Crumpets, beaded figure, wabi sabi

A coda from yesterday: i did in fact get a dusky in my Preserve pictures. Late but still lovely

Onward to today and the almost finished Beaded Figure

Not stitched permanently yet, just assembled so I can consider it for a day. I think it's done, but I'll allow for late breaking ideas because you never know.

While that's happening and before I start on the yellow skirt that's next, I went to get dressed and pulled out yet again this t-shirt which I like except for the immoveable stain right at the front neck line which has resisted many removal efforts. 

I'll do the other thing. Make it fancy. This afternoon. Then I'll wear it instead of sadly hanging it up yet again.

Today I had the last of my bread for breakfast, so I needed a bread related item. I've been searching for my crumpet rings on and off for days, found many other items in the kitchen, but the rings were in hiding. Until I found them on a shelf behind another set of shelves, slid into a glass pan wrapped in a towel. I expect I had a reason for this. They're egg poaching rings, too. 

Anyway I was finally able to make crumpets, good for breakfast or teatime, using Jack Monroe's recipe. You can Google on her, or squint at this little version of mine with quantities translated for us benighted imperial measure folks.

These are fun in slow motion. You make the batter, a yeast event, then it needs an hour to rise. Then you fry each batch, in my case three is all I can fit in the pan at a time, for 12 minutes, each batch, low flame. This gets pretty long and drawn out, but you end with a batch which you can freeze if you like. 

Chef's sample. I used half white half  wholewheat.

I got a lot more than the ten Jack says, and I'll keep a few in the fridge, wrap the rest individually in parchment paper, and handsome Son will get his share whenever he shows up. 

Toasted, buttered, with or without jam, his choice. Also good toasted with cheese, sharp cheddar best.

So then it was now.

Well, anyway..

Thank you everyone who e-mailed and messaged and commented here about yesterday. I felt supported and informed and it was great to sense us as a group.

Meanwhile, daily life kinds of things tend to happen. The other day Handsome Son visited, made short work of the banana bread, and, as promised, took a look at my phone. 

I'd spent over a week dialling voicemail and getting error messages, spent much time with the chat function on the carrier's website, tried numerous workarounds. Nothing worked. Website advised call customer service, but I can't hear or understand cs, so I can't follow their instructions.

Anyway HS tries to reach voicemail, gets one error message. Tries once again. It worked. So I said that does it, you have to come over and get my voicemail from now on! 

I wonder if the carrier had had enough complaints that they fixed it, since it seems to have been a carrier issue not a phone issue. Handsome Son did spoil things a bit when he said well you just had to dial.. and I said, well, shouted really, that I'd been doing that all along. Anyway it's working now.

I don't need to get a new phone. I still can't receive or transmit pix, but that's not as vital.

Times like that require a soothing drink in the evening, and  my choice is often golden milk, a turmeric deal.

But the recent Great Cinnamon Debate, which amused me a lot, emails as well as comments in here, all these readers running to read their labels and googling and concluding they liked what they had etc, anyway this made me think of a different evening drink.

I mixed Ceylon cinnamon with Tellicherry black pepper, maybe we can have a Pepper Debate,  and organic maple syrup, in  whole milk and simmered them a few minutes. Just died and gone to heaven good. Five star. Highly recommend.

Exciting fence update: they're finishing up building 10 on the official map, about one quarter of the development, then stopping. They've run out of materials. They're reordering. There will probably be a lengthy delay, since nowadays supplies of everything are s-l-o-wwww. My guess is mine will be done in a snowstorm at this rate.

I had a lovely preschool few minutes yesterday sorting cute buttons I got from the knitting group stash. I'd donated them originally, so the group leader pointed out the stash was just a storage place for me. Anyway they're destined for an undisclosed location

And no pic of them here because they're a surprise and she reads in here. But she also has a blog so maybe they'll show up there. Meanwhile, the local post office had no systems working yesterday, no ability to process international mail, so I'll try again next week.

Speaking of the library, which is the home of the knitting group and where I've had a couple of well received art exhibits, I'm probably going to be invited to show the figures there once I have enough for a show, which will be a while.  

They showed me a terrific tall locking glass case in the main area, glass shelves with headroom enough to stand the figures, and with multiple sides so you can see both faces of the current work, a great idea.  Can't show you pix because of the system wide fatwa.

Under the previous administration only children's collections could be shown there, though it's far away from the children's area. But it seems the new director is more flexible, so this is great, a destination for the new series. 

So much for my retiring from exhibiting, I guess. By the time I'm ready, who knows, people may be able to hang out there again. This is pretty exciting.

And here's where the current work is

The top for the beaded figure, which I'm knitting sideways. Those stripes will be vertical. The copper metallic ribbon is lovely to knit. I've also used it to weave as well as couch as embroidery. Multipurpose.

Last evening, after a jangled day, I thought s bit of cooking might be good. So here's a cauliflower idea. Since Mrs Moon has drawn me away from the rut of only cheese sauce for cauliflower, it's become more interesting.

Battered roast cauliflower. It's supposed to be deep-fried, which I don't do. So I thought I'd try oiling the baking sheet, and heating it before adding the cauli. Worked a treat. 20 minutes at 425°f. Crisp and very good.

The first batch needs a bit more flavor, probably a dipping sauce will do it.

To the other batch, in front here,  to be roasted today, I added Old Bay and berbere to the batter,  so we'll see how it works. 

I did the first batch while it was frozen and raw, and it was fine. Today's batch, after overnight in an amped up batter, is raw, but thawed. I'll report back.

It was a good idea to cook late, no anxiety dreams last night, unlike the previous night. So life trundles on chez Boud. 

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Insects, beaded figure, spinning, and chimneys

A mixed day yesterday and today. The good news is that the overnight rain didn't cause flooding at least not right here, and the chimney people finally came 

Yesterday was beautiful, the sedum Autumn Joy in bloom and a major traffic jam of insects, darting about, dive bombing each other and making me refer to my Little Golden insect Guide. 

Since some people are a bit squicked out by insects, I'll omit the ones I was seeing, and just show you favorites. The book also has a big section on butterflies where I got engrossed for a while.

Meanwhile, back at the sedum, there was a potter wasp, too fast for pictures,very sharp black and white striped suit, various bees, honey, humble, carpenter, large and tiny, all kinds of little brown butterflies, just a busy parade before the rain. 

I notice that insects have the names of trades: potter, carpenter, and I'm wondering if there are more. The large bee you see was repeatedly thumped by small insects which he totally disregarded, letting them bounce off.

And the flowers whose name I can never remember, are just as beautiful with petals gone, the architecture still there.

Then finally I was up for some doll making, and the beaded head now has a body, with sculpted arms.  I have some interesting ideas about the rest of the figure, involving a purse. I'll show you when I get there.

Meanwhile here's why the sculpted arms, so the figure is two sided.

And since I was starting to get clumsy, my fingers working only so long, I switched to a bit of spinning, first in a while.

I dropped the spindle and the part of the shaft where the hook is cracked off.  I taped it and continued and it seems to be working okay. This is a small spindle I haven't used a lot, and maybe the wood is dry from disuse. No oils from roving and hands have got on it 

This silk merino is supposed to be for me to learn the supported spindle, but I wasn't up for learning anything new yesterday. Breaking one spindle wasn't a great start, so I'll learn new stuff another day. 

Meanwhile I may knit the figure a beaded top, using the yarn I'm spinning. It's lace weight so it should work proportionally.

Speaking of learning, great story out of Idaho yesterday. Our blogista Chris swears it wasn't her story, but you be the judge!

My chimney sweep story was as undramatic as hoped. He said oh, ah, when I showed him the dryer, inspected the chimney, no need to clean, wrote up the paperwork explaining dryer did not need vent cleaning since it didn't use one. 

Did not do the feared drama at all. Friend never showed up, so that was okay anyway.

So far so good. Let's hope the HOA either doesn't register the difference, or just checks off the done column in my account.

Meanwhile, don't have a cow in Wal-Mart!

Back in my own studio, and chicken

Back in my space, I finished the beaded head. I need a couple of days before I start the body, to rest from the close work, and recharge. 

Beading abd couching is like painting. Every bead, placement, color, size, direction,, movement, relationship to what's already there, every single bead is a decision. And working in three dimensions even more so . It's a terrific experience, and your creative mind really gets tired.  

Seen from above

And a journey around it

Just balancing the design is an interesting challenge, the touches of red drawing your eye around the piece, the quieter areas of clear beads, the calming effect of the blue and green mixture, the metallic couching flowing around the contours, the optical illusions, where the facial expression changes with the angle you're seeing from. And yes, you do think of all these things at once while you're working. It's lovely to work on, and totally engrossing.

And now I need a mental rest.

What better than food. Yesterday, chicken and brown rice.

I pounded the boneless chicken thighs on what is now, I guess, my chicken cutting board, along the lines of not mixing meat and veggies.

Then, buttered and breaded with panko heavily seasoned with Bill Veach's Curry Powder #2, roasted it at 400°f for 40 minutes, same length of time for the rice simmering on top of the stove. 

Two dinners cooked at once. Touch of parsley. Plus extra rice for other meals yet to be thought of.

Today is about Sonya's impact on my wardrobe. Her book comes with a packet of patterns. How clever of me to buy a large quantity of parchment paper sheets from Breadtopia a while back. 

I'll trace my patterns onto sheets taped together. Mainly I would like the trouser pattern, already have the top pattern I made when I did that top from Joanne's woven piece. Which I've worn a lot.

Slight detour here, about Breadtopia. I really wanted that bolted flour again, and found, again, that the reason I haven't ordered it is that the shipping costs twice the $$ as the flour. One third product, two thirds shipping. 

When I got it before, it was with the parchment paper and the dough mixer I keep calling Polish when it's Danish, but who's counting. So the shipping didn't hurt as much. I might get in touch with the grain man who comes to the local farmers market and see if he does it. 

Maybe I'll check his website and see if I can pick up on Saturday at the market.

The waters recede

The floodwaters are slowly receding. Trees down, still many roads closed or only one lane open. I did get one errand done, to the local CVS which actually had the things I needed. 

I didn't try for the library, since too many roads either partly or totally under water. My needs can wait a day or two. People are trying to get to work.

This morning as I was making tea I glanced out of the kitchen window and there was a hummingbird busy in the Russian sage. It didn't have a twig in its beak, but it still seemed quite biblical and cheering. Closest hummingbird sighting I've ever had.

And the robe is done. I will gradually do seam finishing on the inside, probably flat hemming  lace, since the terry is too thick for felling or French seaming.

Anyway here she is! See how the pockets work. So it's ready in case the weather ever gets cool. This is a much better use of the fabric than a quilt backing that might never happen.

And the beaded figure almost has a completed head, 

seen here in the workbox. The facial expression looks different depending on what angle you see it from. 

Then I needed a bite for supper and haven't had pasta in a while. Didn't feel like a red sauce, so I thought something along the lines of an alfredo white sauce might be good.

Many subs of course. I fancied blue cheese rather than parmesan, didn't have cream, used whole milk, but I did have garlic and Irish butter and parsley. No fettuccine, but I fancied farfalle anyway, butterflies. Or bowties. These are the real Italian ones from Misfits. 

It turned out well. This pasta needs 14 minutes' boiling, they weren't kidding. The sauce is lovely, garlicky, pungently blue cheesey. Thick enough to cling.

Didn't last long. This used all the sauce, and there's another bowl of cooked pasta ready for a different sauce on a different day.

Here's what's accompanying my beading and cooking, audiobook

And my Austen festival is still going, on Kindle, Lucy Worsley

Stacey Abrams finally arrived on the Kindle

Waiting pick-up at the library are the Sonya Philips sewing book, and DVDs of  Grace and Frankie, 

only just heard of the series, yes, not quick on these things, thought I'd try. Because Lily Tomlin, you know. I can't bear her co-star, so we'll see. But there's also Sam Waterston, so there's that.

I think we're all set here.