Yay for Friday!

 Good Morning My Friends,

How are you?  I hope your Thanksgiving was a restful and tasty one.  Mine sure was!  Fletch and I realized that yesterday was the very first Thanksgiving we have ever spent by ourselves!  And, we liked it!!  Yes, we missed Colin & Mailing for sure and it felt weird not to be with Mailing's family - I think we have celebrated Thanksgiving with them for maybe a decade now.  But it was so relaxed to not be on any particular schedule.  I took my time and made rolls in the morning.

Some of them were huge!  (Guess I didn't do such a great job of dividing the dough evenly.). I didn't much care for them (me who loves and lives for carbs - lol).  Next time I will try my Mom's recipe.

I was talking with one of my brothers on Wednesday night and we were wondering how our Mom ever pulled off the feast that she did each Thanksgiving.  There was always a BIG turkey and stuffing.  Homemade gravy.  Homemade cranberry relish.  Mashed and sweet potatoes.  Homemade rolls.  Always a salad of some sort and two to three veggie sides.  And, of course, several pies.  Growing up, our house was small and the kitchen was very small.  No counter space to work on and only one oven and four burners.  We did have a big electric roaster that she used for the turkey, but the rest of it must have been magic!!

Anyway, our meal was way, way, way pared down.  I cooked a turkey breast and made stuffing.  The rolls mentioned above and some gravy.  Two kinds of cranberry relish/chutney and some Brussels sprouts sautéed in butter and maple syrup with the addition of some walnuts and pomegranate ariels.  And, pumpkin pie for dessert.  It was tasty, and making just that made me exhausted!  LOL

I even brought out the "good" dishes and silver.  There are plenty of leftovers (I'll get my turkey sandwich today).  All in all, a lovely day.

Now it's back to normal life.  I have a load of wash going and another one to put in after.  The bathrooms desperately need to be cleaned.  Usually I avoid going out on Black Friday, but I will be running out to pick up a massage gift card for Mailing.  Her birthday is tomorrow and we plan to stop by to give her the gift card and some other gifts.

A nice surprise showed up in the mail on Wednesday.  My last shipment of 2024 Sock Squad yarn from The Farmer's Daughter arrived.

The full skein is pretty dark, and I wasn't thrilled with it.  But then I read the name of the color way and now I am smitten!  The color way is "Mother Magpie" and I love those birds (I wish we had them here in Eastern PA).  There is a lot of variation in the skein - some lighter shades (almost bluish) and pale grey.  I think it will knit up very nicely.  The green mini skein is very pretty.  I've enjoyed having the monthly shipments of yarn even though I have not kept up with using it all.  Definitely a fun retirement gift to myself.  But, I'm ready for a year off (at least).  LOL

Time for me to check the laundry in the washer and re-fill my coffee cup.  Wishing you all a restful and enjoyable weekend! 

New Yarn!! Garden Produce!!

 Good Morning All,

Gosh, the air actually felt a little chilly this morning (early - like 6:00).  That was weird!  Another weird thing?  I completely forgot to put my hearing aids in yesterday.  LOL. My hearing loss is not great...it is very minor.  When I first got up I made coffee, took my meds and supplements, took by blood pressure (good), etc.  I knew I would be jumping in the shower soon, so I did not put them in.  Then I wanted to wait to put them in until after I dried my hair.  Then I was getting ready to run a couple of errands and I just forgot about them.  Today they are IN!!!

Yesterday was a good mail day.  My July yarn from the Farmer's Daughter arrived and it is gorgeous!

Just look at that blue!!  The mini is not bad either.  I've been so pleased with the yarn I have received for 2024 Sock Squad.  Of course, I'm behind in using it all, but that does not matter.

We are finally getting garden produce!!  Fletch went out in the morning to check on things and came back with this:

Our first cucumber and the first cherry tomatoes.  The redder tomato on the right is actually a very (very) small Roma tomato.  We had a salad to go with dinner last night and included these in it.  Delicious!  Fletch mentioned that we have a few yellow squash that are 3-4" long, so it will not be too long before they are ready to pick.  And, with July 4th coming up next week, it is time to harvest the garlic.

Yesterday I managed to finish the patterned leg of sock #2, so it is on to the heel flap and turn and then the foot.  That should go faster than the leg for sure.  I'm planning to get to that today as well as more skirt knitting and, perhaps, some stitching.

Wishing you all a wonderful Friday and the best weekend - enjoy!!

Unraveled Wednesday 1/31/24

 Good Morning!

Happy end of January!!  It's above freezing today, but not by much.  I had let Mabel out at 6 a.m. and just let her back in and she is a little wet.  I looked out the window at the cars, and they are a bit wet too, so we might have had a little rain recently.  I can't tell if the sun is not up yet or it's just grey outside...the sky is pretty dark, I think we have some cloud cover.  Oh well.

Inside I have some brightness...some pretty:

My Christmas cactus that started as a cutting from the GIANT one my Grandmother had in Vermont.  Her plant was huge - easily a couple of feet across.  Anyway, I've had this for years and for years it didn't bloom.  Dee suggested it wasn't in the right location, so I moved it to my office where it gets some sun but it is also cooler (I rarely put the heat on in the office room).  Last year it had two flowers.  And now this year it has many more and a bunch of buds.  If you click to enlarge, you will see that the blooms are doubles!  (To take a picture of it, I moved it onto Mabel's "ledge" where she will try to pounce on birds at the window...it is back on a bookcase out of Mabel's way now.)

Well, here we are the last Wednesday of January for Unraveled Wednesday.  Let's link up with Kat and her Merry Band of Unravelers to talk Making and Reading.  Fortunately there has been no unraveling this week.  I've made slow, but steady progress on my crescent moon sock (the first):

The heel has been turned and I am moving down the foot.  I've fairly large feet, so still a way to go but the journey is pleasant.  The Farmer's Daughter yarns are very, very nice.  Of course, this is the January yarn and...my February yarn arrived Monday (along with my Sock Squad Journal which was missing from my January package).

The colors are so pretty (and I love the journal).  But, I need to let them marinate a bit on my desk and in my head to figure out what to make with them.  The blue skein is the mini.  The other two are what I call half skeins - 50 grams each - roughly 230 yards each.  I don't think I want to use this yarn for socks, but I may do a cowl or maybe a shawlette.  Again, I will let the yarn marinate in my head...any suggestions from you?

Reading is still a bit slow for me.  I did read an excellent book Winter Solstice by Nina MacLaughlin.  What beautiful writing!  Very soothing to read.  I'm looking forward to "Summer Solstice" by her, but am saving that for a bit.

Carolyn had mentioned reading "Rooted" by Lyanda Lynn Haupt.  My library did not have that, but it had another book by the author:  "Mozart's Starling."  After close to 100 pages read, I am giving up on it.  I don't need another book about someone walking around with a bird on their shoulder pooping down their back!  The title of this book should be Lyanda's Starling as there was almost nothing about Mozart in those first 100 pages.  I'm dropping off the book at the library when I go out to get my hair cut this morning.

Fletch and I, thankfully, are still thoroughly enjoying The Ride of Her Life - we're almost 100 pages in.  Most chapters are just 7-10 pages long - the perfect length to read after dinner.

That's it from me this Wednesday!  Be sure to head over to Kat's to see what others are making and reading.  Have a wonderful Wednesday!