Saturday snippets

in which our plucky heroine has a busy week here at Acorn Cottage...

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Thursday I completed the long delayed project of installing the LED rope light along the ceiling above my front porch ramp. It took rather a great deal of "figure it out" all out of proportion to the finished effect, but I am pleased nonetheless. And it means I no longer have all those feet of rope light hanging from the closet rod. I may be slow, but I eventually get things done. There are 18 cable clamps holding up the lighting, which meant 36 individual trips up and down the stepladder, once each to predrill the pilot hole, and once each to actually screw the clamp to the ceiling, once I had threaded all the clamps onto the rope light strand.

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~ hand craft ~

About a quarter of the way done with hand stitching a pair of leather gloves, for doing yardwork, so I won't keep tearing up my hands. They will fit my stumpy little fingers, which readymade gloves never do. This I've been meaning to do this ever since I took an SCA workshop on how to make a pattern for gloves... These, made from salvaged pigskin, with seams on the outside, are very "rustic". If I could purchase gloves that fit me, I wouldn't need to do this, but having work gloves with fingers that end where mine do, instead of a cm or two beyond, will allow for much greater dexterity

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My sister sent me two kitchen surprises this week - a box of pre-cut 4" rounds of parchment paper, and a bottle of Fiori di Sicilia (exotic flavoring oils) both which were used for making an improved plum torte. I can't quite describe the flavor, other than that it adds a depth and complexity that tastes "special". I did change up the recipe a bit, switching to some light brown sugar along with the white, and adding ¼ tsp vanilla, ¼ tsp almond extract, and 6 extremely tiny drops of Fiori di Sicilia dripped from the end of a toothpick. Oh, and I left off the lemon juice/cinnamon/sugar. Much tastier torte...

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~ oh darn it ~

Sister Gigi's dog chewed glove, along with the gradient assortment of mending/darning wool I ordered. I am pleased that there are several different medium grey yarns; one or the other of the central grey skeins is probably the best match of the seven. It should be fairly unobtrusive to knit up the thumb, once the extra tiny knitting needles arrive here. It will be a challenge for certain!

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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	11 jars of Awesome Sauce	prune grapevine	yard waste bin
2	3 jars applesauce	pick up windfalls	yard waste bin
3	title tinyprint	more windfalls	recycle bin
4	1 jar apricot preserves	xp2 sunhat toile	yard waste bin
5	7 pints applesauce	cut back ferns	yard waste bin
6	rainbow panova	porch light fixture	recycle bin
7	2# dried pears	2 tiny glove darns	x
8	8 pints applesauce	x	x
9	5 jars Awesome sauce	x	x
10	+ 6 more jars of Awesome	x	x
11	+ 7 jars of Awesome	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. I was much amused when I realised the noises I was hearing from behind the former daycare fencing were not human kids, but young goat kids! As I discovered when I put my eye to a gap in the fence boards.
2. improved plum torte
3. it might be the last of the line dried bedding, given the time of year, but I am very much enjoying the scent of my nice clean duvet cover.

Time of Isolation - Day 1188

busy with preservation

in which our plucky heroine keeps the home fires burning...

In order to make room in the freezer for as many of the plums as can be managed, the ten pounds of roma tomatoes from the farmer's market need to be processed. So the last few days have seen multiple batches of Awesome Sauce on the stovetop, to make enough to last 'til tomato season next year. There will be one more batch tomorrow, and the rest of the tomatoes will be turned into a few small jars of tomato sauce, acidified with lemon juice instead of citric acid (stupid food sensitivity)

Then it will be on to cutting up the rest of the red windfall apples and turning them into applesauce, running the Gersvinda pears through the food dehydrator, and it will be time to pick the quinces and make some quince paste and quince jelly. Last will be the persimmons, if they are not taken by the two legged varmints, and those will also be turned into dried fruit. This is a busy time of year in the kitchen...

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Given the current plethora of plums, I decided to try out the very popular plum torte recipe. I was whelmed, (not overwhelmed, and not underwhelmed). The cake is very plain and somewhat dry, redeemed of course by the delightful jammy plums embedded in the top. It seems to me the sort of cake much improved with a bit of whipped cream, or a small scoop of ice cream, and best eaten with coffee or tea. I think that in the future, as in in a few days when the current cake is eaten, I will try two modifications. First, I will halve the recipe, making a much smaller cake using my 4" springform pan, and second I will try adding either almond extract, or almond and vanilla extract, (or if I decide to splurge and buy some fiori di sicilia) to the batter. And then I will cut that little cake into four pieces, and put them in the freezer. "Cake on the Countertop" is just too tempting and I apparently have no self control...

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It has been raining for almost three days, on and off. Time to dust off the sewing machines, and clear away the workroom cutting/sewing space. There is a halfway finished raincoat, set aside in March this year, that still needs a lining, edgebinding, and some toggle closures...

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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	11 jars of Awesome Sauce	prune grapevine	yard waste bin
2	3 jars applesauce	pick up windfalls	yard waste bin
3	title tinyprint	more windfalls	recycle bin
4	1 jar apricot preserves	xp2 sunhat toile	yard waste bin
5	7 pints applesauce	cut back ferns	yard waste bin
6	rainbow panova	porch light fixture	recycle bin
7	2# dried pears	x	x
8	8 pints applesauce	x	x
9	5 jars Awesome sauce	x	x
10	+ 6 more jars of Awesome	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. earlier this year, I stocked up on canning jar lids, and have plenty for the preserving of this autumn's bounty...
2. several of the free "Making Zen" video presentations this week have been inspiring, particularly the one that included information about using soymilk (thickened with guar gum) as a painted-on mordant to get two different intensities of natural dye in one dyebath. I was also intrigued by the idea of meditative embroidery, and the tiny kantha/sashiko pouches would be a fun sort of fidget stitchery. Not that I am going to do any of these sorts of projects right now, mind, but always good to have more ideas...
3. not coughing anywhere near as much as last week.

Time of Isolation - Day 1184

"Stumpy" InHaga

in which our plucky heroine is going to have work gloves that fit her square little hands...

...not only have I short little dinosaur arms, but I also have short little dinosaur fingers. My pal Kate once nicknamed me "Stumpy", at the same dreadfully cold Yakima event where she gave me a pair of mittens knitted by her own hands with wool she spun, 'cos she said it was important that my fingers not freeze since that would make me truly stumpy!

The difficulty with having proportionally short fingers is that RTW gloves are rather useless. If warmth is what is needed, I am perfectly capable of knitting my own, but protective leather gloves for yardwork are a different story. Women's gloves, whatever the size, have fingers long enough that the ends flop about in a dysfunctional way, impeding whatever task is "at hand". And children's gloves, with fingers of a useful length, are designed for hands proportionally smaller all around.

So, a number of years ago I took a workshop on making a pattern for handsewn gloves, and I made a sample using felt, that being a good stand-in for leather. Today I decided that going ahead and making a "wearable muslin" of actual leather would be quite useful, particularly for yardwork like cutting back the rampant ferns, which scratched me up unmercifully.

I had set aside some large enough scraps of pigskin, and one of today's activities was to mark out the many pieces that make up a single glove, and start stitching. This kind of small stitchery project is just right for handwork during zoom. With luck, I will have an actual pair of gloves before too long, though so far I've only managed to complete the thumb.

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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	11 jars of Awesome Sauce	prune grapevine	yard waste bin
2	3 jars applesauce	pick up windfalls	yard waste bin
3	title tinyprint	more windfalls	recycle bin
4	1 jar apricot preserves	xp2 sunhat toile	yard waste bin
5	7 pints applesauce	cut back ferns	yard waste bin
6	rainbow panova	porch light fixture	recycle bin
7	2# dried pears	x	x
8	8 pints applesauce	x	x
9	4 lg 1 sm Awesome sauce	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. Terry Prachett audio books... somehow I missed being drawn into any of these stories when I was younger, but I sure am appreciating them now, the combination of whimsy and nourishment are just delightful.
2. All day the house has been filled with the spicy savory scent of Awesome Sauce cooking on the stove, the first batch made with this years farmer's market tomatoes.
3. Today was lovely and appropriately autumnal, with grey skies and gentle rain.

Time of Isolation - Day 1182

scope creep

in which our plucky heroine finds two new Useful Shops...

Last night when I switched on the porch light nothing happened, so my plan was to do whatever needful in the morning. Not only were the Very Old compact fluorescent bulbs burned out, but the plastic liner to the fixture was so fragile that parts of it broke off in my hand while I was removing it to replace the bulbs with new LED ones.

I would rather repair what is on hand than buy a new fixture. My first thought was to use some thin plexiglass glued inside the original liner to replace the damaged parts, after cutting away most of those panes, leaving only a narrow edging to overlap and be sealed with glue. (RTV silicone has a myriad of uses) There was a good sized piece of plexiglass in the scrap pile in the carport. I've not worked with it before, so online research made it clear that since I've no table saw, that using a scoring tool would allow snapping the plastic to size. This required a trip to TAP Plastics, a heretofore unknown shop, which has a vast variety of tools and supplies. What I was after was a simple inexpensive folding scoring knife, which once acquired, worked a treat to make neat cuts guided by a straightedge.

While on the way back home, it occurred to me that if it could be possible to plug directly to the light bulb socket, the long string of outdoor LED rope lights could be run directly from the ceiling porch light along the covered walkway. And I remembered seeing an electric supply shop near the transit center... The folks at A-Boy were happy to help me find the very minimal item I was seeking, despite my not knowing the proper name for it. Maybe they just weren't very busy on a Saturday morning, but both of the clerks were really kind and helpful and interested in what I was planning to do. It made me happy!

I love the sort of shops that have all kinds of specialty bits and bobs, and the folks that know what all of them are. The very antithesis of big box stores.

I spent most of the rest of the day cutting and shaping the plexiglass, sanding each side of the three replacement pieces to create a "frosted" effect, and cutting away the damaged plastic from the old fixture. (I installed that low end porch light 18 years ago). The new pieces were glued into the old liner, and the fixture temporarily replaced to cover the light sockets overnight, since there is rain forecast. Next I need to figure out how to hang the rope lights, and this long planned project will be complete; it turns out that the length of the rope is just right for the length of the front porch covered walkway ramp!

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~ out and about ~

There was a whole front garden overtaken with these beautiful morning glories over near the dog hospital, on the way to the bus stop...

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Sister Gigi's sent me her grey wool gloves, gnawed by her dog Puck, in the hope that I could revive them. This has begun as a challenging search for suitable materials. The knitting is very tiny, with between 8 to 9 stitches to the inch, so the yarn needs to be thin, smooth, and strong. I began by calling local yarn stores, and also checked in with my pals at Timeless Textiles, as their EPiC yarn would be very suitable... Unfortunately they have a light grey and a dark grey, but nothing in the middle. The local shops I called didn't have any lace-weigh yarn that would work.

Finally, while looking up mending and darning, I found a shop that sells Appleton's Darning and Mending Wool in gradient sets, and I ordered the grey set. I also needed to order some extra thin knitting needles, since I never work with such a small gauge. No local stores carried what I needed, so I ordered a set of 4/0 double pointed needles from a historical supply shop. Once everything arrives here, I can begin the repair, which hopefully will not be too too difficult, though it may require me to use my lighted magnifier to see the stitching!

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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	11 jars of Awesome Sauce	prune grapevine	yard waste bin
2	3 jars applesauce	pick up windfalls	yard waste bin
3	title tinyprint	more windfalls	recycle bin
4	1 jar apricot preserves	xp2 sunhat toile	yard waste bin
5	7 pints applesauce	cut back ferns	yard waste bin
6	rainbow panova	porch light fixture	recycle bin
7	2# dried pears	x	x
8	8 pints applesauce	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. finding 4/0 knitting needles, and gradient mending/darning wool online
2. repaired the porch light, which entailed learning how to snap cut plexiglass
3. I am definitely coughing less

Time of Isolation - Day 1181

bounteous backyard

in which our plucky heroine continues to spend time in the kitchen...

Tonight I am making windfall applesauce, and I managed to start it early enough in the evening that I will be done and the jars cooling before 10... There are probably enough apples for two or three more large batches

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picking picking picking... the more I get into the freezer nowadays, the longer I will be able to enjoy my favorite fruit for breakfast! If I had the space and the extra dosh, I would be sorely tempted to acquire a second freezer.

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I meant to add yesterday that I finished the xp2 version of the sunhat project for my pal Cathy and mailed it off to her. Hopefully this one will be just a tad oversized, enough to allow for the lining layer, her rather splendid Pre-Raphelite hair, and some ease in taking said hat on and off.

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I rode my bicycle to the Wednesday farmer's market, and though the large farm I bought tomatoes from is not selling this year, I found a smaller vendor who also had organic Romas, so I bought ten pounds, with the intention of making Awesome Sauce... they also had some gorgeous red jalapeno? peppers, so all I need now to get that project underway is some fresh ginger fingers.

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Managed to do an assortment of pruning today, including some of the very overgrown ferns in the side yard, and a little bit of the elderberry

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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	11 jars of Awesome Sauce	prune grapevine	yard waste bin
2	3 jars applesauce	pick up windfalls	yard waste bin
3	title tinyprint	more windfalls	recycle bin
4	1 jar apricot preserves	xp2 sunhat toile	yard waste bin
5	7 pints applesauce	cut back ferns	yard waste bin
6	rainbow panova	x	recycle bin
7	2# dried pears	x	x
8	8 pints applesauce	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. I managed to start and finish the windfall applesauce today in a timely way, so as to be able to end my day in a timely way, with eight jars cooling on the countertop. There was just a spoonful leftover, a bit of a sweet treat once all that processing was done
2. Since today is wheelie bin day, I decided to start cutting back the side yard ferns. They are stiff, and grow out into the narrow path, tapping against my legs when I hang the laundry on the line in a startling way. I got about a third of the way down the path before the greenwaste bin was full, and my arms were really scratched up. Next time I prune them, I will be sure to wear something with long sleeves!
3. I had my quarterly PCP visit, and all the various numbers they check up on are good... my blood sugar and pressure are lower, and everything else is in the normal range. No real resolution on the coughing, other than that she said it often takes a long time to get back to normal afterwards. I am going to use my Bujo to track how much and how often I am coughing, to get a better handle on how it is trending.

Time of Isolation - Day 1180

a day of moderate usefulness

in which our plucky heroine continues preservation and persevering...

Because it is the season, with random gifts of homegrown tomatoes from the good neighbors, and the fruit trees here at Acorn Cottage all beginning to need harvested.

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~ plum wonderful ~

Every day now I try and get outside to pick plums, and to pick up the windfall apples. Plums to the freezer, apples into applesauce. Probably one more big batch of the red apples. Not sure about the yellow/green apples of unknown variety. Dried some Bartlett pears, still waiting to dry the Gersvinda pears. I want to try making this NYT plum torte, here iterated by Smitten Kitchen

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I am hoping to get some answers tomorrow from my doctor about why I am still coughing after seven weeks, and an assortment of other queries about bodily oddities. Before long it will be time for getting a flu shot, and sometime after that, I will have to figure out when to get my next Covid booster update. This article has some good information about the latter.

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I noticed a lot of foliage on the parking strip horseradish planted years ago, and while thinking about basketry, found this video about making cordage, and this one about netting a bag

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I've folded up paper strips for tinybook printing, cut cardstock for tinybook covers, and the next step is actually doing the printing, gluing, and binding...

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I want to fix the box fan that stopped working. Local Ace chain hardware store was useless. I am going to try Winks for the replacement switch. Though first I will need to carefully disassemble it, and take photos of how the switch is attached, so I can attach a new one. This is all assuming that Jason was correct in his suggestion that the switch may have failed causing the fan to stop working. Also the Aunties suggested I take some photos and ask John for remote help.

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There are at least 13? people still planning on participating in the Advent for a Better Year swap, and there might be a few more at the last, not sure... I need to figure out how to arrange to handle all the postage costs, as next month will be the time for gathering in all the tiny treats and redistributing them. This will be fun. I hope.

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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	11 jars of Awesome Sauce	prune grapevine	yard waste bin
2	3 jars applesauce	pick up windfalls	yard waste bin
3	title tinyprint	more windfalls	recycle bin
4	1 jar apricot preserves	-	yard waste bin
5	7 pints applesauce	-	-
6	rainbow panova	x	x
7	2# dried pears	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. feral plum tree thicket has a truly bountiful crop this year, which brightened my heart so much this morning
2. I managed to cook up two different eggplant dishes using the beautiful ones I brought home from the farmers market on Saturday
3. had multiple human connections today: spoke with my dear SIL Barb, a morning zoom with my art pal Leslie, afternoon zoom with Karen, and evening zoom with Mikki.

Time of Isolation - Day 1179

crying for the moon

in which our plucky heroine is still feeling poorly...

Though I no longer have the sore throat that plagued me all August, I still have the horrid postnasal? issue that has me constantly trying to clear my throat, and random coughing spells, especially when I try to fall asleep, or in the middle of the night waking up coughing and choking. I thought I was on the mend, but this situation is very unlike any former ailment pattern. I am back to falling asleep almost every afternoon, and my spirits and creative self feel as if they will never return. Tasks that normally would take me several hours instead take me days to complete.

At this point I don't know what could possibly improve the situation. Well, maybe a different and better timeline, one where not only was the general planetary situation everywhere less fraught because of human stupidity, but one where I myself had made less dreadful errors of judgement as a younger person.

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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	11 jars of Awesome Sauce	prune grapevine	yard waste bin
2	3 jars applesauce	pick up windfalls	yard waste bin
3	title tinyprint	-	recycle bin
4	1 jar apricot preserves	-	yard waste bin
5	7 pints applesauce	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. My SIL Barb told me that she thinks of me as a sister, which warmed my heart very much. My brother is lucky to have such a great person as his wife.
2.Still many plums in the plum thicket, and some not quite ripe ones on the side yard plum tree. I have picked about 15# so far, and begun to store plum halves in the freezer; they will make breakfast treats for atop cereal hopefully for months
3. The red backyard apples make good applesauce. The other yellow-green apples may need to be sweetened, as they are ripe enough to fall from the tree, but still Very Tart. I will experiment.

Time of Isolation - Day 1174

squirrel shenanigans

in which our plucky heroine is an unwilling witness...

apparently 'tis the season of squirrel reproduction. Which they decided to do on my front porch, balanced atop the plant cage I put around the poor chewed up crocosmia. And, at the same time the carousing was going on "overhead", a third squirrel had managed to get inside the plant cage, and chewed my poor plant up even more. Dang those rowdy rodents!!

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12 # windfall apples were picked up early in the morning before the danger bugs were really awake... they need to be washed, to have the wormy parts cut away, peeled, and turned into applesauce. There is probably twice that much or more still on the tree. Incremental progress is still progress.

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Finally feeling mostly well enough to start working again, (although there are still remaining symptoms, mostly when I lie down). Sorted out where to begin on the Star Wars cosplay sewing job. Found all the parts of the four regalia settings I need to build. Started redoing the sunhat pattern.

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I've signed up for "Making Zen", which looks like some pleasant free fun, a variety of different ephemeral short online presentations related to handstitchery each day, available for 24 hours, for a whole week at the end of September.

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more tales of weird little Wellington... while taking a nap this afternoon, his doggish whining brought me out of dreamland and back to this reality. Somehow, he had managed to entangle himself within his new blue harness so that both his legs were coming out one side, and the central portion was all askew on his torso. It took me rather more than a moment to parse out how to undo the difficulty and put everything back in order again.

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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	11 jars of Awesome Sauce	prune grapevine	yard waste bin
2	3 jars applesauce	pick up windfalls	yard waste bin
3	title tinyprint	-	recycle bin
4	1 jar apricot preserves	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. I figured out how to access articles in The Atlantic Monthly via the library website. It isn't direct, takes several steps, and is only text based, (but that is where the content is) and lets me read otherwise paywalled essays.
2. The backyard apple tree continues to be productive, despite setbacks
3. I found two dimes on the street whilst out riding my bike, which according to my superstitious side, means twenty days of good luck to come...

Time of Isolation - Day 1169

danger bug season

in which our plucky heroine is being cautious...

Yesterday was just over 80F, today not quite as warm, and the backyard has far too many danger bugs for me to want to do any outdoor chores once the sun is really up. I will try and get outside Very Early tomorrow morning and begin picking up windfall apples and plums. Looking at the apple tree, there is rather a lot of summer pruning that needs done as well in order to keep the tree branches within reach. Ditto for the persimmon in the parking strip.

The Other Side Neighbors (not the good ones) have a huge pear tree next to their back porch, of which they make no use at all, and they have put their compost area towards the back of their yard right next to the chain link fence. This is understandable, as they dump all their muchness of windfall pears to compost, which creates a real fruit bar for yellow jackets, and no one would want that near their porch. I rather wish it was not so close to my yard either...

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~ tinyprint progress ~

Since the piece of scrap wood cut up to use for lino backing turned out to be cedar (so much itchy sneezing) painting them will vastly improve future printmaking efforts. Grabbing the first acrylic that came to hand, dark blue, did not make it easy to mark the block direction, but I realised that a white art pencil would do the trick. Next up is to cut strips for the tinyprint books, and actually do the printing!

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Just a bit more preserving yesterday, as I cooked down the modest quantity of apricots that were macerating in the fridge. Just one 8oz jar of preserves, and about ⅔ of another jar, (not enough to seal up, but instead it will be used to add flavor to yogurt)

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A wild variety of exotic looking and multicolored zinnias are blooming right now!

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Wellington has developed a peculiar new habit of just stopping while we are out for a walk and sitting down. Never does this while we are walking along the sidewalks and parking strips, with the normal doggish behaviours of either trotting along, or stopping and sniffing and exploring, but only in crosswalks. He is such an odd little dog!

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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	11 jars of Awesome Sauce	prune grapevine	yard waste bin
2	3 jars applesauce	-	yard waste bin
3	title tinyprint	-	recycle bin
4	1 jar apricot preserves	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. Acantha remembered I love pears. Gersvinda's pal went to go pick them (poor Gersvinda has the plague) and will bring brought me some.
2. I have a 10' fruit picking tool, and can lend it when needed (see #1 above)
3. figured out I could use one of the fans to cool down the lasagna and the "spinach rice bake" casserole(s) before putting them in the fridge. Set up in the workroom with the cooked pans up on cooling racks set atop some scrap wood... much better than right into the fridge hot, and cooled down much faster than just leaving them on the countertop. Yay for food safety hacks!

Time of Isolation - Day 1167

f is for final

in which our plucky heroine returns to do a bit of printmaking...

~ F is for... ~

I finished the final block for my F is for fun tinyprint tinybook. When I made the sample, I had simply drawn in the "title" page with a finepoint Sharpie, but it occurred to me that it could easily be made a linocut block print as well, in the interest of consistency. So I did just that. I rather like how I counter-changed the image, and it will fit very nicely in the 1" square format of the book, the base square being the same ¾" size as all the rest of the series.

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The apples from the backyard tree must be ripe, though they are not very sweet at all, since they are starting to fall from the tree, and the seeds inside have dark brown seed coats. I took some of the windfall apples, cut away the good parts and peeled them, then steamed them prior to cooking them in a bit of water and mashing them to a pan of applesauce. I then added a small amount of sugar, the tub of applesauce from the freezer, and half a four ounce jar of quince syrup for additional flavor. In the end, there were three jars of applesauce processed, which have a nice rich faintly quince-ish flavor.

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It is tempting to try lying down on the front lawn to photograph the random cyclamen that have popped up here and there, obviously descended from the initial bulbs planted in the border, a housewarming gift from my friend Kat eighteen years ago... their delicate beauty never fails to lift my spirits

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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	11 jars of Awesome Sauce	prune grapevine	yard waste bin
2	3 jars applesauce	-	-
3	title tinyprint	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. I figured out what had scrambled my blog formatting, and fixed it
2. Dogsitting for Wellington, who is a pleasant temporary housemate
3. There was just about two tablespoons left of the batch of applesauce, enough for a small sweet treat after dinner tonight
4. The new epoxy container from Devcon actually shows signs of thoughtful industrial design, unlike my previous Gorilla epoxy, this one has the "nozzles" quite a bit more separated from one another, which will avoid the cross contamination that quite ruined my previous one. It is, of course, really important to not get bits of glue or hardener in each others tube, which causes the whole thing to begin to set up in the tube. (Since no one sells two part epoxy in entirely separate tubes any more, it has all gone to joined plunger tubes, having the whole setup solidify well before it is all used is annoying for the consumer, however profitable it is for the manufacturer.)

Time of Isolation - Day 1165

Labor Day

in which our plucky heroine appreciates progress...

(I posted this last year, but it bears repeating...)

Though we have our own terrible difficulties to find a way to coexist with and to move forward from, hard times, disease and disaster are more the norm of human existence than many perhaps realise. Every increment of help and hope have been hard won, whether by activism or by activity, and it doesn't do to forget that, lest those gains be lost...

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So, I didn't want to stay up so late last night to finish the job... and rather than do so, or chance bacterial contamination of my beloved condiment, I moved things around and sent the partly cooked down Awesome Sauce to freezer camp overnight. First thing in the morning, I pulled the only partially frozen pan full out, and started warming it up. By later in the day, I had ten small jars and one larger jar of Awesome Sauce cooling on the countertop. And, I noticed a small ziploc full of apricot halves, which are now chopped and macerating mixed with some sugar, to be made into a Very Small batch of apricot preserves. The more bits I can remove from the freezer now, the more room there will be for this year's fruit...

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So, I tried something different today. Since I had the time, I thought, oh, I will take transit downtown and go see the outdoor "Art In The Pearl" street fair... it is outdoors, and I can stay masked, and maybe it will be okay? This is an activity I did enjoy in the Before Times, but now it was not fun for me. There were too many people, and walking around trying to not be too close to others, and being there all alone instead of there with friends turned out to be a big nope for this plucky heroine. Live and learn. Sigh.

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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	11 jars of Awesome Sauce	prune grapevine	yard waste bin
2	-	-	-
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. I only napped for about an hour today
2. I had enough jar lids to put up all the Awesome Sauce
3. I do have a backup for this blog, in case I cannot figure out what has gone wrong with how it is not showing up properly online...

Time of Isolation - Day 1164

yet more Sunday snippets

in which our plucky heroine has a busy day...

and just in case there wasn't enough going on, for some unknown reason I decided that cooking up a double batch of Awesome Sauce this evening would be a good idea. Thinking it would be a grand idea to begin to use the last of last year's frozen tomatoes...

Not thinking about how it takes quite a while for it to cook down properly into a nice thick condiment. Not thinking about how even after it was the lovely sweet and savory and spicy delight, that I would then need to process all the various jars full. (I do have the jars, and the lids, and the rings, but still....) And how once begun, there is no option to put the whole process on hold and finish it tomorrow, nope, the maslin pan does not fit in the fridge, and I don't think I've suitable containers to put it in the freezer overnight, though that will be my next look around the kitchen cupboards, as I don't really want to stay up late enough to get this done, but I also don't want to waste all the effort so far... Tune in tomorrow to find out what happened...

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I gave a presentation online today: "Care Tasks are Morally Neutral, or, Good Enough Is Perfect" as an introduction to the concepts and suggestions in How to Keep House While Drowning. I think my talk was received well, as there was some good discussion and comments afterwards. Here is a Powells Books interview with the author KC Davis

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on why it is important to label freezer containers... I had intended to make egg drop soup for lunch, and yesterday took out what I thought was a tub full of broth to thaw in the fridge overnight. Nope, not broth, but applesauce! (I have no idea why I froze a container of applesauce, since usually that gets canned for pantry storage)

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~ so tasty ~

I might need to try making this recipe, as it seems very doable, and I have successfully made other kinds of steamed dumplings. I love soup dumplings, but eating out at XLB is a rare treat. Recipe makes 20 dumplings, so you will need 20 wrappers, and some water and a setup for steaming...

Soup

⅔ cup hot water
1 packet gelatin powder
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon chicken stock

Filling

5 oz ground pork
1 green onion, finely chopped
2 shiitake mushrooms, finely chopped
½ inch piece ginger, peeled and grated
1 clove garlic, grated
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon sake

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Last night I fell asleep around 9. When I woke at around 2:20am and picked up my phone, I ended up texting with M, who was still awake. that the "nightlight" function on my phone (that I never used) is not a different way to use the phone for lighting. (I had thought it was like the "flashlight" function) I found out it changes the blue light colorway of the phone screen (which our brains think means "sunrise, time to be awake") to an overall "amber" hue, intended to tell our brain that "the sun is going down, time to go to sleep"... Old dog, new tricks; maybe this will help with my insomnia and sleep derangement.

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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	-	prune grapevine	yard waste bin
2	-	-	-
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. I gave a presentation today that went well, none of the dreadful things I feared happened, and my friends all said it was quite splendid.
2. the kitchen smells amazing, filled with the combination of tomato and garlic and ginger...
3. the more I allow my mind the option of thinking of alternatives, the more willing it is to do so.

Time of Isolation - Day 1164

getting toasted

in which our plucky heroine tries something new...

I have run out of my usual breakfast cereal garnish of pecans, but found a bag of raw almonds in the freezer. Dry roasted almonds are much more pleasant to eat, so I thought "how hard can it be?"...

two techniques:

on the stovetop ~ difficult even when stirring constantly to get a good result, as the part in contact with the pan begins to char before the nuts are toasty.
in the tabletop convection oven ~ at 225 F, much better results, if a bit slower. I set the timer for about 25 minutes, and stirred them once or twice. No char, and the nuts were toasted well internally.

After the small test of both options, the remaining almonds were roasted in the convection oven, cooled, and returned to the freezer for storage. I prefer pecans, which can be broken up by hand wheras almonds need chopped with the mezzaluna, but using what is in storage has much to commend it. Eventually I can arrange another Costco trip for more pecans.

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 TIL* that aphantasia and anauralia are both types of neurodivergence. 

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First task of the day, spent about an hour in the backyard, pruning away grapevine foliage to expose the grape clusters. By then the sun was high enough that the danger bugs were out exploring, so I put away my Felcos and went inside to have breakfast. Having the grapes not hidden under the leaves will make it safer for my pal who wants them to pick them. According to my previous years records, they won't be really ripe until October...

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Botanical information I discovered online... I can safely prune back the side yard ferns all the way to the ground. Plums will continue to ripen off the tree, so picking them before they are all the way tree ripe may be a good idea, in case of two legged predation.

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While listening to "The Wok" audiobook, the author mentioned a few useful resources for information about homemade chow fun noodles. I found this recipe with its excellent photos to be inspiring. I want to try this at some point, since I miss going out to eat, and enjoy attempting to make my favorite treats...

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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	-	prune grapevine	yard waste bin
2	-	-	-
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. The Wayback Machine Internet archive... I cannot express how much I love, and how often I use, this resource...
2. I am gradually losing some of my annoyance with Google Docs
3. Past Me (being a good cook) makes Current Me tasty meals. Stir fry, and spicy peanut sauce, in the fridge and cooked rice cubes in the freezer equals dinner in minutes, and all the ingredients are ones I can eat.

Time of Isolation - Day 1164

* TIL = Today I Learned