Catching Up 9/30/24

 Good Morning!

The last day of September!  How is that possible?  I enjoyed my little break away from the computer and I sure hope everyone is ok and weathered the storms without incident.

Fletcher's brother Damon and his wife, Peggy, arrived Monday afternoon and we had such a nice time.  We took a short walk along the canal (and did see a blue heron in flight!) and then had lunch out.  

Two brothers

 Tuesday night Colin & Mailing came over for dinner and then a fire in the pit.  Unfortunately Damon & Peggy left early Wednesday after receiving a call that Peggy's grandson had been in a horrible car accident while on his way to work.  They live out in the country, but Carson was taken to Norfolk General where there is a trauma unit and he has been in the trauma ICU ever since.  Peggy has been keeping us updated - Carson is now breathing on his own and the MRIs show no spinal damage at all.  Still, it will be a slow and long recovery period.

The rest of our week was quiet.  We did not get the major rains from Helene, but it has been misty and rainy all week.  Everything feels damp and clammy.  I'm not complaining...we were fortunate not to be hit and we need the rain.  I did manage to do some knitting and stitching and reading.  We also started a different jigsaw puzzle since it was too crappy to be outside.

The border pieces are huge, but the balance of the pieces are mid- to very small in size.  The title of the puzzle is 299 cats and a dog!

Friday's mail brought my October Sock Squad yarn from The Farmer's Daughter.  Love these colors!

The colors are not right in this photo (thank you grey, damp morning) - the large skein is really blue and the smaller one is more like a rust color.  Very pretty together.

So, what have you all been up to?  I trust that everyone is well and gearing up for a wonderful Fall!

Weekending 9/23/24

 

Good Morning!

The garden is still producing!  Now that we are at mid-September and the Autumnal Equinox has occurred, our large tomatoes are beginning to ripen.  Too funny!  Usually at this point there are green ones on the plants (and we do have plenty of them), but they are no longer ripening.  This year, they are ripening like crazy!  Bring on the BLTs and grilled cheese with tomatoes.  Yummy!

How was your weekend? Ours was just so lovely.  Fletch and I have been spotting many migrating birds passing through.  Just the other day we saw four different kinds of warblers (all yellow) and yesterday a female Scarlet Tanager was hanging around.  The light is definitely different these days and our days have been wonderfully warm (not hot) and the evenings have a chill in the air.  Last night I had a shawl wrapped around me while we watched a show on TV.

I did a bunch of cooking and baking.  Almond cookies were made which turned out horribly!  They went into the trash after we tried them.  At Fletch's request I made some chocolate shortbread and some cookies with caramel chips and pecans.  I also made some carrot cake muffins which are just ok.  They are extremely dense and each one seems to weigh a hundred pounds, but they do taste ok.

There are errands to run this morning and I have wash in the machine.  It's kind of overcast, so it will all go in the dryer this time.   And Jim is coming to mow the lawn today (first time in several weeks...we really do need some rain).

I'll be staying away from the blog and the computer for several days.  Tomorrow is Fletcher's birthday and today his brother, Damon, and his wife are driving up from Virginia to spend several days with us.  They have not visited since before the pandemic!  Wishing you all a wonderful week.  I may pop in at the end of the week...or I may just wait until next Monday. 

Thursday Musings

 Good Morning All!

This is what I saw yesterday after I posted on my blog and got up to get another cup of coffee:

A beautiful deer at the edge of our woods (and next to the backdrop for my archery target) taking a little rest.  She tucked her head down and stayed that way for a good 20-30 minutes.

The apples Fletch and I saw on our tree the other day are gone.  I found one on the ground near the patio and it is almost perfect.  Small, but it will be great cut up and added to hot cereal.  There is now just one apple that I can see on the tree.  I tried yesterday afternoon to snag it (too high to reach and pick), but I couldn't get it.

The fig tree produced two more large and ripe figs!!  There are still small green ones that need to grow and ripen.  I went out to the garden to gather up parsley and some onions to take to Colin.  I then picked the rip figs and a bunch of cherry tomatoes and then...to my surprise...I spotted some large ripe tomatoes!!

BLTs are on the menu for lunch today!  There are so many green tomatoes - I may make some fried green tomatoes one night but I'm excited to think about more ripening as well.

I had my annual physical yesterday (all is good!) and got a flu shot while I was there.  I'll get the new Covid Booster next month (we've never had any reactions to either the flu or Covid shots, but if I do have a reaction I'd like to know what it is from...plus my doctor recommends not getting them together anyway).  This morning it's a visit to the dentist (just routine cleaning).

As I mentioned above, I gathered up a few produce items from the garden to take to Colin.  Last night Fletch and I had dinner with him (Mailing had a work function).  Col made the most delicious pasta sauce and sautéed up some greens for us to have with it.  YUM!!  We sat out and enjoyed a fire in his pit for a little while and just as we were getting ready to leave, Mailing pulled in.  So, at least we got to see her briefly.

And there you have it - a miscellaneous Thursday posting.  Time for me to pour another cup of coffee and get motivated for the day.  Have a great Thursday!

Unraveled Wednesday 9/18/24

 Good Morning!

Is it just me?  Or is September simply flying by?  It's Wednesday and that means time to link up with Kat and her Merry Band of Unravelers.  

This past week saw me doing more stitching than knitting (see my post from yesterday), but I still managed to knit a few rows here and there.  My Semplice shawl had just 4 rows added, but you can tell it's a pattern change again.  I'm still loving this one a lot.  The geometric shapes just draw me in and the knitting is straight forward, no lace work or things to really mess me up.  LOL

And Fall sock #1 in the color way Tapped Maple is now past the halfway mark on the leg.  Fletch likes them, so they will most likely go to him.  He claims to already have enough socks, but really?  I don't think so.

I'm hoping to pick up the pace on these socks, but we shall see.  No rush and it's not a race.  But I do have other things in mind to knit and other things waiting to be picked up again (looking at you Hitch on the Move!).

Reading has been good.  I'm in the midst (about 2/3 of the way through) of Poor Man's Feast by Elissa Altman.  As I mentioned last week this is a memoir with the bonus of recipes!  So, I'll read a chapter and then look at a recipe and suddenly it has me thinking of other things and I'm looking through some of my cookbooks.  An hour or so later I might get back to reading the book.

Cookbooks on a shelf in my kitchen...there are many, many more in the office room.  Like some of you, I love to read cookbooks.

Fletch and I are continuing to listen after dinner (most nights, but not all) to In True Face by Jonna Mendez.  It's interesting, but just not all that compelling.  I keep hoping for it to get REALLY interesting, but that has not yet happened.

OK, time for me to get moving.  I have some stuff I want to do this morning (fortunately not cleaning - ha!).  Hope your Wednesday is a fine one!

Tiny Needle Tuesday 9/17/24

Good Morning!

It is rather grey out this morning and looking like it could rain, though rain is not in our forecast for a day or so (we could use it).  Of course, after mentioning not seeing hummingbirds yesterday, one showed up at the patio around 5 p.m. yesterday afternoon.  Fletch and I were sitting out and the hummer flew right up to the hanging basket we have only about 2-3 feet from us.  I'm still not setting up the feeder I already took down.  We do have another hummingbird feeder hanging in the apple tree.

Yesterday I did manage to finish cleaning the living room (mostly - there are still some "piles" that Fletch needs to go through and remove).  That cleaning just about did in my back!  I am not made for housework.  LOL.  I wish I could find a good, reliable cleaning person.

Meanwhile, here we are at TNT, or Tiny Needle Tuesday and it's time for a stitching update.  I managed to get quite a bit stitched this week!

There is still more to the right to be stitched as well as down, but the top of the roof of the house has been started.  I love the red squirrel and the bird on the chimneys.  And quite a few do-dads or motifs have been added across the top.  As a reminder, THIS is what it will look like when I am finished.  It's a fun stitch and the silk threads are so nice to use.

Not much else going on today.  We will do a little grocery shopping and I need/want to do some bedroom cleaning.  Nothing too exciting which is perfect for a grey day.

Weekending 9/16/24

 

Good Morning!

How are you this fine mid-September (gasp!!  already?) morning?  The days are flying by!  You can see from the picture above that I have planted a pinecone!  I'm hoping to get at least a few of the seeds it contains to sprout.  There are various on-line videos about this and I thought it would be fun.  The tree by our mailbox was our Christmas tree the first year we moved into the house and this year has turned out to be a banner year for pinecones.  There are tons of them!  Fingers crossed my little experiment works.

Thanks for your notes about Mabel.  She did (of course) show up after I posted looking for a bit of breakfast.  All weekend she pretty much stayed around the house, disappearing for short periods of time, but always coming back and meowing at the door.  This morning she wanted to go out at 5 a.m.  When I came downstairs at 7 she was ready to come in and since then she has been in and out several times.

Our weekend was nice, though filled with chores.  I did make it to Ikea on Friday morning.  I had not been there in maybe a year or longer.  Traffic was horrible and there was lots of road work, but I made it.  It is easy to get carried away in that store.  I found the wine glasses I wanted and a few other things including a couple of girlfriend gifts.  Then I almost got lost trying to find my way out of the store - LOL.  I'm sure they arrange the store the way they do on purpose.  Once I found all the plants (and successfully was NOT distracted), I knew I was on my way to the checkout point.  I made it home in time for lunch with Fletch.  Fun times and I will go back sooner than a year from now!

Friday night I made Carne en su Jugo for dinner.  Looking on line, I can't find the recipe I used, but it was delicious!!

Other than keeping thistle seed out for all the finches, we typically do not feed the birds during the summer.  But last week I noticed a chickadee kept coming to the window feeder (office room front window).  When it discovered the feeder was empty, that chickadee started pecking at the window!!  We bought some sunflower seeds and Fletch filled that feeder for me (well, for the birds).  Since then the chickadees, finches, cardinals and wrens have all been enjoying it.  I'm pretty sure the hummingbirds are gone now.  The hummingbird feeder that was hanging from the clothesline came down and there is another feeder hanging from a branch of the apple tree to come down.  It's time to put out the regular sunflower seed feeder as well as the peanut feeder.

Mundane chores seemed to fill Saturday and Sunday.  The kitchen floor was scrubbed (definitely needed), curtains in the bedroom, living room and office were taken down, washed and hung on the lines to dry.  Then put back up.  Definitely need new curtain rods!  A little cleaning in the living room was completed - that will be finished today.  Fletch washed a bunch of windows.  Whew!

Yesterday Colin was over and helped Fletch get 24 bags (40 lbs each!) of top soil into the garden area.  A few went into the raised bed with the rhubarb and the balance will be spread in the large raised bed at the back of the garden where Garlic will be planted in October.  Naturally, Mabel had to come into the garden to investigate what was going on.

As far as the garden goes:  we now have 2 sunflowers in bloom and the hibiscus continues to bloom.  We are picking cherry tomatoes and peppers and there are still some figs to ripen.  Last night we had a delicious salad with greens (red and green lettuce, chard and spinach) from the garden.  Fletch put the sets in a week or two ago and they have taken off!

Thankfully there was time for reading, stitching and knitting.  Planning more of those things today.  Hopefully your weekend was nice and cheers to the week ahead!!

TGIF 9/13/24

 Good Morning All,

Hope you are doing well this (finally) Friday morning.  And hey!  It's Friday the 13th!!  I'm waiting for the coffee to be ready.  I was up and out early to have bloodwork done and now am eagerly awaiting that first sip of java.

Yesterday afternoon I was worried about Mabel.  We had not seen her since the morning and usually she comes around several times during the day.  I had seen a fox sauntering by back around our garden, so of course I called and called for Mabel.  No response.  She finally showed up a late afternoon.  We both wondered if she had climbed a tree somewhere and was waiting for it to be safe to come down.  I'm just happy she was not on another "great adventure!"  LOL

And now I'm wondering where she is since she went out at 5:30 and I have not seen her yet since then.  Hopefully she will show up soon for breakfast.

Yesterday was fairly productive.  I got some cleaning done - wiping all the kitchen cabinets with orange oil - which was like giving a mouse a cookie.  I ended up taking stuff off the top of the frig and scrubbing that surface.  Then changed out things on the buffet, etc., etc.  The afternoon was mostly spent prepping and cooking.  

Chicken drumsticks are not my favorite, but Fletch had seen a recipe for coconut ginger drumsticks that he thought sounded good.  Basically you marinate drumsticks in coconut milk with minced ginger and garlic, some lemon juice and a minced chili pepper.  After several hours of marinating, you put it all in a Dutch oven and let it cook for several hours.  Adding some soy sauce and tomato paste.  It all cooks down and the meat begins to fall off the bones.  It was pretty good!

I also made a new-to-us salad of Brussels Sprouts sliced very thin and cooked in EVOO till brown and crispy.  Then tossed with some apple (I used one from our tree!), some bacon, a shallot and pecans.  The dressing was maple syrup, cider vinegar. lemon juice, some balsamic vinegar and dijon mustard.  It was great!

Finally, I made a peach galette for dessert!

The peaches I used came from the Farmer's Market last weekend.  I would definitely make this again.

Later this morning I plan to make a run to Ikea (I dropped and broke yet another wine glass the other day).  It's always fun to wander around that store.  After that I'm hoping for time to knit and/or stitch.

We have no plans for the weekend which is kind of the way I like it.  Hoping for a slow and easy one.  Hope your weekend is a good one too!