Life at Home in the Summer

Well, the cover of the new book is ready to go to the publisher, unless I decide to change something. The inside pages are with my three proofreaders. I've decided to reveal the proposed cover, because, well, I just can't help myself. 

It's my biggest book so far. It should be available in time for Christmas.

Meanwhile, I've made some progress on the whole-cloth quilt. I've been spending a little time each evening after supper working on it. I've reached the second corner, but I'm not halfway around the edge yet. When I get about three-fourths of the way to the next corner, it will be the halfway point. It's getting harder to do hand-quilting because my fingers are getting stiff; I'm determined to get it finished while I still can.

I had some medical appointments this week, so I did get a little knitting done on The Love of Spiders Shawl. I have several rows of the blue sparkly yarn done past where I was when I took this photo. The directions say the two rows of the main color (the bright green) will take 5g of yarn. I have exactly 5g, but I knit a little loosely, so I'm skeptical about whether that's enough or not. Just to be safe, I ordered what I hope is a close color in Stroll sock yarn from KnitPicks. I checked the websites of the yarn shops around town, and they don't seem to have anything comparable to the green yarn. It only has to be close in color, because it will be all by itself in the blue border, but it has to be similar yarn, both in weight and fiber content. This is super wash sock yarn. I don't want to use a yarn that might shrink when washed, while the rest of the shawl doesn't.

Monday night we had another Summer Choir practice. I missed the one the week before when we were camping. We have some interesting pieces to work on. I miss singing with the choir at church, which is off for the summer, so this is a nice activity. I will have to miss another practice in early August, for camping again.

We had another Madroña Vineyards pop-up meeting/party Tuesday evening. I had a busy day Tuesday, so all we had was leftover mushroom custard casserole, frozen hash browns and string beans with a splash of salad dressing. We had a nice time, though, and it tasted good.

Remember that tablecloth I made for the RPod? I had to buy the fabric already cut at three yards, too much for the tablecloth. I thought it would be good to have some extra throw pillows for the RPod, and it turned out that the large piece of leftover fabric was just the right size to cover an old bed pillow, so here it is. 

I plan to make a couple more, but I want to use a bright turquoise, if I can find suitable fabric. 

Speaking of color, we have this growing out in the corner of our yard where the driveway meets the sidewalk. It's called Liatris pycnostachya, also known as Prairie Blazing Star or Cattail Gay Feather. It grows naturally in prairies, meadows and open woods. It's starting to bloom now. The photo doesn't do justice to the color.

We had very high temperatures this past week, and wildfire season has begun, making our air quality very bad for several days. We didn't get much walking in, as a result. I exercised the dogs indoors by throwing tennis balls up the stairs for them to chase. However, Saturday the air quality was good again and the heat was tolerable, at least before lunchtime. The church had a group hike planned with dogs permitted to Sawyer Park not too far from us, so when I saw that conditions were going to be good, I signed up. Charlie has been recovering from a cold for the past week, so I took the dogs alone. I think we had about 20 people and five dogs, predominantly poodles, as there was one standard poodle along with my two, and a doodle as well. We had a good time.

Dusty hates bridges, and we had to cross this one twice. Rather than drag him across, I unhooked his leash and let him follow me. After we were across, I hooked him up again. I knew he wouldn't run off.

This was the view from the bridge, the beautiful Deschutes River.

Beautiful but potentially dangerous. There are places in the Deschutes River where there are whitewater rapids and waterfalls. On Saturday six people apparently drifted down the river to the south of us and went over the Dillon Falls, which is about a 15' drop into churning rapids. There was one known fatality. Three people survived and are in the hospital here in Bend. Two more are missing, and the authorities have altered their mission from "search and rescue" to "search and recovery," so it isn't looking good for them. They were not part of any commercial whitewater rafting activity. Here is an account in the news.

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 or Spoutible if you need information.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for More Classic Tales Retold or Our Favorite Verses: Poems 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 or More Classic Tales Retold, 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 Love of Spiders shawl by Melanie Berg.

What's on my iPhone: Still reading The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles. I'm barely into it so far.

What's on my sewing machine: Ready for covering more pillows.

What's in my hoop: My whole cloth quilt. Filling in the rest of the border.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In While the Cat's Away the dolls are left alone for a week. They try to decide what to do while they have the house to themselves.

What's my tip of the week: We often grow sprouts for sandwiches and salads. They're easy to grow. Place two tablespoons of seeds (alfalfa or mixed seeds, available from iHerb and other places that sell seeds) in a wide-mouth quart jar with a lid that will hold a circle cut out of screen-door screen material, or you can buy special lids with holes. Cover with cool tap water and leave all day or overnight, depending on when you start the seeds, so 8-10 hours. Then drain, rinse with cool tap water and drain again. You don't want the seeds sitting in water, so find a container that will hold the jar at an angle with the lid down, so water can drain out. (I use a little box that mushrooms come in.) Repeat with the rinsing morning and evening as the seeds sprout and grow. After several days, when the jar is almost full, you can rinse and drain one more time, then remove the sprouts and place in a refrigerator container lined with paper towel, to keep the water from pooling around the sprouts. Eat within a few days.

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

The stories in More Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Welcoming a Stranger, The Rescue, Unmasked, Fuzzy Town––A Play and Sky Blue.

Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook. Poems included are Valentine's Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The Week Before Christmas, Insomnia and Veronika's Vocabulary Verses.

The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Little Green Greatcoat, The Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.

The stories in Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The stories in Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook 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, 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.

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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High on Fiber

Let's start this blog post with some projects, since I'm "High Fiber." The table in our RPod isn't fastened to anything. I guess the idea was that we could take the table outside to eat, if we didn't have a picnic table in our campsite. Good idea, which we have't ever tried out. To keep the table in place when we're moving, there's a strap that fastens to the seats on each side of the dinette, that goes over the top of the table. We usually store our wine and beer under the table, so that helps keep it from moving around too much, also. However, it rubs against the front wall, right under the window, so we've taken to using a tablecloth to protect the wall. The tablecloth was too big, so I decided to make one to fit it. We picked up the fabric at Walmart, and I cut it and hemmed it all around the edges. (The hummingbird feeder hangs out in the dinette area when not in use.)

I even cut off the corner, so it would hang the same amount on all sides. I have enough fabric left for something, maybe a couple of dish towels. (You can see where the corner is cut off to match the shape of the table in this photo. The strap that holds the table in place is also visible under the table, along with the table legs and my little child-sized broom.

While I was getting the fabric for the tablecloth, I picked up some nylon tulle for some more pot scrubbers.

The "decor" in the trailer is turquoise and grey, influenced by the rugs I made for the 5th wheel we had, which I altered to fit the RPod. It's amazing how much dirt and sand these rugs can hold. I take them out and shake them every couple of days when we're camping. It cuts down on the sweeping.

A little progress on The Love of Spiders Shawl happened. It's getting easy.

However, I decided I had better put some time in on the whole cloth quilt, too, because the pattern printed on the fabric is fading. It's designed to wash out, like those iron-on embroidery patterns. I can still see the pattern well with reading glasses, though, and I managed to get some progress in on it, as well.

Some cooking happened. I made a silken-tofu spread for sandwiches. It can also be used as a dip. Charlie brought home some mangos, so I made some mango pudding, also using the silken tofu. We replenished our supply of carob powder, and I baked some carob-oatmeal cookies with carob chips. (They're high in fiber, too, by the way.)

Here's the recipe, adapted from one I found on a website called Yum Eating.

Charlie brought home a whole package of celery stalks when he did the grocery shopping. I still had most of a package in the fridge. It was NOT on the list. (Neither were the mangos.) I had to do something with the old celery, so I made celery soup. I had to search for a recipe. I found one here. I had to adapt it, of course, because I didn't have any of the fresh herbs it called for, and I wanted to do it in my slow cooker. it was pretty good.

Sandy went to the groomer on Tuesday and returned home looking very dapper. It won't last long. His hair grows very fast. Dusty didn't need grooming yet, because his was put off by an injury, which has since healed, and he only was groomed on May 13th. He was going to go back on June 10th, but we will be camping again, so we moved his appointment to the same day as Sandy's next one. Dusty will be looking pretty shaggy by then. The boys posed for me on the front porch before a walk.

I had noticed this plant next to the sidewalk in front of a neighbor's house early in the week when walking the dogs. I immediately thought it looked like houndstongue. We encountered it often in Utah, but I had never seen it in Oregon, so I thought I must be mistaken. I took a photo, so I could look it up.

Sure enough, it was houndstongue. This weed is toxic to some species of livestock, but more impactful to us, personally, the seeds are shaped like watermelon seeds only with an outer layer of Velcro hooks. They stick to your clothes and are very difficult to remove. They also love to cling to dogs' fur, especially poodles. On Saturday, we knocked on the neighbor's door and told them about it. We offered to remove it. The woman said if we couldn't, she would see to it, but after our walk, Charlie went back with his shovel and dug it up, roots and all. I did my part and reported it to USDA's National Invasive Species Information Center. I don't know why I was surprised to learn that it was already in Oregon. I've just not seen it here before.

This was our Friday walk. Saturday's was the same, but without the lower end, which is the trail to the recreation center. It was very hot. I'm going to have to start carrying a spray bottle of water again, to spray the dogs (and myself) when it's that hot.

You may remember these jeans planters, which I've posted before. It's always entertaining to see what this homeowner has done to the outside of his fence along the Larkspur Trail. He put these portholes in for his dog awhile back. Now he has turned one of them into an astronaut. Cute and funny at the same time.

Our kalanchoe plant is blooming. It isn't a very pretty plant, so I pruned it, and when this is through blooming, I'll cut this stalk off, too.

Outside, the fruit trees are getting some attention. The birds and squirrels usually get the fruit before we have a chance to, but eventually the trees will be big enough to feed everyone. I wonder if we'll still be around then.

There's always a new scam. I went to UDOT's website to report this one, and right there on the home page was a warning about this very thing. I reported it, but they already knew about it. I gave UDOT my contact info in case they want to get more information. We used a toll road in Illinois last summer, but other than that, we have not been on any toll roads in years.

I read through my manuscript again, made some changes and am fairly satisfied that it's ready to go to my proofreaders, two of whom will be in Ireland in another week or so as our daughter's family and our younger son's family connect there and then vacation separately.

Stay safe. Be kind to others and enjoy life!

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 or Spoutible if you need information.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for More Classic Tales Retold or Our Favorite Verses: Poems 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 or More Classic Tales Retold, 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 Love of Spiders shawl by Melanie Berg.

What's on my iPhone: Now listening to The Widow of Fallbrooke Court by Kasey Stockton using the Chirp app.

What's on my sewing machine: Finished the tablecloth for the RPod. Now perhaps some dish towels, while I have the grey thread in the machine.

What's in my hoop: I've gone back to my whole cloth quilt. I decided I'd better finish it before the design fades completely. 

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Mariah is featured in this week's story from The Doll's Storybook. She needs to write an essay, but she's having trouble finding a place without distractions. Here's Being Distracted.

(Note: This story appears in our first book, [Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook.)

What's my tip of the week: Cooking while camping can be a challenge. During our camping last summer with the kids, I was introduced to Overnight Oatmeal by our DIL. I've been making it frequently ever since. I'll make it up to a day before and keep it in the fridge, at least overnight. I have some widemouth jars that are about 2 C in capacity with lids that can be tightened down well. In each jar, I put 1/2 C uncooked rolled oats, 1/3 C powdered milk, 1/2 t. cinnamon and a small handful of dried cranberries or raisins. I close the lid, shake the jar to disburse the powdered milk and cinnamon, then open the jar and add cold water almost to fill. Then I close the jars, give them another thorough shake, and store in the fridge until I need them the next morning.

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

The stories in More Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Welcoming a Stranger, The Rescue, Unmasked, Fuzzy Town––A Play and Sky Blue.

Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook. Poems included are Valentine's Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The Week Before Christmas, Insomnia and Veronika's Vocabulary Verses.

The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Little Green Greatcoat, The Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.

The stories in Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The stories in Mariah 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, because the publisher gets a cut. Find my books at Barbara's Bookstore as well.

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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