More mealus interruptus, doors and other minor concerns

I sadly remember 9/11, very local to us, our commuter train station full of cars never to be driven home, our neighbors and friends lost.  If we succeed in electing Harris, the danger of a repeat, and the subsequent presidential bungling, Bush the Second,  will remain far off the table. Meanwhile we remember and honor the dead.

In more trivial vein, I was boiling shells and simmering a lovely spicy red sauce, for lunch,  when two neighbors came over to discuss those doors again. So I switched everything off while we discussed bringing the door situation to the HOA, tablecloth repair, plant care, fall pruning, stiff joints, public furniture, postcards to voters, and finally, placed a call to the HOA, and left a message.

Then they finally left,  I had my,  now slightly overdone,  pasta, the sauce was great, and I was enjoying a bite of dessert when I was roped into a door-related conference call with the HOA manager. He's going to come Friday and look, before presenting his ideas about remediation to the board. One step further on.

I didn't watch the "debate"  because I can't bear to watch or hear that person. I notice Harris had dressed like a prosecutor, yay! and proceeded to get her policies across while wiping the floor with tfg.  A few minutes later, Taylor Swift endorsed, bringing a huge potential youth vote with her. 

This is a good day. Labwork this morning, would have been good to remember to put in Ruth and Laura, but we managed anyway.

Now I'm going to loaf, walk, read, get into another Austen drama, so many productions of so few novels, and stitch. Maybe on the proposed fusion throw, which uses fabric and crochet.  

It's Northanger Abbey, not my favorite novel, but the drama, great cast, Googie Withers, Geoffrey Chater -- from Lucia -- and very good production values. This one's from the 1980's.

Here's something I didn't make,but I'm glad van Gogh did. 

Happy day, everyone, Harris has got this, with our help.,

More just sayin', then fiberarts

 

Back to now 

Gary's expected home in a day or two, meanwhile a friend is watering his garden 

And we're finally seeing monarchs on the butterfly bushes 

Here's my outfit, ready for the Tuesday Knitting Group, first outing for the linen tunic, tucked in because it works better with this skirt, which yes, does match that curtain. 

That's the rest of the fabric earning its keep as a portiere until I make it into something. I mean, I'm not wearing a curtain.

Tuesday Knitting Group was select and fun, here's a sweater being knitted sideways, clever pattern

Talk ranged over trips to Portugal, birth order, the Duggar family, sock knitting, yarn spun for crochet not knitting, heatwaves, spf umbrellas from Australia, animals not improving knitting, Indian embroidery, fireflies,  goldwork and I may be getting more gold thread from a participant's grandmother, also beads, freecycling and other exciting subjects.

Textiles and Tea was rigid heddle weaving with Betty Davenport, who literally wrote the book on rigid heddle weaving.

The heddle is that comb-like  thing resting across the loom. Also a bigger one at the back, threaded for action.

Here are pictures of the pickup stick in action,manipulating the threads to create interesting weave patterns.

Those little inset shapes she learned from Guatemalan weavers, working on back strap looms

and this is a piece she wove as part of her Certificate of Excellence submission.

Near the top is a page of comments I screenshot so you can see the name of a famous Peruvian weaver she's worked with, and a reference to the Cusco textile center.

She weaves fabric to make clothes on her rigid heddle loom, with knitted finishing bands.  I'm hoping Joanne and Caro will stop in with comments, because they've done a whole lot more with rigid heddle weaving than your humble blogger.

They're probably familiar with her books, too.

So, lovely day, full of interesting events and people, I hope yours is too. Happy day, everyone.

Food and winnowing and breaking news

 On Saturday, I improved my surroundings by winnowing paperwork. At first I thought I'd do files but realized the thing that was annoying me was the overstuffed binder of recipes. It was so full I had trouble finding what I wanted, so that's the sort of task that rewards effort.

Packed with handwritten scraps, pieces from newspapers and old cookbooks, and a metric ton of recipes from my cookbook book club.

 

I took out and reorganized, found some good ideas I'd forgotten, and recycled a lot of pages I'll never use, or tried and didn't need to make again.

The winnowings. Now I have a useful binder and won't be annoyed ahead of searching for a recipe again.

After all this big talk about fancy recipes, I ended up making 

Plums and custard. No need for any directions, it makes itself. The coloring comes from turmeric, great spice, because I don't like food coloring in those little containers.

While I was on a roll I made mayo. Then boiled a couple of eggs, for egg salad. I fancied it up a bit this time, with minced red onion, scallions and fresh chives.

So Sunday lunch looked like this 

Out early Sunday I found a an actual flower, finally 

There are buds all over the zinnias now, so soon there's going to be picking.

Meanwhile out front the pickings though slim, are good. The little blue wildflower, can't remember the name, has started rooting itself in the water.

I finally got around to repotting the ponytail palm, three big ones crowded in one pot. Hot work, I ended up sawing them apart. 

One broke off so the root is in a pot outside and I've set the foliage up in water and we'll see.

The other two are now in a pot each, rather inexpertly done, but it was hot on the deck and it was the best I could do. I'm hoping they'll thrive. Nobody will disturb them, so they have a chance to get settled. At least that's the plan.

And Sunday I texted a message of support to Joe and Kamala. Anyone can 

I have among my phone contacts Joe Biden, White House!!

Ed update: since I wrote this, Biden has left the ticket and endorsed Harris. I texted to say thank you for everything and I'll support the blue ticket. Go Kamala!  Rollercoaster day.

GO KAMALA!   She's already got the endorsements of two presidents, the ufw, many state parties, and she's starting to amass delegates. And massive fund raising via Act Blue in just the few hours since Biden's heroic announcement. She'll have a rough time with media, so smart people are continuing to be very selective in where they get news. Not the mass media.

Happy day everyone, anyway, oh and it was cool enough to get to the mailbox and I found my very useful Senior Freeze, property tax refund, waiting. It's now deposited, thank you, Mr NJ Treasurer.

This freeze on raises in property tax, my housecleaners and good neighbors all keep me going in my home, yay them.

    GO KAMALA!