Weekending 4/6/26

 Hello One and All,

Happy Easter Monday.  How are you?  And, how was your weekend?

It definitely was not the best Easter Sunday for a Sunrise Service!  It was breezy and chilly (cold at times) and rainy quite a bit.  My Dad and I used to go to a Sunrise Service North of here - above New Hope when a friend was the minister there.  He moved on after a bit and is now retired.

Anyway, on with the weekend.  I had yoga both Thursday and Friday.  Saturday was a gorgeous day.  And warm.  Capri leggings, a tee shirt and flip flops were the order of the day.  I baked the coconut pie

First I had trouble with the crust.  I think I processed mine too long...I could roll it out, but it was goopy and I could not get it into the pie plate.  I ended up running out to buy Pillsbury pie crusts.  The kids liked the pie ok, neither Fletch nor I really cared for it and the last of it went home with C&M last night.

By the time the kids arrived, the rain had pretty much stopped so Colin was able to help Fletch outside with some projects.  The meal pretty much sucked!!  Although everyone seemed to enjoy it.  I have always loved the 7 hour leg of lamb recipe. I've made it so many times.  Yesterday?  Not so much.  Even the smell was making me sick.  I joked that maybe I was pregnant.  LOL. The lamb was tender and falling off the bone (as it should be), but I found it dry and (again) the smell make me sick to my stomach.  The carrots, parsnips and onions all caramelized but so much they were hard to get out of the pan!  The tomatoes and potatoes were good though.  And the asparagus was tasty.

I enjoyed pulling out the china and silver (which I should have, but did not, polish).  Most importantly, the kids all loved the dinner.  Iris was particularly excited when six deer wandered into our yard.  She kept waving to them!  Too cute.

A little lamb and some veggies were saved for Fletch, but the balance went home with C&M&I.  

Today I'm looking forward to playing with Iris.  I hope your Monday is a good one!

Weekending 4/1/24

 Hello and Good Morning!

How was your weekend?  I hope everyone had a good one and a Happy Easter.

My weekend was nice.  Saturday morning Fletch and I ran some errands including picking up some tulips to take to Colin & Mailing on Sunday and getting some new lettuce (red and green romain) and spinach to go in the cold frame.

Saturday afternoon I sat down and finished the first shortie sock!!  I do love the way it turned out.

I also used a new (to me) technique for closing up the toe.  I used the Finchley Graft (if you have not heard of it, there are multiple YouTube videos showing it).  The hardest part for me was turning the sock inside out because I had already put the last stitches on two needles!  The Finchley Graft was fun and easy to do.  (Sock #2 is underway now.)

Colin had suggested that we come over in time to take a walk before dinner on Sunday, but Fletch had been in the garden planting the lettuce and spinach and it had gotten quite breezy and chilly outside.  Of course, later in the day the winds died and the sun came back out, but we arrived too late for a walk.  Dinner was delicious (ham, pineapple stuffing, green beans, Chinese eggplant) and dessert was very yummy.  Colin had made an Atlantic Beach Pie which is a wonderful cross between lemon meringue pie and key lime pie.  Delicious!!

A sweet ending to a wonderful meal.  After dinner we all went out back for a fire.  Bonus:  we saw the space station fly overhead once again.

We are due for rain today and the next several days.  Sounds to me like a perfect day for being lazy.  I'll get some laundry done, but no other plans.  Whatever you do - enjoy!

Weekending

 Good Morning!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and, for those who celebrate, a Happy Easter.  My weekend was what I could call perfect.  A little bit of everything!  Knitting, Stitching, Reading, Archery, Napping, Cooking.  It was all wonderful and the weather was pretty nice too.

As noted, I was able to do a bit of Archery.  I think this was Saturday afternoon if I remember correctly.

Our poor target withstood the winter, but the colors are done and it is in a bit of a bad shape.  But...it works!  The above represents the best of the lot that I shot.

We were going to Colin & Mailing's for dinner on Sunday and I was making desserts.  I did finally find the unsweetened coconut at Kimberton Whole Foods, so I made the Lemon Macaroon Pie to take.

It turned out well and is one I will definitely make again - it was like a cross between lemon meringue and coconut custard pie.  So good!  I also made a batch of brownies to take.

Mailing's sister, Anna, was there with the dog she just adopted 3 weeks ago.  Marcel and Talbot were NOT happy!!  But Otto is so well behaved.  He is 2 years old.

He is some kind of a mix (with a tongue that is always hanging out - lol).  Anna just taught him to "sit" in the last week.

Dinner was delicious.  It was nice enough that we decided to eat outside.

There was a lot of food:  Falafel, Tabouli, Hummus, Baba Ghanoush, Muhammara (a red pepper dip with pomegranate seeds that I had never had - DELICIOUS!!) and pita bread.

After dinner but before dessert we decided to take Otto for a walk and move a bit ourselves.  We walked in Whites Road Park which is just down the street from where Colin & Mailing live.  There were a few others in the park, but it definitely was not crowded.  There is a bit of work being done in the park - lots of trees have been planted and they are building a new playground.  We noticed a number of "shelters" that someone had constructed.

So fun!  When we got back to the house it was beginning to cool down, so we had dessert inside.  All in all, a wonderful, relaxing day with family.

Today I'm debating whether to go to the office or not.  I have a bunch of printing to do and a conference call at 10, so I thought I would go...but...I did not sleep well last night and I'm thinking I may stay home.  Still to be fully decided!  Nice to have the option either way.

Hope your Monday is the start of a great week - enjoy!

Weekending

Good Morning!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend whether celebrating Easter, Passover, or nothing.  It ended up being a good weekend for us.

My office was closed Friday and we closed early on Thursday, so the weekend was off to an early start.  Thursday before dinner we were sitting on the patio and spotted two bluebirds in our yard!  We don't normally have them in our yard, so it was a real treat.  Such a vibrant color!

We had a bit of rain Friday morning, but then the skies cleared and I went out for a quick walk on the River Trail (in Valley Forge Park, along the Schuylkill River).  There had to be thousands of blooms along the trail.  Some yellow cinquefoil:

And then literally thousands of bluebells:

These ranged in color from a very deep blue to pale lavender to pink and even some white.  There were a few others out walking or jogging, but the trail was not crowded which was nice.  the river was pretty high after the rains we've had.  I ended up walking just over 3 miles.

Saturday, after morning rain again, I headed over to the trail along the canal.  There were only a few flowers blooming, but scads of turtles sunning themselves on logs or - in this case - on someone's dock:

These are all pretty big ones, but I saw all sizes on logs.  I wish I had seen some birds.  There were only a couple of ducks and a couple of geese.  One person in a kayak and two people fishing.  Both the river and canal were still very high, and the trail was pretty muddy.  I spotted this poor soul on the other side on my walk back to the car:

Guess he/she walked a bit too far.  I ended up walking just about 2.5 miles. 

Sunday we headed over to Colin & Mailing's in the afternoon for dinner.  They made pineapple shrimp curry and Vietnamese spring rolls.  So good.  This was dessert:

Essentially an extremely large jello shot!  It was "The Last Word" which is a prohibition era drink made with gin, green chartreuse, maraschino liqueur and lime juice.  They added a vegan thickener to gel the concoction and then put meringues on top.  This was one strong dessert!  Tasty, but very, very strong.  It ended up being a lovely day, except that Colin and Lance (Anna's boyfriend) both found ticks on themselves later in the evening.  I guess that season has started....

I did manage to do a little bit of knitting over the weekend, but I'll save that for another post.

How was your weekend?

Happy Easter

Good Morning Everyone,


Happy Easter!  And, Happy Passover (a little late) to those celebrating that holiday.  I've been under the weather a bit.  Ended up running a fever Wednesday night (no sleep).  Went to work Thursday just to get some financial reports out and then left by 10:30.  Slept most of that day.  Colin was over for dinner Thursday and a fire in the pit, but I went back to bed long before he left.  I'm feeling better, just worn out, a bit achy, etc.  I don't think it was the flu, but not sure what I had.  Friday was a work holiday for me anyway which was a good thing.


And now, no April Fool's joke, our forecast is for snow starting around midnight tonight through tomorrow morning.  Anywhere from 1" to 5" expected.  What????


Yesterday was nice though and Fletch and I got some archery shooting in during the afternoon.  It felt strange to be doing that after months of not practicing.  And the not practicing part was pretty obvious!  I did manage to hit the target a couple of times, but mostly I fell short.


Back to Friday:  I finished the never-ending red socks with the lateral braids.  Fletch decided he liked them, so they are his:

And a close up of the braids:

I am definitely going to incorporate the braid into a pair for myself one of these days.


The yarn is the Malabrigo (Tiziano Red) that was a real PITA to wind.  It is some of the softest yarn ever though and feels wonderful on your feet.


Saturday morning I managed to wind up several skeins of yarn:

The beautiful pastel ball on the left is Barn Cat fingering from Valerie in the colorway Varadero.  So pretty and Spring-like.  I needed something like this after the dark red socks.  The pattern I've chosen is: Medallion Lace Socks - free on Ravelry.  I started them Saturday evening but managed to mess up the first row of the pattern, so pulled everything out.  Hoping to start today.


The other three skeins will hopefully become: 

I can't remember where I got this one...probably from a blog.  I re-discovered this pattern when going through the hundreds of patterns I have printed out to save (what was I thinking???).


The yarn is some that I bought over 10 years ago while on vacation in Vermont.  It is from Green Mountain Spinnery and is "Cotton Comfort" - 80% fine wool and 20% organic cotton.  The color is Weathered Green.  I'm hoping this will work up into a slightly heavier shawl than what I have made in the past.


We are heading over to Colin & Mailing's for dinner tonight.  I've got an Easter Basket made up for them complete with a chocolate bunny, jelly beans, peeps, etc.  I'd better throw in some catnip treats for their kitties too.


Hoping the weekend is finding all of you relaxing and enjoying life.  And, I won't lie - I'm hoping for at least a 2 hour delay for work tomorrow!!!

Easter Weekend

Hello All,


Catching up on some blogs earlier, seems like everyone had a nice weekend.  Ours was quiet, tiring and relaxing all at once.  With Colin and Mailing out of town, Fletch and I are on cat feeding duty.  Once in the morning and once in the evening.  It's not bad (about 40 miles round trip), but Saturday we added grocery shopping into the mix after our morning run to feed Marcel & Talbot.  We weren't familiar with the store (meaning I found more than was necessary to buy) and the store was huge compared to our regular place.  We didn't get home till 1 p.m.  Had some lunch, took a nap, got up and fixed dinner and then it was time to go feed the cats again.


Marcel has been misbehaving!  He escaped Friday night when we arrived.  Luckily Fletch caught him before he wandered too far.  Every time we unlock the door and start to open it he is right there anxious to get out.


Fletch is on his own for feeding through tomorrow morning as I am back to work and planning to go to yoga tonight.  He called me this morning to let me know that Marcel had not escaped, but that he discovered they had used the floor behind the sofa as a litter box instead of the real litter box.  Geeze!  And yesterday we found Talbot in a storage room downstairs that is always closed.  Not sure how he managed that Houdini trick.


Meanwhile, I was at work by 6:45 this morning!  Yikes.  I was expecting a pretty hectic day with a number of financial reports to get out before an 8:30 conference call.  That all evaporated about as soon as I walked in the door.  It's been a busy morning, but not in the way I had expected.


Anyway, finally a breather to post.  Last week Bonny had a fun post about keys.  Old keys.  And locks.  I love old keys and years ago my mother-in-law took keys from the farm house (her parents house) and mounted them on burlap and framed them.  We now have that piece.  Sometimes we hang it vertically, but currently it is hung horizontally over the dresser holding my stash of fabric.

That is a stuffed calico cat underneath the keys...Fletch gave that to me because it looks like our cat Maestro did.


I didn't get as much knitting done as I had hoped for (of course).  I did work on the socks and am almost done the leg of the first...one more pattern repeat and I think I'll be ready for the heel flap.  I forgot to take a picture.  Usually I work on Sigla on Sundays, but since it was in the mid-80's, it was way too hot for Icelandic wool!  Instead I added in the red (which arrived Friday!!) to Match and Move.  I'm really loving this.

Next up after the red will be a very pale grey.  Then the sequence will start again with the dark grey for the last half of the wrap.


We'll be on vacation the first week in May - I need to figure out what to take to knit while away.  Nothing too bulky and not too much (I always take a million projects and maybe work on one).  Probably just a sock project (or 2).  Maybe some sock yarn scraps to start a blanket?  I also have some old, old patterns for lace edges (that folks used to attach to pillow cases and the like).  I have some very thin yarn and thought it would be fun to fool around with some of those patterns.


I'll let you know what I decide.