Tea

When you're sick, tea is good. Very very wonderfully good. Especially with lots of milk and sugar.

[Our cream jug and sugar bowl were purchased at a farmers' market in Kirkland, Washington in 2006. The spoon is a silver and porcelain souvenir spoon from Kassel, W. Germany that my parents purchased while stationed near there in the early 1970's.]

Sun

Thank goodness for the sun. It's pulled me right out of my blahs just as I'm coming down with a cold, so I'm dancing around the house with a sore throat and sniffles.

The second bloom on my cactus is opening!

And the view out at the snow-covered slope, crossed with deer tracks and afternoon shadows.

Sauced

This morning Roo and I took a cold walk to the mailbox to mail a letter. Then a friend came over for lunch. Then Roo had a nap while I folded laundry. And then I made more applepearsauce. I also played with Todd's tripod.

The view from our back deck across the ravine to the neighbors' house.

It's always beautiful catching the new moon. Especially paired with Venus, the evening star, high in the first picture.

I obviously still need to work on focusing, but you get the idea.

Tired

I'm suddenly fighting the winter blahs. We haven't had much sun lately, it's been so cold -only in the teens at most- that we've been housebound, and it's hard to get good pictures in the gloom. Roo's still napping wacky, and I've got a project that's been on hold seemingly forever that's giving me the grumps. So here's Todd's favorite fish bowl full of dried homegrown peppers to warm and cheer.

On the agenda for this afternoon: Irish soda bread and hopefully a batch of basic dough from this book. Ed: I ended up making a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies instead, because it's Wednesday and they're Todd's favorite. Yum.

Stew

This morning we ran downtown to the post office to mail off a few small packages, then to the grocery store to buy potatoes. The one thing that didn't make it on the shopping list on Monday was the essential thing I needed Tuesday to make dinner.

For a moment we had some weak sunshine in the kitchen this afternoon, but mostly it was gray gray gray out. My window stars have been up for over a year now, and they're starting to get tired.

Roo enjoys the houseplants by the big window, too. Occasionally she pretends to water them for me.

Dinner

This afternoon I made: wheat/white bread + beef and barley soup.

This time 1 1/2 C whole wheat, 4 1/2 C white. Also used brown sugar instead of granulated. I use the basic white bread recipe from Todd's Joy of Cooking.

Soup based on the recipe in my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, but heavily veggie laden, with added sweet potato, yellow summer squash, and green beans.

Then I rushed off to orchestra.

Wood

Dining table, highchair, jungle gym slide, front door.

That's my old tan-corduroy-with-rainbow-straps toddler-sized backpack hanging from the jungle gym. Roo hasn't really discovered it yet, but I am sure its time will come.

Sun and Shadow

This morning I made more applesauce and played violin duets with a friend.

Molly basking on our bed, 3:00pm.

Elsewhere, softer light, 3:04pm.

Fancy Pants

As promised, here are pictures of Roo's new flannel lined corduroy pants.

A bit wrinkled from being folded in her drawer, but so soft, comfy, and warm. Let me show you what I made them on...

Here's my machine, a 1948 Eldredge Electric with a knee pedal, in its own pretty cabinet. I think that this was my Grandmother Rosemary's first sewing machine purchased after she was married. Todd did a wonderful job of cleaning and oiling it for me so I could try to use it again.

She still had the original instruction book tucked inside, along with a holiday card box full of wound bobbins and extra needles, and she had the full set of attachments for the machine, including a button hole finisher!

I'm just learning, so I didn't use any of the fancy gadgets and gizmos. Just straight leg seams, a casing for the elastic with a bit of the flannel up over the top, and hems that can be cuffed to show more of the big-eyed-owl print.

The fabrics on the left are more of the chocolate corduroy and a yellow farm-with-pink-pigs flannel; just enough to make her one more, larger, pair.

Now to get a picture of the pants in action...

Bloom

This evening I sat down and drew for two hours. Besides quick sketches for our lino print holiday greeting cards, this is the first true art I've worked on since April 2007. I'm embarrassed to admit this fact. I've done little drawings here and there, but nothing big enough to mat or frame or add to the portfolio. I hope I can keep going on this and have a finished piece by the end of the month.

My cactus has bloomed for the first time! And the two days the flower was fresh it was cloudy and I had to use the camera's flash. How disappointing. Maybe we'll have better luck with the second bud and sunny skies.

Over the weekend I sat down, cut out fabric, and sewed Roo a pair of flannel lined corduroy pants. I modeled them on a pair we're borrowing from April, and I got lots of help deciphering the seams from Sarah, and I have to say I'm extremely pleased and proud of how they came out. Hopefully I can take some good pictures tomorrow to share.

Proud

Ignore the mess. This is where Roo and I ate our lunch.

I'm so proud of our country, and awed by this man's bravery, composure, and intelligence.

Late

We had our first orchestra rehearsal of the spring tonight, and I'm exhausted. I forget how hard it is to leave Todd and Roo in the evening and get out, and once I'm in rehearsal my mind often strays back to Roo at home, because other than this weekly gig she's with me all the time. I'm so used to always listening for her, checking on her.

Last week's color week left out my favorite at this time of year. Being from Seattle, I'm used to green winters, and this is how I cope with the gray season here:

We have plants all over the house, and near the biggest window I enjoy this riot of leaves. There are a rubber plant and a dwarf satsuma tangerine here, and on a sunny day they make me so glad.

They're concealing the over-a-foot-of-snow on our deck.

One More Stripe

This was a late present that just made it to its new home. So I can finally post a picture:

This is the Odessa hat by Grumperina, and I loved it so much I wore it all day before mailing it off. (I borrowed your hat, Chryssa.) I may have to make myself one. Soon.

Stripes/Friday/Plaid

Today I made Uncommon Grace's muffins, a chocolate cake, and applesauce with one Granny Smith, two Braeburns, and three Anjou pears. Yesterday I made chicken stock/barley bean soup and rye bread. It's nice to cook when it's so cold. It makes the house smell warm.

Sometimes our pajamas get folded neatly and tucked under our pillows. Other mornings they get tossed like this once the bed is made. (Other days, I'm still wearing mine at 4pm.)

We got a few recycled fiber rag rugs to put under Roo's highchair. Because way back 3 years ago we got a sisal rug for our dining room. S-m-r-t.