Purling Oaks

Friday Flat Bread

I had the urge to do a bit of baking this evening but didn't want anything too involved.  Rosemary Flat Bread was the answer.  The rosemary was still alive in the garden so I had all the ingredients on hand for this recipe.  It was quick and easy.  The parchment paper is a great trick for helping to roll thin flatbread and to get it into the oven without mishap.  By the third time I rolled out, I managed to get it uniform but the earlier efforts were still quite tasty.  A nice appetizer to a dinner of grilled salmon with broccoli.

Happy Halloween!

Mitten and a quarter

I'm back home and I actually accomplished some knitting this week.  One completed mitten and the start of a second.  I thought I would have more of a second mitten to show today.  However, on the second leg of my flight home, I pulled out the mitten and ....... promptly fell asleep.  Oops.  They knit up quickly because of the heavier yarn and simple pattern  (Ravelry link).  This is the same yarn I used for my Felted Fuschia Bag.

 

I'm going to be home for the next week or so and I'm looking forward to it.  Here is today's late afternoon view down the driveway.

Today is Kim's birthday!  Go wish her a happy one!

Card reading, anyone?

You are The Lovers

Motive, power, and action, arising from Inspiration and Impulse.

The Lovers represents intuition and inspiration. Very often a choice needs to be made.

Originally, this card was called just LOVE. And that's actually more apt than "Lovers." Love follows in this sequence of growth and maturity. And, coming after the Emperor, who is about control, it is a radical change in perspective. LOVE is a force that makes you choose and decide for reasons you often can't understand; it makes you surrender control to a higher power. And that is what this card is all about. Finding something or someone who is so much a part of yourself, so perfectly attuned to you and you to them, that you cannot, dare not resist. This card indicates that the you have or will come across a person, career, challenge or thing that you will fall in love with. You will know instinctively that you must have this, even if it means diverging from your chosen path. No matter the difficulties, without it you will never be complete.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Found over at ChicKnits

Just for the record, if this card applies to anything, it would be career, I believe.  Wilson is stuck with me and he knows it.

Warm and fuzzy

We had our first fire in the woodstove last night.  Here's Blue looking quite happy about the whole thing.  Our construction project, which is the addition pictured here and the renovation/repair of the basement, is complete minus a few items (for which we have a holdback from the contractor.)  The woodstove is a new Jotul F500 and we are having to go through a "breaking-in" process.  The first fire was small and got up to 200F.  The second fire (firing?) was to 300F and it was enjoyed with coffee and scrambled eggs this morning. 
(Don't ever say I don't love you guys....that photo is definitely a morning photo of me.  At least my hair is combed.)

Here was one of my views this morning.  The ladder is there because the chimney pipe installers used a ladder with no padding on the interior wall (duh!) and now some touch-up is needed.

DH and Fuzzle this morning.

Can you tell I'm happy?  It looks like this major project that we were propelled into by the summer water/septic disaster is just about finished at budget and about 3 weeks late.  Not bad.

I started moving a few things into my studio this weekend.  There are a few paint touch-up areas that I need to keep clear so I'll be able to finish my move in a week or two when I'm back home.

I'm typing this in front of the woodstove.  (Tonight's goal is 400F.)  I'm all packed and ready to fly back to DC in the morning for another week of team instruction.  Back on Thursday.  This week's travel knitting project is a mitten or two with bulky yarn.  You win, Nora.  :D

Satisfying and not so.....

The travel gods and goddesses were feeling generous today!  I was able to change my flights and get home at a decent hour rather than midnight.  I've been in DC this week and I'll be going back next week.  All work-related but I'm helping instruct a course so it is a change of pace, interesting, and satisfying. 

What's not so satisfying?  This sleeve of Williamsro (Ravelry link) that I worked on this week. 

(Sorry about the photography...it is dark here and I had to lighten the exposure to have something to blog about.)  I took Williamsro on the road to try to make some progress and I did.  Sort of.  Anyway, there are at least three mistakes in the last fourth of the sleeve, so I'll be frogging back.  One mistake and I might have just ignored it, but three is just too many for even me.  So look quickly blogless Aunt Jane and Stacey, here's knitting......since this is occasionally a knitting blog.  After I redo the sleeve, I'll start on the brown portion of the back.  This should be a fairly quick knit.......if I spent any time with it. 

The last several weeks I have been dealing with stress by just spending more time reading blogs and surfing.  I don't even have a sock on the needles.  Silly, I know.  (Not so satisfying)

Now, for a nice relaxing part of the blog...............

A welcome-home fire in the fireplace.  It is 46 degrees right now and a fire is a nice condiment for the night.  DH has some picadillo (with raisins and green olives) warming up and the rice is almost ready.  Yum.  (Yes, that translates as satisfying.)  Have a good night all.

She wants pictures.....

I told Stacey that Wilson and I were going up to visit my DM and to cut trees on Saturday.  She requested pictures.  Let's see if she likes these.

Wilson with safety helmet in the woods at our first stop.

A very interesting fungi.  I've never seen one this color before.  Perhaps my nephew J will be able to give me the name of this fungi.

DM, Wilson, and Lita dog contemplating our next task.  Lita had to lead the way around the farm.  She must have thought it was quite the important procession...she marked the path for us every 20 feet or so.  I didn't think her bladder had that much capacity.

It was a lovely though warmish afternoon.  I say "we" cut trees but, really, Wilson is the muscle with the chain saw.   DM and I drag branches and brush out of the way.  We'll have another full day of brush clearing ahead of us in November.  More of the leaves will be off the trees which will make it easier to decide what to cut.  We'll be clearing brush from near our deer blinds then.  Here's a view of where I'll be sitting the week before Thanksgiving. 

My blind is a very nice place to sit.  Aside from the serious nature of deer hunting, sitting in my tree for two or three (or more days) allows me to decompress in ways not usually available to us.  For those days, it is my "job" and I am supposed to be sitting in a tree.  Surrounded by nature.  No mobile telephone, no computer, no demands.  A notepad and pen nearby to record thoughts so I don't have to hold them in my mind.  Listening to and watching nature....from the squirrels running from oak limb to oak limb...to the owl landing on my blind (at o'dark thirty and scaring my boots off).....to the cardinals, blue jays, and sparrows providing entertainment when there is no other movement in the woods.  We should all have trees to sit in.

Pumpkins and alcohol......

Received from my blogless friend Charlynn.  It was too funny not to share. 

Yes, I do think it is funny.  :D

Definite progress

As promised, here is an update on the studio.  Although we are waiting for radiator covers to arrive, there's been progress.  Here are a few photos of my studio as of this week. 

The view from the doorway.  The florescent lights were found at Home Depot.

The new built-in bookcases and the door to the closet.  The closet door is rather narrow.

A peek into the closet.  It is a lovely large closet and now I'll have cubbies, a clothes rod and some small shelves at the back.  The right side of the closet is where I'll stack my plastic stash storage boxes.  As soon as the radiators arrive....I'm hoping tomorrow....the baseboard work can be finished.  We are so close to the finish! 

I'm home this evening and I'm looking forward to enjoying a four-day weekend.  We'll be visiting my mom and cutting some wood.  The deer blinds also need some attention and I'm hoping for good outdoor weather.

Apple crisp and other homey things

The kitchen kept me busy today, which is nice since it has been raining all day.    Yesterday's trip to the orchard
 resulted in a half-peck of Cortland apples and one caramel apple, not available for a photograph.  *ahem*  Apple crisp was a success using this recipe.   I also prepared this recipe of Beef, Leek, and Barley Soup for today's lunch and I definitely recommend it.  I could not find bone-in short-ribs at our local Piggly Wiggly, so I used a pound of boneless short-ribs.  Three hours later we had a warm delicious, nourishing lunch and a few more servings frozen for future fall lunches.

The bread machine produced a fine loaf of bread today, too. 

Saturday was a sunny and chilly...a perfect early fall day.  Each year I plant a few more daffodils to enjoy when Spring arrives.  I've found a new method of planting.  I purchased the auger at the hardware store.  I was looking for a wider and longer auger but since I'm a bit late with this project, I am happy with what I have.  DH set me up with the cordless power drill.  It is really a monster but very handy.

 
In the interest of full disclosure, the battery ran out of juice about a third of the way through my bulb planting.  So, I'll be planting more next weekend.  No, the shovel was not an option.  Really.  My theory is that our yard is part of a glacial deposit of stones.  Little ones and big ones.  It is an excellent place for raised garden beds.

I'm going to pick up Williamsro again this evening and try to make a bit more progress.  I tried to knit in the hotel while watching television this past week and I found my fingers were still while my mind was sucked into the program.  Any hints how to do both will be welcome.

More photos of the almost finished studio soon!

Night venture, night sky

It was a full week of work out of state but I'm home now and there's lots to see and tell you about.  However, sometimes a girl just has to sit and unwind.  I was just sitting down to a beverage Capital Brewery Prairie Gold ale when I, by chance, checked the weather.  Yup, frost advisory.  DH and I slipped off our slippers, found our boots and flashlights to head out to the garden with some old blankets and rugs to save a few garden plants.  Yeah, flashlights....it gets dark at 7 pm now and our venture started an hour after that.  I hope the eggplant and tomatillo make it....I wasn't quite finished with them yet.  I harvested the tomatoes but the basil was all ready a casualty, probably from earlier this week.  Stacey's hollyhocks are going strong and they told me they "don't need a mamby-pamby blanket."

DH went back into the house to work on dinner while I finished bagging my tomatoes.  It is a lovely clear night.  I could say quiet except the neighbors dogs were passing along the early evening gossip.  (Come on...why else bark?)  The night sky is spectacular since we are a good distance from any larger cities.  I definitely identified the Big Dipper but I'll have to brush up on my fall sky astronomy if I want to name other constellations.  It is a beautiful night and I have to be thankful for the frost advisory for getting me out there to enjoy it. 

Enjoy your nights and more news later this weekend.