New and Old

Vilai sock #1 is coming along. I just passed the heel turn and the gusset, and now it's just straight down the foot for a bit.

As usual, there was a lot of the usual cooking during the week, including another batch of granola. This loaf of bread was cut into before I got a photo. It was tasty. I used my Dutch Oven bread recipe cut in half and baked it as an oblong loaf. (It's gone now!)

We have an assignment for this week's Madroña pop-up party meeting. We're supposed to make pesto and then do something with it. I'm thinking of using the pesto as a base for pizzas on pita bread or naan. Our basil has been doing well, but I didn't think we had enough leaves on all the plants to be able to make even a small recipe of pesto, so Charlie picked up a new plant at Trader Joe's. It's probably looking around at its new home and wondering if it was going to like it here. I'm going to use walnuts in place of pine nuts, because we have some we have to use (a Costco package!) and they make a good substitute. 

We cleaned the front porch. I swept the floor and the corners of the ceiling. Charlie got out the pressure washer and washed it all down. It looks better. A few spiders got evicted, but carefully, so they can make new homes, preferably a little further away from our house.

We've been planning to tear up the "grass" in the front, because grass doesn't do well here unless you're willing to dump chemicals on it, and it takes a lot of water...not good in a desert climate like ours. This week we finalized the plans for what to put where and Charlie put out flags to indicate the borders of features.

He drew up plans for the entire front, so we could get quotes. We plan to put our park bench on some kind of rock/stone clearing, put in natural walkways to the bench and across the landscaped area to the trailer driveway, move some of the big rocks out from under the huge fir tree, have a couple of mounds for plantings and some sort of edging where needed. Instead of grass, we plan to have bark/cedar.

While we were out in the front yard, talking about what to do, I spotted a butterfly on one of the flowers. Jolena and Mariah would definitely identify it as a butterfly and not a moth, because they have learned the difference from their discussion with Mandy, a story from The Doll's Storybook.

I worked on my workroom closet some more. I the papers I found this poem, written for Charlie back in 1991

With it was also one I wrote for Karen. She would have just turned 18.

Then I came across this photo of Jim and Charlie. I'm guessing it was taken about 1943. I remember rescuing it from my in-laws' home when we went through all their things in preparation for selling the house. 

It still needs some work, but at least it's possible to walk around in there.

We walked almost every day, because we're having a cooler spell and the wind is blowing the smoke in a different direction.

Johan seems to be over his jet lag. He's taking an online class in cartoon drawing. He seems to have some talent for art, and he likes drawing things like dragons.

Also this week, Miss Daphne passed her driving test at the DMV, so now she's a licensed driver. That should make things a little easier for Karen, because she can get herself places, run errands and take Zachary to places he needs to go.

David's sister Debbie is visiting Karen and David to help David go through papers and boxes of things, as he's no longer able to do that. She brought her little dog Teddie, shown here, getting acquainted with Katie.

I have a lot of difficulty responding to comments to my blog posts because of technical issues beyond my control (my lack of understanding of how things work). Message me on Facebook, Ravelry, BlueSky or Spoutible if you need information.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon or B&N and search for Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart". Every click on the page for the book makes it more likely they will keep a good supply in their warehouse and stores. If you are outside the US, you may have a separate website for these retailers. If you have a copy of any of our books, including Emil, Mariah, Classic Tales Retold, Our Favorite Verses, More Classic Tales Retold or Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, please leave an honest review on the websites, especially if you bought from them.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Still working on the Vilai socks.

What's on my iPhone: Still listening to Wildwood by Colin Meloy. 

What's on my sewing machine: Still put away until the next project.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Billy has a bad dream and comes to Veronika to get reassurance. She explains what dreams are all about and investigates what might have caused the nightmare in "What Dreams May Come."

What's my tip of the week: Basil does well on a windowsill where it gets bright light for part of the day. They like to have their roots kept damp and need to be harvested regularly. (Just don't take all the leaves at one time.) If you want to "make" some fresh plants, as I have, just cut a stem from one of the plants, remove the bottom few leaves to use and stick it into a small glass of filtered water. When it has roots, you can plant it. I use yoghurt containers filled with potting soil. I fertilize occasionally with Schultz Instant.

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog, and they are reproduced in print with a few changes.

Book #7 is in the works.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less, only 8%, because the vendor gets a cut. My author's page at Book Baby is here. Scroll down and click on any of the books that interest you. Find my books at Barbara's Bookstore as well, or ask your local library to order the books.

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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Stocking Up

 My needles have been rediscovering socks, and I had forgotten how much fun they could be. The pattern this time is Vilai from Cookie A's Sock Innovation.

My preferred method for knitting socks is to use two circular needles, rather than a set of DPNs.

The July knit along in the Goetz Doll Lovers forum on Ravelry continues. A designer has offered four new patterns. If you buy two of them, you can get the other two for free, one for each one of the others you knit and post in the group. A project page is required for each completed project. Since I'm one of the moderators, I'm trying to support the activity in the group, so last week I made one of the projects. This week I set aside my socks to make another project.

The yarn is left over from this year's Mystery Knit Along from the Rose City Yarn Crawl. It has little bits of dark hot pink in it, so I put some hot pink buttons on the back. The pattern is called Dandelions and it was designed by Sharisse Dunn of Sugar Grove South.

It was a lot of fun to knit with some interesting features, including a crocheted connection of the sleeves at the underarm, easy to do, thanks to the photos showing before and after the process. My model for this top is "Pam," Götz Little Kidz Springtime. In my stories she plays a doll character who lives with a little girl who is diabetic.

The shaping gives the top a nice fit.

I've been harvesting the basil, but it's growing back. Not enough to make pesto, though. The Madroña Vineyards pop-up group is considering doing something with a pesto recipe for one of our meetings. I would have to buy some to have enough to make pesto, but these plants are enough to produce a few leaves for when I'm in the mood for a little basil.

We had some mushrooms that needed to be used, so I made my tuna casserole (cream of mushroom soup, peas, egg noodles) but added a bunch of sautéed mushrooms and onions with a little added salt and pepper. I think I'll have enough to freeze for camping.

We needed the weekly loaf of bread, of course. I use my sourdough starter, which is made using unbleached flour, so I add 1/8 cup each of gluten flour, wheat bran and oat bran, and then the rest whole wheat flour.

I've been going over the music for the Summer Choir. Monday's practice went well, I think. I was disappointed when it was time for us to stop. I'm looking forward to tonight's practice.

The dogs and I walked each day this week. Charlie joined us when he could, but he skipped a couple of days because of other things he had to do outdoors before it got too hot, like mowing the plants in the front and back of the house. (I wouldn't exactly call the stuff "grass.") Most of our walks were along the Larkspur trail and some off-leash time in the woods, but on Saturday, we joined the Trinity Episcopal Church's "hike" (really a nice walk) at Alpenglow Park. We made two loops in opposite directions and ended up with almost 1 3/4 miles.

Some folks were giving out "Watchtower" brochures at the park, and we recruited one to take this photo of our group.

We followed up with lunch at Cascade Lakes Brewing, which was on our way home. 

We drove by Jim's old house after lunch. Charlie wanted to get a photo of what the new owners had done to the front yard for inspiration and ideas for what to do with ours.

We've also been watching the FIFA World Cup. The last two games were especially fun to watch. Sandy wasn't all that excited about it.

Alexa and Johan are still in France. Here's Johan singing a duet with a busker at the 

Sacré-Cœur. How much fun is that? They should be on their way home today.

Sandy is storing up energy for the next walk/hike.

I have a lot of difficulty responding to comments to my blog posts because of technical issues beyond my control (my lack of understanding of how things work). Message me on Facebook, Ravelry, BlueSky or Spoutible if you need information.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon or B&N and search for Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart". Every click on the page for the book makes it more likely they will keep a good supply in their warehouse and stores. If you are outside the US, you may have a separate website for these retailers. If you have a copy of any of our books, including Emil, Mariah, Classic Tales Retold, Our Favorite Verses, More Classic Tales Retold or Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, please leave an honest review on the websites, especially if you bought from them.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Took some time off from the Vilai socks to make a new top for Pam (see above) and now back to the socks.

What's on my iPhone: Finished Regime Change by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan on the Audiobooksnow app. Now back to Wildwood by Colin Meloy.

What's on my sewing machine: Still put away until the next project.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Jolena has come back from Australia, and the boys want to see her photos. The dolls from the ski team got to go to a special zoo in Sydney where all the animals native to Australia are on exhibit. How much fun is that? Back from Down Under.

What's my tip of the week: There are special water dishes or water bottles you can get to provide water to your dog on walks/hikes. I don't have anything special. The dogs and I share the water bottle. I serve their water in a little Tupperware bowl that fits in my pouch. The lid will go back on for a leakproof seal, if they don't drink it all, saving water for the next hydration break. I don't have to throw any water away, which helps when the hike takes longer and the weather is hot.

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog, and they are reproduced in print with a few changes.

Book #7 is in the works.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less, only 8%, because the vendor gets a cut. My author's page at Book Baby is here. Scroll down and click on any of the books that interest you. Find my books at Barbara's Bookstore as well, or ask your local library to order the books.

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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Mistakes

Well, the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery KAL Shawl is finished. Here it is, blocking:

It just fit the dining table with the blocking mats angled diagonally from one near corner to one far corner at the other end. I didn't have to add another leaf to the table. (Its too long for the table in my fiber studio.) No mistakes here. Well, nothing serious.

Here's how it looks after blocking.

But I digress. We didn't do much of anything special for Valentine's Day. I did make a chocolate pie, using my recipe for silken tofu pudding to have with my Italian Pronto entree (basically, polenta, a jar of bruschetta, some frozen vegetables, a can of beans and a little cheese, layered and heated up) and some of my Dutch oven bread with a nice salad.

However, the next night, we had one of our monthly online Zoom get-togethers with the owner of Madroña Vineyards. Almost everyone who participated had made he recipe the vineyard had sent out, Penne Pasta with Italian Sausage and fresh spinach. Some of us had ordered the "correct" wine to go with it, their 2018 Cabernet Franc. The vineyard shipped them out, along with the recipe.

Of course, we used vegetarian Italian sausage. We used the one made by Tofurky, which is our favorite, when it comes to faux sausage. We had some shaved pecorino cheese on it. (That piece of paper on the other side of the wine bottle is the recipe they sent.) No mistakes here.

We made use of some leaves from our current resident basil plant. Basil lives in our kitchen window, in a bowl that always has about an inch or so of water in it. At night, I take him down from the window and put the shade down. Basil plants don't like the cooler temperatures.

Rocky went to the groomer on Wednesday, although we're only having him bathed and face and...um...butt shaved. He doesn't know whether it's day or night, these days, and we can't let him have access to the back yard unless we're awake to watch, so we close the dog door at night now, putting down towels in front of the door, in case he can't hold it. I get up at 5:00 AM to open the dog door. Then I can go back to sleep...usually. The sweet old thing gets a treat every day just for breathing. No mistakes here. Not mine, anyway.

We managed to walk several days, as the weather was pleasant enough. The highlight of our walks was this Daddy-Dusty Doggie--Deer encounter.

That deer had friends. We counted five more.

They aren't as dangerous as the moose we used to encounter in our Summit Park neighborhood in Utah. If they don't like you, they just leave. A good example for all of us. We left them alone. No mistakes here.

I also spent some time outdoors taking photos for a story for The Doll's Storybook that will come out the end of this week, when I expect to be gone. Here's one of the "outtakes." Clearly, it won't do. 1.) There's no snow, so the ground can't show. (Insert laughing emoji here) and 2.) The doll (Jolena) is supposed to be up in the air. Not to worry; I did manage to get some good shots that work for what I needed. Jolena is a good sport. OK, here's a mistake. At least I took a lot of photos.

I've been replacing some kitchen equipment and had ordered a couple of bowls the size of one I cracked beyond use and one I cracked slightly, but is till useable. I ordered these two bowls that were reasonably priced, but when they arrived on Friday, there was an unpleasant rattling sound in the box. Here's what I found when I opened the box. This was a major mistake, but not mine.

Here's what they looked like taken out of the box. They must have been improperly packed.

They would be pretty, though. (Replacements are on the way. I wonder what we would have done before smart phones, cameras and email. Maybe I would have had to send the pieces back to them.)

I thought you would appreciate some cuteness, so here is Soren, reading "Peter Rabbit" to his mother. High fives!

We'll see him and the rest of his family on Wednesday, when we head up there for the Rose City Yarn Crawl.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for "Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart" in Children's. Every click on the page for the book makes it more likely they will keep a good supply in their warehouse and stores. If you are outside the US, you may have a separate website for these retailers. If you have a copy of our first book, Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, it would help if you left an honest review on the websites, especially if you bought from them.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: The emPower Kerchief.

What's on my loom: Still!

What's on my sewing machine: Still.

What's in my hoop: Still!

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Songwriting. Mariah writes the lyrics for some songs, and Charlotte will write the music. Any mistakes have been erased and fixed.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to Unthinkable by Jamie Raskin on the Audible app. 

What's in my wine glass: Tucana Cabernet Sauvignon Pinotage 2019 from South Africa. Yum!

What's my tip of the week: Parchment paper works better than foil for many purposes, although in the oven, the edges will darken with high temperatures. It can go into the microwave. It's great for wrapping up a sandwich or a burrito to heat up. Food doesn't stick to it very easily and it often can be wiped clean and reused a few times. 

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with few changes. Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is now available for preorder from booksellers world wide. The link for Book Baby is here. The three stories are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is also available. The three stories in the first book are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less. 

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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