Weather proofing

While the house cleaners were at work this morning, I spent time in the local library, checked out the latest Osman

and a puzzle, and spent a peaceful morning

Because this is what's up outside 

I'm skipping this afternoon's new knitting group, roads already getting iffy, heavy rain on saturated ground.  So I'm  home in a clean house, with soup, toasted pita with cheddar, busy reading, knitting, knotting. 

Also debt proofing -- the check for my cremation and cardboard box cleared, yay. I'm going to be a solvent corpse. Well, there's worse ambitions.

Also Textiles and Tea. This week it was woven wire jewelry, involving Japanese braiding (kumihimo), by Giovanna Imperia

who wrote this book

and is a teacher at a number of locations, see this link to find out more

despite requests, the presenters didn't give dimensions for any of the pieces, but since it's jewelry, I think we can assume small enough to wear decoratively. The last image, the wire lace, is my favorite.

Her skills are wonderful, and she knows how to employ the nature of wire. I've made wire knitted jewelry,  it's very interesting, so malleable, and it stays put while you work on it.

If you're unfamiliar with kumihimo braiding, it's worth doing a search to see how it's done. It's intricate, 3D work, and, to this struggling student of kumihimo, it's as tricky as it looks! Giovanna has great mastery of this form. 

Happy day, everyone, please check in with us as you can, if you're in the path of a current storm. We know power can go out, taking your WiFi with it, so we won't panic too soon.

Meanwhile, long time since we had a puzzle, so this might take your mind off the weather. 

Remember not to post answers, just funny clues. This is where I usually come a cropper, forgetting about funny clues and responding solemnly to what are supposed to be jokes! I've been caught a few times by sneaky blogistas.

Photo AC

Stay safe, everyone!

Cooking extravaganza

Yesterday, to use the time of my sister's Celebration of Life far away, and the part I'd written, see yesterday's post, I decided on an afternoon of cooking prep. Displacement activity.

I don't like mashing the bananas for banana bread, but you can do it ahead and freeze it.And I liked the quick quiche enough to actually buy bell peppers to do it again.Also granny Smith apples, plenty for prepping filling for future crumbles. 

This is how I eat well, when the prep is already done when I decide to cook. 

Some of the  quiche ended up as yesterday's supper.

And the bananas and apples, the latter macerated and completely ready for filling s couple of crumbles, are all in the freezer until called on.

Full disclosure, the resulting debris in the sink

I had already made leek, potato and parsley soup, and I'll do this again, really happy combo, the parsley lifting it up to very good.

All the trimmings from food prep go into the stock bag in the freezer ready to make stock next time.  I feel so smug!

Meanwhile I read this hilarious mystery, another one set in a retirement community, the kind which keeps on surprising

And I'm proceeding with the two socks-in-one project

The different color yarns are scrap yarn setting up the ability to insert a heel in the lower one, sock one, then a separation point, and then the top of the picture is the start of sock two. This will end in a toe, after which I separate the two socks, insert heels, and a cuff for one, toe for the other.

I've changed her pattern a bit because I think it's more complicated than it need be, but basically I'm following the idea. I will do shortrow heels, more comfortable than the bind off design she likes. I'll do the toes as in the pattern though.

I don't recommend this idea for beginners. You need experience in knitting socks in order to fathom how this will work. It's interesting to try though.

Having seen off a couple of bags of Handsome Son's stuff via Freecycle, I'm off this morning to pick up a freecycled toaster oven to replace my old one which is nearly defunct. 

And there's a possibility I will be receiving an old Kindle Paperwhite today, all being well, locally. All being well.

Here's some women's art to be going on with

Happy day everyone, cook on, and if you're not the household cook, enjoy being served.

Pray for the people in Ukraine suffering the revenge today for the destruction of the Crimea-Russia bridge on Putin's birthday.

A Holly, Jolly -- Murder

 First, here's my new lifesaving bit of equipment.  My battery jump starter arrived, and seems to be in good order.  So the borrowed one went home this morning.  This little deal also charges cellphones, that kind of thing, too, and has a bright light on the end, always a good thing if you're needing to start a dead battery at night.  It's like an insurance policy that I hope I won't need to use.

Meanwhile, among the cooking and spinning and visiting with Handsome Son, there has also been a jolly little murder mystery or several.  I've read several of the Annie Haynes mysteries, and they're really fun.  A good puzzle, and a kind of Victorian melodrama, along the lines of Maria Marten or Murder at the Red Barn, that audience participation murder mystery.  Anyway, aside from bits of Hallmarky stuff put in for the love interest, it's a pretty entertaining few hours with any of her books.

Then I finally, after a pandemic-long wait, got a copy of Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club, and it's as funny and amusing as billed.  Set in an upscale retirement community, needs to be upscale, because they have to afford the shenanigans needed to follow up unsolved murders, it's a great sendup of murder mysteries, the quirks of retired folks, I'm a geezer, so I can laugh at geezers, and a politically leftish viewpoint. Highly recommended.  I see that Kate Atkins, one of my favorite serious writers, also likes it, so that's a point.  I don't believe he's written any more, yet, anyway, but I'm hopeful.

 About murder mysteries, I've noticed how many take place around Christmas, completely with snow and country houses, with the suspects all stuck in the same house together, and snow revealing a lack of footsteps, just a lovely addition to your holiday celebrations, I guess. Also I suspect a boost to Christmas sales for the book, but let's not get cynical here.  What every Christmas gathering needs, a nice cosy murder or two.

Yesterday, Handsome Son completely upended my sense of what day it is by visiting on a Monday instead of the usual Sunday, because of his work hours.  So today has to be Monday, because he was here yesterday, and it suddenly felt like Sunday. I was puzzled that the mail was delivered, until I remembered.

He also mentioned that he thought the almond crescents were terrific and could I make them again some time, maybe?  I explained the twists and turns to getting there, and he said, hm, too bad you didn't take notes..I'll give it a try sometime, but no guarantees are being offered.

And now the CDC tells us that the fear of contagion from surfaces is overdone.  At first they feared that was a prime source, so we've all been gloving and wiping and spraying everything that gets near us, and now we find it may not be necessary, since the prime source is now believed to be respiratory droplets.

Masks continue to be the answer.  They have apparently tested surfaces around actual Covid patients and found little to no contagious material, just the rna residue from the dead virus, not possible to get infected from it. 

I've had the cleanest groceries, though, I will say.