small can of wet food to share. Only four of them will eat it, Leo does not touch the stuff. At night we keep them in the living room to guarantee a peaceful night for everybody, they do not quite have the same sleeping pattern as we do. :-) At first they returned to the sofa whenever they took a nap, now they are beginning to fall asleep wherever they are at the time which means I need to go and count them whenever the house gets too quiet. Mama Elsa is not quite convinced that she wants to be a house cat but she does not have a choice in that matter. All six of them are very well behaved, perfectly potty trained (I had no accident whatsoever since they moved in) and really sweet cats. So, here for your viewing pleasure are some pictures of the bunch (I found that it is easier to get non blurry pictures when I wait until they are asleep or almost asleep).

Time Out

2011-12-12T09:24:00.000-05:00

I am still alive and kicking (well, not much kicking actually due to a bad back, but otherwise alive). I needed some time out to just sit and think, and ponder life, the universe and everything and watch our kittens grow.
I did very little of anything these past few weeks but I think that it is time now to come out and play again. I need to catch up on a few things but I will be back later with new photos of our not-so-little kittens.

Meet the new family members

2011-11-15T09:55:00.002-05:00

It is not easy taking pictures of constantly moving little bodies. I tried to catch each one at least once. So without further ado, here are the new members of our family - once you are given a name you are going to stay. ;-)

'Mama' Elsa - guess whom she is named after.

Maggie, she is the biggest of the litter and the only orange girl.

Jackie - the smallest of the bunch, a really sweet boy with a loud voice.

Leo - he likes to sleep a lot, will attack your feet and enjoys tummy tickles.

Precious - the spitting image of her daddy, very much her own cat

Frankie - he started out as Mr. Cutie-Face, but that would be too embarrassing for a big ole tom cat

We took them to their first vet appointment on Friday and they did very well. We were told that they are all sweet natured and that they have neither fleas nor ear mites. A couple of them had runny eyes so we treat them with ointment. I think it was mainly from hitting each other in the face when playing but they are getting better already. The vet also said that they look very healthy but are a little small for their age, well, they did not exactly have a perfect start in life but we are going to make up for that.They are due for their booster shots in four weeks.
Our holidays will definitely be a little different this year. I don't think a big tree with breakable ornaments goes very well with 8 cats who have never seen such a thing before. And added responsibilities come with added costs so we have to squeeze our budget just a bit to fit it all in but I know that we can do it. These kittens deserve a shot at a good life and the have a good chance at that with us.

This and that in the middle of the week

2011-11-09T09:17:00.001-05:00

We celebrated Del's birthday last weekend with a yummy cake and a lovely steak from the farmer's market (the steak was big enough to share). His gift is still not finished, I messed up and have to re-do.

We went to the farmer's market Saturday morning and it was cold. It seems the market has been built in one of the windiest spots in the county. We bought some sorghum syrup, kale, apples, eggs, pepper and a yellow cauliflower.

Our little kittens are growing fast now. They are curious and fearless and they are getting tired of being kept in quarantine. But until they have seen the vet we do not want them to have contact with MamaCat and Brownie, just in case. It gets really difficult now to enter the living room without them running out. So I just barricaded the entrance to the kitchen door (the kitchen door went missing a long time before we bought the house) and let them roam the dining room for a bit. As soon as I put some canned food down for them they come running back in a hurry. They are starting to develop quite distinct personalities and we have finally named them. They are Jackie, Frankie, Leo, Precious and Maggie. I hope to get some portraits of each one soon. Their mama is not happy about being locked up either but I hope she will get used to it. Here are some pictures of the cuties.

Just a little reminder

2011-11-06T08:39:00.000-05:00

A Productive Day

2011-11-03T15:19:00.002-04:00

Cupcakes for Del to take to work tomorrow for his birthday, a batch of granola, garlic-corn muffins for dinner. Not in the picture are four liters of ginger ale, a pot of chili and a big load of laundry that is fluttering merrily in the wind. Still to do - a big load of dishes (yikes), I really enjoy cooking and baking and generally messing around in the kitchen, but doing the dishes - well, that is a completely different story. ;-)

Things for Sale

2011-11-01T11:10:00.001-04:00

Well, I need to come up with some money for the kittens so I decided to sell some of my knitted shawls and scarves. If you are interested, you can find them on my shop blog.

Whether they will stay with us or not I want to treat them right and they will soon need their first shot and a check-up to see if they are healthy and can be introduced to my cats without being a danger to them. I do get a 30% discount at the vet if I bring them all at once but it still is a hefty sum, especially since we already had some unexpected expenses this past month.

Just a little reminder who will benefit from the sale:

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T09:09:00.000-04:00

These are pre-printed panels that I quilted and bound last year already but I never used them. This year the decorated our trunk for the 'trunk & treat' at our church.

Weekend

2011-10-30T21:26:00.000-04:00

Well, it was a very, very sad weekend for us and yet life continued on.

On Saturday we went to the farmer's market, much later than usual. The market is winding down a lot now but we still got everything we came for, amongst other things a beautiful steak for Del's birthday dinner next week. We were both so out of it that we drove into the wrong direction on our way home, instead of going back to town we were headed towards Virginia. Oh well, we did make it home eventually. After laying our dear girl to rest we tried to relax a bit and in the late afternoon we took part in our church's trunk or treat. We decorated the trunk of our car and handed out candy. It was not planned but somehow the theme of our trunk ended up to be black cats. It was biting cold. We also moved the mama cat and the kittens from the mudroom into the living room. With the temperatures falling below freezing I did not want to leave them out there. The living room is the one room in the house which has the least nooks and crannies and where they can - hopefully - get into the least trouble. They are so incredibly fun to watch, running around on those short legs with their tiny tails sticking up. They also discovered the big box full of cat toys. Their mama is getting used to being inside and my two girls are watching it all through the french doors with an expression like "it is just a bad dream, it will all go away".

Sunday morning we went to church, then we did a teeny weeny bit of retail therapy and had a nice lunch - beef sausages from the farmer's market, tiny red potatoes, roasted with a bit of parsley and a green salad from our garden. In the evening we went to our small group meeting which was very enjoyable again. Good food and very good company.

Miss Kitty's passing left a big hole in our lives and our hearts but I remind myself that she had a long and happy life and got to see and do things other cats never do. I try to remember all the happy times and forget that last day, which was really hard. She is at peace now with no pain and we will see her again one day.

Thank you for your kind comments on my last post.

I hope you all had a good weekend too.

Miss Kitty

2011-10-28T21:52:00.001-04:00

September 1994 - October 2011

Safe journey Baby Girl, we miss you!

A Little Cuteness

2011-10-27T09:58:00.002-04:00

Food for Thought

2011-10-24T11:29:00.001-04:00

Recently I saw on a pet clinic's website an article about concern over declining vet visits. When I asked at that same clinic how much it would cost to have a (stray) cat spayed the answer was "$ 239.-". And they wonder? I am sure people love their pets but times being what they are the prices at that particular clinic are a bit steep. I don't remember ever having paid that much at a vet, not even in Vienna.
We will take the mama cat to the local shelter to have her spayed as soon as the kittens are weaned. We took MamaCat there as well and they did a good job at a third of the clinic's price.

Weekend

2011-10-24T11:25:00.001-04:00

Well, another weekend has come and gone and time goes by so swiftly. It was a good weekend.
Friday night we moved the kittens (and their mama) from the potting shed into the mudroom. The nights are getting rather cool now and the kittens are getting more mobile and they seem to be an especially curious bunch. They started to explore outside the shed and with raccoons and dogs and who knows what other critters that come into our yard, we felt it safer for them to be inside. The mudroom does get a bit too warm in the afternoon when the sun shines directly on it so I put the little ones into one of our crates and took them inside for a nap, keeping them away from our cats. They are amazing, you can almost watch them grow, they are 4 weeks old now and are beginning to eat solid food. I gave them kitten chow to munch on and once a day I give them canned kitten food. It looks like there are three boys and two girls. The girls are the quiet ones, the boys are meowing up a storm. When I went out to them this morning two of them playfully attacked my foot. It will not be easy to let them go and I really hope I will be able to find homes for them.

Saturday morning we spent at the biker ministry helping clean out their basement. Let's just say it was an interesting experience. The volunteer shift was from 8 am - 12 pm, but by 11 am our spirits began to sag a bit, it was just so much work and we realized we would not be able to get it all done but we did make a dent. I was in a group of women who sorted donated clothing items. I have to say that it is a shame what some people donate, stained underwear was one of the grosser items we found, yuck! After we got home we took it easy and just read, knitted and played around on the computer a bit.

Sunday morning we had a great church service and in the evening we went to our first small group meeting. We had a good time of fellowship and Bible study with lovely people and good food and I am looking forward to being a part of this group.

Monday

2011-10-17T08:10:00.000-04:00

Ugh, Monday again? Where does the time go? I slept like a baby last night - woke up every two hours, not because I was wet or hungry but because I was hot and achy. I don't know what is going on, I am hurting all over, not bad, just enough to be uncomfortable and I felt hot and heavy although the night was rather cool. I love it when I wake up exhausted with a long day ahead of me. Well, I better get going, all that housework does not do itself.
I have not been creative at all in the past few weeks. The most I manage to do is to knit a few rows every day. But I am reading a lot.
Have a wonderful week y'all!

Weekend

2011-10-17T08:07:00.000-04:00

I had a bit of a mixed weekend. The weather was great but Saturday must have been "drive like an idiot day" around here. We almost got into an accident on the way to the farmer's market when a guy in a pick up swerved into our lane. We doubled up on some items from the market because we will not be going there next weekend, we'll be here instead.

In the afternoon we drove to the Horne Creek Farm for their annual corn shucking frolic and the idiocy on the road continued. I don't think I'll ever want to learn how to drive it is stressful enough sitting in the passenger seat. The event itself had a different feeling to it this year, more commercialized. They charged more for going in which in turn lead people to not buy any food. When we left around 4.30 there was still food to be had, in previous years they were sold out after the lunch rush. There was no quilting going on this year and the path to the cemetery and the creek had been fenced off. We were also handed a sheet with instructions on how to behave on the premises. They must have had some problems to come up with all that. Anyway, the weather was beautiful, we listened to some nice music and ate some old fashioned ice cream. The drive home was pretty much more of the same, it must have been a full sun for people to act so weird. ;-)

Sunday service was great. Several people got baptized and we heard some inspiring testimonials from them. I am really beginning to like this church.

Knitting and Reading

2011-10-12T09:15:00.000-04:00

Sleep is highly overrated. ;-) I woke up at 1.30 am and was wide awake until around 3 am. And then I was rather rudely awakended by a huge thunderstorm shortly after 5 am. I am getting too old for these wild nights. I hate thunder that shakes the house and lightning so close you can hear it hiss.

Last night we were on another kitten rescue mission. It had rained all day and by afternoon there was some dreadful yowling going on in the bushes. So out I went in pouring rain to see what was the matter. I found two rather wet and bedraggled looking kittens, stuffed them into a box lined with one of the flannel quilts I made for the cats last year and took them to the potting shed. Then I grabbed their mama and put her in with them so she knew where they went. I knew that she had more than two and I was hoping that she would bring them all together by herself. In the early evening we heard more yowling from the bushes and sure enough there was another kitten. He got himself so deep into the vegetation that she must not have been able to get him out by herself. Del got him and while I took him to the shed he was looking for the rest. When I entered the shed I found mama and four babies all nice and dry in their new box and the search was called off. This time we will have her fixed although I have no idea yet where the money for it will come from. After we gave away the last kittens she had disappeared for a while and when she showed up again she was pregnant once more. It seems to be my destiny to take on other people's responsibilities.

Anyway, on to knitting and reading, linking up with Ginny again.
I joined the knitting group at our new church for the first time yesterday and it was very nice. There were only four of us but we did some knitting and some chatting and had a good time. I am working on a simple scarf that will be added to the Christmas bags for the homeless shelter. And I am re-reading "The Pillars of the Earth", now I know why I could not remember anything of the book when I saw the movie. They made an awful lot of changes to the story right from the beginning, which proves again that you should never do a book report based on the movie. ;-) I also did a little Fall inspired baking - pumpkin muffins.

Weekend

2011-10-10T07:19:00.001-04:00

We had a nice weekend with great weather. We went to the farmer's market Saturday morning. Although it was quite late and they had a craft fair on there were not as many people there. In the afternoon we went to a festival at the local museum. They were showing a movie about the early days of stock car racing in the area, unfortunately there was very little about racing in the movie.

I baked the first pumpkin bread and cooked the first chili of the season.

At church on Sunday I met the lady who organizes the knitting group and I will be joining them tomorrow evening. They are knitting scarves for the homeless right now and I already got one on my needles. I am looking forward to meeting other women in the area who knit. We also signed up for a day of work at a local biker ministry in two weeks. They need help with organizing and cleaning their basement.

Sunday afternoon we worked in the garden, Del took down most of a big bush that had overgrown the rose bush and blocked out a lot of sun. Well, it also blocked the view into our back yard and the bedroom windows. I think we might need new blinds or drapes now. ;)

We ended the weekend with a little knitting, computer game playing and watching 'Northern Exposure'.

Weekend

2011-10-03T07:51:00.000-04:00

I had a fairly good week, apart from being eternally tired from not sleeping well. The difficult situation is still there but I seem to be handling it better. I am trying hard to live in today without being afraid of tomorrow and without letting yesterday (as in 40 years ago) getting to me. Not always easy, but I am trying.

The weather has become quite cool and refreshing in a hurry with temps in the 40s at night and in the 50s and 60s during the day.

Our weekend started with the usual trip to the farmer's market. We bought a chicken from a new vendor and that was by far the best chicken I have ever eaten. Not cheap by any means but we got three meals out of it. We also bought some okra which seems to be winding down already, acorn squash, eggs, peppers, kale, a sweet potato, a giant onion and apples.

On the way back from the market we picked up our repaired lawn mower and dropped some books off at the library. We also had the bright idea that we would both like to eat a candy bar. Well, changing our diet has definitely put us off anything overly sweet. We both felt bad after the sugar attack and decided that was probably the last candy bar we ever ate.

Sunday morning we went to church and right afterwards we headed to the Rising Meadow Farm for their annual farm fest. We took a different road this time and I did not get motion sick. Just to be on the safe side I had brought some of my homemade ginger ale along for the trip as well. The event was much smaller than last year, I guess that with the current economy being the way it is it does not pay for a lot of the fiber vendors to make the trip. But the weather was great and the farm is just beautiful. We also stopped at the Goat Lady Dairy for their open house, sampled the really good but very expensive goat cheese and admired the vegetable gardens. Just after we got to the farm my camera decided to call it quits. Re-chargeable batteries might be good for the environment but they are not doing well in cameras. The second set I took along did not work either, the seem to lose their charge quickly even when not in use. These are all the photos I got.

We ended our weekend with watching 'Northern Exposure' on library DVDs and eating home made popcorn. It was a good weekend.

Knitting and Reading

2011-09-28T13:41:00.000-04:00

Well, it is early afternoon and I finally found some energy to take part in this week's yarn along with Ginny.
I had a bad night, who gave permission for all night construction work in the middle of a residential area anyway? And not enough with that noise we had a big thunderstorm around midnight, throw in a few hot flashes and you can imagine how awake and fit I am today. I decided to take the day off, staying in my jammies, watching TV-shows on the CBS website and knitting cotton yarn leftovers (why do I have so many of them?) into garter stitch strips to be made into another under-the-cat-box-rug. When I run out of things to watch on the computer I will move on to an old TV show on DVD. I am reading 'The Help' and the book makes me feel so uncomfortable, I will never ever understand how one group of people can think themselves superior to another, that is just not in my nature. So I hate what is going on in the book but I will finish it.

I found my 17 year old cat in the porch panting like an old bloodhound and brought her into the house to cool off, now she is hiding under the bed. She has some health problems and I am very worried about her (big part of my not doing well these past few weeks). Please send some positive vibes our way. Thank you.

Weekend

2011-09-26T07:35:00.001-04:00

This weekend

- we saw a lot of fog and even more rain
- we went to the farmer's market
- we cooked and ate okra for the first time ever, and we liked it
- we visited a new (for us) church, the fifth one in the six years we have been living here, this one is quite different but maybe promising
- we went to the library to pick up a book and came back with a stack of DVDs
- we watched "The Pillars of the Earth" and liked it a lot, now I want to re-read the book, it has been a very long time since I read it and I can't remember much
- we went to a talk about railway history in NC and specifically in High Point
- I had a rather sleepless night due to too much stress during the day and too many crickets in the garden
- I started reading "The Help" and so far I am not liking it
- I started a new knitting project, something simple to keep my hands occupied while watching DVDs

I am still struggling with a lot of things but at least there are moments of light in the darkness now. Maybe things will start to ease up soon.

I hope your weekend was a good one and that this week will bring some good things for us all.

Happy Fall Y'all!

2011-09-23T06:47:00.000-04:00

Life

2011-09-19T11:51:00.000-04:00

I am currently dealing with a difficult situation that robs me of nearly all my energy, especially my creative energy. It is also the reason why there is not much blogging going on at the moment. It is complicated and has a lot to do with my upbringing and my background and my fight against it all.
During my wanderings across blog world this morning I started thinking that my problem is really not that bad, compared with what other people are dealing with. But then I realized that in the context of my life, my personality and my here and now it is just as bad no matter how other people might see it.
I am nearly 50 years old and I am still feeling like the unwanted, unloved child I used to be. Unimportant and largely ignored. I think it is time to get out of that trap I just don't know how.
Well, I did not really mean to write all that but maybe it helps with finding a solution before I go completely nuts.

Weekend

2011-09-19T06:44:00.001-04:00

My weekend included:

- a 30 degree drop in temperature
- a trip to the farmer's market with exciting new discoveries

- a visit to Whole Foods Market to buy some things that are hard to find around here
- a broken lawn mower - taken in for repair
- a broken fan - beyond repair (it kept us cool all Summer and saved us a lot of money)
- a leaky sink - already repaired
- watching Get Smart on DVD from the library (the original series)
- a lot of reading
- a bit of garden work
- green eggs, no ham, with spinach from the garden

I hope your weekend was a good one.

In the garden

2011-09-19T06:39:00.000-04:00

Weekend

2011-09-12T08:35:00.000-04:00

Our weekend started Saturday morning with our usual trip to the farmer's market. We went a little later, I felt the need to take things easy. We bought eggs, potatoes, peppers, onion, apples, black berries and a spaghetti squash. I am going to buy at least one type of squash every weekend from now on. Sadly, there were no plums for sale at all.

When we came home we did some housework (vacuuming and tidying mainly) and after a quick lunch we set out to explore the Guilford Courthouse Military Park. What was once a battlefield (in 1781) is now a lovely park with a nice hiking trail. We walked the trail, which is 2.5 miles long and then visited nearby Tannenbaum Park which also was part of the battlefield. While at the visitor center we found a few brochures about other interesting places and discovered a whole net of hiking trails around three lakes in Greensboro. Lots more to do in the future!

Sunday morning we headed to the NC Zoo. Now that was disappointing. I have never seen such a huge zoo witch so few animals inside. You have to walk 5 miles to get around the entire zoo, which we did, but to be honest, there are nicer places where I can walk without having to pay to get in. Not something we are likely to do again.

If you are interested: Photos of the Military Park Photos of the Zoo

Weekend Plans

2011-09-09T12:12:00.000-04:00

Time to dust off those old walking shoes and head out!

UFO Whacking - Progress

2011-09-09T12:11:00.000-04:00

Last week my back ache kept me from doing much but this week I made some progress on my UFOs.

I finished the three fluffy winter blankets for my cats and made three rugs out of garter stitch squares that I knitted from leftover yarn a while ago. I had originally thought about using them under the cat box to catch the litter the girls drag out but I think they are too nice for that and I will instead let the furry ladies use them to sleep on.

I also made an apron and matching hot pad as part of a friend's Christmas gift and finally finished the knitted bag for which I had to find handles. They are not the ones I would have liked but they work. The bag is also a gift for a friend.

Knitting and Reading

2011-09-07T07:41:00.000-04:00

Happy Wednesday everyone, now that my back ache is gone I can slowly resume my usual doings. And I am happy to be able to join in Ginny's yarn along again.

I am knitting a hat for Del. The pattern is "Fortnight" by Jared Flood. I love his patterns, they are well written and easy to follow. But - if one does not read the entire pattern before casting on, one might just end up frogging after row 11 (because one forgot to knit 4 rows at the beginning) ;-). I am using Patons Classic Wool, I like the way it feels and it is easy to work with.
I am reading "The Fruit of Her Hands" by Michelle Cameron, one of three books I found at the dollar store last weekend. It is a very interesting story, taking place in 13th century Europe.

Long Weekend

2011-09-06T11:37:00.000-04:00

I had a rough week last week. Tuesday morning I pinched or pulled something in my neck and during the week the pain wandered slowly down my back. I normally don't take painkillers because "I can live with pain but not without my liver", but it got so bad that I actually took one twice, nothing heavy, just some ibuprofen. By the end of the week it was much better and we were able to do some things on the weekend.

Friday night we did our usual weekly shopping. Our Dollar Tree store occasionally has books for sale. This time these three looked interesting and I bought them. I already read "Days of Atonement" over the weekend and loved it. I have his first book on hold at the library.

Saturday we went to the farmer's market as usual, we made a slight shift from Summer to Fall by buying plums and a butternut squash and fewer peaches. The peaches are coming to an end, they are no longer as good as they were a few weeks ago. We also got some chicken, peppers, onions and eggs.

The excitement of the weekend was provided by a bee swarm in one of our trees. We called a beekeeper to take a look at it and he told us that the swarm was too small and so late in the year it would not survive if he would capture it. They pose no danger to anyone, so we just left them alone, they will eventually move on.

On Sunday and Monday we spent the morning working in the garden, we worked on the non-edible part of the property which, admittedly, gets a little neglected during Summer. We weeded, mowed, pulled, sawed and hacked our way through the jungle and it looks much better now. We decided to abandon our plan of making the veggie garden bigger. We do not want to invest every extra dollar into the garden, we are not getting any younger, and we can buy really good produce from local farmers. Instead we are going to put some money by for "fun stuff" like day trips and such.

Sunday afternoon we took a little road trip through the area south of us and it was quite depressing. So many houses and businesses are for sale or rent. I can not help wonder what happened to the people. Are the homeless now, did they move away because they found work elsewhere? One thing we discovered is that the next bigger town down south - Asheboro - looks a lot livelier than our own and we will check it out in the coming weeks, maybe we can go there for some things we can't get here anymore instead of driving to Winston-Salem all the time. I spotted at least three big thrift stores that need to be explored, a quilt store and who knows, there might even be a yarn store hiding somewhere. :-)

It is raining today and it is supposed to stay this way for the rest of the week. I have some housework to catch up on and hope to be able to work on some of my UFOs. And I still have two new books to read.

Have a great rest of the week everyone!

Weekend

2011-08-29T10:56:00.001-04:00

The early forecasts last week had Irene go straight through our area which caused me quite a bit of stress, but she turned westward and all we got was some very interesting clouds and strong winds, no rain at all (which we actually need).
I was a bit apprehensive to go to the farmer's market on Saturday but we went anyway. We just bought peaches, apples, eggs, peppers and onions, no meat this week, we had fish instead.

For lunch on Saturday I made the Tempeh Tacos from "Feeding the Whole Family". That book is on top of my wishlist and once I own it I will cook my way through it. I am using a library copy right now and have to keep it well away from the action when cooking. ;-) The tacos were yummy, I also made the mango salsa from the book.

Since we had some stuff left over I decided to give the salmon for our Sunday lunch a bit of a south of the border twist as well. Wow, I never knew how well guacamole and brown rice go together. It was a very tasty meal, lots of flavors which all harmonized well, the brown rice was just lightly seasoned and bound it all together. Definitely a keeper.

After making my ~~shame~~ UFOs public I spent some time sorting them, pulling materials together and actually finished one of them already. They are at all stages from just in planning to almost finished and they will keep me busy for a while. A lot of them will become gifts for birthdays and Christmas, so off I got to work on some more.

Have a wonderful week everyone. And do pop in now and then to remind me to keep working on those UFOs. ;-) Here is a little cuteness on the way.

UFO Whacking - The Pictures

2011-08-28T09:32:00.000-04:00

Jackie, you asked for it, here is what I have found. These are the projects I am planning on working on and - hopefully - finishing before the year is over. I could not fit them all on one photo so I divided them into categories, knitting, sewing and quilting and hand stitching. After I took the photos I realized that I forgot to add two to the sewing projects, so there are 10 knitting projects, 12 sewing/quilting projects and 6 hand stitching projects. As you can see I am an excellent starter of things, but I do lack a bit in the finishing department. ;-)

UFO Whacking

2011-08-26T16:33:00.000-04:00

The ongoing and planned projects are growing like weeds around here and it is time to start some serious ~~weed~~ project whacking. I will be gathering them this weekend to see how bad it really is and starting Monday I will work on finishing them. Some of them are meant to become gifts and there is a kind of deadline for finishing them so they will probably be the first ones to get worked on. A lot of them require hand sewing and stitching and it is finally getting cool enough to do so. I just need to tear myself away from the computer long enough to accomplish something. Wish me luck! :-)

Knitting and Reading

2011-08-24T07:36:00.000-04:00

Good morning friends, time for another yarn along with Ginny.
After finishing my Wool Peddler's Shawl I am taking a bit of a break from knitting patterns, instead I am making winter blankets for my cats out of a super bulky yarn I found in my stash. Knitting with 10 mm needles is not much fun but at least it will be finished quickly. I am still reading the same book, I am on page 660 of 1040.

Finished

2011-08-22T14:08:00.000-04:00

My red Wool Peddler's Shawl is finished. Please ignore the jungle in the background, once the last few tomatoes and eggplants are gone, it will be cleaned up. ;-)

Weekend

2011-08-22T08:19:00.000-04:00

Saturday saw us out and about for most of the day. We went to the farmer's market in the morning and then on to Winston-Salem in search of purse handles. Store #1 and store #2 had handles but not in the style that I needed. Store #3 had handles in the style I needed but in a different material, as I was already hot, cranky and frustrated, I bought them anyway. ;-) I did, however, discover that store #1 has much lower yarn prices than any of the others and a nice selection too. I picked up some wool for a birthday gift and some cotton for Christmas presents. I also got fusible batting and now no longer have an excuse for not starting that purse I wanted to make for so long.
We also did something that we had not done in a long time, we went out to lunch. It was good and did not break the bank either. :-)
And we went to Whole Foods Market for the first time ever! Oh boy, I thought I had died and gone to heaven, what a wonderful store. I found everything I need to try some of the recipes from "Feeding the Whole Family" and then some. I love the combination of locally produced items, organic goods and imported luxuries. I found something I had not seen since we moved here - anchovies paste.
A few months ago I thought we would not be able to ever buy locally and eat seasonally and now I am planning trips to Whole Foods Market. ;-) I find that I am shifting more and more of our food budget towards the "good stuff" and it works, I think they key word here is quality, not quantity and there is more and more we simply no longer buy. I am even able to buy better cat food for my girls.
Here is a picture of the combined goodies from the farmer's market and WFM. We bought peaches, figs, eggs, apples, peppers, onions, grapes, sesame seeds, ground beef, tempeh, aluminum free baking powder, polenta and anchovies paste.

My long term goal is to replace things we eat a lot of with organic products. And discovering WFM also solved the problem of what are we going to eat once the farmer's market slows down for Winter. I already saw some pork chops with our name on them. There is very little pork available at the farmer's market and we do like to have it every now and then.
Sunday lunch was meatballs in tomato sauce (from my own tomatoes) with polenta. I have never made polenta before but we both liked it very much.

And here is a little cuteness for the day. I wonder if she knows what is in the box? Well, of course she does, cats know everything. She is finally getting over her fish allergy and coming back to her normal lively self.

I wish you all a great week, mine is looking to be very, very busy (if I am a good girl and do everything I should be doing).

Just some random cuteness

2011-08-17T10:13:00.002-04:00

Today's Project

2011-08-17T10:12:00.000-04:00

Before

and after.

Amazing how little time it takes to bring order to a space. The pile of newspapers is waiting to be put on our garden beds once they are empty. The flat boxes are set up as cat beds for the two outside cats, so is the litterbox. And of course my girls had to inspect it all.

Knitting and Reading

2011-08-17T07:09:00.000-04:00

Happy Wednesday, time for another yarn along with Ginny.

I am still reading my big book about a French family, I have just reached the 50s, I like it very much. And I am making progress on my new Wool Peddler's Shawl. I have decided it will become a birthday gift for a friend. I am using Simply Soft in Fall Red.

The birdie in yesterday's picture is a goldfinch on a sunflower. It is in the middle of the picture, to the left of the purple flower. They blend in so well.

Tuesday Morning

2011-08-16T08:09:00.000-04:00

Can you spot the birdie?

49

2011-08-15T06:00:00.000-04:00

Farmer's Market

2011-08-13T13:01:00.000-04:00

We got there early today and just as we got there a thunderstorm broke. Yikes, I know we need the water, but could we please get it without the noise? ;) The first fall fruits are showing up (at least they would be fall fruits where I come from, we do have a different growing season), plums, pears, grapes and more apples. And I discovered that it really depends on the presentation and the attitude of the people whether I want to buy from them or not. If I ask if the really huge peaches are juicy ( I have made the experience that they usually are not) I do not expect to get "I don't grow crap" as an answer. Luckily other people sell peaches too.
We bought figs, peaches, apples, eggs, ground beef, potatoes and peppers.

Late Harvest

2011-08-13T12:55:00.000-04:00

My garden is almost done and the fall crops are planted but there are still some tomatoes coming in and eggplants. Looks like I need to make an eggplant dip.

Wednesday Evening

2011-08-13T12:51:00.000-04:00

I noticed that the sky had a strange color and when I went to check it out, I saw this.

In the garden

2011-08-10T10:00:00.000-04:00

The mornings are already noticeably cooler and unfortunately also darker, which, on the other hand, gives me a chance to watch the bats flying around between the big trees across the road while I pack Del's lunch and make breakfast. I just took advantage of the cool morning and spent a delightful time in the garden, hanging laundry and planting Fall vegetables. I was serenaded by cicadas and surrounded by the scent of honeysuckle and I had a helper - behold Mr. Floyd, the last remaining garden cat (he chased off all the males and the two girls are now inside cats).

Finished

2011-08-10T09:52:00.000-04:00

My Eliina Shawl is finished. It still needs to be blocked but I was curious to see how the color changes in the yarn had worked out.

Weekend

2011-08-08T07:54:00.000-04:00

Saturday arrived wet and foggy and looked more like November than August. Here are some pictures I took from the car on our way to the farmer's market.

I did not wake up until 8.30 so we got to the market rather late but it was not so bad. The sun came out and burned off most of the humidity. We bought peaches, ground beef, peppers, onions, a large tomato, eggs and fresh figs. The figs did not last long, we ate most of them on Saturday and finished them off on Sunday, they were so good.

It was tax-free shopping weekend in NC so we decided to head out into the wild world of retail. Besides, we had a power outage on our block and the house was getting a bit uncomfortable with no fan on. I have not done any shopping, except for groceries, in a while and looking at the materials, styles and colors of what is sold as women's clothing these days it must have been longer than I thought. I think it is time to dig out those old sewing books and start practicing. Yikes!
I also wish Hobby Lobby would finally decide if they want to be a craft store or a home decor store. Every time I go there I find less and less stuff and higher prices. Very disappointing. We try to shop right here in town and we are forced to go to the next bigger city to find what we are looking for.
The only positive shopping experience I had was in the health food store where I found Dr. Bronner's Lavender Soap. I plan to use it for making laundry soap, the soap I use right now does not exactly smell good and lavender oil is very expensive.

Sunday brought early garden work (before it got too hot), two beds are ready for fall planting, and a breakfast fit for a king.

Followed by lots of resting, knitting, reading, a yummy lunch (hamburgers with farm raised beef and homemade buns) and more resting and watching a favorite TV series from the 90s (Highlander).We planned to go to an outdoor concert but since we had thunderstorms at the time it was supposed to start it had to be moved inside and we decided not to go.

Why are weekends always so short?

Knitting and Reading

2011-08-03T07:56:00.002-04:00

I am happy to join with Ginny for another yarn along.

I am working on the last rows of the my Eliina Shawl. There was a problem with the color change in the second ball of yarn and I had to do some unwinding and re-connecting of my own to keep with the flow. The last few rows are very long and a bit more complicated. I also cast on another Wool Peddlers Shawl for some less complicated knitting.

I picked up a book I had on my shelf for ages "Claude Michelet: Firelight and Woodsmoke - Applewood - Scent of Herbs" (3 books in one volume). It is the story of a French family over a century starting just before 1900.

Farmer's Market

2011-07-30T10:25:00.000-04:00

We made it there at 8 am today and it was getting hot already. We got chicken, eggs, potatoes, peppers, apples and peaches. The peaches are so good, what a difference between peaches picked when they are ripe and those you buy in the store. The eggs are from a different farm today, they come in different colors. Can't wait to try them.

Remember the little produce bag I made for the apples. Well, I thought the ribbon yarn is not very stretchy - wrong, as you can see.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Weekend

2011-07-25T10:00:00.001-04:00

Our weekend included a trip to the farmer's market, a lot of trying to stay cool, fresh watermelon, homemade ginger ale, yummy food, re-watching a favorite TV series on tape and plenty of rest.

My weekend included a lot of un-knitting and re-knitting. Remember that yellow/orange/brown shawl I started last week? Well, when I got to the lace edging it turned out that somewhere along the line I must have made a mistake and so I ended up with a different number of stitches before and after the middle stitch. A visual search of where the mistake might have happened did not yield anything so I frogged it all and started over. Luckily the slightly fuzzy yarn was cooperative and did not snag too much. Now I am doing security counts every few rows just to be sure. ;)

Produce Bag

2011-07-21T11:12:00.000-04:00

I made this yesterday with ribbon yarn I received from a friend. Now my farmer's market apples can ride home in style. ;)

Knitting and Reading

2011-07-20T08:29:00.001-04:00

Happy Wednesday, another week halfway over and it is going to be a scorcher today, yikes!

Whenever I finish a project I allow myself to start a new one. I was looking for something pretty, not too complicated and that would show off the color change in the yarn well. I found the Eliina Shawl. So far I am enjoying it very much. I never thought I would actually enjoy knitting with lace yarn but I do. This is my second project with Patons Lace and both times I bought the yarn because I liked the color. I am still reading "A Homemade Life" and I am not too thrilled with it, I know it is the result of the authors blogging and it does read more like a blog than a book, but I will finish it.

Hop on over to Ginny and get inspired to read and knit.

Sewing

2011-07-19T18:25:00.001-04:00

I actually did some sewing today. I made 10 drawstring bags for the Pink Slipper Project as part of their Christmas in July Challenge. They will accompany the knitted washcloths and bath mitts I made.

Finished

2011-07-19T09:15:00.002-04:00

I took advantage of the cooler temperatures on the weekend and finished a shawl. I used the pattern for The Bird's Nest Shawl by Cheryl Oberle but did only two pattern repeats. It is rectangular and pretty long. I enjoyed knitting the pattern. The yarn is Simply Soft in grey heather.

Saturday

2011-07-16T14:05:00.000-04:00

I am really enjoying our weekly trip to the farmer's market. Today we bought a nice piece of beef for Sunday dinner, a watermelon, lots of peaches (I see a peach cake in the near future), peppers, eggs and the first apples. I could not resist and ate one right there and then, they are delicious. And the peaches are perfect.

This is a little bit of a miracle. I am actually getting tomatoes off my ravaged plants. Maybe there will be homemade tomato sauce for my pizzas after all.

The weather is much cooler today but it is very humid. After the market we went to HobbyLobby. I had a very bad day yesterday and needed a little pick-me-up. I bought some yarn for a new project. We went home, dropped our goodies and then went to the Village Fair at Mendenhall Plantation. I was mainly interested in seeing the historic buildings. I love old houses, their layout usually makes so much more sense then that of modern ones. Right next to the kitchen is the spring house, combined with pantry and smoke house and a well, very convenient. The house was built in 1811 and belonged to a Quaker family.

Now I am off to the kitchen to work some magic.

Knitting and Reading

2011-07-13T07:40:00.000-04:00

Happy Wednesday everyone. Time for another yarn along with Ginny.
In between trying to stay cool and caring for the new additions to our family I am not getting too much knitting done. I have put all my larger projects on hold and I am knitting washcloths and bath mitts for the Pink Slipper Project, doing more stash busting. I am reading (or rather trying to read) "A Homemade Life".

"S" is for Sucker

2011-07-12T07:28:00.001-04:00

Have you noticed the big S on my back, on my forehead, painted all over my house and garden? Well, the cats have and they must be the ones that put them there. I can't help it I am just a sucker when it comes to cats.

We have known for about a week that one of the neighborhood cats was hiding kittens in our garden shed. So far, so good. We were going to wait until they are big enough for her to bring them out like MamaCat did a couple of years ago. BUT - the weather forecast for today calls for a heat index of 104, not good for little tiny baby cats. So we decided to get them in the morning and move the whole family into the basement. Our basement has a window and gets daylight.

Change of plan. Last night a raccoon came into the back yard and I was worried that the mama cat would try to tangle with it to defend the young ones. So we lured her into the basement with food and out we went with flashlights and basket to capture the kittens. Well, our garden shed is a bit creepy in broad daylight - we don't use it and after cleaning it out a bit we never went in there - but in the dark it is way creepier, only one thing to do, don't think about all the creepy crawlies and go in. We did. We found the little fur balls, I caught the feisty one, it fought like crazy, amazing how hard it can be to hold on to a handful of cat if it does not want to be held. Del got hold of the other one and we brought them in. I had set up a big box on its side for them to hide in and I popped them into the box. Then I got the mama cat to show her where they were because she tried to get out to get back to her babies. She saw them and then laid down protectively in front of the box.

I am just glad none of the neighbors called the cops on us, it must have looked strange, people with flashlights traipsing around the garden and disappearing into the shed and then run like hades back to the house.

I had a bad night. Too much adrenalin and way too hot, I did not sleep well. Brownie and MamaCat were very upset by all the late evening activity and I think they saw us bring in the kittens. Those two are very protective of their new home and I think we would have a hard time adding more cats to the family.

This morning I checked on them and they seem fine. Mama cat is purring and seems to have forgiven me. The basement is a bit damp at the moment but way cooler than the shed would be. I think the kittens are about 4 - 5 weeks old and I will try later in the week to see if they are ready to eat solid food. As to what I am going to do with them I don't know yet. Time will tell, we will cross that bridge when we reach it.

The funny thing is, that yesterday afternoon I had decided not to interfere and not always feel responsible to take care of the results of other people's irresponsible actions. But hey, what have those poor little fur balls done to deserve suffering in the heat? As I said - SUCKER!!

Weekend

2011-07-11T07:54:00.000-04:00

The weekend was very hot and humid but at least no more thunderstorms. We managed to get our weekly shopping done between the first and the second one on Friday night. Here are the pleasures of the weekend:

Early morning garden work followed by a lovely and refreshing breakfast.

A trip to the library - the steamy romance novel in German just does not cut it for me so I am back to more educational reading. ;)

Finding enormous zucchinis in the garden, hidden between the beds.

Reading - started to read 'A Homemade Life'.
Knitting - I made a pledge to the Pink Slipper Project for their Christmas in July Challenge and I am knitting washcloths and bath mitts.
Baking - despite the heat I made zucchini bread.
Cooking - Zucchini fritters on Saturday and chicken wraps with peanut sauce on Sunday.

Now it is time to ease myself into the new week, laundry is waiting to be hung, beds to be changed and bathroom and cat boxes to be cleaned.

Have a wonderful week everyone!

Farmer's Market

2011-07-09T13:01:00.000-04:00

It is getting really difficult to stick to my budget for the farmer's market. Everything is looking so good and so fresh and I want to buy it all. Here is what we did buy today: One watermelon, three ears of bi-color corn, a chicken breast (this time from a different farm, a bit more local), two peppers, three onions, a dozen eggs, a pint of blueberries and some whole-wheat couscous. The zucchini is actually from our garden, it just wanted to be in the picture. ;)

Today's lunch was zucchini fritters, corn on the cob and watermelon. Yum!

Shara - I can't answer to your comment. The dish you asked about is a ratatouille style veggie stew with beans, served with couscous.

How would you like your zucchinis today?

2011-07-08T10:35:00.000-04:00

Around the Garden

2011-07-07T09:25:00.000-04:00

Three thunderstorms in a row left my garden looking a little discouraged, I hope it will bounce back. I picked the last of the carrots today (note to self: plant more carrots next year!) and I also found another one of those zucchinis that hide until they are huge. Looks like more zucchini curry. The roma tomatoes are suffering from blossom end rot and the whole tomato patch looks a bit sad and yellow. Other people in the area have the same problem so I guess it is the weather. I always have a few tomatoes with that problem but this year all four roma plants are affected. I am already planning the fall garden and have ordered some seeds in addition to the ones I still have. Here are this morning's pictures.

From the Garden

2011-07-05T08:38:00.000-04:00

All the good things we get from our garden this year.

Knitting and Reading

2011-06-29T06:30:00.002-04:00

Happy Wednesday! It has been very hot for quite a while here and not much big knitting has happend. After knitting 6 bath mitts with leftover cotton yarn I picked up this project again. It is Pimpelliese a scarf/shawl. I am using a yarn I bought on Ebay a while ago because I liked the color. I have already knitted two shawls with it and there is still plenty left over. I think it is TLC Baby Sparkles in mint. As for reading - I am re-reading the first book in a series by Glenna McReynolds - 'Kelch und Schwert' - in German. The books are pure Summer escape reading, romance, dragons and maidens, witches and wizards, knights and princes. All the good people are beautiful and the bad people are ugly and smell bad. ;-)

Take a look at Ginny's blog to see what everyone else is reading and knitting this week.

Farmer's Market

2011-06-25T14:06:00.000-04:00

Just for the record - the cake dome in yesterday's post was empty. ;-)

We went to the farmer's market again this morning and it is really getting lively now. We ventured into the dry goods for the first time and bought popcorn and couscous. The popcorn was packaged but the couscous came out of a big bin and I used my own paper lunch sack to put it in instead of the plastic bags offered at the stall. We also bought a cantaloupe which is very good, blueberries, eggs, chicken thighs, peppers and dill.

During the summer months I don't ask Del what he would like for dinner, instead the question is "how would you like your zucchinis today?" ;-)
Have a great weekend everyone.

Friday Morning

2011-06-24T09:37:00.001-04:00

It was a lovely morning - except for the 6 brand new mosquito bites I woke up with. Darn thing must be in the bedroom, time to go hunting.

Homemade yogurt with peaches for breakfast. The first time I made yogurt with a culture instead of store bought yogurt for a starter, it came out great and tastes very good.

This morning's harvest. I confess to planting the beans a bit stupidly this year. I have to go hunting to find any in the jungle. Note to self: Next year plant beans in one row only. ;-) Have I mentioned that I am in love with my sweet little carrots? Will definitely buy more of these seeds.

An then, there was that.

Around the Garden

2011-06-23T10:15:00.000-04:00

The first cucumbers.

Little tiny eggplants growing bigger every day.

A promise of future delights, the first tomatoes.

Zucchini blossoms.

Kohlrabi.

My new herb garden.

This and That

2011-06-22T12:41:00.001-04:00

Just a few random thoughts.

Blogger does not let me upload pictures so my yarnalong contribution has to be postponed.

Today dawned a bit stress laden but got better. Del had his one year post-op check up and these always cause me a bit of anxiety. I try not to let the cancer dominate my life and thoughts but somehow it is always at the back of my mind and when these doctor appointments come around I get a bit stressed. But all is well, his PSA is as good as undetectable, the doctor is happy and so are we.

Miss K. is in one of her 'I don't want to eat cat food' phases again. She did however eat some cooked chicken. I always worry about her when she does not want to eat. We have switched her from the cat food she no longer wanted to an assortment of cat food of different brands and flavors and she has been eating well. I guess the heat does not help either. But other than that she is lively and does not seem to not be feeling well.

We managed to save over 400 KWh last month compared to last year, just by using the A/C for only short periods of time to cool the house down when it gets too warm. Unfortunately the savings in money were not quite corresponding since the price for electricity has gone up since last year.

With our last utilities bill came a pamphlet about our water. Yuck, is all I can say about that. We get city water and the pamphlet tells us where it comes from, how contaminated it is and what problems they had recently (something that they always tell us after the problem had been solved). I had noticed recently that our water filters for the water we drink only last for one month instead of two and that the water smells bad, especially in Summer. Now they tell us that they will add a mixture of chlorine and ammonia to the water for disinfection. The water is supposedly safe for cooking, drinking and bathing, but when you use it in your aquarium it will kill the fish, nice. So, from now on I will use filtered water for cooking as well. We were thinking about getting a faucet mounted filter, but that would be a bit of a waste since I don't need filtered water for cleaning and washing dishes and as quickly as the filters need to be replaced, it would put a little strain on the household budget.You'd think that with all of today's technology it should not be a problem to provide clean drinking water to a city in the USA, but ......

The weather is still brutally hot and last night we had a thunderstorm that did somedamage to my garden, but nothing too bad. We have started work on another section of our property to hopefully turn it into more veggie garden next year. I picked my first cucumbers today, now it is time to make some yogurt for some tzatziki to go with our grilled zucchini. It is that time of year now when we eat zucchini with every meal. :-) I also found a whopper of a zucchini that my sneaky plants were able to hide from me, that bad boy is going to become curry for tomorrow's dinner. I took a picture, but alas, blogger still is not cooperating. Sigh.

New Bath Mitts

2011-06-21T10:57:00.002-04:00

In an ongoing effort to whittle down my stash of leftovers I knitted a batch of new bath mitts for us.

Weekend

2011-06-20T11:16:00.000-04:00

Nice and quiet weekend with some gardening, some reading, some knitting, some cooking and baking and lots of rest. The forecast said we would reach 98, luckily it was wrong, it stayed around 80. Lucky us.

Blackberries hiding in lemon cupcakes.

Black cat hiding among the stuffed penguins.

Fresh veggies from the garden.

It's all about the produce

2011-06-18T10:08:00.001-04:00

Today we arrived at the farmer's market a little before 9 am and it was already buzzing. Lots of people and lots of good stuff to buy. Here is what we got: sweet onions, blackberries, blueberries, peaches and eggs.

We buy what we don't grow ourselves. I sewed up some produce bags for the stuff that is sold loose and I also keep my potatoes in their bag to protect them from the light.

Here is what I picked from the garden this week.

And this is what I used some of it in, pizza loaded with fresh vegetables. I can't wait for my tomatoes to come in so I can have homemade tomato sauce on my pizzas.

Cooking Kohlrabi

2011-06-15T13:11:00.000-04:00

I cooked my first kohlrabi from the garden for my lunch yesterday, the way I had it when I was a child and which is still my favorite way to eat it (apart from raw). It turned out very good, nice and soft. Here is what I did.

Peel kohlrabi, cut away all the woody bits around the stem and where the leaves were. Then cut into small cubes and cook in salt water together with some peas until tender. Make a light roux with some butter and flour, use some of the cooking water to make a sauce. When the sauce is as thick as you like it, add the cooked vegetables. That's all. You can also omit the sauce part and just serve it with some butter or mashed.

Finished Things

2011-06-15T13:06:00.000-04:00

Here are some of the knitting projects I finished recently as part of my stash busting efforts.
A simple shawl (free pattern from Caron) knit in garter stitch from corner to corner with an added crochet lace border. A nice quick project, knitted in re-purposed Simply Soft.

The Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief. It has been finished for a while now I just never got around to take a picture. Also knit in Simply Soft (leftover from another project).

Lots of little slippers for the Pink Slipper Project. I used the yarn my friend Liz sent me all the way from England.

Knitting and Reading

2011-06-15T06:40:00.000-04:00

Happy Wednesday! Hard to believe that we are already in the middle of June, although the weather has been more like August recently. Still too hot to knit anything big. I am still stash-busting and this week I am knitting bath mitts to replace some of ours that have become pretty much worn out. I am reading "O Pioneers!" by Willa Cather. I started it on Monday and I am almost finished. I like it although it centers more on the personal life of the characters and does not say very much about life as a pioneer in general.

Hop on over to Ginny's blog to see what everyone else is knitting and reading this week.
Have a wonderful second half of the week!

Liberty Belle Crash

2011-06-14T09:19:00.000-04:00

In August 2009 we got to see her when she visited Winston-Salem and yesterday she crashed into a cornfield outside of Chicago. Nobody got hurt but she is gone. How very sad.

Homemade Tortillas

2011-06-13T10:24:00.001-04:00

Edit in reply to comments: I used margarine since I keep neither lard nor shortening around.

Why did I not try this sooner? I used a recipe I found online that seemed easy enough and it was. I halved the recipe and got 8 good sized tortillas. They are not exactly round but so much better than the store bought ones. There flavor is so neutral it does not interfere with whatever you put into them and their texture is great too. They do not get brittle and don't get holes when you roll them. And they really are not that much work at all. One more thing to remove from my shopping list forever. ;-)

Farmer's Market and Food from the Garden

2011-06-11T14:23:00.000-04:00

There is more and more stuff appearing at the market now and everything looks so good. We bought chicken breast (fajitas tomorrow, first try at homemade tortillas), blueberries, blackberries, eggs, potatoes and sweet onions. Miss Kitty just had to inspect the goodies.

I picked the last of the loose leaf lettuce, the rest of the beets, some peppers, carrots and peas and the first of the kohlrabi today. The first zucchinis are coming in and the birds are picking the rest of the raspberries.

With one of the potatoes and the smallest of the zucchini I made potato-zucchini fritters for lunch today with a bowl of green salad. They turned out pretty good, next time I will add a little grated onion.

Around the Garden

2011-06-09T08:12:00.000-04:00

Today I am joining Farmama for a tour around the farm/garden. So, here we go.

Our garden is doing well this year. I planted beets and kohlrabi for the first time and they did well. I am going to harvest my first kohlrabi this weekend, I have already picked some of the beets.

I picked most of the lettuce already but there are still a few. The head forming variety was new this year, it looks like only one or two actually survived the rain and whatever it was that ate them.

The carrots did not get washed away after all and are now sweet and just right to be eaten raw as a snack.

The size of the zucchini plants this year amazes me. I spied a few squash bugs and I am fighting them with homemade soap and oil spray. So far, no damage.

Tomatoes are starting to show and tiny peppers. And the remaining raspberries are a favorite of the birds.
I am also picking the first peas. I eat most of them raw.

This is what my garden looks like in early June. Hope you enjoyed the tour.

Knitting and Reading

2011-06-08T08:24:00.000-04:00

Time for another yarn along with Ginny.
This is the lace project I started last month. It is the Lilac Leaf Shawl from 'Knitted Lace of Estonia', the yarn is Paton's Lace in wood rose. I have not been knitting much on it the past few weeks because it is a trifle hot for knitting right now. We are now reading book four in the trilogy of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - So Long and Thanks for All the Fish.

Farmer's Market and Food from the Garden

2011-06-06T08:06:00.000-04:00

We splurged a bit last weekend because of the holiday so this weekend we had to take it easy and stretch the budget a bit. We did not buy any meat at all, just eggs, peaches, potatoes, blueberries and yellow cherry tomatoes.

Our garden is doing so good this year. I did see the first squash bugs and immediately declared war on them. I mixed up a soap and oil spray and I am going after them whenever I see them. I also sprayed the bases of the zucchini plants and we picked off all the bugs we could find. The nasturtium I planted between the zucchinis is starting to bloom, I hope this will help too. Next year I have to plant the nasturtium way ahead of the zucchinis.