The Maid, Easter and socks

 Newest reading, for a library book club I'm thinking of joining

I just began it, and it's very readable, from the viewpoint of a young woman who works as a chambermaid in a hotel, a job she loves. 

She's very bright, but very literal, probably on the spectrum, and loves the satisfaction of cleaning, much easier than dealing with people, who find her weird. 

She discovers a hotel guest dead, and I'm rapidly reading on, to find out whether she blunders into being accused, my fear. 

Meanwhile, Easter is almost here, and the Dish of Easter Observance is out, most of the eggs painted by me over the years.

These tiny eggs are from my late great cockatiel, Emily Hope, which I also decorated.  They're in a miniature sample Wedgwood cup and saucer.

White Boehm bunny with a cast iron cat from Williamsburg, a wooden duckling and Limoges egg shaped boxes.

Eggs displayed on an antique Trenton Potteries spongeware platter.

This is the whole of the Easter decoration. Minimalist.

And spring's here

Gary's weeping cherry

My daffodils both sides of the walkway

Daffodils blooming in turn by variety, to lengthen the season.

In anticipation of the heddle's arriving, it's been shipped, I finished up my socks

Wearing them right now. They're the same length but one foot's nearer, so that sock looks longer.

And I went to YouTube to review backstrap weaving. I know the principle, in fact I've done it, but I needed a reminder about how best to attach the warp to myself.

This is a style of weaving where one end of the warp is attached at a fixed point, the other to the waist of the weaver. Ancient south and central American art form. They sit on the ground, tie the long warp threads to a tree at one end, to their belt at the other.

 You have to attach the warp ends to yourself using a belt, and you need to allow for advancing the woven section, like rolling it over the cloth beam on a loom, so as to keep the working area within reach.  This is not stuff you can just guess.

Most of the videos ignored this vital part, just going on about warping, threading the heddle, some not even mentioning attaching it. One person said,oh, just tie to your belt. Not useful. I really wonder if they're trying to teach or just demonstrate their own skills, but I'm not bitter. I did eventually figure it out. So I'm ready. Again!

Handsome Son is visiting this afternoon, great timing to get a large buttered, toasted hot cross bun, which he doesn't know about yet.

And I've started a very nice puzzle I'm liking

Yesterday's winnowing, no pictures, was a lot of fun. I took puzzles in to add to our library's lending collection, which were very happily received, the librarian doing a little happy dance! 

And she showed me,  on her phone, pictures of the Farmer's Market puzzle you saw here, which I donated, and was last week's public puzzle. Evidently it went over well. It's now back in the collection to lend out.

I was juggling sunglasses, mask, bag and puzzles and couldn't get at my phone when I remembered pictures, oh well.

So that's us today, off to put the kettle on for Handsome Son's tea.

Happy day everyone, weave on, read on, munch hot cross buns, your choice. Or all at once. 

Easter Sunday, Secret Garden, final daffodils

 Happy Easter. I put out the Easter decorations, various views here.  The eggs I used to paint each year as gifts, the Boehm bunny, various cats and Limoges eggs, and, in the miniature Wedgwood teacup, painted eggs from my long departed cockatiel, Emily.

And the last group of daffodils came out yesterday

One was broken by the wind, so I picked her, along with a few others which would have been trampled by the fencing work probably starting here tomorrow. A bit of henbit and pachysandra added in.

Gary and Jackie finally got away at four o' clock yesterday afternoon, after many false starts and goodbyes.

Yesterday I made the butternut squash, sweet potato and cashew soup, and threw out the squash seeds for Butternut Boy. As I was enjoying the soup, he was busy on his seeds.

So we were a team.

Current audiobook is a really lovely reading of  The Secret Garden, a book I haven't read in many years.  It's dated now but still charming to knit and doze off to.

Hope for Ukraine on a day of hope for the world, photo by AC.

And I fly the flag

Pick a card, any card..

As I promised myself, January is a month of resting and not pushing to achieve or even make.

In pursuit of this goal, I bought a pack of playing cards,  and refreshed my knowledge of patience, then learned a couple of other solo games from YouTube.  Carpet, a kid's game, just right for my current aspirations, is fun 

I made two discoveries: one, that either playing cards have shrunk, or my hands have grown since I last remember playing.  The cards seem small.

Also, though I have mixed dominance, can use either hand for many tasks in art and cooking and diy, I am very left handed for dealing and shuffling cards. I tried switching, and got a fountain of cards spraying out.  

I hadn't noticed this before, though I remember my dad commenting long ago in family card games that people might think I was dealing from the bottom of the pack, as a left hander.

Haven't got to my jigsaw puzzles yet, but they're there. Modest size, it's not a competitive sport.

I gather that I'm not alone in returning to mild hobbies from long ago, at this point in the pandemic.  I also wanted to replace screen time with rl pastimes. Of course in order to remember how to set up patience, and learn a couple of new to me games, I had to start with YouTube! Oh well.

Speaking of mild hobbies, remember the Easter eggs, little programming jokes that Microsoft and Google used to bury in their algorithms?  Here's a couple of cool ones that emerged on my timeline today.

Google the word askew. Just the word, no question nor command. See..

And while you're there, instruct Google to do a barrel roll. Now read on.

Now, class, put away your screens because important food is happening.

The salmon I froze from Misfits debuted. It's a 12oz  steak, for two meals for me.

With a bed of spinach and roasted fries, Yukon gold. 

Buttered glass dish for  the steamed spinach and the fish, fresh ground black pepper, potatoes in the 425° oven 15 minutes ahead of the fish, which needed about ten to fifteen minutes, ended up a couple more, the center being thicker.

Took it out as soon as it flaked easily. No need for fancy sauces. This was good already.

And tomorrow I do it again for Twelfth Night, to round out Christmas.

It's all good!