Exhausting Recreation

What a busy week! We had a great camping trip, leaving Monday and returning on Thursday. This was our setting:

The white 5th wheel is ours. The other RV belongs to Charlie's brother, Jim.

We found the stroller to be very useful for Rocky, although he surprised us by walking 1 1/4 miles with no problem. He isn't very fast, so if we wanted to move faster, we used the stroller.

We camped with some friends from the Meet-up group here in Bend. It was a very relaxing trip. Cooking and cleanup was minimal, because we ate homemade TV dinners, sandwiches, cereal and boiled eggs.

Rocky needed help to get up onto the bed, but he really enjoyed it.

The issues we had were few. First was the discovery of a leak around one of the vents on the roof, which Charlie fixed. We found it when I discovered the bed was wet. It had rained the night before we left. I put the bedding over the two picnic tables when we arrived at the campsite, and it was all dry within a couple of hours. The other issue was learning that one of the two batteries for the trailer was not very good. It wouldn't hold a charge. The low temperature Tuesday night was 32.2º, which was pretty cold for sleeping in the trailer without turning on the heat, but with two humans and two canines all under the covers, it wasn't too bad.

The pups enjoyed access to the water, although we had to keep them from wading in too far because of the current.

The two ladies who participated in the camping event each bought one of my books. (I had brought two along.)

I got some knitting in. Here's my progress on the Kevät sweater.

I just added the stitch markers between the pattern repeats, because it's getting more difficult to tell where the chart starts and ends, now that I've finished the first colorwork section. The yarn for my Brioche Shawl Feathers shawl was delivered the day we arrived home.

Our son and DIL arrived Friday evening for the long weekend. (They are still here.) Their canine family member dug up one of the marigolds in the newly planted vegetable garden, so Charlie had to do some repair. Fortunately, he had plenty of marigolds still needing planting.

We walked to the playground on Saturday, so the boys could play and run off some energy. They are going home today.

While our son was here, we moved my loom down from my workroom to the living room, where there is an empty corner with two windows. He helped us put it together. Years of Lego building put to good use. I had written down the order in which I had taken it apart, and I had taken photos of each step. Each set of hardware went into a bag labeled which which part they went to. It was still a challenge to put together. We (or better, they) persisted, and success came at last.

I plan to make some rag rugs for the house and the trailer, but I think our son deserves one, too.

We had some great meals while the kids were here. DDIL is a great cook, and they brought their veggie share with them. We played "I Spy" and "Guess the Animal" during dinner. 

While the kids were visiting a friend here in Bend, we Zoomed with our daughter. She had lots of news about what they and the kids have been up to.

I'll have to whip up another story this week. Part of my cushion of prescheduled stories was used up with the activities of the past week taking over, and we go camping again next week. (!)

Where's my blog: As you may know, the entity that notifies people when a blog they follow posts will discontinue notifications in July. Those two things motivated me to link my blog to Bloglovin', as I did some time ago with The Doll's Storybook. If you are following my blog want to continue following after July, I recommend you go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: The dish mat, the Brioche Shawl Feathers and the Kevät sweater. Progress on the dish mat and Kevät, but none on the Brioche project...yet.

What's on my sewing machine: Dust

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. No more progress this week.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: "Wheels on the Court." Emil tells Jolena about his latest letter from Holly, in which she tells about playing wheelchair basketball.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still reading The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer. Barely started.

What's in my wine glass: Empyrean Lyra Pinot Noir 2018 Yamhill-Carlton.

What's my tip of the week: If you bake salmon, skin-side-down on a piece of foil, don't use cooking spray. Just add a little oil and whatever seasonings you want to the top of it after you place it on the foil. Bake it for 10-12 minutes at 425º. When it's done, the salmon will come away from the foil and leave the skin behind.

Where's my book: Mariah: Stories from the Doll's Storybook is available from Amazon worldwide. Also available from BookBaby, Barnes & Noble and other booksellers. Royalties go to support pediatric cancer research and treatment. The three stories in the book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with few changes. The stories (and links to them) are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

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Cover Problems

I'm continuing to make progress on the whole-cloth quilt. I'm getting really close to the swag pattern on this side, as you might be able to see.

The Which Came First Shawl is still waiting to be blocked. Why didn't I get it done, you might ask? Well, I need to clean up the table where I put the blocking mats, for one thing, and that didn't happen because of more problems with my end of the book production. I had the cover to the book finished (I thought) and it came back with some problems. It all worked out in the end, and the sample copy of the book is in the works.

The problem was with the logo for St. Jude's. I had asked for permission to use the logo, and I thought I was told it was OK. However, the resolution wasn't good on the copy of the logo I was able to download, so I had to go back to St. Jude to ask for a better copy. That's when I found out that I couldn't use the logo after all. Either I misunderstood or the person I talked to told me the wrong thing. I can't mention St. Jude in the book at all. However, I can say that the proceeds from the book will to go an organization that provides research and treatment for pediatric cancer, and it will. I removed the logo and the description of what St. Jude does and replaced it with a summary of how The Doll's Storybook got started and a group photo of the dolls. It should still be ready before Christmas. It was a good thing the publisher held things up with the resolution problem.

I still have nearly two weeks to work on The Big Send. We (all the people nationally working on the project) blew through our goal of 10M letters by the end of the week, so the "powers that be" upped it to 15M. We now have another 5M letters to write in two weeks. This should be possible because more people have joined the team. I stamped most of the letters I had finished already and ordered more stamps on Saturday.

The letters still in the box (with rubber bands around them) still need stamps. I have 400 done and am going to try to do 100 more before time to mail them, October 17th.

I had to have something to knit while on calls with family and others when I couldn't be writing letters, so I made two more dishcloths. I've been using the yarn left over from the dish mat I made a few weeks ago. I had wound off half of the yarn so I could knit with two strands. Then I used single strands to knit the dishcloths. I ran out of the yarn from the cone when I was about three-fourths of the way through the last dishcloth, so I had to join the remainder of the yarn from the ball I had wound off. Since it's cotton yarn and the dishcloth is just for me, I decided to just tie a square knot. I think I might get a coaster out of the tiny amount that's left. In the photo, you can see where I added the leftover yarn.

We had to pick up Rocky's medication during the week, so we all went along for the ride. We stopped off at the park on the way back, and the pups had some play time.

When Dusty was suitably tired, someone came with a little dog and was waiting, so we left to let them have the little-dog park to themselves. It's nice to be able to get out again, now that the smoke is gone. We've started walking in the neighborhood, again, too.

Daphne and Zachary had another dance performance outdoors. The videos were fun to watch. They are both getting to be very good dancers.

They have become used to doing their classes online with minimal supervision from parents. That's good, because the parents have their hands full with college students, some of whom contracted the virus early in the semester and have gotten behind in their work. They're mostly in an age group not always willing to be responsible.

We've been eating some of the last of the vegetables from the garden. This stir-fry was a mixture of our zucchini and chard, and purchased vegetables with Quorn "Meatless Pieces," which is made from mushrooms.

We've also still had grape tomatoes and some yellow pear tomatoes. It's getting colder now, so I expect the garden will be done soon. Before that happens, though, we will enjoy what we can get from it.

Another virtual choir performance has come and gone. This year's annual "Blessing of the Animals" had to be virtual, so we sang "O God, Your Creatures Fill the Earth" while photos of people with their pets and other animals showed on the screen. Our photo with the pups was in my blog last week, so I won't show it again.

The new doll is expected this week, and she will be introduced next week in person, assuming she arrives safely in time. As I write this, she has already gone through Customs and Immigration (!) in Los Angeles, so the rest is just catching the right flights. That will give me something to look forward to.

What's on my needles: The Which Came First Shawl is still waiting for blocking. Still working on dish cloths.

What's on my sewing machine: Still waiting for costumes. I hope to get on it this week.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. More progress this week.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: The Interview. Mariah interviews Jolena and asks some interesting questions. Some of the answers might surprise you.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: I've still just been listening to music.

What's in my wine glass: Radford Dale Syrah 2017. Nice, but not exciting.

What's my tip of the week: Halloween is coming up. Children should know that regular Halloween masks are not adequate protection. Our Oregon Health Authority has posted this recommendation, and I see that there are some masks that are suitable AND scary.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Some Old, Some New and Some In-between

A few more rows finished this week. I'm well into the "Chicken Wire" part of the pattern.

I also worked on my whole cloth quilt. This was a kit from Keepsake Quilting. They don't seem to have the same pattern anymore, but here's a link to one that's similar. I don't know if you can tell that I've made some progress. I have two needles with thread in the lower left-hand corner, barely visible. I use two or three needles at a time, so I can continue to work without having to move the hoop after reaching the edge of the hoop with one needle. I always start quilting in the middle of the quilt and work toward the outside. Same with basting. As I quilt, I remove any basting stitches that are likely to get caught up in the stitching.

Speaking of quilts, you may remember this quilt I finished a little over a year ago, which I call "Spring Flowers." I started collecting the fabrics for it in 1999, Susan Branch's "The Language of Flowers," which was already difficult to find then.

I had an interesting little adventure related to it this week. I have a Twitter account where I do most of my political activity. I came across the fabric designer and was so excited to find her, I tweeted this photo to her. A number of other people saw the photo and commented on it, so now I have some new Twitter friends I can share artistic pursuits with when the election is over. I recorded details of how I made the quilt here.

Speaking of political activity, I've been writing letters to voters through this program. This isn't really political, because the letters don't promote any candidate or party. We are just asking people to join us in voting and explain why voting is important to us. We receive form letters to print off with a place for us to write in the name of each person, our reasons for asking them to join us in voting and a signature (first name and last initial). At the bottom of the page is a link they can use to check their registration and details about voting in their state. We write out the envelopes by hand, as well. This pretty much ensure that people will open them. We will save them until just before the election, some time in October, and then mail them. I don't really enjoy talking to people on the phone, even if it's just asking them if they plan to vote and if they need information about their polling place. This is something I can do that's peaceful and relaxing, like knitting or quilting. I'm sure there are other similar programs elsewhere, if you're looking for something to do.

Our tiny vegetable garden is starting to produce. I thought these peas were beautiful. 

The peas and their pods were delicate and tasty. If anything, the pods were sweeter than the peas. They went into the salad, along with one of our radishes.

DH came back from Trader Joe's with some hamburger buns. I thought we still had Boca Burgers in the freezer, but I couldn't find them, so I pulled out a package of Quorn Meatless Crumbles and Made Sloppy Joe's, which was a little more work than just microwaving a couple of Boca Burgers, but was still tasty with "french fries" cooked in the air fryer and a nice salad.

Besides food from the garden, the Aerogarden has been producing more herbs than we can use. On Tuesday I cut off some of the flowers from the Thai basil and stuck them into a vase. They are still pretty today, and the scent (from the leaves) is lovely.

Some of the Thai and regular basil went into the trays of our dehydrator. When it was dry, I stored them in plastic bags to use later. You crumble them up when you're ready to use them. That way, they have more flavor, so I'm told.

I've continued to be dissatisfied with Billy's hair, and Emil's to a somewhat lesser degree. I glue Billy's down around the sides and back and keep a rubber band around his head when he isn't in use, but it's a real nuisance, and sometimes I have to retake photos because his hair looks bad. Someone on Facebook had a doll with Billy's face and a wig, and he looked perfect. She said it was "Johnny" from Monique Trading Company and told me the size. I ordered wigs for them a couple of days later. The wigs arrived on Friday, and I tried them on on Saturday, to see if I wanted to go all the way and shave the boys' heads. Here's Billy's new look.

Emil picked a slightly darker shade of brown for his.

Emil's hair isn't that bad, because the rubber band that holds his special glasses on also holds the hair down. I think the wigs will work. I may have to trim Emil's in back. Either it's a little longer than Billy's or his head is smaller. I'll work the transformation into the stories.

We've continued having family meetings via Zoom on Sundays. It's good to catch up with the family members who can make it. (That's our granddog Louis under the table, upper left. Fluffy the cat is in our daughter's lap.)

Dusty had his stitches out on Wednesday.  He had three little adenomas (like little moles or skin tags) removed from his sides when he was in La-la land having his teeth cleaned. He's all healed up.

The weather has been a little cooler. Nights are always cooler here, but the days tend to be warm. I'm still getting up between 5:00 and 6:00 to open up the house, but it feels like autumn is on its way.

What's on my needles: The Which Came First Shawl, well into the third section.

What's on my sewing machine: Some repairs and now doll masks.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. A little more progress this week.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Getting What You Want, the dolls learn about compromise.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still Mrs. Tim of the Regiment by D. E. Stevenson.

What's in my wine glass: La Crime Purpura Tinto Seco. Very nice.

What's my tip of the week: Soaking cut-up potatoes for a couple of hours in plain water, then draining them and drying them off, helps them fry up crisply in the air fryer, a healthful alternative to regular fresh or frozen french fries.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Bad Surprises and Good Ones

One of our neighbors put a quilt up on the side of their house.

Here I've cropped it so you can see the detail. It reminds me of the quilt designs the Pennsylvania Dutch put on their barns.

We discovered it during our walk along the Larkspur Trail. 

We haven't gone this far for some time, and we discovered some new things, like this sign.

In the meantime, the whole cloth quilt is coming along.

I also got a little knitting done on my Which Came First shawl. I'm ready to start the golden yellow yarn now.

Out in the garden, things are moving along, too. The radishes will be ready to start harvesting soon.

Some of the pea plants have pods on them. 

The largest zucchini is taking over the zucchini plot.

We don't mind too much, though, because it is starting to produce fruit.

The blueberry plants have a couple of blueberries that will be ripe soon.

This week's story in The Doll's Storybook is about what it means to have courage. Mariah deals with something that makes her afraid. This week's story is Courage.

We had a little unpleasant excitement this week. Daphne developed a fever. She hasn't been playing with other children or going out in public except for dance class, which is done in groups of only five children each with masks and distancing. The health department helped the studio work out the logistics. They took her immediately to be tested. Fortunately, they have the Mayo Clinic for medical, so they were able to get the results back in 36 hours. It was negative, but it was an anxious time until they got the word. They have since decided it's stomach flu, and she is feeling better. She's attending dance class online for now. Our daughter and her husband have decided to do the online version of school when it starts again. They will have to sign up for the whole semester online, and they feel it's likely that school will have to go back online before the semester is over. This way will be less disruptive.

In other news, Dusty had his teeth cleaned and needed to have two extracted. We had three adenomas (moles) removed at the same time, since he was out for the teeth cleaning procedure. He's back to normal.

What's on my needles: The Which Came First Shawl. Just starting the third color.

What's on my sewing machine: Still waiting.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. A little more progress this week.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Courage. Mariah has to be brave and do what she needs to do, even though she is afraid.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to D. E. Stevenson's Mrs. Tim of the Regiment. It's written like a diary and is very funny in places and always entertaining. Her books are like a little visit to  England and/or Scotland during times not that long ago.

What's in my wine glass: Atardecer de Los Andes Merlot/Malbec from Argentina. Lovely.

What's my tip of the week: We have been trying to avoid going to the store unless we absolutely have to. One way we have been able to spread out our trips is by using powdered milk and powdered eggs to stretch out the fresh versions of these two staple items. I've found powdered milk to be perfectly fine in cooking and baking. I just add it to the dry ingredients and increase the liquid ingredients by the amount needed to reconstitute the milk. If we're going to drink it, though, I've found that it tastes much better if it sits in the fridge for about 48 hours after mixing. We have been getting whole milk that is ultrapasteurized, which lasts a lot longer than regular pasteurized milk. I mix 2/3C instant powdered milk with 2C water in a bottle that holds about 2-3/4 C. (I use a small funnel, so I don't spill the powder.) I put the lid on the bottle and then tip it back and forth to mix. Then I add some whole milk to the mix, leaving a little room at the top. I give it a shake before serving after 48 hours. For eggs, I do the same thing for cooking or baking: mix the powder with the dry ingredients and the liquid with the liquid ingredients. It's usually 1/4C powder and 5T or 1/3C water for two eggs. We haven't had to mix them up to eat scrambled eggs yet, but that may happen. Usually we have to go to the store for a prescription or something, and we always get eggs when we do. Eggs keep a long time in the refrigerator.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Merry Christmas!

In a twist on "Where's Waldo," our grandcat decided to hide in the Christmas tree.

Can you find her? It took me a few minutes, and DH needed to have her pointed out.

Earlier in the week, I attended choir practice for Christmas Eve, even though we won't be here for Christmas. Rikki, who is to my right in the photo, was retiring from her job, so a few of us went out for a drink after practice to celebrate.

Thursday we went out again. Flat Bread Pizza lets you have a free Margarita pizza for your birthday, which you can collect any day during your birthday month, assuming you've signed up to get their promotions by email, a small price to pay. I will be a year older before my next blog, with a birthday on Thursday. Last year, I missed out on the free pizza because I put it off until the last minute and then came down with pneumonia, so I was determined to get my free pizza this year. We decided to go out on Thursday to collect on it, with DBIL paying the bill (drinks and pizza for him and DH), to reward me for taking him to the airport on Saturday morning. (Pick-up time was 3:00 AM!)

DH got to go along just because.

After getting coming back from the airport Saturday morning, I never went back to sleep. I was too awake, although a bit sleep-deprived.

Saturday I roasted vegetables.

Sunday I put the leftover roasted vegetables in an Indian dal recipe I like. That made enough for about three meals, so we ate it Sunday and froze the leftovers.

Also on Saturday (busy day), I cast on a sweater, so I would have something to work on during the trip. It's the Midcoast pattern by Jennifer Steingass. I'm making the pattern as-written except that I'm adding an extra color, and I'm going to steek it and have a cardigan, which required putting some extra steek stitches in the center front and placing a beginning-of-round marker at the center back, which is where the pattern starts after joining to work in-the-round. The steek is about at 2:00 in this photo. The green marker at the bottom of the photo is the center back.

That created a mental challenge, because there are short rows across the back, and they were written as if you were starting the round at the center back. I think I have it figured out. Here's my Ravelry project page. Here are my colors.

The purple will be the dominant color. The white will be the outline of the motif, with the turquoise filling in between the green and the purple, if that makes sense.

Sunday I got to sit in the congregation at church for a change, as the choir wasn't singing. We had a performance by the children who were there. They sang The Friendly Beasts and held up the appropriate paddles for the animal who was talking. (That's the newly retired Rikki in the bottom right of the photo, leading the children in song.)

I slept a bit late on Sunday morning, having slept for ten hours straight. I found this photo on my phone when I woke up. It had come in after I turned off my phone.

This is Elizabeth, Daphne's birthday doll. (You might have seen her in my blog last May.) She is trying to control her excitement at her first trip to Texas to visit the other grandparents, whose turn it is to get a visit and who have real horses!

I put the photo below in my blog every Christmas.

It was taken by Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders on December 24, 1968, during the first mission to orbit the moon. That Christmas Eve so long ago is etched in my memory.

First Anders said, "For all the people on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message we would like to send you." Then he read from Genesis.

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light; and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness."

Then Jim Lovell took up the reading:

"And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. and the evening and the morning were the first day.
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."

Then Frank Borman took over the reading:

"And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good."

Then Borman added, "And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you––all of you on the good Earth."

––Wikipedia, Apollo 8 Christmas Eve Broadcast

God gave us this good planet to live on and made us stewards to watch over it. I pray that we can preserve it for future generations.

I wish you all the best of Christmases, a happy Hanukkah or happy Kwanzaa, depending on which you celebrate, or if you don't celebrate any of those, I wish you happy days off from work, time to spend with people you love. See you next week.

What's on my needles: The Midcoast by Jennifer Steingass

What's on my sewing machine: Still resting.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. Another week with no progress.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: "And to Dolls a Goodnight," in which the dolls hear noises and get up to investigate.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Christmas music, and still Blowout by Rachel Maddow. We will be continuing with The Tower by Gregg Hurwitz, which we began during our last trip to Beaverton.

What's in my wine glass: Charles Shaw Red Blend, 2016, one of our favorites because of the price.

What's my tip of the week: Parchment paper can be used for most of the purposes for which we use aluminum foil, but it's a better value and saves aluminum. Pieces can be reused if it doesn't get too messy, and, unlike aluminum, it can be used in the microwave. The only disadvantages are that it scorches around the edges if used in a very hot oven (minor problem), and a folded package doesn't stay closed unless you tuck the ends underneath or put the opening on the bottom. It's useful for lining cookie sheets when baking cookies or roasting vegetables.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.