Purling Oaks

A July Friday

Storms to the North last Sunday

How did it get to be the end of July all ready?!

I've been away from the blog so long, TypePad had forgotten me.  And now there's this "new" TypePad that I'm previewing.  So far, it isn't quite intuitive but that could be me needing another cup of coffee.  I slept "in" this morning, having thought ahead and not scheduled anything until this afternoon.  Just those two extra hours of sleep make me feel so good, especially after yesterday's typical end of week travel.   Laundry's in process as I type.

Wilson's been making kim chee lately.  It's very tasty and simple to make.  The recipe that he currently favors is the fifth one on this collection of recipes. 

The jar on the left had aged in the refrigerator for over a week and had been sampled.  The two other jars were freshly made when this photo was taken last Sunday.  I just checked and the two new jars have taken on a golden color like the one on the left in the photo.  Yum!

I'm planning (with the services of my stylist) to do a little hair color adjustment today.  The recent "golden" (aka red) color is growing out and I'm not enjoying it.  I hope that my stylist can come close to my natural "dark" (do I hear snickering!?) blond with some low-lighting to disguise the transition between old and new growth.  Why do I think "forest" when I read that?   

There's no knitting or other fibery progress to show this week.  I've been re-reading S.M. Stirling's Dies the Fire in light of just picking up The Sunrise Lands, one of the books in his "Emberverse" world.  I've read one of the others in the "modern-day" portion this series and one or two of the "Nantucket" portion.  I have to be in the right mood as sometimes the author is just too descriptive for my attention span.  However, I enjoy the character development and the alternate Earth-universe premise of this series.  I'm also reading J.D. Robb's Promises in Death and I'm more satisfied (can I say that?) with this one than the last one I read which I believe was Salvation in Death.  There's more of the Eve/Rourke relationship and other character development in Promises.

Happy Friday!

Froggy

Yes, I have nothing but a bug catcher. This little guy and a few other of his buddies crawl up on our back window in the evenings. They take advantage of the situation of liitle insects attracted to the light from the dining room shining out into the night. Dinner!

Happy Tuesday!

Monday random

I feel mean but I am so glad the screaming toddler went to another gate.....far away. Silence, ahhhh! Of course, my inner child is screaming about being up so early, too. :D

I'm so glad Wilson does not carry a video camera. My test rides to find a bicycle were quite pathetic. The good news is I found an acceptable bike and should show great improvement during the next several weekends. Right? I pick up my new ride this Friday after my flight home. I'm adding a kick-stand and rack. Sorry about the fuzzy foto, but you get the general idea, I hope.

Happy Monday!

Sunday surprise

Surprises arrived in the backyard this morning before my morning coffee.  Twin fawns and their mom. 

I've never seen twins before and I'm sure fawn-sighting is rare for me.  Wilson sees them more often.

We had a nice time yesterday afternoon/evening.  The food at the Roxie was great.   It was great to see Dr. E, if only for a few hours.

l-r, Mom, Wilson, me, and Dr. E. 

I just realized that Stacey has named all of us, with the exception of Mom.  o.O

I'm off with Wilson today to look at a buying a bicycle for me (he bought his a few weeks ago) and to eat a nice anniversary luncheon at a new-to-me Japanese restaurant.  Our ninth wedding anniversary was this past week but we were were on separate coasts, East Coast and Lake Michigan Coast.  So, lunch for us.  Thanks for a great nine years, my heart, and I'm looking forward to many more decades together.

Happy Saturday photos

This photo makes me happy.  Blue and White Dot, geranium, my spinning wheel, a comfy chair, and a little Saturday sunshine.  Of course, there are things the photo doesn't show, which are fine, such as:

• Both cats (and their sisters) want to go outside but can't because Wilson and I are going up to the Farm in a few hours and we can't have the kitties running a muck while we're gone.
• The sunshine was only visible for about 60 seconds so far this morning.  The high temperature yesterday was 61 degrees F.  This is July?
• That's the same bobbin I started Tour de Fleece with--it is loaded up a bit more but the time allocated to spinning hasn't been too extensive. 

Speaking of Tour de Fleece/Team Crankypants.........You know the Groucho Marx scene where the phrase "Doctor, it hurts when I do this!" and Groucho says, "Then don't do that!"?  Well, I have to put my spindle on the sideline because I'm aggravating my shoulder and ribs somehow.   I'm taking action to heal up but no spindling for a while.  The wheel is still in action so I'm still cheering for Team Crankypants.  Good thing this was a no-stress event.  :D  I am happy that I've been spinning more, and that's what counts.

Our trip up to the Farm is because Dr. E is there visiting our mom.  He's only here for a short time so we're heading up this afternoon to say hello and meet with other family at the Roxie in Oshkosh for dinner.  He's back from vacationing in Europe with his two sons and will be able to tell us more about running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain ( o.O ) as well as the other fun stuff the three of them did.

The garden is coming along despite my absence. 

Happy Saturday!

For Stacey

Go Team Crankypants! There is more on that spindle, really. She wanted a photo! There was some yelling so I'm keeping the spirit of my team going, too. Perfect. Heh. No yelling at her though... Just at whiny stuff.

One of the benefits of my travel schedule has been sunrise-viewing. This photo was taken Monday. Last week, the moon was setting like a huge fireball on the
western horizon as the sun was rising in the east. That view was eerie and inspired some odd apprehension, cavewoman-style.

Happy Tuesday!

Berry good weekend

I'm still on Team Crankypants, spinning daily.  I fortunately had a chiropractic appointment all ready scheduled for Saturday.  Heh.  So, with a few adjustments, ice packs, and a Tiger Balm patch, I'm still in the game.  Wheel spinning is not physically stressful and actually quite relaxing, especially when I'm just a bit sleepy.  No photos since I'm a low volume producer unlike some of my other team-mates but there's more each day.  I have a tendency to store stress in my neck and shoulders so if I add a new activity to my less than in shape body, I'm bound to encounter some new thing to deal with, body-wise.  There's a lesson there but I'm ignoring it.

The black raspberries are ripening so I went on a little berry picking venture Saturday.  There are now about one and a half quarts of individually frozen berries in the freezer today.  The red raspberries are not doing so well this year and are just little flashes of red velvet in the woods with not much substance.  If we get rain in the next week or so, we will be buried in blackberries.  Frozen berries on my oatmeal in January are so yummy.  Come on, rain!  (Moderation in all things, of course.....)

Have a good week!

Spinning cranky-like

Spindle spinning progress is slow but happening. I am irritating a shoulder/neck problem ... I must need a PT/spinning therapist ... Ha! A little every night is good. This spindle is happy only with a very thin single so I'm learning not to drop my drop spindle so often. Go Team Crankypants!

The weather's been unusually nice in DC this week. Yea!

Happy late Wednesday and all day Thursday!

Making room for one more thing....

Some unscheduled events can be very tasty........

I had a full list of things to do yesterday.  However, sometimes you need to make room for one more thing, especially when Mother Nature is involved.  The cherries were ripe yesterday so I grabbed the step-ladder and a bowl and picked (and pitted) about five cups of tart cherries.  I'm actually glad they ripened yesterday.  Ripening on Monday would have meant the birds got to enjoy them all.  I picked just the ripe ones with many left on the tree.  So, we're sharing.  Of course, once they were picked and pitted, I was faced with the horrible task of deciding what to make with them. 

Horrible.  Riiiight.

Cherry and Nut Muffins using the Joy of Cooking recipe for basic muffins-full fat version.  I added 1.5 cups of tart cherries, and about 3/4 cup of nuts (pecans and walnuts), filled up a jumbo muffin tin and  presto......Breakfast!

and Snack.  and Lunch.  and Late afternoon snack.  Just Kidding.  Maybe.  Definitely tomorrow's early breakfast.

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Tour de Fleece 2009 Update

Yesterday's spinning is the bump part on the bobbin.  How I managed that odd bump I'm not sure.  All the cherry picking/pulled-pork making/laundry tired me out but I did make progress!  

I've got just a bit of this fiber to spin....I'm hoping to make a sweater with it whenever I finish spinning.  It is a warm neutral which should be perfect for a basic cardigan.

 

Geranium Update:

Happy Sunday!

Saturday show and tell

Hey!  I'm back from Upper Michigan and still have two days before I have to go to work!  How cool is that?  We had a nice relaxing break, caught up with sleep, and generally feel pretty darn good.  I'm catching up with blogs today, well some, since I have 1000+ new posts showing in my Google Reader.  Busy bloggers!  I'm also conquering the laundry, packing my work suitcase, and throwing a pork roast in the oven for some yummy pulled pork for dinner.

No good sky photos for Saturday Sky but I do have a little show and tell.  The skies this past week were generally overcast and wet in my part of the world, but here's a photo that Wilson snapped this week. 

Yup, bear tracks.  He said he didn't see the bears, probably a mama and her cub, but they had walked the trail he was on before he got there on his way to tickle some trout. 

While on vacation, I auditioned some spindles to prepare for Tour de Fleece as part of Team Crankypants.    
I think the two on the right are in the running for my travel hand spindle and the pink stuff is some roving from Susan's Fiber Shop that I don't know the wool specifics of, outside of it being wool and relatively inexpensive.  It has been in the stash for a while but it is pleasing to the eye.  I'll be spinning some other natural gray wool from Woolgatherers in Fond du Lac when I'm home on Margaret, my wheel, now that we are on good terms.  I'm going to have to pay more attention to my wool, aren't I?

My relaxing included some sock knitting on the man-sock, err, socks for Wilson with my first short-row heel completed.  Love it!  Thanks for the instructions, Cookie!  I also worked on Icarus --- I've recovered reknit past my ripping and then some but I'm still on chart 1.

 There was also some reading of the latest J.D. Robb paperback, Salvation in Death.  (Still a good read but I think something was missing, perhaps the personality conflicts?) and I started Tanya Huff's Valor's Trial which is definitely calling me.  This in book four of a series.....I know I read book three in this series but I'll have to look up the other two.

Happy Saturday!